User

14.02.2014 20:15:45

Plex Home Theater 
10.8.4 
1.24.3

This has happened every morning for at least the past week and I cannot track down the problem. I ran Remote Control Diagnosis and this is what's running when the problem occurs. http://files.300dollardatarecovery.com/screenshot%202014-02-14%20at%2011.01.29%20AM.jpg.

Quitting/reopening Plex doesn't help. The RB menu continues to work, I can make Plex go fullscreen, but then I can't move around within Plex. Quitting and reopening RB fixes the problem.

Please advise.

Thanks, 
Brian

User

16.02.2014 21:16:13

This has happened again for the past 2 mornings (and every day for the past week or two). The fix is quit plex, quit remote buddy, open remote buddy, open plex. Just quitting/reopening Plex or Remote Buddy isn't sufficient.

If there is a better way to get a response to this problem, like email, please advise.

Last edited: 16.02.2014 21:16:36 

User

16.02.2014 21:45:02

I'm having a similar problem, less often since I disabled power saving 
sleep. Usually I reboot the Mac to get everything working again.

(latest/PlexPass PHT and PMS on Mac Mini)

Keith

On 16 Feb 2014, at 15:16, BrianC wrote:

 

User

17.02.2014 10:25:01

Thanks for asking.

From the RCD screenshot and description, it appears you're running several applications that try to access the Apple IR Receiver, namely:

- Prismatik 
- Plex (through its Plex Helper) 
- Remote Buddy

All three will seek exclusive access right after start as exclusive access is the only way of getting Apple IR events and making sure other applications - like iTunes - aren't launched and controlled by the system when you actually want to something else.

When you put your system to sleep, whatever application currently has exclusive access to the Apple IR Receiver will usually loose it. When the system wakes up again, the *first* application to ask for exclusive access to the Apple IR Receiver will get it. Who will get access is not predictable.

Basically, the path a button press travels right now is this: 
Hardware driver -> Apple IR system -> [three applications fighting for access, random winner after wake]

And I think that's what you're seeing here.

As far as Remote Buddy is concerned, it's in the (literally) unique position of being able to work around all the Apple IR randomness by offering its own driver. So, as a first step, please make sure you have Remote Buddy's driver (Candelair) installed. This ensures Remote Buddy will have priviledged access to the Apple IR receiver.

With Remote Buddy's driver installed, a button press travels this path: 
Hardware driver -> Remote Buddy -> [Remote Buddy mapping table] -> 
a) Behaviour handles event, nothing passed on to Apple IR system 
b) (Virtual Remote action only) passed on to Apple IR system -> [two applications (Plex, Prismatik) fighting for access, random winner after wake]

If you're using the action supplied by Remote Buddy's Plex Behaviour to control Plex, Remote Buddy will send UDP packets to Plex in order to control it. The path then looks like this: 
Hardware driver -> Remote Buddy -> [Remote Buddy mapping table] -> OS X local UDP networking -> Plex receives event and reacts

If you've, however, selected Virtual Remote actions at Remote Buddy Preferences > Mapping > Plex (or even .. > Mapping > Global mapping, which is usually the wrong place to do anything such), the path will look like this: 
Hardware driver -> Remote Buddy -> [Remote Buddy mapping table] -> Apple IR system (via Virtual Remote) -> (either Plex or Prismatik, whoever asked OS X first, random winner after wake)

In a nutshell: 
a) if you use several applications that all want access to the Apple IR receiver, make sure you have Remote Buddy's driver installed, or you'll get random results 
b) if you control Plex using the Plex actions provided by Remote Buddy in its default configuration, there's no additional step 
c) if you control Plex using Virtual Remote actions, make sure NO other application (other than the system's own "rcd", which is fine) tries to access the Apple IR receiver at the same time. You can easily check for the existence of any such applications using Remote Control Diagnostics.

