Using an iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch as a remote control (infrared devices)

I've always thought that, with an IR port, the iOS devices would make awesome remote controls.

• They have a far more customizable interface (with the proper software) than the Harmony devices.
• Many people have them handy while watching TV.
• iPod Touch is cost competitive with many mid-level remotes like the Harmony-One.
• They could easily compete with the much more expensive Creston type devices.

But the only solution I'd ever found required a case and I didn't like that.

But last week I lamented about this on Twitter and someone pointed me to www.l5remote.com. The L5 software is free from the (app store) and you can play with the app before you buy the device. Best of all, the device is tiny and plugs into the accessory port. The app is upside down, so it just works. And you can customize the functionality, including macros (and the macro support is very cool). Here is a picture I copied from their marketing information.

You can see how tiny the device is and it costs $50. It's a learning remote, so you need to have the remote in order to program it.

If there is a shortcoming, it's the application artwork. This is the single place where I would love to see significant progress. You can't add your own art. That's a major shortcoming, as I'd like to add shortcuts to things like CBS, Comedy Central, etc.. and use their logos for the images. Plus just being able to add additional graphics in general would be useful.

Now, there is room for improvement and they even state that on their web site. I'd like to see

• Better icons and the ability to add my own icons (perhaps through the media browser and iPhoto?)
• Better images in general. They don't need to look like buttons. I'm cool with these not looking like buttons.
• The ability to save/sync the settings to another device (I'd have two in the living room, mine and then the family one)
• Better alignment aids for buttons, including centering between devices and snapping to a grid.
• Ability to download codes

But overall, these are all addressable issues through software. And the device is upgradable through firmware through the device! How cool is that.

It works with the iPad as well as the smaller devices and I hope when they upgrade their graphics for the iPhone 4 they use the same graphics on the iPad. I can 2x it on the iPad and it works, but it's not what I"m comfortable with.

If you're interested, download the software, play with it, then order the device (which BTW came first class priority mail, and arrived in 4 days!). 

Now I have to figure out how to make my Samsung TV automatically pick a source (vs toggling through them) so I can have a macro that goes to the TV and selects CBS.

Dying drive on my media machine

I suppose this isn't about my AppleTV drive dying, but the drive on the Mac that streams to it. Wanted to clarify.

My media machine has about 10 drives on it. A combo of firewire 400/800 and USB drives. Poor mister raid sits in wait of cleaning out the office...

anyways.. one of the USB drives is going bad. So backups are failing because drives are falling off the chain, and not reliably enough to diagnose. I think it's the new LaCie USB Stark drive, the main storage.. :-/. I haven't diagrammed the order. It took more than a year to write the names of the drives on the drives, and a hint of how to do it from Dr Michael "wave" Johnson.

The big problem is that they're in the office that still is still filled with ants (dead). And it'll take about 12 hours to backup to a new drive, so I have to pull all the other drives, put the new Firewire and old USB on, add UPS, etc.. and then start the backup. And none of this is easy because of my OCD and these fucking ants that I've yet to battle the cleanup on (since it means tossing furniture, a 200lb TV, much more)

Yet, gotta do this before WWDC. I hate doing remote support for my family/own machines. :-)

Then I have to deal with vacuuming the ants, removing the problem stuff, and replacing the furniture. Not sure which is worse.

At least all the purchased media from iTunes is backed up to another volume on another machine.

Some Quick QuickTime and Movie Editing Links

Simon Wolf's Otter Software Blog has posted a couple of interesting examples of working with Quicktime files using QTKit.

QuickTime Chapters discusses working with chapters, and the Rename QuickTime Tracks article discusses how to rename the multiple tracks of a file.

Both of these are useful and contain code.

Another tool that I was just introduced to is called Subler. This open source Mac OS X app is designed to work with files for all Apple devices, including support for subtitles, muxing, and iTunes metadata editing. One of the great aspects of this is that you can edit chapter names and save the files almost instantly. It doesn't write out the entire content, just the necessary metadata. You can also add your own chapters and times if that's what you're looking to do. Update: I attempted to load (which succeeded) and save (which failed) a file that had been modified by Subler using QTKit. This kind of puts me off this particular tool, at least as part of my typical tool chain.

