Has anybody figured a simple way to get the AppleTV to play nice with a Harmony remote (880, specifically). I tried the learning route but it doesn't seem to pick up all the signals. I heard that "Apple Remote" is a device in the Logitech database and thus no learning would be required, but I can't find it. I imagine all the front-row folks figured this out long ago.

I apologize if the anser is obvious/old news.

Posted elsewhere. I went the learning route and, let me tell you, while it worked it was infuriating.

However, I now experience issues with "double commands" being sent to the AppleTV via the 880, i.e., "play" results in a "play" and then immediately a "pause". Confuses the hell out of my wife...

i set it up last night and just choose "ipod universal dock" from the digital music server area. I then renamed it to Apple TV. All the commands were there and ready to go.

I set the up, down, left, right and play, rewind, fast forward all accordingly. I also set the prev, menu and guide button all to the apple's menu button so they all do the same thing on my 880.

working exactly like the apple remote.

Thanks for the tip!

I am having the worst time with the Apple TV and my Xantech IR distribution system. It just does not work very well with either the Apple remote or the Harmony.

Hmm, the iPod universal dock did not work for me, because when I would press the scroll up or down buttons, the Harmony would only move up one or down and not scroll continuously. That was frustrating, but after playing around, I found that this worked. Set up your Harmony by connecting to your computer and get set up to add a device.

To add a device, select "Music Player" from the Device Category Menu, then choose "Digital Music Server".

Choose "Apple" from the Manufacturer List, and then type in "iPod" in the Model Number area. On the next screen click the check box stating that all of this is correct, then hit next.

Now, make sure you click the No box when it asks if you have the remote. This ends this part of the session. Then go back to the devices window and look for the Digital Music Server (Apple iPod) that you just created. Click "Settings" and choose "Customize Buttons" from the Device Options.

For some reason, the Harmony database maps the up "+" and down "-" buttons as Volume Up and Volume Down. Re map these to the direction arrows on the Harmony and remap the "Rewind" and "Fastforward" commands to the left and right direction arrows on the remote, respectively. "Menu" is already correctly mapped to the Harmony Menu button.

Finish up by mapping "Play" to the OK central button on the harmony.

When I did this the scrolling worked correctly when I held down the keys, just like the Apple remote! And I could turn off the Apple TV by holding down the "Play" key for 5 seconds.

I did this on the Harmony 880. Hope it works for you! Enjoy! Pretty cool interface, so far!

Hmm, the iPod universal dock did not work for me, because when I would press the scroll up or down buttons, the Harmony would only move up one or down and not scroll continuously. That was frustrating, but after playing around, I found that this worked. Set up your Harmony by connecting to your computer and get set up to add a device.

To add a device, select "Music Player" from the Device Category Menu, then choose "Digital Music Server".

Choose "Apple" from the Manufacturer List, and then type in "iPod" in the Model Number area. On the next screen click the check box stating that all of this is correct, then hit next.

Now, make sure you click the No box when it asks if you have the remote. This ends this part of the session. Then go back to the devices window and look for the Digital Music Server (Apple iPod) that you just created. Click "Settings" and choose "Customize Buttons" from the Device Options.

For some reason, the Harmony database maps the up "+" and down "-" buttons as Volume Up and Volume Down. Re map these to the direction arrows on the Harmony and remap the "Rewind" and "Fastforward" commands to the left and right direction arrows on the remote, respectively. "Menu" is already correctly mapped to the Harmony Menu button.

Finish up by mapping "Play" to the OK central button on the harmony.

When I did this the scrolling worked correctly when I held down the keys, just like the Apple remote! And I could turn off the Apple TV by holding down the "Play" key for 5 seconds.

I did this on the Harmony 880. Hope it works for you! Enjoy! Pretty cool interface, so far!

i set it up last night and just choose "ipod universal dock" from the digital music server area. I then renamed it to Apple TV. All the commands were there and ready to go.

I set the up, down, left, right and play, rewind, fast forward all accordingly. I also set the prev, menu and guide button all to the apple's menu button so they all do the same thing on my 880.

working exactly like the apple remote.

Awesome. Thanks.

One thing I learned the hard way: make sure the original Apple remote is unpaired before you try to use the Universal remote, otherwise the Universal won't work at all. I think that was why the learning route didn't work for me in the first place.

I am having the worst time with the Apple TV and my Xantech IR distribution system.
Strange, I use the Xantech as well and haven't had any issues with Apple TV using the Apple remote.

Strange, I use the Xantech as well and haven't had any issues with Apple TV using the Apple remote.

This concerns me, as the Apple TV works fine on top of my TV and my MBP works fine in the closet using the same Xantech equipment and remote.

Too late to warranty mine too since I already upgraded the drive.

I will have to try more troubleshooting.

ive got harmony 360 remote... love it and it works great for everything i want to do.

i havent used it yet with my mac but i have programmed other controllers ir commnads via the learn feature and it works fine. no reason this wouldnt either.

they should get the codes into the db eventually, overall I am happy with their upkeep of devices and the abliity to do your own stuff makes it great

personally i dont even use front row.... i like to see the movie trailers on there, but other than that i pretty much just open movies from a folder since i have macbook for htpc

My remote is working great after having set up Apple TV as a computer under the label of a MacMini Intel Core Duo. It has the presets of FrontRow.

