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Candelair IR driver addresses Apple remote issues in Snow Leopard

by Michael Rose Jan 8th 2010 at 12:00PM

As we wait on the threshold of 10.6.3, there are still some hiccups and interesting issues in Snow Leopard that might make your life a bit more difficult (as Aron mentioned recently). In particular, getting your Apple Remote to behave properly with all the apps that it's supposed to control may be an exercise in frustration.

In the case of my unibody MacBook Pro, I couldn't get the machine to recognize any remote commands at all - even after verifying that the batteries were fresh (by looking for infrared flashes via the iSight camera) and trying to pair/unpair the remote. I wasn't alone; there's a five-page thread on Apple's discussion boards detailing a litany of woes with 10.6.x and remote use, with many reports of Front Row overriding remote commands destined for other apps like EyeTV.

Good news, though: even if the upcoming OS update doesn't clear up the remote issues, there's a fine & free solution right now. The Candelair driver, provided by the developers of Remote Buddy, installs simply and works like a charm. You can disable/enable the driver via the provided preference pane, or activate a legacy compatibility mode to help old apps behave as expected. For me, I'm just happy that my remote is working again.

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As we wait on the threshold of 10.6.3, there are still some hiccups and interesting issues in Snow Leopard that might make your life a bit...
 

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Toby Cummings

Hi,
I have candelair installed and synced with my IR remote. It works great with quicktime or VLC and picks up the remote right away. But, if I haven't used it on quicktime first, and I launch iTunes and start pushing buttons, nothing happens. I have to physically open the preference pane and change one of the settings to get my remote to start working with iTunes. I don't have quicktime or VLC open when I'm just listening to music, so I know it can't be that those applications are somehow interfering with iTunes.

It's not really a huge issue. I can still get it to work, but it's just really annoying to have to open the preference pane just to get the remote to work with iTunes. I'm running 10.6.2 on an intel mini.

Thank you,
Toby

March 19 2010 at 3:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DarkLeaper

Candelair gave me trouble with the Boxee Beta.

All in all, my Mac started to act funny. Shutting down/restarting issues such as a blue screen stalling and showing that rotating with the spinning gear . Did everything and nothing worked. Uninstalled Candelair, everything worked fine again.

January 08 2010 at 3:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael

I have tried CandleAir and my remote completely stops working when I have CandleAir enabled.

My workaround is to open iTunes, navigate to the store and to leave it there. Then EyeTV gets the signals from the remote. Otherwise iTunes intercepts all remote operations even if it isn't running (it will start up and then start playing Music)

January 08 2010 at 1:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Michael's comment
Felix Schwarz

Candelair, due to the very way it works, can't cause such issues.

The by far most common cause of such issues is this:

Many applications (like f.ex. Plex, XBMC, etc.) offer an option to launch the respective application instead of Front Row when the menu button on the remote is pressed. In order for this to work, they need to install a background helper application (usually visible as XYZHelper in Activity Monitor.app) that holds an exclusive lock on the Apple® Remote to provide this functionality. An unavoidable side effect of this: all Apple® Remote functionality built into OS X is permanently disabled.

Solution: Quit and remove the respective helper app and disable the corresponding option in the application that installed it.

Please note that in OS X 10.6 or OS X 10.6.1, exclusive access to the Apple Remote was broken, so that Apple Remote events are ALWAYS sent to ALL applications listening for them.

When you install Candelair under OS X 10.6 and OS X 10.6.1, exclusive access works again (like it does in stock OS 10.4.x, OS 10.5.x and OS 10.6.2), so that you'll only notice the effects of said background application's exclusive lock on the Apple Remote then. That doesn't make it a problem caused by Candelair, though.

You can find more information on this subject at
http://www.iospirit.com/labs/candelair/?&ios_lang=en

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz

January 08 2010 at 2:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Felix Schwarz

Little correction: replace "is permanently disabled" with "is disabled for as long as the helper application is running".

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz

January 08 2010 at 2:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bryan

Any idea whether this software will work with the Manta TR1 USB Receiver sold by Twisted melon? I'm kind of tired of waiting for them to issue an update for Snow Leopard.

January 08 2010 at 1:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Bryan's comment
Felix Schwarz

Candelair is for built-in Apple IR Receivers only.

Our Remote Buddy, however, does support the Manta TR-1 and is fully compatible with Snow Leopard.

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz
(Developer of Candelair and Remote Buddy)

January 08 2010 at 1:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bryan

Thanks, Felix :)

January 08 2010 at 2:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Markus

Why does Microsoft keep asking me where I want to go today when none of their products can carry me?

January 08 2010 at 12:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Level 5

Color me completely stupid; I always assumed the remote was Bluetooth.

January 08 2010 at 12:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
soopah256

mistake in title - "Calendair"?

It just threw me off as I came to read the post from my g-reader, thinking it'd be about some calendar app for adobe air.

January 08 2010 at 12:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to soopah256's comment
Michael Rose

Aw, CRAP.

Sorry, fixed.

January 08 2010 at 12:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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