The Bosee Remote
I'm a huge fan of the Boxee "social" media center and have been using it almost since it got out.
XBMC did a great job for years running on my now deceased, modified, abused, original Xbox (remember the days when the term jailbreak did not exist?). The luxury of playing SMB/CIFS mounted media on TV from that do-everything headless Linux box is something I consider a basic need (almost next to water), really.
Boxee runs great on any intel Mac (it's also great on Linux and Windows they say) and it definitely does not disappoint on a Mac Mini. It does have its bugs and annoyances, but most you can live with, especially because I'm sure the cool cats at the Boxee HQ are working hard to kill them all (\m/).
Perhaps the biggest annoyance of them all is the fact that Apple, or His Highness El Steve, silently decided that from OSX 10.6.2 everybody would have to buy the new, 2nd generation Apple Remote.
And what an Epic What The Fuck Moment (tm) it was when I updated the Mini to 10.6.2 and was convinced that my Bose Remote stopped working. Then, after finding my 1st gen Apple Remote in the middle of nowhere (these things have legs, lots of them) and being totally convinced the Mini's infrared receiver was
dead, I decided to google for "10.6.2 remote".
Where there's Google there's hope and the value-added solution is Candelair. Free, simple and problem solving.
Speaking of the Bose Remote, I've configured mine to control Boxee.
Controlling Boxee with the Bose Remote is quite easy. If you have a V-class Bose Lifestyle entertainment system, this will work just fine if you:
- Press the "System" button on the Bose Remote
- Select the "Remote Control" section on your screen
- Select your Boxee connected source (I use DVD)
- Set "DVD Device" to "Music Player"
- Set "DVD Brand" to "Apple"
- Set "DVD Code" to "1115"
- Don't forget to point the Bose infrared emitter to the Mini
- Select "Star Wars Episode V" from the Movies section and then press the "Play" button
If you feel annoyed by the fact that pressing the "Menu" button can still sometimes open Front Row in the middle of some Boxee browsing, the easiest thing to do is to move/rename it from /System/Library/CoreServices/.
Further reading:
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