All three are interesting. I definitely would recommend looking at Simon's articles if you're interested ing writing something that works with mp4 files.

Update: In searching for more information I finally had a chance to have a more in depth look at the QTKit API. I was surprised that it had functionality for dealing with most, if not all, of the items that Subler handles, but instead of using a third party library, it is supported Apple API.

QTKit includes API that allows you to add/delete and edit chapter information. It also allows you to rename audio tracks. Using this (basically Simon's tool above slightly modified), and a bit of fiddling with the QuickTime 7 application (optional install on 10.6), I was able to create a file that when displayed on the Apple TV allowed playing normal audio and commentary, and under Languages the commentary track was labeled as English (Commentary).  You could choose which you wanted to listen to just like languages. I had been convinced this was not possible. I was wrong and I couldn't be happier.

QTKit is a powerful framework that makes dealing with QuickTime files much easier than it has been in the past. Programmers should definitely explore there capabilities.

Of course, I'm still not sure that my DVD conversion project is going to continue. As good as Handbrake has become BluRay discs are dropping in price. Sony sells a 400 disk BluRay/DVD changer that would allow access to new BluRay content, and my favorite DVDs where I want to access commentary. The rest could be digitized.

The changer is in the $550 range. The only thing holding me back is that I would like to see the user interface the changer presents. It's supposed to display cover art and allow easy selection. But if it can't do that with the unit out of sight (actually 30 feet away), then I'm still hosed for a solution.

Storage - My Final Choice

I think I've made my final choice.

That being the 1400ish (via Amazon)> 4Big LaCie 8Tb.

Just for giggles, I had added the LaCie 4Big 8Tb unit to my wish list on Amazon just in case there's someone (LaCie??) who really loved Stepwise and wants to make my decision easy and is sitting on a pile of dough. I never expected anyone to actually do it, and I wasn't disappointed when nobody game me one. I would probably have had a heart attack had someone done so.

The solutions were varied

• Promise DAS - excellent box, but populating costs the same to achieve same solution.
• OWC
• an Ubuntu box (which would have cost more to build than a raid half the capacity, not to mention maintenance, etc..
• Drobo (largely by friends messing with me)

One reminder. RAID IS NOT BACKUP. All data still needs a solid backup solution. Fortunately I have a load of individual drives I've been using for storing this data I can use for just that.

Final Update

While I did end up going with LaCie 4big, I bought the 6Tb unit rather than the 8Tb. The price difference was close to $500 (almost 50% of the 6Tb) so it was a better deal. I can always toss an additional 4big into the mix if 4.5Tb (Raid 5) isn't sufficient.

Final, Final, Update

Wouldn't you know it. Three weeks after ordering the unit, and before I even get a system up and running, Amazon dropped the price of the LaCie 8 TB 4big Quadra $200, making it only $200 more than the 6Gb. Guess what I would have bought? Ah well.

Massive Storage Suggestions Needed

I've just purchased two 2Tb drives, one from Staples, one from Smalldog. Both suck because they're USB. The Macintosh tax at Staples was $200 for Firewire 800. Amazon didn't offer reasonable 2Tb drives with non USB interfaces. And I'm staying clear of WD for the moment.

Despite trying to help, SmallDog only had USB drives in 2Tb.

It took 2 days to zero out the sectors on the LaCie, which I did to hopefully find bad sectors, major failures, etc.

It took 20 hours to copy 700Gb from a Firewire drive to the Seagate USB.

It took 2 days to mirror that data to the LaCie USB drive. Unacceptable.

2Tb isn't going to last long. So I need to get something bigger. Raid 5 support. I've been considering the LaCie 4big 8Tb. 8Tb would last for a long time. and I could backup to the pleothora of drives I've got lying around.

Drobo is 100% out of the question. I've heard good and bad stories, and the bad are horror stories. I intend to load the drives once, and so I don't get any advantage. Promise DAS is another option. But about $700 for a 4Tb version. I'd rather spend the money and be done with it.

