CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal | Version 1.2 (2011-08-05) (1 Viewer)

[shackrock]

hi Shukuyen,

is development still happening on this, it seems to have gone very quiet for a long time now?

If you are still working on this is there an ETA on an ipad native version?

I'll second that! haha.

I'd like to add, I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE the abiity to do some custom things with this: i.e.

• Pressing a custom button will take you directly to a certain plug-in's page.
• Pressing a custom button will perform some windows tasks for you as required.
• Mouse control would be huge.

 

[Shukuyen]

Hi @Sepulchre

you are right, I have been more quiet than I liked to be :-( Family matters and an astounding lack of free time prevented me from releasing a new version.
But! I am actively developing CouchPotato 2.0. It's still not far enough to show (will do some previews when designs are in), but I am making progress. Communication with mp-extended is working, I am implementing a player for streaming at the moment. I want that to be as thought-through and polished as possible but this takes time :-(

2.0 will be universal, so iPad support will be in there. I don't want to give an ETA yet, because I don't want to make promises I can't live up to. I am also thinking about doing some development blogs or more twitter posts about development to keep you all informed. I just don't want to spill all the beans yet as I hope the app will be a positive surprise when it's done, not something you already saw months ago in a blog that's old news already.

I hope you can understand and I am truly sorry for taking so long Wish I could do CouchPotato as my full time job but the lottery gods weren't kind enough yet (also I would need to start playing ...).

 

[Shukuyen]

I'd like to add, I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE the abiity to do some custom things with this: i.e.

• Pressing a custom button will take you directly to a certain plug-in's page.
• Pressing a custom button will perform some windows tasks for you as required.
• Mouse control would be huge.

Links to plugin pages are there already. Tap on the puzzle icon in the bottom toolbar and you get a list of installed and active plugins to jump to. You can configure what plugins appear in that list and also how they are sorted in the WifiRemote plugin configuration.

Custom windows tasks are an interesting idea, would need support for some kind of scripting api or batch script calling in WifiRemote. Not something there is time for right now but definitely an idea to keep in mind.

Mouse control is out of the scope of what I want CouchPotato to be (a MediaPortal remote), sorry. I am using an additional app for this, http://mobilemouse.com/ They do promotions sometimes and give out the app for free, but I think it's well worth the money. Also there are several other apps that do the same thing out there, this is just what I am using.

If you have any other suggestions please let me know!

 

[Sepulchre]

Hi Shukuyen, thanks for the response. It's great to hear development is still ongoing. I'm sure we are all happy to hear this. Of course nearer the time if you need a beta tester I will be glad to offer support!

Looking forward to v2.0 when it's ready!

 

[Spaldo]

Hi just wondering if this also works with the iPhone 5 screen size?

 

[Shukuyen]

The current version is not up to date and will not fill the whole 4" screen. It will work but could look better.

The next version will be optimized for the 4" screen, I am working on that for a long time now and I am afraid I will work on it for some more before it can be released.

 

[Spaldo]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply. I know from reading the thread you have been busy with real life and appreciate this.

Unfortunately, I can't use old apps that only use half the screen... It is very annoying.

So I will have to wait until you release the new version, thanks. Even if you just release the bigger screen without any other updates!

 

[Shukuyen]

Yes, I understand that.

My original plan was to release an update for the old version, but some components I used were outdated and not supported anymore which made it kind of hard. Also I learned a lot in the meantime so I thought I would start over and make the new version from scratch. That all happened before the iPhone 5 was announced.

Then my son was born and it took really long until I managed to sit down in the evening and do anything productive at all
In the last months I got somewhat accustomed to sleep depreciation so I can sit down at night and do some coding.

I started version 2.0, then ios7 was announced and I started all over again (for the last time, I promise). Some things already are working:

* server management
* remote (very basic)
* tv shows and episode lists

Todo before I can release a first version:
* design
* tv episode details
* movies and details
* my videos
* streaming
* mpextended <-> WifiRemote interaction
* remote now playing
* remote gesture controls
* remote additional buttons
* remote keyboard input
* shutdown options
* menu
* some kind of dashboard
* iPad layout

This is the minimum I want to have for 2.0, the next version would be a bugfix release then I guess I will add things like music, pictures, tv, ..

As you can see there is still a lot of work to do

Edit: my point being: I am not able to just add something to the old version anymore ... Thought about that, too, but it's just not possible without also doing a lot more.

 

[Spaldo]

Thanks for the post and explaining Shukuyen. It is good to hear that you are still keen on the program.

Maybe skip the streaming for the first version? The remote/wifiremote is the most important to me

 

[Shukuyen]

I now have the first draft of the remote design so that will be indeed the next thing that gets implemented.

I am hesitant to release the App without the streaming part because I think that's a huge deal and really important. But I will keep the option in mind if streaming is too much trouble for the first version.
I had a working basic prototype in my last version, so i think it should be possible.