Re: CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal (preview)
Haha, well it is a pretty cool service ...
CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal | Version 1.2 (2011-08-05) (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Shukuyen
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- April 28, 2008
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Denmark
Just installed and started using this app, and I have to say that it looks and works amazing. However I do not foresee that a pure touch remote will ever permanently replace a real remote with tactile buttons.
Therefore where I see the real amazing potential of this app is for operation of MP without your main monitor turned on. For instance, what I already have grown used to is that since I use my iPhone as alarm clock, I can at the same time as I turn of the alarm turn on MP and start the radio channel that I always listen to in the morning before even getting out of bed. This was just meant as an example, but I think there are a large number of other situations as this. And I know that this is already possible, but navigation based on the small amount of info in the top of the screen is not that user friendly.
So I guess this is basically a feature request, that some more information from MP is displayed on the phone for navigation purposes. Perhaps it would be possible to make a "main display off mode"?
Therefore where I see the real amazing potential of this app is for operation of MP without your main monitor turned on. For instance, what I already have grown used to is that since I use my iPhone as alarm clock, I can at the same time as I turn of the alarm turn on MP and start the radio channel that I always listen to in the morning before even getting out of bed. This was just meant as an example, but I think there are a large number of other situations as this. And I know that this is already possible, but navigation based on the small amount of info in the top of the screen is not that user friendly.
So I guess this is basically a feature request, that some more information from MP is displayed on the phone for navigation purposes. Perhaps it would be possible to make a "main display off mode"?
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Re: CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal (preview)
Hi mtjoernelund,
It has replaced a real remote at least for me
And it gets even better with gestures that will be introduced with the next update.
But I understand your concerns. Adding support to browse your mediaportal libraries is on the todo list and will probably be done after the iPad layout.
Hi mtjoernelund,
It has replaced a real remote at least for me
And it gets even better with gestures that will be introduced with the next update.But I understand your concerns. Adding support to browse your mediaportal libraries is on the todo list and will probably be done after the iPad layout.
- April 28, 2008
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Denmark
Do not get me wrong, this is already possible, and I am already using the app like that, but I just think it can be improved.
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Re: CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal (preview)
No worries I know there is a lot to do and I am really happy to hear what all of you would like to see in the app.
No worries
I know there is a lot to do and I am really happy to hear what all of you would like to see in the app.Re: CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal (preview)
Hi everybody,
I bought the app some days ago and I really have to say that I'm absolutely impressed!
For me as a "technic freak" my IPhone can now completely replace the remote.
However, as mtjoernelund said, I think my girlfriend would only use it as a replacement for switching on the TV. Furthermore, she'd prefer using the IPad because I suppose using the IPhone is too much "fiddling" from her point of view.
The ideal use case in my opinion would therefore be using the IPad as a "TV and remote replacement". I.e., browsing your music library as if it was with a remote on the tv (showing covers, etc.). Later on maybe streaming of music / videos / tv to the IPad (e.g. when used in the kitchen).
But as I see, all these nice features are already on the planned feature list. Please keep up your excellent work - it's much appreciated!
cheers,
Michael
Hi everybody,
I bought the app some days ago and I really have to say that I'm absolutely impressed!
For me as a "technic freak" my IPhone can now completely replace the remote.
However, as mtjoernelund said, I think my girlfriend would only use it as a replacement for switching on the TV. Furthermore, she'd prefer using the IPad because I suppose using the IPhone is too much "fiddling" from her point of view.
The ideal use case in my opinion would therefore be using the IPad as a "TV and remote replacement". I.e., browsing your music library as if it was with a remote on the tv (showing covers, etc.). Later on maybe streaming of music / videos / tv to the IPad (e.g. when used in the kitchen).
But as I see, all these nice features are already on the planned feature list. Please keep up your excellent work - it's much appreciated!
cheers,
Michael
- August 21, 2008
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Re: CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal (preview)
Michael, I agree to some extent, Apple got it right with the iTunes remote for the iPhone where basically you don't need to look at the screen to drive iTunes.
But the problem with this approach is that most of the appeal of MediaPortal is eyecandy, so if nothing moves on the screen while you're using the iPhone (which is the case for iTunes), what would be point of having beautiful things such as skins and Moving Pictures amongst others? To resolve this issue the displays on the screen and the remote would need to change in sync, which I would imagine could be quite challenging from a programming perspective.
Also, re streaming, not sure if there is a strong need as they are already some solutions available: Apple's solution again with home shared libraries works really well for music, and for videos Airvideo does a fantastic job, I can even watch my MP recordings as it does encoding on the fly. From a use case perspective, I don't find myself using any of these a lot anyway as I mostly use my iPhone with local content while on the train or at lunch time.
That being said, ideally we would like to have a fully integrated MP client for IOS that would be able to access all the content of an MP server. That would be cool but again how useful would it be for non techies like us who (in my view) just want to use the big TV to do simple things (yes I am looking at you, my wife)? I think that the pain and the cost of developing such a thing would largely exceed the benefits in terms of number of potential users.
All right, it was just my 2cts view of the MP remote market on this rainy Monday in Sydney
PS: If you're looking for an universal media player for iPhone, I recommend AV Player, no need to convert anything or sync through iTunes, it plays directly DivX, MP4, H264, etc. No I do not own any share in this company
Michael, I agree to some extent, Apple got it right with the iTunes remote for the iPhone where basically you don't need to look at the screen to drive iTunes.
