Popcorn Hour – iPod Touch Controller
Over at the NetworkMediaTank forum I discovered Niels Leenheer had created a great Adobe AIR controller for the Popcorn Hour appropriately named “MediaController“. He also created a lesser well known web based controller for the iPhone (but that he did not have an iPhone, he has not promoted it much).
I downloaded the controller and and one I found the installation instructions* I had it up and running and working with my iPhone Touch. However, it was not very rich so I decided to start working on it. There were two pet peeves – very few actual controls were implemented and the lists of content were by “create date” and not alphabetical.
So, first I set out to find graphics to simulate a remote control. I did not find anything I liked so I used GIMP to create a full set. Next, I had to add a lot of command controls to the and get the layout of all the buttons I wanted. The layout was a bit of trial and error and the command controls was a combination of reading the NMT Wiki and a lot of cut/copy/paste and batch editing.
The image is what I ended up with for the control buttons. Along the way, I also fixed the sorting bug. I’m not 100% happy with the button layout but it’s close. I also do not know enough to do the right things to the button layout when the device is rotated. I’ll eventually dig into that.
If you are curious why I went through this exercise, it’s because there is a good change the Popcorn Hour will be buried in a cabinet in my home office far from the TV and thus the IR remote will not work.
BTW: the trick to the install is to …
- copy the “controller” directory to the root of the Popcorn Hour’s internal HDD
- you will need tenlet support enabled (I think)
- insure the myiHome Server is running on the Popcorn Hour
- point your iPhone / iPod Touch browser to:
http://YourPopcornHour_IP:8088/stream/file=/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/controller/index.php
If you are interested, here is the resulting code
Glen,
I installed this last night without problem. I have been looking for this function for some time. If you need any user experience, or testing, or anything really let me know – if I can help I will. I have noticed a few odd things already but can confirm that it is pretty cool to be in another part of the house and to be able to control whats playing.
One think I wanted to add was a “favorites” list that would let you jump to specific videos, songs, or folders. I couldn’t get it to work. Then the HDD in my Popcorn Hour crashed so I’m side lined for a while.
Please comment over at the networkmediatank forum (http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=20073) if you have questions. there are a lot of users making suggestions and comments.