Cristiano on Tech/Life

These days every mac has a remote control receiver and Apple has stopped shipping remotes with their machines because admittedly we all already have one by now. There are a few people though that have a Mac perfectly capable of running Front Row but can’t use the Apple Remote with their Mac because it is too old.

I am one of these, as I have an old Mac Mini G4 setup as a media center. I love it because it can play all my movies, even HD, without many problems, but unfortunately I had some remote-trouble recently. As a solution to my initial lack of remote I bought the Keyspan RF Remote, which did the trick of simulating an Apple Remote  for a while until the Keyspan remote died. As Keyspan doesn’t sell these anymore and they go for quite a few buck on eBay, I started to look for a different solution.

This is when I found about the Mantra TR1 sold by Twisted Melon which is a simple IR receiver that can work with the standard Apple Remote. These guys at Twisted Melon normally write the remote control software Mira which can be used together with the Mantra TR1, which was in turn created to give those people without a build-in remote control receiver a cheap solution. The Mantra TR1 was just £14.38 including shipping from Australia, so it was a very good deal (better than the Keyspan RF Remote).

Software

I wouldn’t recommend buying the Mantra TR1 together with the Mira software though. The software hasn’t been maintained for a while and is buggy as hell, on both my Mac Mini and my Macbook. Instead I would advise you to go for SofaControl (£9) which is another application that can work with this receiver and does a way better job.

About the Mantra TR1

Finally I thought I’d share with you my opinion of the hardware. The photo on their site is pretty big although the receiver seems to be small. I thought it would therefore be quite bulky but it isn’t. It’s quite cute and small and weighs basically nothing. Reception is pretty good and basically works through my TV as I had it behind my TV for a while and it still worked.

It has a little red light that blinks when it receives a remote signal. This can be quite annoying if you want to keep the receiver in sight but as I said it works fine even out of sight. One of the interesting things though of seeing the light is that I noticed that sometimes it receives my command but doesn’t do anything. I don’t know if this is because of bad reception or not but it is very seldom and not that annoying.

All and all I know have a proper remote for my Mac Mini media center again and that for only £24.