"learn remote" from apple TV - mac mini as media centre

I have bought a mini to use as a media centre. Both front row, and Plex, can be driven very well from my six button "apple remote". However I would really like to drive front row and Plex from the single remote that came with my Loewe TV, blue-ray player, and sound system.
Appletv can do this - there is a "learn remote" utility that allows you to configure IR commands from your TV remote to behave like the 6 (7) buttons on the apple remote. Since AppleTV is like a cut down Mac, I expected to be able to do the same on the Mini. But I cannot find the utility anywhere.
Anybody know if this appletv application is available on the mini? or if the same effect can be achieved another way. I dont want to buy a universal remote, since the single Loewe remote already drives everything else. Nor do I want to pay extra for the programable remote that Loewe sell. The "learn remote" utility would be absolutely perfect.

I know its been 17 months since anyone replied to your post, but I stumbled upon your request, because I had the same issue. However, I can faithfully say that I solved this same problem, because I inadvertendly programmed my MX-980 remote to control my Apple TV and Mac Mini at the same time and didn't realize until much later what was happening. I use my Mac Mini (for the purpose of using PLEX) and my Apple TV for other purposes. Here's a discussion I had over at remotecontrol.com about it.
The solution for you is have two Apple remotes. You can buy an extra apple remote at a good price over at Amazon.
Out of box, the apple remote is designed to pair with your Mac and Apple TV as long as pairing is enabled on those machines by default. However, it's the consumer's responsibility to physically pair that remote with the machine you want to control so it can't control any other machine. That's the trick you were missing...
So, if you have an Apple TV and Mac Mini next to each other -- a single Apple Remote will control BOTH machines at the same time out of box. This is not the intended result as you have indicated. Therefore you need two apple remotes.
Mac Mini: Once you have two apple remotes, go to your Mac Mini (OSX 10.9) and select under the Apple menu > Preferences > Security > General > Click unlock (bottom left corner) first > sign in > Then click Advanced... to see the Pairing process. If you click advanced *before* you click unlock icon, the pairing menu will be missing.
Note: You can also install free CandleAir preference for your Mac which is a slick interface for configuring apple remotes faster and easier IMHO. http://www.iospirit.com/labs/candelair/
Apple TV: Now take your second Apple Remote, go to Apple TV > Preferences > General > Remote and follow the on screen instructions to properly pair your remote control.
This should solve your problem.

Similar Messages

Workaround for remote with Apple TV + Mac Mini media server?

We have to keep unplugging and then replugging our Apple TV 2 any time we want to use our Mac Mini media server instead of the Apple TV on our home entertainment system. Alas, the lack of a power button.
The reason we have to do this is because the remote control signals are identical for the two units; we're using Plex TV on the Mac Mini, and when we use our universal remote, if the Apple TV is on, then unintended things happen in the background on the Apple TV any time we control the Plex media server. Ack. We could end up buying a video that we don't want.
What workarounds are there, to avoid plugging and unplugging the Apple TV, if we want to keep using a remote control with both the Apple TV and with the Mac Mini media server? I understand that plugging and unplugging it is not desireable.
On the other hand, we do shut off power completely to our entire entertainment system, via the power conditioner, when we're not using it, to conserve. I suppose that's equivalent to plugging and unplugging the Apple TV?
Your thoughts?

