[rsuter]

Hi everyone

I created another XBMC remote control app for Windows Phone 7. The reason why I developed another XBMC remote app is because - (edit: in my opinion) -every app I've tested does not conform Metro guidelines very well (margins!!!, see http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2011/03/metr...-guide-v1/) and does not perform very well... At the moment the apps features are limited and it works only with XBMC 11 Eden (beta)... If the reception and the download numbers are good, I will do more work on the app and maybe it will be feature complete (access whole library) when Eden will be released...

Download:
http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=64f736e7...1e22698bab

Screenshots:
http://blog.rsuter.com/?p=289

What do you think?

Features (v1.6):
- Browse movies, tv shows, albums, artists and music videos
- Show recently added media
- Remote control
- Pin all media to start screen for fast access
- Fast and fluid with a clean metro interface
- wake on lan
- Advanced buttons: "menu", "info", "full" (fullscreen) button, change subtitles button
- Virtual keyboard for text input

[Vortex1]

Few things, wich make your app not nice to use. Dont know what it is, but images from album art do not seem to work wich doesnt look nice. It is working on your screenshots but i cant seem to let them appear on my device (omnia mango). Theres just an ugly gray square.

Second, wich is a big deal for me that theres no music video library, thats why i prefer to use a different remote over yours. I have to sit in front of the tv to start a music video. http://www.windowsphone.com/nl-NL/apps/7...1cf652eb30 This app does it right. You can browse your musicvideo library without sitting in front of the tv. The problem with this app is that the Music artist section looks crap compared to yours.

Shortcut in the menu to remote? Might be handy

I know its in early stage of development but a nice fanart background when playing music would look nice wouldnt it?


Please add a button to the remote to get the menu what you get when you right click on a entry so you can change scraper and stuff (its the "c" button on a standard keyboard). and maybe the fastforward and backward button though they easily can be selected with the left/right buttons. you only got the normal forward and backward button.

So i love your app and i will continue to look at it, but please update the gray square issue and music video things. For the rest it is really great app.

edit: ohyeah make a different screen for like settings, now i first have to press xbmcconnection, but i think it would be nicer to go to settings and change the profile with ip and stuff there. Most people only have one anyways so getting that screen is kinda pointless.

If you need a tester you can mail me the xaps, im pretty sure i got an unlocked phone else i got a developer license somewhere and forgot to activate it.

[rsuter]

Thanks for your feedback.

Album art problem: XBMC returns an album art thumbnail uri but it is not working, maybe this is a Eden bug... I have not found a workaround.

Music video library: I added this library to the music page. The new version should be available in 2-5 days.

Shortcut to the remote: If you click on the server name on top you can navigate to the overview page.

Right click support: I think right click is not available in JSON RPC, I have to implement the EventServer which is not a trivial task...

Settings: The idea is to pin a server to the start screen. This way you can directly open your XBMC without opening the server list page and tapping on a server.

In the new version I've only added the music video library and fixed some bugs, but I will consider your feedback when I've more time to work on this project.

[Vortex1]

I found out that when you pin an artist to start you get the image on the tile and from then it works in the app. Pinning every tile to start once aint a real solution but this information might help you finding out what goes wrong.

So open app, go to artist --> pin artist and viola art on tile and when you start the app now it works in the app to o.O


Thanks for the music video update and oh thats a shurtcut to remote. Missed it when trying the app.

Server pinning to start is a good solution.

Cant wait to see future updates and i hope you will implent things as seeing what the plot is, maybe some page with thumbs of actors, imdb score and when viewing this information fanart background or something. I know these changes cant be done overnight and you should make the app how you want it to be and not what other people say. You cant satisfy everyone.

[Cthugha]

Planning to add a Wake-on-LAN feature? (a must-have for me)

[rsuter]

@Vortex1: Are you using newest version of XBMC (RC1)? I have no problem with this version...
@Cthugha: I've already created an app for WOL and it works with my XBMC device (Asus EEE Box). As i have the code to do WOL, it is easy to add this feature in the next version...
Awakener: http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=db80b608...fa3eefe88b

Edit: Just submitted update with WOL feature...

[Vortex1]

@Vortex1: Are you using newest version of XBMC (RC1)? I have no problem with this version...
@Cthugha: I've already created an app for WOL and it works with my XBMC device (Asus EEE Box). As i have the code to do WOL, it is easy to add this feature in the next version...
Awakener: http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=db80b608...fa3eefe88b

Edit: Just submitted update with WOL feature...

Yes i have RC1 now, I think when i first posted i still had beta 3. It still doesnt work though. I cant figure out why. It doesnt matter that i use a different skin right? I use confluence mod. On XBMC i changed a lot of settings though.

On my other xbmc (laptop) i have a fresh beta 3 install and i only changed the network settings to allow control of xbmc via http. Port to 9000 and used a username and password.
I went to the system tab and checked my ip-adress. Images wont work on that one either. It does scrape all other content like nfo's with rating and information. (ill update this install to RC1 to check EDIT: updated to RC1, no change, unnistalling your app and reinstalling doesnt help either.)

I dont have the newest version of your app though, the update with music videos is still not available so maybe it miracilously works in that version. I wonder why that one takes so long. I guess there to busy at microsoft xD

BIG IMPORTANT EDIT: If i delete the password and username it starts to work. Kinda weird since it wont let me connect if the username/password is wrong. But if password and username are filled i do get to see movies, music and series only not the images. I just hope to see the update with music videos soon. You already made me very happy with the working art.

