Remote control over the network

[soccerdad]

We listen to net radio a lot. I have the dvr connected to an amplifier that sends the music out to several sets of speakers around the house. It would be great to be able to change the stations remotely from a laptop or netbook (and even perhaps an iPod touch, etc).

I know I can do this using VNC but think it would be great to be able to contol the server from a "remote client". This would also be handy to control the DVR playback while surfing on my laptop at night and watching recordings from the DVR. I would not have to pick up a remote to do this, just have the control progam minimized.

I don't know if this is technically possible, but I think it would be a unique and very useful feature.

[mvallevand]

You might consider using EventGhost. I was working on something like a Sonos Zone type controller for NPVR using Android but I abandoned this when I decided I wasn't going to do my ML3 update anytime and it was using http so it is technically possible

Plugin & Skin development work for NPVR is not very satisfying and I am doing them solely from hobby aspect now and this is not really a challenging one or one that I would implement just for Web Radio.

Martin

[soccerdad]

Thanks Martin
I will look at EventGhost to see what that involves. I was not looking for you specifically to do it. Just over the years I have always thought it would be nice to be able to use a second laptop to contol what NPVR was doing at the time with playback. I tend to be on another laptop doing something else while listening or watching and remote contol from that PC would be cool.

Thanks for all you do for the project.

[soccerdad]

Martin,
I was looking into this a little more and something like the Sonos system of control for nPVR is what I am looking for. Something that you can see your choices, like shoutcast stations and pick them to start on the server machine.

I have never kicked the tires on EventGhost, but it seems like it may have the functionality. Not having ever built a plugin before, I am not sure where to start, but I will get reading. Do you think this could be done in a separate nPVR plugin or would it have to be integrated into a the plugins themselves (such as web radio).

Or am I missing the point and this would be a EventGhost only application that sends command line type instructions?

Any thoughts on a starting point would be great. Thanks again.

[mvallevand]

Do you think this could be done in a separate nPVR plugin or would it have to be integrated into a the plugins themselves (such as web radio).

You can get Now Playing info and control playback in a playback, but for selecting media remotely you'd need the plugin support. I ony suggested EventGhost as a web remote option, you would not have any special UI other than remote keys.

Martin

[bgowland]

I know I can do this using VNC but think it would be great to be able to contol the server from a "remote client". This would also be handy to control the DVR playback while surfing on my laptop at night and watching recordings from the DVR. I would not have to pick up a remote to do this, just have the control progam minimized.

I don't know if this is technically possible, but I think it would be a unique and very useful feature.

The ideal solution to this would be for sub to implement something for the npvr ui framework which would listen on a particular network port and then forward 'events' to plugins. Pretty much in the same way that a remote can be used with an IR receiver and the button presses are translated to keycodes etc. In that way plugin developers could choose to make use of such events or not.

I don't know if sub would be interested in looking at it - theoretically it may be a trivial concept but in practical terms I can see there's a lot more to it.

An intermediate solution would be for individual developers to write plugins which listen on a network port and handle comms from a dedicated remote client. Easy to do in general but I'm not sure how well it would work within the plugin environment.

Definitely an interesting idea though.

[stustunz]

you can get a iphone app to control your popcorn hour
cant remember if its free

[bgowland]

you can get a iphone app to control your popcorn hour

You can also do that with a standard remote.

As I understand it, soccerdad would like to be able to control npvr directly over a LAN or wi-fi connection without communicating with an extender such as an mvp/pch/nmt etc.

[stustunz]

yeah the iphone app controls the pocorn hour over wifi even has a keyboard very handy
can look at folders not sure on if it lets you browse web radio
http://mediatankcontroller.com/
just add web page to your home screen and install the app on your popcorn hour

smarty pants

[bgowland]

An intermediate solution would be for individual developers to write plugins which listen on a network port and handle comms from a dedicated remote client. Easy to do in general but I'm not sure how well it would work within the plugin environment.

Hmm, works quite nicely as it turns out.

I just tried a dummy plugin with its own HTTP listener. Whatever the listener receives can be passed back to the plugin - in theory anything from simulated key-presses to requests to play media etc.

Although, of course, anybody developing such a plugin would also have to develop a matching client app.