I know this is not what this program does, and I am not trying to hijack a very good thread but I felt this was a fair place to ask this: Has anyone written or found a program that uses the bluetooth in a loptop or similar device and converts it into a HID compliant bluetooth keyboard and mouse for things like controlling a Media Center PC or typing on a PDA, etc.?This program does work well, but a program such as I postulated above would allow essentially complete control of a MCE machine with a bluetooth laptop or ultra portable PC. Thanks for the great work on this program!

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MAIN:Gigabyte EP45-UD3P, E8500 C2D, Silverstone LC16B-M case, 3xAverMedia M780, VistaView Saber DA-1N1-e, Vista Ultimate TV Pack.
Bedroom: HP SL4282N Media Center Extender TV
Basement: P35-DS3R, E4400 C2D, ATI3650, VBox DTA 150

I don't know of anything that does exactly what you are asking for...

However, you might want to take a look at Synergy: http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/.  It is meant for using 1 keyboard and mouse for 2 computers that are sitting side-by-side, but you could probably use it in the way you are wanting.  It would work for a laptop just fine, but might be a bit harder to use for a UMPC.  Basically once you had it set up you could just move your mouse off screen (ex. all the way to the right) and then your mouse and keyboard would work for your MCE machine. 

Another option you have would be to use VNC for it (RealVNC is simple and works well).  This would let you have complete control - including a live screenshot of what's going on for the MCE machine; however, the big downside is that it can't send a screenshot of Media Center while Media Center is running full screen .

If there were a lot of demand for it I could also build in a fairly basic on-screen keyboard for the MCE Virtual Remote that would act as a keyboard for your MCE computer.  Not sure exactly how I would do this, perhaps do it in a seperate pop-up window, or a slide out thing... but I think I could do it.  Doing a mouse might be a bit more difficult though, I'd have to think about that one a bit.

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Just my $0.02.

Hey Ryan,

Great progress so far...

I was wondering if you ever had a chance to look at adding some kind of  2-way info on to your app... For example, for the people using UMPCs, Nokia Tablets, etc.. You are sitting in your backyard, launch Virtual Remote and you can actually see your playlist, music libary, whats playing, & also pick your song to play..(HTPC would be connected  to your home theater receiver with  a zone  playing through to your backyard speakers)

CaMs:

I was wondering if you ever had a chance to look at adding some kind of  2-way info on to your app... For example, for the people using UMPCs, Nokia Tablets, etc.. You are sitting in your backyard, launch Virtual Remote and you can actually see your playlist, music libary, whats playing, & also pick your song to play...

That's actually exactly what I'd like to do...

Only problem is that in order to do this I would need to write a new server program to replace the MCE Controller app. that is currently being used.  I could easily write a server program like MCE Controller, but in order to get the currently playing info I think it would be best to be done in MCML - which I have no experience using.  I have been looking at some of the MCML guides, and looking at IgnoranceIsBliss's guide, but I just haven't taken the plung into it yet.  I know it will likely take me many hours to get a grasp on MCML and summer just started - outside has been calling .

So I guess back to your question CaMs - yes I have though more about it (and I really want it too), but no I haven't done anything else yet.  Yes, I will probably do this, but it will probably take me a while to get it going (may not be until fall or winter).

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Just my $0.02.

NOOOOOO... in fall\winter,  my backyard would be covered in snow by then ;) ;)

I hear ya though, i guess i will wait it out
But how come you want to use MCML with this?  Is this the only way to get info from Vista, HTML wont work, even if its a temp\proof of concept solution

I know... sorry...

CaMs:

But how come you want to use MCML with this?  Is this the only way to get info from Vista, HTML wont work, even if its a temp\proof of concept solution

I was thinking MCML because I would also like it to work to control the 360/other extenders when they come out.  If you can find another way to get the now playing info though, I'll gladly take a look and see if it can be at least somewhat integrated a little sooner.

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Just my $0.02.

Ryan,

You might want to consider XBAP instead of MCML. I only say this because MS has released (in beta I believe) a gui builder for XBAP that might make it a bit easier to get something up and running. As far as strait MCML goes... damn man, it sucks. I've been playing with it for a week or so now and most of the time I find myself thinking... "damn, why did they do this? I'd rather be coding in coldfusion". And let me be clear, I really hate coldfusion.

--Translucent

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OpenMediaLibrary - Senior Programmer

Ryan,

If your looking for help I'd be more then interested in getting involved on the development side. I mostly code (on windows atleast) in c# (not sure what you've been developing in). I'm still learning MCML but I'm also open to working on the UI side with you. I've been chatting with someone about possibly using your app on a Samsung Q1 Ultra to control a vmc pc. Let me know what you think.