[rsuter]

This might be the problem as i've never tested / used it with un/pw... Maybe the img url also needs authentication.. I will check on that tomorrow.. Because i submitted an update today i have to wait some days until i can release a fix...

EDIT: I tested it (pw/un is set in XBMC settings): With wrong pw / without pw / with correct pw. It seems XMBC (Windows, Eden RC1) is not checking for the PW in the settings (security problem!?, bug?). The pictures are loaded correctly in every test... Have you seen this problem too (setting pw does not lock your system)?

[Vortex1]

This might be the problem as i've never tested / used it with un/pw... Maybe the img url also needs authentication.. I will check on that tomorrow.. Because i submitted an update today i have to wait some days until i can release a fix...

EDIT: I tested it (pw/un is set in XBMC settings): With wrong pw / without pw / with correct pw. It seems XBMC (Windows, Eden RC1) is not checking for the PW in the settings (security problem!?, bug?). The pictures are loaded correctly in every test... Have you seen this problem too (setting pw does not lock your system)?

Ill test the pasword issue later with password/username and without and update this post. I got another 2 small bugs to report.

Bug 1: If you go to Series>NCIS and pin this one to start it works. If you go to Series>NCIS>Season1 and pin this one it says its already there but it aint. You can pin other seasons to start for instance Season 2 or further. But not a season 1 if you pinned the Series first.

Bug 2: If you try to launch a Season tile the app apears to launch but then closes. So i would either try to fix this issue or remove the option to pin a season to a tile.

I tested both with multiple series, then again i do not have the newest version of the app yet so maybe it is fixed. I'm still very much in love with your app.

Got another feature idea, its not an important one and im not sure if its easy to implant. Its somekind of caching so when im somewhere else i can showoff my movie/music/series collection. Or when your somewhere else you can ask wich movie they wanne see when they are coming over.

[rsuter]

I've fixed these two bugs... thanks for beta-testing :-) if you find more bugs, please tell me. (An update is already in certification, i have to wait to submit the update with these fixes)

[Cthugha]

@Cthugha: I've already created an app for WOL and it works with my XBMC device (Asus EEE Box). As i have the code to do WOL, it is easy to add this feature in the next version...
Awakener: http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=db80b608...fa3eefe88b

Edit: Just submitted update with WOL feature...

Thank you
Will try it and report back asap!

[Cthugha]

A few questions and requests after testing it for a short while...

- Can't seem to find the WOL-feature, is it in the currently released version?

- I'd like to have an option to send either sleep or hibernate instead of shutdown command.

- It didn't load pictures for any tv shows or movies. Known bug? My library is up-to-date with pictures, fanart, etc.

- I really need a menu button (and preferably info button too) for the remote. Can't access subtitles, audio & video settings during playback without it. Maybe remove the vol +/- buttons or do people really use that? (adjusting the volume on TV or reciever should be better)

Other than that it seemed more stable than other remotes I've tested. Connection worked on first try (with username & password) and it never had any trouble sending commands. Very promising

[rsuter]

A few questions and requests after testing it for a short while...

- Can't seem to find the WOL-feature, is it in the currently released version?

- I'd like to have an option to send either sleep or hibernate instead of shutdown command.

- It didn't load pictures for any tv shows or movies. Known bug? My library is up-to-date with pictures, fanart, etc.

- I really need a menu button (and preferably info button too) for the remote. Can't access subtitles, audio & video settings during playback without it. Maybe remove the vol +/- buttons or do people really use that? (adjusting the volume on TV or reciever should be better)

Other than that it seemed more stable than other remotes I've tested. Connection worked on first try (with username & password) and it never had any trouble sending commands. Very promising

Wake-On-Lan: Open the app and press some seconds on the server item. In the context menu select edit: On the server details page enter your XBMC's MAC address... In the server overview there is now a new option "start up" which will send the magic packet to the computer...

Sleep / hibernate: I will add this feature in the next version which I will publish as soon as the current version has been approved by Microsoft... Information: Shutdown or restart only works with Windows XBMC; my Ubuntu XBMC installation does not execute these two commands (not implemented in Linux XBMC version?)...

Pictures: It is very strange, it seems that there is a problem with the XBMC JSON-RPC authentication. Try without password and username: Does it work this way? I think there is a general problem with the XBMC authentication because if I set an username and password in XBMC settings, I nonetheless have access without UN/P & W... (see previous post).

Menu button: The menu or info button cannot be triggered by JSON. I have to implement an event server, which is not a trivial task. Currently I only have 72 app downloads, and I will not put a lot more effort in this project until there are more users or I personally really miss a feature... While playing a movie, click on the "select" button which will open the movie menu, there you can go to audio settings and change subtitles, etc...

[rsuter]

@Vortex1: The version 1.5 is now published, and the problems you mentioned in a previous post should be solved. Is it working for you now?

[jdbrookes]

@Vortex1: The version 1.5 is now published, and the problems you mentioned in a previous post should be solved. Is it working for you now?

Hi, I'm also testing this app, and was just updated to 1.5. I was previously experiencing the missing images issue, and unfortunately it is still an issue; no images on any screen. I have a password set for xbmc (can't disable it for security reasons!) so I assume this is causing the problem.

Also, there is still a small typo in English; if you navigate to Media => Series and select a show, the first option "serie" should read "series".

Otherwise, I really like this app, it's very fast and functional. If I have one feature suggestion, it is that you can tap on the Now Playing item to see more information (eg a synopsis) and also a button for eanbling / disabling subtitles, selecting audio tracks etc. I find this is the most practical use of a WP7 XBMC remote, as it allows you to change complex options during media playback without interrupting the movie / show for other viewers!

Many thanks