[.:B:.]

Hi again!

I have been trying to set up Lirc (first-timer at that) following amongst others instructions from the AkwardTV project. Even with the right modprobe options, I have no /dev/usb/hiddev0 device; it turns out I needed to use the atvtool utility to get that device node (but creating the node disables the LED, which is a minor annoyance, although the LED can still be handy for 'feedback' from the AppleTV if the screen itself is frozen). So if I run atvtool, I get some scrambled output if I cat /dev/usb/hiddev0; but there's nothing I can make sense of, and the signals from my remote do not result in any actions in Xbmc itself. I'm running Arch Linux, stable, up to date, with kernel 2.6.32.10.

Example:

Code:

[root@mnemosyne stijn]# cat /dev/usb/hiddev0

�
�
  



   �
    �
    



      �
       �
        



         �
          �
          

            
             �
              �
              

                
                 �
                  �
                  

                    
                     �
                      �
                      

                            
                                �
                                 �
                                  

                                       
                                        �
                                         �
                                          


I was wondering if anyone had gotten a non-Apple remote working on Linux with the internal IR receiver of the AppleTV, and if so, how? I'd also be glad if I could get any pointers on how to set up Lirc to pick up the commands my Logitech Harmony 555 could send.

For the record: using the atvclient tool I can use my Apple remote just fine, but it's a bit like Gnome - not enough buttons . I've seen quite some reports about people setting up universal remotes with Xbmc, on the AppleTV, but it seems most (if not all) of these are on the AppleTV OS, and not on Linux, and if they are on Linux, I often see external IR receivers mentioned too.

[.:B:.]

Bump

[davilla]

not possible until someone figures out how to put the Apple IR controller into the new "universal" mode that passes non-apple IR.

So for now, you can use lircd OR atvclient to handle IR from the Apple IR remote or remotes that emulate the Apple IR remote.

[Evinyatar]

The output from catting the dev node isn't supposed to make sense unless you look at it in binary. I made some notes on the format while developing atvclient but I don't have them at hand right now. If I remember correctly there's three bytes per command; a fixed byte, the remote ID (used for pairing) and the button ID.
In the default mode the IR receiver only responds to commands from the Apple remote, and possibly certain NEC remote codes but I haven't tried that yet. It should be possible to generate NEC coded IR strings for the Harmony that can be recognized by the AppleTV IR receiver. I believe the only constraint is even bit parity (i.e. an even number of 1 bits in the code).
It is also possible to switch the receiver to a universal mode in which it accepts almost any IR code, but I haven't figured out the command to send to the receiver yet. It remains somewhat of a holy grail to me.

[.:B:.]

Okay guys, thanks for the info .

[Evinyatar]

You may like my latest changes to atvclient Check out http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=512...stcount=53

[.:B:.]

Sounds awesome Evinyatar . Gonna build the git version today if I can find the time .

[zeldi]

Can somebody please comment the statement on awkwardtv about Apple TV and universal remote:

Note, that you actually are not limited to the AppleTV remote. I recorded the remote of a dead DVD player, and concatenated the lircd.conf files, so both remotes can be used. -don

Does that mean that don has managed to learn appletv to respond to DVD remote? Or that he taught the DVD remote to send ATV commands?