Controlling MP (1 Viewer)

[vonson]

Hello,

I hope I do not annoy anyone with my questions. I am sure some of them might have been answered before, I just cannot find anything...
I'd also like to point out that I am not particularly informed in recent hardware developements...

I'm still in the concept stage of a dedicated htpc, so far i do run MP on my desktop PC.
So far I am looking for a control solution. As long as movies are concerned I'm sure I may find a decent remote, but I'd like to do the music management without turning on the TV.

Now tablets have become so popular. Apart from their most obvious use of browsing the web I started think that such a thing may be a nice solution to browse my music library, search titles and control the playback.
However, from what I've seen most tablets seem to be somewhat overequipped and maybe too fragile. It seems a little strange to spend as much on such a tablet as on the htpc itself, esp. since (think of your remote) it surely will fall down eventually...

Also I'm not sure about the connectivity. Surely it won't need any telephone functionality since it would be meant strictly for home usage. For any web functionality it should use my local router. What's the way to go here? WiFi, Bluetooth? Or even WLAN?

Best wishes,
vonson

 

[mbuzina]

WiFi = WLAN and yes, using an android device will give you aMPdroid (see https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/ampdroid-546/android-ampdroid-android-mediaportal-client-92111/) which can control MP without turning on the TV/Monitor to control music.

In future an iPhone/iPad will be able to do the same (CouchPotato App), but it is not yet as advanced as aMPdroid. And as an iPad owner I can assure you that you do not drop such an item easily, since you know it expensive

I don't know if it would work, but have a look at the upcoming Kindle Fire from amazon, it will cost 199,- and will be based on Android. So it might run aMPdroid. Another solution would be a cheap android handset with WiFi (or WLAN)

 

[vonson]

AW: Controlling MP

Thank you, mbuzina, for your reply. Seems I'm getting lost with recent developements and all the abbrevations. I did not know that WLAN and WiFi is the same thing...
That Kindle Fire looks interesting, I'll have a closer look into it. I'd like to check some other cheap android based devices, but for now I'm a little lost in where to watch and what for precisely. Obviously I would not need any telephone functionality, the device would not even have to be particularly advanced. However, when I read any reviews for different devices the reviewers seem to tend to compare everything to iPad / iPhone which results in very little objective results. Obviously a lot of the central iPad / iPhone functionality would be wasted for my purpose i guess...