My setup (development setup);

I have a mpc running vista utlimate (amd ath. 3k, 2 gigs ram, 800gigs hd on a standard tv.

My play/development machine is a pc running vista ultimate on an amd ath. 3700 with 2 gigs ram, 650gigs hd, dual 17in' lcd display. Visual Studio 2k5 professional, etc.

I just recently upgraded this box from xp pro since I got tired of remoting into my mpc for media center development (needing the media center dlls for testing purposes).

--Translucent

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OpenMediaLibrary - Senior Programmer

Thanks for the feedback so far Translucent.

translucent:

I've been chatting with someone about possibly using your app on a Samsung Q1 Ultra to control a vmc pc. Let me know what you think.

That's what I'm doing, and it works pretty well on the current version.

As for the development, here are the things that I would like to add to the app:

• Use a different server app (not the MCE Controller) - the reason for this would be so that I could use more than one virtual remote at a time (e.g. control my VMC from my laptop & my Q1).  Another advantage to this would be the ability to send commands directly to Media Center, rather than globaly to the computer (e.g. when you press UP, it sends up only to Media Center - even if it doesn't have focus on the computer).
• A way to control the Xbox.
• Get feedback from Media Center (e.g. see what's currently playing).
• Browse your library from the remote.

I wish I had more time to work on this, but recently I've been pretty busy, and haven't had a chance to get back into the coding side of this.  I expect that I will get back into it and see how many of these features I can add, but I probably won't be able to do it until the fall .

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Just my $0.02.

Ryan,

something other then the MCE Controller? My thought was to write a background addin (no UI at all) that would provide a contact point from within MCE. This would then be contacted by windows (service?) app that would be the actual control interface. This could provide a web interface, or even a windows app interface (using any transport method we like such as soap or whatever). So, remote devices could use some interface to send commands to the MCE machine which would be picked up by this service app and translated to commands in the background add-in app running inside MCE. Let me know what you think.

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OpenMediaLibrary - Senior Programmer

Hi all,

First of all thanks ryan.tollefson very nice little app!!

I am currently making something similar but in ASP.NET for use on a webserver (i.e. the MCE machine running IIS), so that I can control the MCE machine with my non-Windows devices, e.g. PDA, Nokia 770, Linux box, Mac, etc.

I will release the source as public domain once I am done in a few days.

In the mean time, has anyone got a set of PSD files of good looking buttons??? Like Play, Pause, Stop, etc. Prefer blue to match the MCE background image.

Thanks!

wywywywy:

Hi all,

First of all thanks ryan.tollefson very nice little app!!

I am currently making something similar but in ASP.NET for use on a webserver (i.e. the MCE machine running IIS), so that I can control the MCE machine with my non-Windows devices, e.g. PDA, Nokia 770, Linux box, Mac, etc.

I will release the source as public domain once I am done in a few days.

In the mean time, has anyone got a set of PSD files of good looking buttons??? Like Play, Pause, Stop, etc. Prefer blue to match the MCE background image.

Thanks!

Wow, let me know if  you are successful, the Nokia 770 is mighty tempting at current pricing right now, so if you could write a good app that would work on it, that would be awesome!

It's great if you can get some kind of file browsing going, so for instance I could sit outside and change songs etc on my garden speakers (powered by the receiver in the basement where the mediapc is located).

Final fantasy would be if the 'server' portion could also work with an IR blaster, to control other components. (I.e. turn on receiver, change volume from another room)

 

..I know, it's easy to come up with insane wishlists...

Ryan, the app looks great but is it only for devices that can run xp? I'd be interested in pocketpc too, though ultimately I would want sideshow type functionality on something like a Nokia 770 (which is Linux).

 

tomes - I have a very similar wish-list , unfortunatly it is a big step from a wishlist to an actual product...

I have only tested the app on XP & Vista 32-bit, but it should work on all versions of windows (may be a little buggy on <Win ME, but I think it will still work).  I would love to see something that works with the Nokia 770, but I don't have one to test it on; and I don't really have time right now to work on anything other than the windows development (even that it on pause at the moment).

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Just my $0.02.

ryan.tollefson:

tomes - I have a very similar wish-list , unfortunatly it is a big step from a wishlist to an actual product...

I have only tested the app on XP & Vista 32-bit, but it should work on all versions of windows (may be a little buggy on <Win ME, but I think it will still work).  I would love to see something that works with the Nokia 770, but I don't have one to test it on; and I don't really have time right now to work on anything other than the windows development (even that it on pause at the moment).

 

Thats cool. I should probably sit down and try to figure this stuff out rather than ask other people to!