Put your Mac to sleep using an Apple Remote

I'm having a few issues with Front Row on my 17" Core Duo since the update.

FIrst off, if I have "Play Front Row sound effects" turned on in System Prefs, then the sound when I move up/down, etc doesn't play properly. Sometimes when I move the selection, it makes the sound, sometimes it doesn't. This annoyed me, so I turned off the menu sounds.

Secondly, if I bring up Front Row, then exit it and try to go back into it, it either comes up, or doesn't come up at all and I have to reboot.

Another tip which I haven't seen mentioned on the blogs yet (they've been too busy bitching over how Apple has wrecked their life by not announcing a video iPod tablet with nVidia 7800GTX graphics, blah, blah):

The new Front Row remembers your position in a video.

So, if you watch half of an episode Desperate Housewives, then go and watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica, and later come back to Desperate Housewives, it will remember where you were up to.

@ Doug

System Prefs > Security > Disable remote control infared receiver

Or you can just enable pairing. Point the remote at the IR port, press and hold NEXT and MENU for 5 seconds. Makes it so the computer only works with the remote it's paired with.

Can the IR port be disabled? What's to prevent me from walking up behind you in Starbucks with a remote and put your mac to sleep, start FrontRow, or perhaps something really bad?

@ Scott McNulty

That's how I have it setup now, but I hate having to wait 5 minutes while I try to sleep before it shuts off. Why can't they just make it so if you tap the power, it shuts off the display, and if you hold it for 5 seconds, it shuts it down?

Just thinking about it while sitting here at work is angering me. :/

What I want is the ability to turn off the mac. That way, I wouldn't ever have to attach a keyboard/mouse to the mini if I wanted to set it up to play DVD's etc...

Hey geepee, you can set the engery settings to turn off just the monitor after a certain amount of time. Not exactly what you were looking for, but it is close. :)

..and you can wake her up with the menu button on the remote!

There's also a button combo to bind the remote to a certain device...volume up and menu at the same maybe? I don't remember....

Also, while on the topic of sleep mode, I wish there was a way to just turn the monitor off on my iMac Core Duo instead of putting the machine to sleep. This is the one thing that annoys me to no end.

SA-LICK!

Very good tip!