AppleTV and Harmony Remote

Yes. It's been in the database for quite some time.

Select "Add a device"
Select "Channel Decoder (Digital Set Top Box)"
Select "Digital Set Top Box"
Select "Apple"
Enter "A1153"
Confirm and select "Next"
When asked if you have the original remote, say "no".
Select "Apple iTV"
Enjoy

I set my Harmony 670 up to work my AppleTV. It is not in Logitech's database yet, so you will have to do most of it manually. I told the remote that I was adding an iMac (since it uses the same remote). Then changed the name of the device to "AppleTV". Then setup the 6 buttons from the remote by "teaching" them to the Harmony. Works flawlessly. I now have an activity button of "Watch AppleTV" and it controls it perfectly.

I just set up my Harmony 880, and had to do the same thing. I taught my 880 the six commands, and it works like a charm.

The one other adjustment i made was to change the delay from 500ms to 100ms. The up and down of the menu felt a little slow, but now works great.

I have a Harmony 880 remote with the Apple TV. I did pretty much the same thing. I used the learning capabilities of the harmony remote to learn each button of the apple remote. Pretty easy overall, the logitech software walks you though the learning process.

i cant seem to get mine to work, i tried adding the one above, the A1153, and it didnt work at all. I also tried setting it up myself, but i cant get it to turn on, or off for me. How exactly did you guys do it? I have the Harmony 520.

After fussing around I have it figured out. I have tried other solutions offered, and they worked, but they never turned the Apple TV off when I hit the Off button on the Harmony. The solution I found controls the power as wll as other functions.

I have everything I did in detail here:
http://www.livingwithmac.com/apple-tv-and-harmony-remote

Now if I can get it to pair. 🙂

Teaching my Harmony 880 did not work exactly because I could not scroll by holding down the "+" or "-" keys down like I could on the Apple remote. Also, Ipod Universal Dock also did not work. However, I did get it to work to my satisfaction by using these steps:

Set up your Harmony by connecting to your computer and get set up to add a device.

To add a device, select "Music Player" from the Device Category Menu, then choose "Digital Music Server".

Choose "Apple" from the Manufacturer List, and then type in "iPod" in the Model Number area. On the next screen click the check box stating that all of this is correct, then hit next.

Now, make sure you click the No box when it asks if you have the remote. This ends this part of the session. Then go back to the devices window and look for the Digital Music Server (Apple iPod) that you just created. Click "Settings" and choose "Customize Buttons" from the Device Options.

For some reason, the Harmony database maps the up "+" and down "-" buttons as Volume Up and Volume Down. Re map these to the direction arrows on the Harmony and remap the "Rewind" and "Fastforward" commands to the left and right direction arrows on the remote, respectively. "Menu" is already correctly mapped to the Harmony Menu button.

Finish up by mapping "Play" to the OK central button on the harmony.

When I did this the scrolling worked correctly when I held down the keys, just like the Apple remote! And I could turn off the Apple TV by holding down the "Play" key for 5 seconds.

I did this on the Harmony 880. Hope it works for you! Enjoy! Pretty cool interface, so far!

MacBookPro Mac OS X (10.4.8) iMac, Windows XP

Hi All

Great to here that I will be able tio use the Harmony remote. Is it a differenet code set i.e if I 'm controlling the Apple TV does it also control an iPod or mac if they are in range (my Macbook tends to sit on my living room table when for when we're watching boring shows).

Thanks

Ben

I added my AppleTV to my Harmony 880's devices list as a Mac Mini, and it works just fine. This made sense to me since the remotes have the same buttons and functions. I didn't have to "teach" any commands at all. I did do some button tweaking in my "Watch AppleTV" activity to make everything act as I want it to, but it only took about 5 minutes.

I have mine working, the only I do not like about it is the speed delay between button presses. I set the delay to 0 in my the Harmony setup program, but I do miss the fast and gets faster scrolling down the screen that the original ATV remote does, any ideas ?

I have the Xbox 360 remote from Harmony.

I am still having a problem. I have a Samsung 42" TV. It has a source button that I have to press to get it to go to the next input which is HDMI and the Apple TV. Any one know what button on the Harmony will control the input? It just doesn't work and I know it must be me!

AppleTV & Harmony Remote Step by Step Guide

Ok I just spent 12 hours (there was some sleep in the middle there) getting my Harmony 676 remote to work properly with AppleTV. In the end the setup proved to be quite simple and it (finally) works perfectly. I figured I'd post my guide to save all you folks the tedious trial and error pathway I had to go through.

I figured it would be simple just to do a learn IR command for each of the settings but that never worked properly and the remote just wouldn't sense the commands. When it did, the IR response for the apple TV was sluggish or very sketchy.

The trick is to just add a new apple computer device and then have your activity reference it for the buttons. I also changed my delays to 100ms.

Ok here's the step by step to save everyone some time

1 In your harmony Remote Software Click "Add Device"
2 Click "Computer", next, next
3 Select "Apple", next
4 Now type in EXACTLY "Mac Mini 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo", next
5 Check "do not have a remote" and hit next again
6 All info correct, next

Back to Main Screen
1 Click on the settings button for "Computer"
2 Click adjust delays
3 Change delays to 100 ms, done

The activity setup is done, if you want to be fancy, you can rename it "AppleTV" knock yourself out.

Now go to the Activities window
1 Click on add new activity
2 Manually add
3 Click "utility", next
4 generic activity, next,
5 Add or Remove all the devices you do or don't need. Make sure to leave your TV, computer/AppleTV, amplifier or any other devices you use while the AppleTV is displaying, then hit save
6 Video 6 for me (your settings will vary), next
7 don't need to set, next
8 amplifier input for me is video 4 (again your settings will vary), next
9 next next done

Please rename your activity from custom to AppleTV etc

Ok Now you have to assign the correct AppleTV buttons to the remote
1 Click on "customize buttons" for the AppleTV activity
2 Just go down and select the "AppleTV" for the device, and the appropriate commands. I also set Menu, A, B and the guide buttons to the AppleTV Guide so I could hit any of them to go backwards. Set your Volume up, mute and volume down to be controlled by your amplifier/TV. I set my left and right direction buttons to skip forward and back as I wasn't sure if the rewind and fast foward buttons send a longer IR pulse...
3 Click done and you're as good as gold.

Oh, forgot one last thing, you have to unsynch your AppleTV remote and synch the harmony (by clicking the play/ok button) for the AppleTV to recognize the harmony.

Hope that speed's things up for a few people. I set my little music button on the remote to my AppleTV activity.

Enjoy,
Moby Ick

Disclaimer: I have no TV nor Harmony remote.

My interest is iTunes control without the display being on. So far, the conventional wisdom is that best that can be done is starting the music and then turning the display off, using the TV remote to move forward through the playlist. I see the Harmony has quite a disply. Any chance the Harmony can control iTunes/TV with the Harmony display allowing you to "see" what's going on with iTunes - say, allowing you to stop the current playlist and going to another, whatever?

Hi gang,

I had all kinds of problems getting my Harmony Remote to work properly with Apple TV. I found the following thread at MacRumors. I followed the instructions listed there, and now all is working properly.

Cheers!

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=290426

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9)