Read Me

iTunes Remote Control (iTRC) is a network remote control for iTunes. It allows you to control iTunes on a remote machine with full track changing support and basic but functional playlist support. All you need to do it enable Remote Apple Events (Open System Preferences then go to Sharing and turn on Remote Apple Events in the Services tab) on the computer with iTunes on it and remember its network name (The Computer Name in the Sharing preferences with ".local" added on to the end).

Setting up the Server

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In your Sharing preferences your Computer Name is the name you will enter into iTRC when you first launch it, or change it in the preferences.

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Next you have to enable Remote Apple Events in the Services section of the Sharing preferences.

That's it, the server is set up.

Quick Help

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iTRC has a bunch of Quick Keyboard Shortcuts. They are handy single key press shortcuts for that feature. For example to play iTunes just press the space bar instead of clicking the Play button.

Control:
	•	Prev - Go to the beginning of the current track. Double click to skip to the previous track. Quick keyboard short cut is P.
	•	Play/Pause - Play or, um, Pause the current track. Quick keyboard shortcut is Space.
	•	Next - Skip to the next track. Quick keyboard shortcut is N.

Playlists:
	•	Select the active playlist from the menu.
	•	S - Shuffle or Unshuffle the playlist. Quick keyboard shortcut is S.
	•	R - Reload the playlist table. Quick keyboard shortcut is R.
	•	Playlist - Show the playlist drawer. Quick  Keyboard shortcut is L.
	•	Rate the current song.

Search:
	•	Type the text to search for and hit enter. Command-F to quickly select the text field.

Volume:
	•	Drag the slider to change iTunes volume. Click the speakers to jump.
	•	Mute - Mute or Unmute iTunes. Quick keyboard shortcut is M.
	•	Turn on or turn off the EQ by clicking the button. Quick keyboard shortcut is E.
	•	Pick the EQ with the menu.

Song Info:
	•	If any of the song info spills over just hover your mouse over it to see it as a tool tip.

Application Menu:
	•	Preferences - Open the preferences sheet.
	•	Reconnect - This refreshes the connection to the machine iTunes is running on. Use this command to reset updating in case of an error.
	•	Check for Updates - Check the web for updates to iTRC.

iTunes Menu:
	•	Open iTunes - launches iTunes on the server machine
	•	Quit iTunes - Quits iTunes on the server machine
	•	Search - Selects the search field
	•	Subscribe to Podcast - Opens a sheet that allows you to subscribe to a podcast from the remote machine.
	•	Update Podcasts - Updates all podcasts on the server machine
	•	Mute Computer - Toggle the mute state of the server computer

Preferences

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	•	Remote Machine Address - The machine name or IP address of the server computer
	•	Update Playlist Every N Tracks - Sets how often the playlist listing updates when loading.
	•	Quit iTunes When Quitting iTRC - Quits iTunes on the server when quitting iTRC.
	•	Check For Updates On Launch - Connects to the internet and checks for a newer version of iTRC.
	•	Show Useless Progress Bar - Shows a useless progress indicator showing how much time has elapsed in the current track.
	•	Update More Often - Causes iTRC to load its status every 2 seconds instead of every 5 seconds.
	•	Increase Play Count When Skipping - Increments the current track's played count by one when skipping forward.

Version History

Version 1.4 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Redesign UI. Bigger but more usable.
	2.	With the new UI comes 10.4 only compatibility.
	3.	Search! iTRC can now search your library for titles, artists, albums and genres. iTRC creates a temporary playlist to store the search results.
	4.	Faster playlist loading. iTRC turns off track updating while building the playlist since that slows it down a great deal. The progress indicator now becomes the status of the playlist build process.
	5.	Reordered the Growl notification. The track title is now the big name and artist and album the smaller info. Now uses the iTunes icon, since iTRC is an extension of iTunes.
	6.	One click volume control for off and full volume.
	7.	Doesn't error when changing playlists while a playlist is being built.
	8.	Artist and Track Title are added to the window name, I guess that helps with Exposé or something.

Version 1.3.2 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	No more errors if you don't have Growl installed.

Version 1.3.1 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Growl support! iTRC now notifies you via Growl (if it is installed) when a track changes.
	2.	More network friendly as iTRC now makes one fewer call to the server per update.
	3.	Uses Sparkle 1.1.

Version 1.3 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Audio CD support. iTRC now lists audio CDs in the playlist menu.
	⁃	Some functions, such as ratings, wont work when the selected playlist is an audio CD.
	2.	More immediate updating of information when changing tracks and changing playlists.
	3.	Potentially eliminated redundant rebuilding of the playlist.
	4.	Add the option to increase a track's played count when manually skipping the song.
	5.	Cleaned and organized the code, removing and consolidating duplicate code.

Version 1.2.4 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Removed Mac OS X 10.4 only buttons from the nib. It may run on 10.3.9 now, however I do not have a 10.3.9 machine to test it on.
	2.	System mute state is reflected in the menu.
	3.	Made a more pleasing Dock Menu experience. No extra check-marks and the Play menu item toggles between Play and Pause.
	4.	Added an option to update more often. By default iTRC updates every 5 seconds. By turning on this option iTRC updates every 2 seconds.

Version 1.2.3 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Fixed rating system.
	2.	Doesn't error when a song isn't rated.

Version 1.2.2 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Window position is saved.
	2.	Fixed assorted issues when launching iTRC and no song is playing.

Version 1.2/1.2.1 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Added a useless progress bar showing about how much time is left in the current track.
	2.	Added the ability to turn off the useless progress bar.
	3.	You can now rate songs from the main window. Yes I know they aren't Stars but Asterisks.
	4.	Added the ability to mute/unmute the server computer.
	5.	Major code reorganizing. It connects to the server computer less often per update, down to 2 calls to set the state from the 10 used in previous versions.

Version 1.1.1 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Preferences now close again.

Version 1.1 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Playlists are now sorted Alphabetically instead of as they appear in the playlist menu.
	2.	Uses the Sparkle updating system.

Version 1.0.3 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Added various iTunes commands to the iTunes menu.
	⁃	Open iTunes allows you to open iTunes if it is not running.
	⁃	Quit iTunes allows you to quit iTunes, obviously.
	⁃	Subscribe to Podcast allows you to subscribe to a podcast in iTunes from the remote computer.
	⁃	Update Podcasts obviously updates the podcasts in iTunes.
	2.	Added the ability to enable and change the EQ settings.

Version 1.0.2 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Fixed preference window forgetting stuff when closed.
	2.	Reworked playlist update counting.
	3.	Added option to quit iTunes when quitting iTRC.
	4.	Added the ability to open iTunes if it is not already open.

Version 1.0.1 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Update status text when building the playlist, i.e. "Processing track 78 of 475"
	2.	Dynamic updating of playlist with selectable update rate of every 1, 10, 50, 100 or 500 tracks. Setting the update rate to a larger number seems to work better for large playlists like your main music Library.
	3.	The Playlist menu is now a pop-up menu instead of a pull-down menu so you can always see the current playlist.
	4.	Made it so actions that change the playlist state will rebuild the playlist table when opening it after it has already been opened once.
	5.	Version checking, optional at launch.

Version 1.0 has the following features/fixes:

	1.	Play and skip tracks in iTunes
	2.	Change the volume and mute iTunes
	3.	Change playlists and toggle the shuffle state.
	4.	View tracks in the current playlist and select which one to play.