But the problem with this approach is that most of the appeal of MediaPortal is eyecandy, so if nothing moves on the screen while you're using the iPhone (which is the case for iTunes), what would be point of having beautiful things such as skins and Moving Pictures amongst others? To resolve this issue the displays on the screen and the remote would need to change in sync, which I would imagine could be quite challenging from a programming perspective.
Also, re streaming, not sure if there is a strong need as they are already some solutions available: Apple's solution again with home shared libraries works really well for music, and for videos Airvideo does a fantastic job, I can even watch my MP recordings as it does encoding on the fly. From a use case perspective, I don't find myself using any of these a lot anyway as I mostly use my iPhone with local content while on the train or at lunch time.
That being said, ideally we would like to have a fully integrated MP client for IOS that would be able to access all the content of an MP server. That would be cool but again how useful would it be for non techies like us who (in my view) just want to use the big TV to do simple things (yes I am looking at you, my wife)? I think that the pain and the cost of developing such a thing would largely exceed the benefits in terms of number of potential users.
All right, it was just my 2cts view of the MP remote market on this rainy Monday in Sydney
PS: If you're looking for an universal media player for iPhone, I recommend AV Player, no need to convert anything or sync through iTunes, it plays directly DivX, MP4, H264, etc. No I do not own any share in this company
Re: CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal (preview)
jmarc: Still this is the ideal combination. You can have all the eye candy you want if you turn on the TV, but I like to browse my music with the TV turned off as well as being able to have eye candy there when it is turned on.
So diebagger (aMPdroid) and shukuyen (couchpotato) are going the right way, choice is the big advantage of open source.
and fragmentation the big disadvantage
jmarc: Still this is the ideal combination. You can have all the eye candy you want if you turn on the TV, but I like to browse my music with the TV turned off as well as being able to have eye candy there when it is turned on.
So diebagger (aMPdroid) and shukuyen (couchpotato) are going the right way, choice is the big advantage of open source.
and fragmentation the big disadvantage
Re: CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal (preview)
jmarc: This is interesting. When I was trying the app I was thinking exactly about the question whether IPhone/Ipad's display should be in sync with the screen. But the answer depends in my opinion on the use case:
When I'm sitting in my living room and just want to start some music without turning on the tv set, I don't need the displays to be in sync - but if they are, I wouldn't mind.
When I'm sitting in the kitchen and want to stream some music to my IPad, I don't need the displays to be in sync, either. It would even be detrimental, because I cannot rule out that someone else is just watching tv in the living room.
When I'm sitting in front of the tv set and use the IPad to scroll through the tv program I may want the displays to be synced (in particular when I've not yet started watching a show and I'm just looking for a tv show together with someone else, who doesn't see the IPad but the tv) or I may want the IPad to be independant from the tv (when I'm already watching a show and just want to go through the program to see what else is on tv).
The conclusion is that it is hardly possible to guess whether the user wants the displays to be in sync or not. The only case in which syncing doesn't make sense is in my opinion when you want to use the IPad/IPhone to stream something and, hence, use the device as a player - not a remote. In all other cases a little button would be great to toggle "in sync" or "independant".
But this is really a look into the far future ;-)
Michael
jmarc: This is interesting. When I was trying the app I was thinking exactly about the question whether IPhone/Ipad's display should be in sync with the screen. But the answer depends in my opinion on the use case:
When I'm sitting in my living room and just want to start some music without turning on the tv set, I don't need the displays to be in sync - but if they are, I wouldn't mind.
When I'm sitting in the kitchen and want to stream some music to my IPad, I don't need the displays to be in sync, either. It would even be detrimental, because I cannot rule out that someone else is just watching tv in the living room.
When I'm sitting in front of the tv set and use the IPad to scroll through the tv program I may want the displays to be synced (in particular when I've not yet started watching a show and I'm just looking for a tv show together with someone else, who doesn't see the IPad but the tv) or I may want the IPad to be independant from the tv (when I'm already watching a show and just want to go through the program to see what else is on tv).
The conclusion is that it is hardly possible to guess whether the user wants the displays to be in sync or not. The only case in which syncing doesn't make sense is in my opinion when you want to use the IPad/IPhone to stream something and, hence, use the device as a player - not a remote. In all other cases a little button would be great to toggle "in sync" or "independant".
But this is really a look into the far future ;-)
Michael
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Re: CouchPotato - an iPhone remote app for MediaPortal (preview)
Personally I would like it to be asynchronous when browsing the media library on my remote. This way I could browse media and maybe even fill a playlist while the tv is in use.
The only reason to sync it that I can imagine is if you are in the room with some friends and want to decide what to watch. For this you could use the remote or maybe we can launch a plugin with a parameter,for example "Moving pictures with movie id xy", after pressing a button on the remote.
It will be best to test which way is working and then decide on that, I guess. Let me know what you think ...
Status update: I am fixing some issues that were introduced with gesture control and I am still testing what gestures work best. Already feels quite good
Personally I would like it to be asynchronous when browsing the media library on my remote. This way I could browse media and maybe even fill a playlist while the tv is in use.
The only reason to sync it that I can imagine is if you are in the room with some friends and want to decide what to watch. For this you could use the remote or maybe we can launch a plugin with a parameter,for example "Moving pictures with movie id xy", after pressing a button on the remote.
It will be best to test which way is working and then decide on that, I guess. Let me know what you think ...
Status update: I am fixing some issues that were introduced with gesture control and I am still testing what gestures work best. Already feels quite good