Keyspan, IR receiver - what's the best option for Mac Pro HTPC?

[nightfly13]

Greetings MRers! I have a home office/home theater build around a Mac Pro. I run 3 monitors for work, and a 4th display is my ceiling mounted HD projector and 96" screen. Love it. For viewing, I power down the monitors as even blacked out they produce more light than I'd prefer near my screen.

What I want is a better remote! I've used VLC remote for iPhone which I find too sluggish to wake up, find the wifi network, pair with the Mac Pro and then finally allow me to 'pause' - like 4-5 seconds. I also now have a Magic Mouse, so I can mouse over to the VLC on screen menu to play/pause/seek and change the volume for the few non-encoded (ie. stereo, not 5.1) files I watch. But that's not a terribly elegant solution - perhaps I just need a side table..

I've been looking at the Mantra TR1/Mira bundle from twistedmelon.com but that's looking like $40 and I'd need to shoot line-of sight to the IR receiver (via USB). I'm also looking and favoring the Keyspan RF remote system with Remote Buddy, but that's also expensive once I factor in hardware and software. It's a common misconception that all Mac Pro owners are rich - I'm cheap P

So I just wanted to ask if there are any other options. I have 3-4 Apple remotes for the Mantra, and like the simplicity of it (the older, white ones). Are there other, cheaper IR receivers out there, or other options I should consider?

Input appreciated! (RF or otherwise... sorry couldn't leave it alone)

 

[nightfly13]

Oh I should mention, I also have an old $50 basic Harmony remote that I believe does IR or RF. Really probably overkill since 95% of what I do (play/pause) but I have it sitting around somewhere, never used.

 

[nightfly13]

So no satisfied customers want to give me a helpful suggestion?

I hate making blind internet purchases without some input from the braintrust

 

[Transporteur]

I used to use the Mantra for my Pro which works quite good, but I don't like the limited functionality of the Apple Remote, even though it can be configured a little more with the twistedmelon software.

Currently I use Rowmote with my iPhone. Works flawlessly with a bunch of applications (I highly recommend Plex btw, instead of piece of crap VLC).

But still, no physical buttons can get a little annoying, which is why I'm going to buy the new Boxee remote from D-Link as soon as they release it.

 

[nightfly13]

I used to use the Mantra for my Pro which works quite good, but I don't like the limited functionality of the Apple Remote, even though it can be configured a little more with the twistedmelon software.

Currently I use Rowmote with my iPhone. Works flawlessly with a bunch of applications (I highly recommend Plex btw, instead of piece of crap VLC).

But still, no physical buttons can get a little annoying, which is why I'm going to buy the new Boxee remote from D-Link as soon as they release it.

Yeah see I've tried plex, but not having a remote (or rather, not having an IR receiver) I really struggled to get it working smoothly. I do like that it's multi-core aware, unlike VLC, but I can play everything smoothly even with only 1 core running. I haven't tried plex in 5-6 months..

 

[nightfly13]

BTW I settled for the Griffin AirClick USB RF package on eBay for under $12 shipped. I think it needs a new CR2032 battery so I bought 6 for $1 shipped from Hong Kong.

I'll use remote buddy for software.