[joethefox]

Unofficial "Official XBMC Remote"


Hi all,
recently I swapped my phone from android to ios and what I really missing was the Official XBMC Remote, so I'm trying to develop one.
The goal is to obtain a very responsive app. Tested with my huge library, it spends less than one second to build an albums list with about 1800 entries.
Unofficial "Official XBMC Remote" for iPhone will be in the app store as free and with no ads. This is my small thank you to the XBMC community.

TODO before submit to apple:
1. Understand if I can use the "official XBMC remote for Android" images
2. Understand if I can use Zapy (with one "p", in French ) in the app logo
3. Performance and memory tweaks for old phones (AKA iPhone 3GS)
4. Multiple XBMC servers management
5. Playlist management (delete and reorder)
6. General tests and debug
7,8,9. Solve problems that I'm not seeing at the moment

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edit: You can download the app from the AppStore now.

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Some screenshots in action:

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[N3MIS15]

Looks great.

[freezy]

You're welcome to use the icons. Most of them should be available in vector format here. Let me know if there are some missing.

[bobrap]

Will this be just for the iPhone or optimized for the iPad as well? Looking forward to it!

[joethefox]

@freezy, Thanks very much for the link and your availability! Task one is done.
@bobrap, sorry but at the moment in the plans there is only iPhone interface. If can be the same thing, running on iPad2 is a bit faster and the images aren't pixelate even at x2 (I am not reducing the images from xbmc).

Update: added Music Videos under Videos section:

[Techstorm]

That looks awesome! I just switched to an iPhone myself but I kept my android phone and tablet just for kicks. Right now I'm using the android app to remote control but I would love to be able to use my iPhone instead. I think it's very nice of you to make a free. Perhaps you could post a donation link where people could buy you your beverage of choice. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to use it!

[joethefox]

thank you for your support! I'm ready to submit the app to the app store and after that we have to wait for the approval cycle. I hope there won't be issues so the app will be available soon.

Some updates:

- XBMC servers management


- Search


- Playlist & Music party mode support


- Action Sheet on item long press

[axelct]

Great job. I can not wait to be published on the app store to try it. Your time for free? it is honorable.

[Spaggi]

Looks pretty sweet, I can assure you that I will buy it (I bought almost every remote so far).

There are some features which other remotes are lacking. I wonder if you could consider these:

- Favorites available in Remote
- Add-O functionality available (NO other remote has this!) Meaning you can browse trough lists and open items in an add-on.
- Customizable Remote functionality (bind own commands to keys, for me this is a definite requirement for changing language, refresh libraries etc)

Thanks for your investment in this

[joethefox]

@Spaggi, thanks for your support too. I will look into the feasibility of your hints but for the moment I've freezed the new features. ciao

[sphere]

Looks very good.

Any plans about adding PVR support?

[stoli]

Great work! Looking forward to this.

[joethefox]

Any plans about adding PVR support?

Good question. I'm a xbmc pvr user too, but at the moment I'm using xbmc mainline plus HTS Tvheadend client as a network source. This allow me to easy browse my well configured (into tvheadend interface) channels tag as usual while browsing xbmc interface when in file mode. So when entering into movie file mode I've this tree:

Live TV > Channel Tag > Channel Number. Channel Name - current channel epg description

Where channel tags are : Entertainment, Cinema, Sport, Culture, etc...

File mode that is supported in this remote version.

But the PVR integration is on the future of XBMC and when JSON-RPC API will support PVR calls I will look into to try to support this.

[sphere]

But the PVR integration is on the future of XBMC and when JSON-RPC API will support PVR calls I will look into to try to support this.

Nice to hear

PVR-related JSON-methods are already implemented, see here

And btw, you should really try the PVR-Branch - especially if you are using Tvheadend.

regards,
sphere

[joethefox]

PVR-related JSON-methods are already implemented, see here

Ouch!

actually it's a while that I don't use the version pvr, at the moment I'm an AE branch fan. PVR, new AudioEngine plus XBMC itself, great future

We wait to see how it behaves with the current features (isn't yet available ), if everything will run well enough we can begin to talk together about the future.