Hi!

I've been trying to figure out how to remote-control the playing of MP3 files off of my computer/HTPC, and just discovered this forum. I did a search on the forum, but couldn't find anything that quite described what I have in mind.

I currently have a computer with my entire CD collection ripped onto it (using Siren Jukebox), and which is connected to a stereo. I'm looking for a way to remote control the playing of MP3's. What is important to me, that I haven't seen, is a way to view all of my files in different ways (by album, by song, by genre, etc), such as software like Siren Jukebox or MusicMatch Jukebox lets you do. I want the ease of locating individual songs that these programs give, but on a remote.

So, I need a way to upload my entire MP3 database to a remote, or something. I want it to be as easy to use as possible - I don't want to have to manually enter in all the albums/songs I have - I want it to pull the song lists off of my computer. The only way that I can think of that would come close to this would be to use a laptop with remote control software on it, to remote control the computer. But, this solution has its drawbacks.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated!

- Dave

I don't know how helpful this is, but apparently there's a free Winamp plugin called WinAmpJumper which may be useful.

I've not used the plugin myself but it was mentioned by George Fournaris who has used it with my Super-Nudelist program for the Pronto to control his mp3 collection. A little bit more info can be found in George's posts to these two threads:

[Link: remotecentral.com]

[Link: remotecentral.com]

I hope that's of some use to you. Good luck with the project!

Leo:

Thanks for the reply. I really appreciate it!

I did a quick scan of those threads, and it doesn't look like what I'm looking for. According to George, you would play a song by number. I'm really looking for something that would give me the rich U/I of Siren, so that I can locate music by album, by genre, etc. The problem is that I don't even know all the albums I have (bad memory, not big collection). I want to be able to say "I feel like some classical.", and then be able to quickly browse all my classical music on the remote.

So, I'd like a remote that can download a music database on the fly (preferable), or that I can at least load with all my music. Then be able to do searching, sorting, etc.

When I decided I wanted something like this, I didn't expect that my idea would be so bleeding edge, but I can't find anyone who is doing this.

I still want to look into PC/Anywhere like remote control of Siren via a PDA, if that is possible...

Thanks again, and if you have any more ideas, PLEASE let me know!

- Dave

It's a real shame that OmniRemote isn't open source since I can imagine so many things that could be done with a truely programmably remote, but getting the basics going is a big overhead. I guess they were planning on some kind of programmer interfacce, it's a shame nothing has appeared yet...

You can get an IRman for your PC, see

[Link: evation.com]

nice unit, good sensitivity, lot's of software, including plug in's for mp3 players.

You can use the OmniRemote to talk to it using any of your programed remote codes, just bind those codes to the functions you want performed on the PC side.

The hard part is doing the Palm DB -> IR output part. Since there is no library to perform this function yet it makes it non-trivial. The best I can think of is to associate a unique number with each album/track. Then on the Palm lookup the number via a nice browser, switch to OmniRemote/Mp3 and enter the number. On the PC side you would have to have some smarts that matches the number back to the album/track ... Of course this is a real no-no in terms of human factors as it requires use of short term memory!

I actually did something similar to this but used the serial port connection with the VT100 emulator, sending shell commands to control the mp3 player on my Linux box!

A more exotic interface could be built using RF and/or using the wireless connection to a web server ... There is a rs-232<->RF<->rs-232 link that has 25 mile range! Requires a license though, and of course one would need a small nuclear power plant for the amp/speakers.

Gateway has a new device that neworks, it works like a component stero (plugs into an amp), it pulls songs off your network and allows you to use a remote. you can sort by title, album, artist, playlist, etc.

I've seen it work, it does its job extremely well.

Actually something like this DOES exist already. The problem is, it isn't very good. Or I should say, it crashed my palm so after a few attempts I gave up. It could have been my Palm in particular and not the program though. So it's worth a try. It's called MP3Remote and can be had from Palmgearhq.com. Just do a search. Also PLEASE post how well it works for you. It's something I would definately like to use, and I'd love to hear how others got along with it.

Cheers,
John

Hi,

I'm looking for exactly the same. i'm currently scanning all my old LP's into musicmatch jukebox and want to be able to select the from my remote without having to run to the pc everytime. how did you get ahead with your project?

Bart Van Vooren

try this link
[Link: epanorama.net]

If you run a wireless lan with PCAnywhere, to a laptop you should be able to use any MP3 database program you want to select and play your song based on any criteria you want. The base pc then would playout to your sterio.

I use a base pc with the AIW Radeon's tv out. Using a program called GIRDER and an IRMAN w/Powermid Ir repeaters, I can select songs using my remote from my tv using an alphabetical listing of all songs and play them. It works amazingly well.

Since I store my Mp3's on cd's... I use a database program first to select what cd I want to use, then just put it in and walk to the living room to select from it's contents. Since cdr prices have dropped to all time lows... (about 20 cents each) I have burned and reburned my collection so all cds are full and have the whole artists collection of songs on each cd. Some cd's have 2-3 artists, some have 20. But this wouldn't work for you, because you want a more selective approach.

At this time, the first suggestion is the only alternative for you...that I know of.

I too want to select MP3 tracks from "afar". However, rather than have the track data in a portable device...(A Palm Pilot wouldn't be bad with sufficient IR range. Instead I want to view a MP3 jukebox program's optimized SKIN on my TV screen. The PC with the MP3s and jukebox program(s) has video out (ATI All-In-Wonder display card), I just need a SKIN for an MP3 jukebox that displays sort-able Title, Artist, and Album columns along with play, pause, random, repeat, and track skip controls. I'm willing to program a learning remote with codes for these functions and cursor positioning (ideally just jump to commands, not true mouse movement) and (left) mouse click codes. Maybe IRMAN tied to WinAmp with a full-screen large font SKIN. So far the skins I've seen have had very small fonts, extraneous "artwork", and features missing.

Has anyone solved this problem - in this way - out there? I need the SKIN before I buy the IRMAN. I'll play with it using a wireless keyboard while waiting for the IRMAN to arrive.

Once done, I'd route this MP3 "TV channel" to every TV in the house (using Chanel Vision Gear) and with a remote and IR repeaters (Xantech hardwired) have an MP3 jukebox accessible from every TV in the house!

I've now got a wireless lan set up in my house, and have a laptop with relatively long battery life hooked up. So, for the near term, I'm going to use that to remote-control my mp3 jukebox software, via vnc or NetMeeting.

MP3 Organiser is another idea I came across(http://www.mp3organiser.com), and the writer is working on a version that can be used via a PocketPC PDA. However, his day job appears to have gotten in the way, and he doesn't seem to have made much progress in the last coupla months. Too bad! That looked like a very elegant solution to this problem.

- Dave