I had an idea (which really is Apple’s idea) on how to add more functionality to the Apple Remote.
I know a lot of you guys have either an iPhone or iPod touch and know that the control on the headphones is really only one button. One click for play/pause, two for skip forward, three clicks for skip back. If we use this idea with the apple remote, we can remap the functions as follows:
Left Click: Small Skip Back
Left Double Click: Large Skip Back
Left Triple Click: Previous Track/Item
Right Click: Small Skip Forward
Right Double Click: Large Skip Forward
Right Triple Click: Next Track/Item
Center Click: Play/Pause
Center Double Click: Stop
Up Click: Volume Up
Down Click: Volume Down
We can also and the double/triple click functionality to menu/navigation:
Up Click: Up One Item
Up Double Click: Up One Page
Up Triple Click: Top Item
Down Click: Down One Item
Down Double Click: Down One Page
Down Triple Click: Bottom Item
I have not contributed any code to Plex yet, but this may be simple enough for me to take on if no one else is able. Does anyone else think this is a good enough idea?
I definitely think it is worth a shot. It might be hard to balance what the proper “pause” time between clicks will be before the timer that waits for the next click is reset and an action is performed. For example if you hit the button once, you still want to feel like commands are instantly being performed as you’ve requested them, but you don’t want the double click to have to be entered super-human fast in order to get it in time.
I will let smarter people than I decide how to balance the feel of the remote, just my 2¢. But I definitely think this should be tried out!
I have the same concerns, but I believe a 1 second timeout (between clicks) is more than acceptable. It may take some getting used to by users, but as a long time iPhone user I have learned to love the simplicity. I also believe the users will enjoy the additional functions without the need for another remote.
This was attempted back at the start of osxbmc but taken out. We had double clicks in place which are good in theory, but the problem is that everything becomes really laggy cos for everything you have to wait to see if there is another click coming to decide if it is a single click or a double. If you wanted to go so far as triple clicks, then you are going to be talking around half second delay for a single click.
The remote itself isn't all that quick - a press and release of 'up' takes about a sixth of a second roughly, so if you want to go three times that, the quickest you can get is half second for the triple. Also remember that Up, down, left and right are all 'hold' buttons - i.e you hold them down to scroll through menus etc.
The apple remote is a tough little cookie - I've just spent my weekend getting multiple remote codes configured into a Harmony remote and hacking PlexHelper to allow each to work as different buttons. (Currently the universal remote support is based on sequences like, Menu Up Up and is laggy as hell for many buttons) The new approach I've been working on works brilliantly, but of course doesn't help you guys that only have a apple remote.
Just some additional info. I was playing with the sequence setup of the universal remote last night and found that the fastest delay between buttons is and still have the sequences work usually in the order of 350-400ms. (The timeout default is set at 500ms) So a three button sequence will be 1-1.2s delay. Of course you could overload just some of the buttons - i.e play and menu, and not have the delay on the navigation buttons or something along those lines.
I personally think that that is just way too slow, but is it too slow to go without the extra functionality? Thats for everyone else to decide.
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