It all begins with a Linux PC! xbmc with remote...

[viking60]

Inspired by some commercial, I decided to "merge" the Desktop Linux with the Smartphone Linux - Android. How hard can it be? Eh well, I don't have a smartphone for privacy reasons - but thats what we have b1o for - so I borrowed his Lemme see where can I use an Android phone as a remote control ... Ah voila! XBMC MediaCenter ofcourse! On the phone side download the xbmc remote app. On the laptop/PC start xbmc and go to System-> network and set a user and password and activate upnp and allow remote control. Find your ip with ifconfig and use that on the phone. It conects like a dream and remote controlls the movies and the music and..... everything. Nice! Hook up your lap with the TV and you have the best media center ever. Surprisingly easy! No problems! It just works! When b1o saw that it worked he took the remote controll back and played with it all the time. He might have done some more magic with it. If so; he is hereby ordered to get his arse in here and share it with us ( he might even have a slightly different version )! Se how easy and popular this thing is? We are alreaddy fighting over the remote control! b1o thinks that I should get my own smartphone - talk about being selfish; He has no scruples in risking my privacy like that... And it all begins with a Linux PC!

[rolf]

SONY BDP-S480

Features: Full HD 1080p, internet streaming: Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, Hulu Plus and more, app for iPhone/iPad and Android phones, Blu-ray 3D™

Someone in San Francisco was unloading one of these at a bargain and I picked it up for GF. DVD players have really come along in short order and the tie-in is there is, also, a remote-control Android app for it, Media Remote for Android. This is all pretty new territory for me, fun to play with the new technological concepts and capabilities.

Another interesting feature is "wireless-ready", meaning we can pay the irritating Sony price of about $81 for a usb wireless dongle; it won't work with any other adapter. We won't be doing that. Cisco e1000 router is in her bedroom and dvd player goes down the hall in the living room. She likes Youtube, which, theoretically, she could watch for free, and there are subscription services, like Netflix and Amazon, which we won't get. I was imagining running about 25' of another CAT5 cable to the router, then came across the idea of "wireless bridge", which ought to take the wireless connection from the router and pass it along to the Sony player via a short ethernet jumper. For a little over $25, I've got a TRENDnet 300 Mbps Wireless N 4-Port Media Bridge TEW-640MB coming from a member at dslreports.com For Sale/Wanted forum. So far, so good. Hope it works!

[viking60]

Keep us posted!
Even if the Cat5 cable is the best solution the resulting "salad" is clearly GF hostile.
The xbmc Media center is a fast and easy - on a wireless lap. It can access all the other boxes with samba or whatever and stream the videos etc from there.
No problemo! And no dinero
xbmc must be in all repositories out there too.