I know its been 17 months since anyone replied to your post, but I stumbled upon your request, because I had the same issue. However, I can faithfully say that I solved this same problem, because I inadvertendly programmed my MX-980 remote to control my Apple TV and Mac Mini at the same time and didn't realize until much later what was happening. I use my Mac Mini (for the purpose of using PLEX) and my Apple TV for other purposes. Here's a discussion I had over at remotecontrol.com about it.
The solution for you is have two Apple remotes. You can buy an extra apple remote at a good price over at Amazon.
Out of box, the apple remote is designed to pair with your Mac and Apple TV as long as pairing is enabled on those machines by default. However, it's the consumer's responsibility to physically pair that remote with the machine you want to control so it can't control any other machine. That's the trick you were missing...
So, if you have an Apple TV and Mac Mini next to each other -- a single Apple Remote will control BOTH machines at the same time out of box. This is not the intended result as you have indicated. Therefore you need two apple remotes.
Mac Mini: Once you have two apple remotes, go to your Mac Mini (OSX 10.9) and select under the Apple menu > Preferences > Security > General > Click unlock (bottom left corner) first > sign in > Then click Advanced... to see the Pairing process. If you click advanced *before* you click unlock icon, the pairing menu will be missing.
Note: You can also install free CandleAir preference for your Mac which is a slick interface for configuring apple remotes faster and easier IMHO. http://www.iospirit.com/labs/candelair/
Apple TV: Now take your second Apple Remote, go to Apple TV > Preferences > General > Remote and follow the on screen instructions to properly pair your remote control.
This should solve your problem.

Front Row - Mac Mini - and PowerBook G4, Mac-Mini Multi Media centre.

I will be purchasing a HDTV is the near future and would like to buy a Mac Mini to complement it. ( then sell my DVD player )
The big question are:
-Can I ( using Front Row ) stream AVI data (film) from my PB G4 to my Mac-Mini and watch the content on my new HDTV. ( over AirPort )
-Do I need to buy a new PB that also has Front Row ? ( I hope not )
-What type of video data can I stream ? (iTunes and iPhoto I already know about)
-What about HD DVD's when they come out. Is the drive in the Mac-Mini HD DVD compatible ?( I don't think so )
Please - If you have any other relevant points or question's about the Mac-Mini usage as a multi media centre, Post them here.
15" PB G4 SD 1.5 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I just tried a AVI film and it work's with QT,
although a mpg film did not.
Now that I think about it, I tried a mpg plug-in for
QT and was disappointed.
Has anyone had any success with such a plug-in ?
Another Question:
Must then this AVI data reside in iTunes for
Front-Row to "see" it ? How does this work ?
I guess that when a Blue-Ray drive is added to Apple
products that a HD DVD will not play, or will it play
it but only burn Blue-Ray ?
When shopping for a HDTV I asked about the difference
in Blue-Ray and HD and he told me that the TV will
play both versions.
I hope that the drive will also play both, although
the way I know Apple it will be Blue-Ray only. (
at-least in the beginning ) Remember DVD-R
i would not worry about the blu-ray - HD-DVD thing right now. too much still in the air. once they realize consumers are too un-techie to figure it out and just continue to buy DVD's their will be a standard plus their is already other formats being developed. then if you talking about movies and such my guess is downloaded content is the way apple will go with an itunes movie store but thats my guess.
but yes, HDTV's will play either, its the player. I have a 61" samsung 720p DLP and my new mac mini looks good on it at 1280x720. front row is great. I also watched a ton of HD trailers from quicktime's website and they were amazing.
and from what i have seen from front row it only shows content that is in itunes or iphoto not random folders but i could be wrong, still palying around with it.

How can I set up a wireless network between two Mac Mini's (media centres)?

I've just received my second mac mini (core duo, 1.83, 1 Gb ram)and want to set up a wireless network to link this with my original mac mini (PPC 1.42, 512MB) and my Belkin wireless router (g std).
I'm using both as media centres in different rooms and want to keep all my media (films, photo's, music etc.) on one mini (connected to a 640GB external drive) and access it over the wireless network. Sort of a more felxible Apple TV setup??
I've got the wireless network working no problems with both mini's connected to the internet over the network but I'm stuck at how I get the two mini's to see each other. I've tried "the Missing Manual" and these forums but no success so far.
I know it can be done but would really appreciate any suggestions/directions on what to do?
Thanks in advance<<br>
MacMini PPC and MacMini Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Jona11-
Greetings and welcome to the Apple boards.
This document should be very helpful.
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

I had a mac mini on snow leopard but it broke.I now have a macbook pro on leopard how do I upgrade using the disks from my old mac mini

can I use the osx disks from my old mac mini to upgrade my macbook pro so i can then get a further free upgrade

You can not use a DVD that shipped with one Mac to load on to another. To upgrade to Snow Leopard you will need to purchase the Snow Leopard DVD.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

How do I set up my Mac mini to read iTunes and iPhoto files from my new Mac mini server?