Any other good, safe, reliable, options? I'm only looking for solutions that attach directly to the machine preferably Firewire 800 or eSATA, no Network Attached Storage.

$1400 is my max budget. That's amazon's price for the 4big 8Tb model. Ideas?

What the hell, I even stuck a LaCie wish list with it on it here just in case there's someone who really loved Stepwise and wants to make my decision easy and is sitting on a pile of dough.

Suggestions for Drobo will be ignored. It simply isn't he solution for me.

Hit me up on twitter at @sanguish to give me your suggestions!

I'd never expect anyone to buy it for me, that'd be nuts. But then again, I know some nutty people via Stepwise.

Thanks for input

iTunes Store adds The Prisoner (Classic)

The iTunes Store has added the classic episodes of The Prisoner. This version should not be confused with the new version that is beginning it's run on American Movie Classics (iTunes link).

"I am not a number. I'm a free man!"

Originally broadcast in 1967, the series is about a british secret agent who is kidnapped after resigning, and is relocated to The Village, an island town that really exists (Portmeirion). He is assigned and referred to only as "Number Six". The plots involve his attempts to find out who "Number One" is and getting off the island.

The transfer appears about the same as the ripped copies of my A&E set. But at least there is a definitive order to these. There has always been an ongoing controversy about the episode order, even amongst the original director and Patrick McGoohan.

The description says restored and digitally remastered, but they didn't look different than the DVDs I have. I wonder if they were as well.

Regardless, excellent series, one of my absolute favorite classic television guilty pleasures. Be seeing you.

Loads of new HD content on AppleTV for purchase

Today a huge load of new HD content appeared on the AppleTV for purchase. Including many of the Pixar movies, in HD!

Many are also available for rent, or have dates coming up for rental in the next few weeks or so.

I purchased the Terminator 2 HD ($12.99, one of the rare films not $19.99) and a couple of other cheaper ones, largely to show that there is a market for slightly cheaper content.

The Terminator 2 HD was updated recently with the iTunes Plus content. That makes it just like a DVD (although no commentary track I don't think). Extra features, a menu, etc. It's an interesting approach. The featurette with James Cameron and John Knoll was especially interesting.

But price is what is holding me back. I'm already having to spend significant amounts of money for storage of all this data. $19.99 seems just at the brink of too high. I know that Apple doesn't set the prices, it's likely the studios. But twice the price of much of the SD content, and for HD that isn't the quality of BluRay, seems high. I think $15 is the sweet spot. $10 is my "I'll buy this DVD without thinking or guilt" level. Seems $15 for HD, that I still need to backup and store would be about right. I've bought BluRay disks on sale, and yet I have no player. (Now, these were things like Stargate, Blade Runner... for $10).

Mind you, everyone always complains about price. Me included it seems. :-)

Update November 13: I think more were added today. The biggest problem. The type is tiny. Apple clearly wants me to buy a new TV. Hear that dear? :-)

AppleTV 3.0.1 Update

I (and I assume other registered AppleTV owners) just got an email that there is an important update to 3.0.1.

If you've installed the Apple TV 3.0 software update, you should immediately update to version 3.0.1. This prevents content from temporarily disappearing until it is resynced.

For more information read the AppleCare article at

AppleTV 3.0

Apple upgraded the AppleTV today to version 3.0. This is strictly a software update with a whole new look.

Here is the new UI.

It's a considerable change over the existing 2.x user interface. You'll rely much more on search to find movies and TV shows. Podcasts are about the same. YouTube simply takes you to the existing YouTube user interface. And Genius mixes are also supported.

The one significant new feature is support for Internet Radio. I've never been a big fan of this, but I know some are and this will likely satisfy them.

The Web site also talks about iTunes Extras available for certain movies that are "available with select movies, gives you special features that let you go behind the scenes of your favorite films"

The biggest disappointment is that the ability to have multiple audio tracks (for example a commentary track and the normal tracks) on ripped DVDs is still broken.