My only issue and concern is trying to figure out how to set up a button to put the Apple TV into standbye (Holding Play Button Down For 3-5 Seconds). I know it would have something to do with the delay feature in the device setup but I haven't figured it out. It only allows you to adjust the delay time for power on sequence.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thx

ive got harmony 360 remote... love it and it works great for everything i want to do.

i havent used it yet with my mac but i have programmed other controllers ir commnads via the learn feature and it works fine. no reason this wouldnt either.

they should get the codes into the db eventually, overall I am happy with their upkeep of devices and the abliity to do your own stuff makes it great

personally i dont even use front row.... i like to see the movie trailers on there, but other than that i pretty much just open movies from a folder since i have macbook for htpc

Actually, the learn function did not work for me because of the difference between pressing the scroll up or down buttons once or holding them down. Pressing once moves one up or one down. Holding starts the scrolling which then accelerates as the time the button is pressed increases. Fortunately, the programs codes for this are already in the Harmony database and can be accessed as describe above. There are a number of "names" that you can use for the Apple device. I used "iPod" as it is nice and short and harder to make a typo.

I was just trying to program my old 659 and came across a post on macrumors. I would just post a link here but being a newbie, this forum won't let me so I'll quote the author

_______________________
Found on macrumors posted by MobyIck...

I figured it would be simple just to do a learn IR command for each of the settings but that never worked properly and the remote just wouldn't sense the commands. When it did, the IR response for the apple TV was sluggish or very sketchy.

The trick is to just add a new apple computer device and then have your activity reference it for the buttons. I also changed my delays to 100ms.

Ok here's the step by step to save everyone some time

1 In your harmony Remote Software Click "Add Device"
2 Click "Computer", next, next
3 Select "Apple", next
4 Now type in EXACTLY "Mac Mini 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo", next
5 Check "do not have a remote" and hit next again
6 All info correct, next

Back to Main Screen
1 Click on the settings button for "Computer"
2 Click adjust delays
3 Change delays to 100 ms, done

The activity setup is done, if you want to be fancy, you can rename it "AppleTV" knock yourself out.

Now go to the Activities window
1 Click on add new activity
2 Manually add
3 Click "utility", next
4 generic activity, next,
5 Add or Remove all the devices you do or don't need. Make sure to leave your TV, computer/AppleTV, amplifier or any other devices you use while the AppleTV is displaying, then hit save
6 Video 6 for me (your settings will vary), next
7 don't need to set, next
8 amplifier input for me is video 4 (again your settings will vary), next
9 next next done

Please rename your activity from custom to AppleTV etc

Ok Now you have to assign the correct AppleTV buttons to the remote
1 Click on "customize buttons" for the AppleTV activity
2 Just go down and select the "AppleTV" for the device, and the appropriate commands. I also set Menu, A, B and the guide buttons to the AppleTV Guide so I could hit any of them to go backwards. Set your Volume up, mute and volume down to be controlled by your amplifier/TV. I set my left and right direction buttons to skip forward and back as I wasn't sure if the rewind and fast foward buttons send a longer IR pulse...
3 Click done and you're as good as gold.

Oh, forgot one last thing, you have to unsynch your AppleTV remote and synch the harmony (by clicking the play/ok button) for the AppleTV to recognize the harmony.

Hope that speed's things up for a few people. I set my little music button on the remote to my AppleTV activity.

Enjoy,
Moby Ick

I have the 6 buttons figured out on my remote, but has anybody figured out how to make the pairing feature work. It requires you to hold the Menu button & the Play button down at the same time for 5 seconds. I have an iMac & an Apple TV in the same area so I would like to pair the remotes to the individual device. It seems like the universal remotes are not capable of issuing a double button press.

It requires you to hold the Menu button & the Play button down at the same time for 5 seconds.

Just an FYI:

Plain pairing is done with menu button and the right arrow button. Menu and Play/Pause will increment your remotes UID and then pair. If you try doing this when already paired, your remote will suddenly not work anymore with the paired Mac or Apple TV.

Awesome. Thanks.

One thing I learned the hard way: make sure the original Apple remote is unpaired before you try to use the Universal remote, otherwise the Universal won't work at all. I think that was why the learning route didn't work for me in the first place.

thanks so much for pointing that out - i was bummed for a minute till i read the next post (yours)

unpaired and works like a champ.

hmm one thing though - as mentioned above - how to set it into standbye - and what is with the initial Ipod command it sends in an activity - have to see if i can remove that... as i think it's a play... then again.. once it's in standby - it'll have to stay i suppose. Wonder if the logitech are working on it..

Just to update this thread...

Logitech has added "Apple TV" to their database, so you can now specify the device directly. The default button assignments are a bit strange, but everything works properly and you can easily change the assignments in the button configuration. Oh, and by default the aTV is placed into Standby mode when you exit the activity or shut down your system (i.e. the remote sends long "play" signal)!

One tip...be sure to disable "send play when starting activity," or else you'll end up in an unexpected place in your menus when the aTV screen appears.

Has anyone figured out how to send the long-press commands under a different key than the short-press commands? For example, I'd like to set up the Skip Back on the Harmony 880 to be a short-press left, and the Rewind on the Harmony 880 to be a long-press left.

Does the Apple TV device have those already set up, or just the six short presses?

PLEASE tell me someone has figured out what the problem the URC 980 and APPLE TV is...it's driving me CRAZY!!

I'm using a Universal Remote and have tried everything from unpairing to learning new IR codes, to standing on my head.
The 980 just isn't sending the correct timing, apparently because...no matter where I stand (even in front of the ATV therefore bypassing the IR system), the 980 will not trigger the ATV commands with the same briskness that the original remote does.

Hope you have a solution!!

I was able to program my old Harmony 768 for my Apple TV with little trouble. I programmed it as a DVD player and told the Harmony Web site that it was an Apple TV. Voila! It worked. My only criticism is that the 8 button on my remote did not get programmed to handle the Apple TV remote’s Pause-Play function. Although the play button, at the top of the 768, handles the job, not being able to program the 8 button to handle the Play-Pause function, although it is clustered with all of the direction keys (7, 5,9, and 0), is irritating.