Want my old Mac mini to read iPhoto and iTunes files from my new Mac mini server. Old Mac has no more room to store files. How do I do this?

Hello,
Have you tried enabling iTunes Sharing & iPhoto Sharing on the Server?
Or maybe...
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
http://www.apple.com/itunes/inside-itunes/2011/02/how-to-move-your-itunes-librar y-to-another-hard-drive.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1229

Should I replace failed hard drive in imac 4,1 or run from external or mac mini?

My hard drive failed in my iMac 4,1 (early 2006 intel). I am running from an external drive, but slow. Should I replace the hard drive ($300 at Apple), purchase a better external to run from or a mac mini? I'm trying to determine if it makes sense to invest further in this iMac since its 5 yrs old already. Can any one offer some insight/opinion?

Hi moreenie
Your profile does not indicate your geographic location, but there are Authorize Apple Service Providers that can and will do the work for considerably less than your local Apple Store.
http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/
Call around, at less than $200 to replace the Hard Drive, it makes a little more sense to fix and use it for another year or two...
I replace the Hard Drive in my Early 2006 a couple of years ago not because it died, but because it became to small.
Sorry I can't honestly help you decide, because I'm torn and can't decide for myself. Not liking the Glossy iMac's, I've also been toying with the idea of either a Mac-Mini or used Mac Pro? My biggest problem with the Mac-Mini is, that by the time you do a few upgrades it cost as much as a base iMac.
Dennis

Downloaded tv show episodes. Bought the entire season and after watching one and downloaded first 4-5 they disappeared. This was during the time I was trying to migrate stuff from an older mac mini. Help?

I downloaded several episodes of the tv show "touch." I purchased the entire season and had watched one show. It took quite some time for each show to download, but I had downloaded 4-5.
About this time (within the last two weeks) I was trying to use migration assistant to migrate information from my older mac mini and my macbook. while I was able to move things from my older mac mini I noticed that the tv show went missing.
Also I purchased a program called 'Touched" in a season pass. After I downloaded a couple of episodes I watched one and continued to download the episodes as they were available.
I also purchased a program called "Tune Up" which elminates duplicates of iTunes songs. I have a large collection and this helped to get rid of the duplicates faster than clicking on them one at a time. Maybe this had something to do with the tv shows episodes and the podcasts disapeering.
Any ideas?

This may help
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
As far as the TV series being in 1080p then that is upto the content provider and some older seasons are in 720p or only SD eg Stargate
It may well be that the season you want is only available in 720p

HT201335 why can't i get sound when I mirror from the latest mac mini?

why can't i get sound when I mirror from the latest mac mini?

if you have sound icon on your menu bar: press alt on your keyboard and click mouse on sound icon - check is the correct audio output is selected.
If you do not have this icon: System preferences > Sound > Output and check audio output

How can I transfer pictures from my old Mac mini to an external hard drive?

HHow can I transfer pictures from my old Mac mini to an external hard drive? Thanks.

Normally you should be able to drag and drop them onto the drive, provided the drive is Mac formatted. Have you already tried that?
Matt

Mac Mini G4 - Media Center (Again)

