Remote control

[Guest EDBANGER]

Just wondering if there was such an application that allowed you to use your phone as a TV remote like one of those all in one TV remotes?

Cheers

ED

[Guest Stealth69]

Doubtful, there is no IR on the phone !

[Guest zoolie]

Could probably work if you got one of those new samsung or sony tv that you can connect to you're wireless router etc...

Got a mate that uses his computer as remote control, so ye, sure it's possible.

But you need a tv that got internet access or like bluetooth and one coder that is willing to make the work. Also I think you should have the same tv as the coder due the fact all tv's probably are diffrent and there would be no way in hell to make a general app.

[Guest Tim-H]

All the software in the phone points to it having an IR port but unfortunately there is not one built into the phone. It's just leftovers from windows mobile for phones that do have one. The optical mouse is only that, no IR port.

[Guest dwallersv]

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll... short answer is yes.

Longer answer is, probably completely impractical for you (and just about everyone else). But, you asked, so here goes.

I run an Orb streaming media server on my PC at home. I have an enormous library of video (movies, TV shows, etc.) on that machine -- currently, 3TB of 6TB of storage used.

I also have a DishTV satellite system, and PVR622 reciever. This is connected to a capture card in the computer, and I can access it live via orb anywhere I have an internet connection.

However, there was no way to control the DishPVR reciever remotedly, except through the basic web interfaces for Orb. This is fine for watching live TV, but gives no access to the PVR features of the reciever, and the programming stored locally there.

So, using some gum, rubber bands, a bit of gluestick, some barbed wire, a few empty baked beans cans, and a sprinkle of magic, I cobbled together a complete solution to control the PVR622 over the web. Here's a screenshot from my Omnia of the custom remote control I created to control it remotely:

The HTML behind this consists of a ton of javascript code to manage the operation of the "remote control". Buttons press down and look like it. The left side set of purple buttons are macros -- something not on the real remote control. The blank panel on the right is a 10-line display that shows the queue-up commands that have been pressed, and automatically scrolls down in a FIFO mode as they are sent over the internet to the DishPVR reciever.

So, I can control my Dish reciever anywhere in the world, and watch the result on my Omnia via Orb. Or, I can sit in my living room and use my Omnia as a remote control for the Dish box and watch on the big screen. It all works very well.

Setting it all up is not for the faint of heart. You need to install and configure a program called HIP (Human Interface Programmer) on the PC, purchase an IR sender/reciever (the Microsoft remote sender/reciever is about $35), then configure it all.

I'll save you the dozens of HTML design and javascript programming hours -- I'm happy to share my html file for the remote control. Keep in mind it is customized to the DishPVR 622, however anyone with decent HTML and WYSIWYG design skills could easily modify the file to match their own remote. Or, you could just use the one I made -- most of the buttons are common features on any PVR.

None of this is documented (that is, my solution -- there's documentation for HIP, but that's of limited value in this context), and I have no plan to write it up.

So, anyone who is interested in tackling this, let me know. I'm happy to share what I have, including the HIP software so you don't have to go find it yourself, and I'll give some limited help in getting you going; however, I'm not interested in spending a lot of time answering questions about this, so if you want to take a stab at it, don't even think about it unless you are a very knowlegable computer techie kind of guy.

Screen01.bmp

Edited July 8, 2009 by dwallersv