Best regards, 
Felix Schwarz 

User

17.02.2014 20:16:28

Hi Felix, 
Driver 1.24 was already installed. The computer is never set to sleep. I don't understand the "Virtual" keypress stuff. I recently changed all to "virtual" because I read in another post I'm supposed to do that for Plex or all my harmony buttons won't work (it acts instead like a normal apple remote). Here is my current mapping, are you saying I should change back to defaults? http://files.300dollardatarecovery.com/Screen%20Shot%202014-02-17%20at%2011.11.59%20AM.jpg

Thanks!

P.S. In the meantime, because I didn't think a response was going to happen here, I created an applescript to quit plex/rb and relaunch, which is accessible via my RB menu (which is always available).

Last edited: 17.02.2014 20:16:44

Last edited: 17.02.2014 20:17:16 

User

17.02.2014 22:03:01

Thanks for the info!

The computer being put to sleep is only one of many scenarios in which an application needs to re-acquire an exclusive lock on the Apple IR subsystem. With regards to this, OS X password prompts (or use of secure input fields in applications) as well as screen blankers or display sleep can lead to the same results as if you put your computer to sleep.

The "Universal Mode" in Plex expects to receive button press events through the Apple IR subsystem, which is what the Virtual Remote will forward button presses to when you use the Virtual Remote actions. If you want to use that Plex mode with a Harmony remote that uses the Plex profile supplied by Plex Inc, then that's what you should use, yes.

However, all the Virtual Remote does (and technically can do) is forward button presses to the Apple IR subsystem. What happens with it there is outside of Remote Buddy's sphere of control. Instead, whoever currently has gained exclusive control from OS X will get ALL button press events. Those who couldn't get exclusive access, however, will get no events at all.

I see that you use another tool (Prismatik) that wants access to the Apple IR subsystem and - at least at the time you took the screenshot - also has gained access to the Apple IR subsystem while the "Plex Helper" (that Plex uses to receive Apple IR events) either didn't run or didn't get access to the Apple IR subsystem, as it is not part of the list displayed by Remote Control Diagnostics.

Since you can always access Remote Buddy's menu and the Virtual Remote will thus also be able to reliably forward Apple Remote button press events to the Apple IR subsystem, the problem on your Mac appears not to be with Remote Buddy, but with the communication/connection between Apple's IR subsystem and the Plex Helper that connects to that subsystem.

Possible solutions (each on its own or a combination): 
1) Quit Prismatik (or disable its Apple Remote functionality, if that's possible) 
2) Make sure the Apple Remote support in Plex is "always enabled" (I usually wouldn't recommend this option, as other apps will not be able to use the Apple IR subsystem even when Plex isn't running, but in your case Plex seems to be your primary use case)

At any time, you can use Remote Control Diagnostics to determine the current status of your system and peek under the hood of the Apple IR subsystem and see which app currently has access to it - and which don't (by being absent).

Best regards, 
Felix Schwarz 

User

19.02.2014 22:19:24

Unfortunately, even after closing Prismatik (no way to turn off remote function) before sleeping and with "always running" (now called "allow start of plex/ht using the remote" I believe) checked, the problem remains. I did forget to check Remote Diagnostics this morning before fixing, but I'll check tomorrow. If you have any more ideas, I'm happy to try them. In the meantime, I have my applescript in the RB menu, so it's not hard to fix the problem using just the remote. 

User

21.02.2014 12:19:01

Thanks for the info.

Did you have a chance to check RCD when this happens?

If you find some time, please check what happens when you:

a) quit Remote Buddy 
b) run Plex and verify you can control it with your Harmony 
c) let your Mac go to sleep and wake up just like you did with Remote Buddy running 
d) check if Plex still responds to the Harmony

Thanks in advance.

Best regards, 
Felix Schwarz 

User

21.02.2014 20:27:10

Here is RCD this morning: http://files.300dollardatarecovery.com/Screen%20Shot%202014-02-21%20at%2011.20.25%20AM.jpg

I quit Plex + RB and opened Plex. Harmony does not respond.

If I open RB, then Plex responds normally.

I guess this may be a Plex issue (if so, I'll move to a Plex forum)? Seems like harmony only works with RB now. Plex is correctly setup with "Multi Remote (Harmony)" selected and "allow start of Plex/HT" and "remote control sends keyboard presses" checked.

Thanks for all your help Felix!