Anyone using a PDA or Mobile as a remote? (4 Viewers)

[MJGraf]

cheetah05,

you're da man!!!

How are you going to implement this? There is a discussion somewhere in the forum on a standard remote interface as plugin for the MP box. This would be a good starting point. Or you could even try to integrate the functionality you need to the Webserver plugin and by that making it to a general remote interface.

Keep up the great work!

cheers,
Michael

 

[cheetah05]

Thanks for your response.

What do you mean by standard remote interface?

I could actually like to the webserver (webinterface) plugin for most of the "extras", for instance the epg. But for the actual remote, the web interface is just too unresponsive.

Thanks.

 

[MJGraf]

Hmmm.... Didn't know about the unresponsiveness...

Sorry that I can only "help" with comments here and not with coding - I've got one of those jobs where you never have time...

What I ment was something like a unified remote interface that offers all kinds of information from within MP to any kind of remote (now playing, covers, running tv-shows, playlists, epg-data) and on the other hand lets you send messages like skip, switch to next channel, back, enter, etc. from the remote to MP.

The background is the following: First it is of course great when you have a remote plugin for PDAs. I'd love to see something like that to finally use my XDA-Hermes instead of my MCE-remote. But there are other programs that would also need bidirectional access to MP over a network. I'm also looking for a plugin or probably a separate program, that I can launch on a second screen, which is a HTPC-case touchscreen. This application would need the same information and the same controlling possibilities as your PDA plugin.

I just think it would be very clean programming if these two (or even more) programs could just use the same remote control interface plugin for MP. I see the problem with WebEPG, as this has to be a real webserver and not just remotely callable methods or something like that. But why not use a structure like that:

WebEPG -> Remote Procedure Calls -> MP
PDA-Remote -> Remote Procedure Calls -> MP
TouchScreenApp -> Remote Procedure Calls -> MP

where "Remote Procedure Calls" is something like a "unified remote interface plugin" as I said above. I don't know what the latest technology would be to implement this. I stopped professional programming 10 years ago and I think RPC are somewhat outdated and not really platform independant...

However, this architecture would have the benefit that not everyone trying to write a remote control app / webservice or whatever would have to write his own remote interface plugin.

Again, these are just suggestions and thoughts, which I hope can help a little bit.

cheers,

Michael

 

[cheetah05]

Ah I see what you mean now and your right it would be a great idea.

With the DDL I will have you should be able to hack into most of the functions anyways. Its just the case of sending the right message to the server (mp) to get the right action or response.

An example if you don't know what i mean, and this might not be true but: if the client connects to the server via a certain port using a certain protocal and sends the message "Action 1", it would change to the music section for instance.....and so on.

 

[mzemina]

I am currently working on the EPG guide (basics of it) and was wondering how people thought it should work.

Should I show whats currently on for all the channels and have the options for whats on later/earlier.

Or should i show it one channel at a time with a list of whats on that channel?

Baring in mind that eventually i want to have the ability to set recordings and maybe reminders?

Take a look at the image in the post here: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/showpost.php?p=137266&postcount=2

Small viewfinder idea.

 

[cheetah05]

Since I haven't found anyone to do a skin yet, I thought i would try myself.

Here is something like what I think the start page should look like.




EDIT:

I have also decided to concentrate on getting basic pocket pc remote out first, with basic up down left right things.

 

[druid9]

Have you seen the Salling Clicker remote for symbian phones and iTunes. Coverart is shown on phone screen, so it must have access to the iTunes database. A MP variant exists but only on a one way basis I think. Check www.salling.com

 

[hobbes487]

I would love to see the development of a new PPC client for controlling MP. The one thing I would like to have is an interface that doesn't require the use of a stylus. Using a stylus is so slow and cumbersome. Ideally it would all be controlled using thumbs on the touch screen. I realize this can be difficult on the small PPC displays.

The solution to this would be to develop a client program for use on the Nokia N770/N800. The Nokia N770/N800 are touch screen internet tablets that run linux. The client could be written using Mono. Mono is a platform that allows you to develop .NET applications for Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix. This would allow a MP client to be written for the Nokia N770/N800.

I'm not an expert, so what do you guys think? Would this possible? I would definitely get a N800 if I could use it to control MP without needing to turn the TV on.

 

[cheetah05]

Sorry I haven't updated the thread, my PC broke and I lost everything on it, so I have to start again.

I haven't a clue about Mono, but if someone wants to develop that then go ahead.

I need someone that knows about GDI+ so they can do the graphics side of it and i can do the code behind. Anyone willing to help?

 

[hobbes487]

Sorry I haven't updated the thread, my PC broke and I lost everything on it, so I have to start again.

I haven't a clue about Mono, but if someone wants to develop that then go ahead.

I need someone that knows about GDI+ so they can do the graphics side of it and i can do the code behind. Anyone willing to help?

I really want to see this happen. I can give it a try to do the graphics portion of it. My biggest concern is that it should be able to be navigated without using the stylus. Also, I think it should be used in Landscape orientation. What do you think?