Hello,
I'd like to thank first of all the people that have helped me with finding the right TV/LCD TV to use with my mac mini G4. I haven't made my move yet but it has not stopped me from enjoying our mac mini G4 as a media center with my old tube TV (watching DVD, internet, family photos, etc ... all from the couch).
I've now been looking for a while for a way to record various video feeds (from TV, DVD player, or cable set top box (Comcast)) to my mac mini G4. What I want to do is use also my mac mini G4 as a DVD recorder for TV shows and stuff like that.
I know there is Elgato, Plextor, and others like that but they often seem expensive and I don't need all that fancy scheduling program guides (can't you even just do scheduling with automator ???). Heck, I've even looked into the neuros products MPEG4 recorders.
Basically, can someone point me to a basic "something" that will take a video feed from cable, TV or DVD player, and enable me to record it to my mac mini where I can later on burn it to a dvd or leave it on the hard drive. I want something cheap, easy to use, proven and not with alot of extras... Something basic.
Thank you very much for all you help
Eric McCann

Hey Eric, Here's what I did. I tried to make it complicated first, but then I realized that the easiest (and cheapest) thing to do was to buy a dvd recorder. What I mean is one that would normally replace a vcr. If you record on dvd rw's, you can then move it to the computer and re-record on the disc when you're through. I use mac the ripper, and handbrake to rip and code my video. Here's the basic process: record to dvd rw; put the disc in the mac; rip it with mac the ripper. If I just want to keep it on the computer, that's it, I'm done. I can open the video ts folder from dvd player on the mac. If I want to burn it on a dvd, I open the folder with handbrake, and code it into mpeg4. Import that into iMovie and then burn the dvd with iDvd. Or, you could put it together with Toast if you wanted to buy that program. The other two are free, and everything else came with your mac. All total, I'm out 98 bucks for a basic Magnavox dvd recorder at Wal-Mart, and I get all the program functions of a vcr. Not elegant by any means, but it works for me. I looked at all the hardware encoders you mentioned, but decided to put the extra money toward a 23" lcd tv to use as a monitor. Good luck, there is always about 867 ways to do this stuff, just decide which way you want to go, then don't look back.
Keith

Apple Remote not working with Mac Mini

Hi there,
I woke up to quite a strange problem today... My Apple Remote is no longer working with my Mac Mini! I tried all the controls, including launching front row, and the volume controls - but no go...
I even tried it in Windows BootCamp under iTunes, but it still wouldn't work..
I tried pairing it in System preferences, but again, it wouldn't recognise my apple remote when i held down the Menu+fast forward keys for 5 seconds...
The weird thing is, it works fine with my iMac on another floor (out of plain sight from my Mini..), and it isn't paired with the iMac or anything...
Any idea what the problem might be? Thanks in advance!

So you got a dead remote or a dead battery. Call AppleCare and it will be taken care of. What's the big deal? These things happen from time to time.

Why did apple remove the superdrive from the current mac mini model?

Also why does the standalone superdrive (USD $79) ONLY work with server version of the current Mac Mini? Does not make sense. Was just thinking of buying a mac mini when they changed the line about 2 months ago. I still use DVD's and CD's as I am sure a lot of people out there still do.
It has made me rethink the purchase of the current mac mini - since the standalone superdrive only works with the server version. I wanted to purchase the 2.3Ghz - 500 GB version - but if that does not work with the superdrive - then no good for me.
The Intel core 2 core duo was the one I wanted and it was perfect for me - but the day I went to purchase was the day the new version was announced - apple is not even offering refurbished one of this model (I have looked at that area of www.apple.com) and everywhere I look on ebay for this version - people are selling them for so much more. I wanted to buy this new from apple.
Getting rid of the drive was not the best idea just yet - CD's and DVD's are still so ubiquitious.
Anyone have any other suggestions on how to get my hands on a brand new Intel core 2 duo from apple?
I already have an Imac and a Macbook Pro already wanted to add to my apple collection.

The description:
External SuperDrive
Compact and convenient, the external MacBook Air SuperDrive connects to your Mac mini with a single USB cable. It lets you install new software and play and burn both CDs and DVDs, including double-layer DVDs.
Everything you need in an optical drive.
You can play and burn both CDs and DVDs with the MacBook Air SuperDrive connected to your Mac mini. It's perfect when you want to watch a DVD movie, install software, create backup discs, and more.
The essence of simplicity.
You'll never have to worry about lost cables with the MacBook Air SuperDrive. There’s no power adapter, and it connects to your Mac mini with a single USB cable that's built into the SuperDrive.
Technical Details
Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Writes DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs at up to 4x speed
Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
Writes DVD-RW at up to 6x speed and DVD+RW discs at up to 8x speed
Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
Writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed
Reads CDs at up to 24x speed
I don't see where this says it only works with OS X Server.

