SoundSource toggle w/ universal remote?

[elskeptico]

I've got my Mac Pro hooked up to our home theater (via optical out), and I use SoundSource to toggle between headphone audio (I use it for video editing), and the optical for iTunes stuff.

Is there some kind of USB device, that I could use in conjunction with an RF universal remote, that would allow me to tap into the SoundSource and toggle this remotely? I know they make USB IR remotes for general control of A/V stuff, but I don't know how I'd make that work with SoundSource.

Any ideas?

 

[ReggaeFire]

I never found a way to do this with a remote control.

One thing I didn't try that may be worth looking into is if the sound source selection is applescriptable. If it is then you can create a script and with software like remote buddy you can configure a button to execute the script.

 

[Zortrium]

Along the lines of what ReggaeFire said, if you an find some way to execute a script via remote, then you can definitely do it with a setup like this.

 

[elskeptico]

Update: I got it to work with a script I found and modified for my Mac Pro, Remote Buddy and an EyeTV Hybrid with remote that I had.

Here's the script I used (which specifically changes the audio output to "Digital Out"):

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.sound"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    if UI elements enabled then
        try
            tell application process "System Preferences"
                tell tab group 1 of window "Sound"
                    click radio button "Output"
                    if (selected of row 3 of table 1 of scroll area 1) then --headset is selected
                        set selected of row 1 of table 1 of scroll area 1 to true
                        set deviceselected to "Digital Out"
                        set verbal_description to "Digital Out."
                        tell application "Finder"
                            set volume 7
                        end tell
                    else
                        set selected of row 3 of table 1 of scroll area 1 to true
                        set deviceselected to "Digital Out"
                        set verbal_description to "Digital Out."
                        tell application "Finder"
                            set volume 2
                        end tell
                    end if
                end tell
            end tell
            tell application "System Preferences" to quit
            tell me to activate
            say verbal_description using "Trinoids"
            display dialog "Audio output is now..." & return & return & "* " & deviceselected buttons {"Rock on"} default button 1 giving up after 2
        on error
            tell me to activate
            display dialog "Please plug in the headset." buttons {"Whoops!"} default button 1
        end try
    else --GUI scripting is disabled
        tell application "System Preferences"
            activate
            set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
        end tell
        display dialog "Please check the box called \"Enable access for assistive devices.\"" buttons {"Okay"} with icon 1 default button 1
    end if
end tell

The above code would need to be modified to change the output to other outputs, and you could have a separate script for each one. I only needed it to switch to digital out. I also still have SoundSource running and can use that to toggle if I want, this script doesn't conflict with it, or visa versa.

Getting Remote Buddy to work with the script and my EyeTV remote was fairly easy, although the remote buddy UI was less intuitive than I was expecting, and the instructions aren't great. Basically, you need to use the Remote Buddy utility to build the custom action (using the Applescript above), then get the EyeTV remote to show up in hardware (or whatever remote you're using), then map whatever remote action you want to the custom action you've made.

Now all I need is my MX-600 universal remote to show up, so I can really tie everything together, and then my wife can listen to iTunes in the house without having to call me and walk her through the kludgey steps