[mythtv-users] OS X + Logitech Harmony + Remote Buddy + MythTV => Help!

[Matt Wynne]

On 3 Aug 2012, at 00:35, Matt Wynne wrote:

> Following my previous thread[1], I've bought a Logitech Harmony 300 and the Remote Buddy Express software. I'm running OS X 10.7 (Lion) with MythFrontEnd 0.25
> 
> I'm still pretty bewildered by this setup - so many different layers to configure, and very little existing information out there, as far as I can tell. There are quite a few people doing this with Plex (e.g. [2]), but I can't see any tutorials for this setup for MythTV.
> 
> Could anyone who has this working give me a few clues please? What device profile should I use on the Harmony? Do I need to provide my own mappings / behaviours in Remote Buddy, or are there some bundled ones I can download from somewhere?
> 
> If I've missed some obvious reference info, please do point me to it and I'll go off and do my homework.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Matt
> 
> [1] http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2012-March/330419.html
> [2] http://www.geekzone.co.nz/lotech/7433

So with a night's sleep I came back to this with a little bit more clarity. For future reference, here's what I've come to understand.

First I configured the Harmony to use the Plex device profile. This profile would be better named 'Ten Different Apple Remotes' since it's special sauce is that it maps the 50-odd buttons on the Harmony over each of the ten different Apple remotes that OSX is built to recognise. Although Apple remotes are small, six-button things, it turns out that they also send an ID code, and each Apple remote comes with one of ten different IDs built into it. So if you had a good selection of these remotes, you could actually send 10 x 6 = 60 different commands to the Mac. The Plex device for the harmony emulates these signals.

So for example, when you press 'OK' on the harmony, that looks to the Mac as though you pressed Play / Pause on the little Apple remote with ID 150. If you press 'Pause' on the harmony, that looks like the Menu key being pressed on the Apple remote with ID 152. The full list is here[1].

Now the challenge is to map all these back into key-presses that make sense to MythTV. This is where Remote Buddy comes in. Remote Buddy understands this hack with the different remote IDs, and allows you to map each command from each of the ten remotes (it calls them 'logical remotes') into an action on the Mac. What's disappointing is that I had to build this mapping (they call it a behaviour) by hand: Remote Buddy ships with loads of pre-defined behaviours[2], and I'm surprised someone hasn't already done this.

So now I've proved the concept, the chore is to plug my way through each button on the Harmony, building a Remote Buddy action that sends the appropriate command to MythTV. Nearly there!

When I'm done I'll either post the Remote Buddy behaviour up here on this thread, or send it to iospirit (Remote Buddy manufacturer), or both. Unless somebody already has one they want to share?! :)

[1] http://www.iospirit.com/support/forums/remotebuddy/singlethread/13590/
[2] http://www.iospirit.com/products/remotebuddyexpress/software/

cheers,
Matt

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