What Remote Control and IR Reciever for G4 Mac Mini?
#1
Question 
I have a G4 Mac Mini PPC with no IR receiver and no Apple remote. What is the best/least expensive remote and how would I set it up?

I have an Xbox remote for XBMC on the Xbox. Will that work if I buy a USB IR receiver?

The Mac Mini also has bluetooth.

Thanks for your help.
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#2
iphone or itouch? if so, xbmc remote in the app store works wonders.
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#3
I don't have an iphone or itouch Sad
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#4
Stuffed then mate.

haha.

There used to be a keyspan remote that worked over the network, could look into that. Would probably need remote buddy or something similar at the other end.
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#5
For my Mac mini G4, I use the Manta TR1 (infrared receiver) + the Apple remote and Remote Buddy.
It works great.
I already had the Apple remote (with my iMac). That's why I went for the Manta TR1.
If you have to buy both, might not be the cheapest solution.
Remote Buddy is really a great software. Check the supported hardware on their webpage.

As you have bluetooth, with Remote Buddy, you could use the Nintendo Wii remote or Sony BD remote.
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#6
Great, thanks for the tips. I'll look into the apple remote with Manta TR1 and the Sony BD remote. I've looked at remote buddy and it looks good.

Thanks everyone for the tips.
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#7
Here's what I decided:

Sony BD Remote (bluetooth) ~20 USD
Remote Buddy ~30 USD
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#8
top of the top: Logitech Dinovo Mini, beats everything I've tried.
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#9
Sorry the Logitech Dinovo Mini is a little out of my price range. It looks like it would be really nice to use though.
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#10
Beenje Wrote:For my Mac mini G4, I use the Manta TR1 (infrared receiver) + the Apple remote and Remote Buddy.
It works great.
I already had the Apple remote (with my iMac). That's why I went for the Manta TR1.
If you have to buy both, might not be the cheapest solution.
Remote Buddy is really a great software. Check the supported hardware on their webpage.

As you have bluetooth, with Remote Buddy, you could use the Nintendo Wii remote or Sony BD remote.

oh thank you so much for posting that. I've been trying to find a good remote with my mac mini G4.

I was thinking of a keyspan for its minimal buttons, so my parents can use it. After thinking about it, a full remote may be very handy and the ps3 remote has large play/pause buttons so it may work perfect!
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#11
for my mac Mini I have following solution, which works pretty fine.

- HP IR receiver (built-in Philips OVU4003)
http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=7580664

- Remote Buddy (very cool software worth each single dollar)

- Apple Remote Aluminium

(that should be sufficient to control XBMC)

If you wanna use your Mac Mini for Internet an E-mail you need a solution for a remote mouse. The IR remote is not really usable for browsing. Therefore I alternatively use:

- Targus BT Presenter
- USB BT Dongel

Have in mind that if you use the external USB receiver remote buddy will only allow you to use the Apple Remote. Basically you can use a learning IR remote but the number of IR-codes is limited to the 12 IR-codes, which are also used by the apple remote.
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#12
Hi folks.

I was a Plex-ite, but acquired an older Mac Mini from a friend.
I have a Harmony Xbox360 remote.

With the remote + plex + macBook Pro, everything worked great.

The mini, however, does not have a built in IR receiver.

So I got an HP OVU422000/06. For it to respond at all, I seem to have to install Remote Buddy's driver.

I can get it to work acting as an Apple Remote and going through Remote Buddy, but not only is Remote Buddy slowing things down quite a bit, but also I've lost a number of the mapped functions from the Plex keymap.

At the moment, I've uninstalled Remote Buddy, but have left it's driver in place. Keypresses cause the receiver's LED to blink, so signals are definitely getting there.

Suggestions?

I found many references in this forum to a keymap.xml, but it links to dropbox, and all return 404.

Thanks in advance.
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#13
Hi HogarthAL,

you have to use remote buddy to get the external IR receiver to work in MAC OS X. I couldn't find another workaround.

Remotebuddy only supports one single apple remote if you use an external USB IR receiver. There is an option in remotebuddy to use multiple apple remotes and this is used by some people to map the keys of a harmony to various virtual apple remotes. But this option is not availbale in remote buddy if you use an external IR USB receiver.

Still
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#14
lehite Wrote:Here's what I decided:

Sony BD Remote (bluetooth) ~20 USD
Remote Buddy ~30 USD
thats what Im using aswell. Works great.
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#15
I k nopw this is an old thread however I read somewhere that a macBook pro has an Internal Apple IR receiver that effectively connects to a USB port internally, so I ordered one and want to test with Apple Remote on G4 Mini.

Going to test and see how it works when it gets here
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