For windows XP, you’ll need to download the driver update from Microsoft to recognize the Manta (and most IR recievers). Vista will recognize the Manta receiver as an a Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver and will automatically install the drivers for it. With a PC, things are a little bit more complicated. If you’re have an old Mac without an IR receiver, you just plug it in and install Twisted Melon’s Mira Software for exactly that purpose. Now that you have both a remote and a receiver, you’ll want to get them working on your PC. However, I still think the cheapest reciever and the easiest to use software (IR Server Suite) is the best option.

Read more below, look at the programs available to see if they recognize any of the receivers more easily than the Manta, and read the comment about XP drivers, and give it some thought.

See my post on IR Recievers for information on pricing and the best place to get an IR-receiver (pay attention to frequencies listed).ĭepending on what software you want to use to program the Apple remote, and if you’re using Vista, you may reconsider the Manta. Whatever one you choose it will need to detect the Apple Remote’s very common frequency of 38kHz. Since you want to use the Apple remote, you’ll want to buy a standalone reciever, one that comes without the remote control.

IR recievers are nicely built into iMacs and macBooks, but most PC’s don’t come with one (neither do Mac towers). You could also get this cool remote for Macs that looks exactly like the Apple one (a little thicker) but is also a card reader for even cheaper at $14.99. The first thing you need is the Apple IR Remote Controller. A standalone apple remote from is $19.00 and $29.99 on the Apple Store (why would anyone buy from the Apple store?). So I set out to get the Apple remote to work on my PC. I have a Media Center remote that came packaged with my wife’s Lenovo tower and it has a ton of buttons I never use. But the remote controls that one can buy for windows are huge ugly things filled with way too many buttons for my tastes. I have a PC running Vista and I like Vista. It has only six buttons and still manages to be perfectly usable (for the mac, see the bottom). It is sleek, small, has a magnet in it to stick it to the iMac or wall, and is, most of all, simple. I like the Apple remote control, you know, the one that comes with the new iMacs.

Ehome infrared receiver colossus 2