Double Parity

Apple quietly updated its Apple TV software to version 2.3 a couple days ago. The [release notes][1] are spare, but the _Third-party Remote Controls_ feature did catch my eye. Programming universal remotes is a universally bad experience, but with Apple TV 2.3, Apple has turned convention on its head. Instead of trying to program new codes into a remote control, Apple’s answer is to program new codes into the Apple TV. This may seem like a subtle distinction, but it makes programming remotes worlds simpler.

The new *Learn Remote* option can be found in Settings >> General >> Remotes.

Once you start the learning process, the Apple TV presents you with a page showing the six buttons found in the miniature Apple Remote in a single row.

Learning an infrared code from a non-Apple remote is super simple. Just press and hold the button on the remote. The progress bar on the screen will quickly fill up and once it’s done, you get a brief confirmation message and the Apple TV automatically progresses to the next button.

After these six buttons are done, you are presented with an option to set up “Playback Buttons.”

There are a total of nine playback buttons. Play, pause, and stop seem out of place since they overlap with some of the buttons from the basic setup. However, I was happy to see that fast forward and next chapter could be mapped to different buttons. To activate fast forward with the Apple Remote, I had to hold down the next chapter button. But held buttons weren’t always reliably detected by the Apple TV. Often, the device would skip to the next chapter rather than fast forward. This becomes tiresome very quickly. Separating these controls makes fast forward much more reliable.

I was also happy to note that I could assign dedicated buttons to Skip Back and Skip Forward. With an Apple Remote, I had to [pause the video first][2], then hit fast-forward or rewind to skip around, and then hit play to resume playback.

Unfortunately, skipping still only occurs in 10-second increments, both forwards and backwards. I much prefer the Tivo and Windows Media Center increments of 30-seconds forward and 5-seconds back.

Also, Apple TV 2.3 kills XBMC and Boxee. As of this writing, there’s no fix or easy workaround, but [something may be coming soon][3].

All that aside, I find the Learning Remote interface in Apple TV 2.3 to be excellent. And it’s just a wish, but hopefully it will make its way into OS X. My mind runs wild with the possibilities…

Apple TV, 160GB Hard Drive (Amazon)

[1]: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3187
[2]: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3176
[3]: http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=2064