Cannot Sync Movies or Music to from iTunes on Mac Mini to Apple TV

Hello,
In itunes on my Mac Mini I can see my ATV and when I click on the ATV the only tab I have is the photos tab. I don't have a Movies tab to sync my movies. I have my ATV and itunes at the latest level and this is the first time I have tried to sync movies. Up until now I have just streamed the movies from the Mini, but I have 150Gb of space on the ATV that I would like to use.
I would appreciate any help.
Thanks.

I too need the answer to this question. My Apple Tv was syncing just fine with iTunes up until I updated to iTunes 8.1 and then left town for a week. I returned, and my Apple TV would not appear in the Devices list in iTunes.
I tried connecting the AppleTV both via wireless and ethernet, and it never appeared in iTunes. Then I set up sharing between iTunes on my computer and the Apple TV and it finally showed up in the Devices list in iTunes, but it only shows the 'Summary' and 'Photos' tabs and will not sync music or movies with the computer. It was all working just fine before. I don't really care what happened (though Apple should) and would be happy to just get the Apple TV syncing again. How do I re-link it as a primary?
For what it's worth, the Apple TV does not show up in "iTunes Preferences > Apple TV > Apple TVs connected to iTunes". I've restarted the Apple TV, the router, and my computer, with no improvement in the situation.
Message was edited by me to add some info.

Remote email access on mac mini server

I hope someone on here can provide a solution to our problem.
Over theweekend we changed our server from an old Microsoft (circa 2003) one running Exchange 2003 to an Apple mac mini server running Lion OSX Server.
Despite some inevitable issues we are now live. It is a small office with about 6 users. Theserver is mostly used to control access, act as a file server and an email /contacts / calendar server.
We have converted from MS products to Apple mail, ical, address book.
Users need to access mail on their iphones when out and about and also using laptops when out / at home.
There’s the background – here’s the problem.
Our domain,ourcompany.co.uk, is with 1&1. The website is hosted by 1&1.
The MX records have been updated to deliver all mail to a spam filtering service. This spam filtering service then delivers the mail, using SMTP, to our external IP address 81.137.xxx.yyy
We have set up our mac mini server with a host name of : macserver.ourcompany.co.uk (choosingthe “Host name for internet” option of the 3 available during initial setup).
We can access mail fine – but only when in the office and logged on to the server
The question is– how do we configure the mail / server so that we can access mail remotely?
In the MS environment we pointed to the external IP (81.137.xxx.yyy) and supplied the domain name (ourcompany.local for an ipad / iphone or sbserver.ourcompany.localfor Outlook).
Can anyone who has successfully implemented a Lion server environment please offer us any advice.
Many thanks in anticipation.

Thanks for the suggestions.
I sort of have it working. The problem was I had incorrectly assumed that on the iphone / ipad I needed to use the MS Exchange type option to set up the email clients as I thought I would need to include the domain details.
Whilst trying to find a workaround solution I set up an IMAP account on my iphone whilst at home and ping, ping . . . all my mail arrived in my inbox.
I'm using my ISP's SMTP server for outgoing so major problems now solved - thanks for the help.
Now though a few strange things.
In an iphone we use the external IP address as the incoming mail server to receive email - this works fine in the office and when away unless . . . it's connected inside the office using wifi.
Similarly, on my macbook when I'm away having the IP address for incomain mail server works fine. When I'm in the office though I need to set it to mail.macserver.ourcompany.co.uk
Any ideas why when in the office an connected to the network it doesn't like the external IP as the incoming mail server but it works fine when away from the network?

"learn remote" from apple TV - mac mini as media centre

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