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Best remote control app for PC audio?

3K views 35 replies 17 participants last post by  Ken.F 
#1 ·
I use Windows Media Center on my HTPC for audio playback. If I just want to listen to music I need to turn my television on and navigate to the appropriate album/playlist/etc.

I know there are a few mobile apps that will act as a remote control to select and start music without the tv being on. Does anyone have recommendations? Something that could use my Windows based music library and play it with WMP/WMC would be best, but I'm not entirely opposed to having a small footprint piece of software on my computer to act as the server/player.

I have Plex server (but not the front end) installed on my PC and phone. Can that be utilized without installing Plex Home Theater?
 
#2 · (Edited)
Everything today is focused on video management and playback.

How about My Media Center http://cetoncorp.com/products/companion/
Not sure about music integration.
It does have a soft remote.

If you want to have something you can customize to your hearts content iRule is very powerful. http://www.iruleathome.com/
Add a ir controller and you can control your TV or any of your equipment. http://www.iruleathome.com/the-hardware/category

Or you could always run a parallel app that has excellent music integration like jriver or even iTunes pointed to the same folder.
 
#3 ·
I'm still working on my build, but I will use a web interface. EventGhost is a program that can interface with many softwares and the developer made a new addon (you may have to get it from the forums) which supports a webinterface with jquery.

I will get a case with a touch screen, and it will have the web interface, which should allow me to control both video playback and audio playback. But, the same webinterface would be accessible from a smartphone...

My current problem is finding time to make the webinterface though... :)
 
#4 ·
I have the Ceton app and like it really well for remote DVR scheduling. While it has a remote feature it's not quite what I'm looking for.

I'd like something on my phone that sees my PC's music library. From there I could tap an artist/album/playlist/etc and it would start playing on my PC, output to my stereo.

Ceton can see my Recorded TV library and allow me to play them from my phone. I wish it could see my music library too and allow the same thing.
 
#5 ·
I'm pretty sure that with Plex, you have to have a client version of the software (Plex Home Theater in the case of a PC) to be able to playback the media stored on your Plex Server.

Personally, I use iTunes on my PC for handling my music playback and I use the free "Remote" app by Apple to control it with my iPad. It works great and gives me cover art, search capabilities, sorting by artist, album, genre, play lists, shuffle, up next, and so on. However, this solution is restricted to those who use iTunes and have an idevice to use as their remote.

The most highly rated and fully featured remote app for local music and video playback is JRemote. However, to use it, you must run JRiver Media Center on your PC. Also, the JRemote app is iPhone/iPad only. If you are an Android user, you would use the Gizmo app to control your JRiver Media Center PC.

If you are intent with sticking to WMC/WMP, the options for music playback are not that inspiring. MyMediaCenter by Ceton is probably the highest rated app for WMC control, but its feature set is more targeted towards PVR and video playback. There are many others from small 3rd party developers, but most of them don't work reliably and very few have a halfway decent UI. Since I have no personal experience with most of them, I will provide a link to another thread on the topic...
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-ho...-windows-media-center-remote-control-app.html

Another option would be to go with an actual desktop remote app like Splashtop 2. This would give you the actual desktop interface used on your HTPC, only using the touch and gesture controls built in to your mobile device.
 
#11 ·
JRiver / Jremote (absolute kick a$$) combination is as good as it can get... at least for now...

I just finished setting up my 2-Channel audio playback system last week...

I had enough with trying to do 2-Channel audio over HDMI and decided on a separate setup for music only...

If you go for the Linux version, total license costs is approx. $35 for both JRiver and JRemote... Linux version of JRiver is currently being sold with (I think) 50% rebate...
 
#8 ·
You don't mention the mobile OS that you are using, but I have really enjoyed airplaying since my wife got an iPhone. I liked it so much that I installed Remote for iTunes on my Android phone so I could stream to the HTPC as well. Navigating music for playback on a TV seems so primitive after using a mobile device. Your small footprint player is shairport4w which turns your windows box into an airplay target. I also have the iTunes library running on a different PC that I stream to the HTPC using my phone.
 
#12 ·
Android and Windows phones in this house.


I had iTunes installed before and it was a disaster. Quicktime hijacked all my media files and the software needed all kinds of updates. But its not lost on me that probably the easiest way to do this is an iphone/iTunes combo. Airplay really is a wonderful feature.


To the guys who use Jriver - do you use it for movie watching too or does it sit in the background for music only?
 
#23 ·
I use Jrvier for audio only. It coexists with WMC/Mediabrowser/MPC-HC on my systems. I just let the Jriver server app run at startup and my Jremote app to play music whenever I want. I wouldn't mind using Jriver for EVERYTHING but there are a few shortcomings: Does not work nearly as well as WMC for live TV, and is not as cosmetically pretty as Mediabrowser interface for your movie collection.

It is absolutely amazing for audio though. Well worth the miserly cost.
 
#13 · (Edited)
The windows version of JRiver is the most complete of all complete suite... plays quite a lot of audio and video formats and can display photos as well if I remember correctly...
MadVR, LAV et al. are automagically installed and set up for you...
It is a perfect replacement for WMC if you don't do DVR stuff...

The Linux version currently supports audio only and really is a bad a$$ player...

Audio on Linux is something else compared to audio on windows if you know how to get it working...
 
#17 ·
Jriver/jremote or gizmo is absolutley the best option. Aside from being the most full function player from a sound quality perspective it is by far the most full functioned from a remote app perspective as well.
The ability to define any DLNA device as a zone and seamlessly switch between them as well as right to the device you're on is killer. Whole home audio control from your phone is amazing.
 
#18 · (Edited)
My solution to this problem is Unified Remote. It's not a perfect solution (I still have to have a TV on since Unified Remote does not mirror the TV's display so I can see what I'm doing without standing in front of the TV), but it does well when playing back my music collection. It offers many different remotes for controlling Spotify, Pandora, VLC, etc.. and it's pretty cheap for the functionality it offers, too.

There are ways of doing more elaborate tasks with it, but I haven't gotten into it yet. I use Unified Remote on Android-based phones and tablets and it works admirably.

Of course one other possible (low WAF) solution is to run TightVNC on the server and open it up from a client notebook (or tablet, I suppose). You won't be able to see the Windows Media Center front end (effing DRM) but you would be able to see Windows Media Player..
 
#19 ·
I built an audio only pc. I like mce and have it start when the pc boots up. (Ssd so it just takes less than a minute. )
I use vmc mote, opon install you " load" your music library into your phone or iPad , then once pc up you can pull anything up and it (usually) starts playing Had an issue with hdmi no sound when I first set it up due to no tv on, but then ended up using a USB DAC with spdif running into my avr. Works great now
 
#31 ·
For audio only, besides Foobar2000, it might be worth having a look at running Logitech Media Server on the PC, and controlling this via applications such as one of the many Android or iOS apps (ipeng, etc.)


LMS works very well (it can work in a mixed, multizone environment with compatible apps/player and hardware such as a Squeezebox radio...), supports sleep, WOL, etc.
 
#32 ·
For audio only, besides Foobar2000, it might be worth having a look at running Logitech Media Server on the PC, and controlling this via applications such as one of the many Android or iOS apps (ipeng, etc.)


LMS works very well (it can work in a mixed, multizone environment with compatible apps/player and hardware such as a Squeezebox radio...), supports sleep, WOL, etc.
Q; are the remotes mentioned in this post different than a VNC app?
 
#35 ·
Does anyone have a current opinion on this? I'm looking to use the PC as a music source to feed my Nuvo whole home audio system with Android phone as the remote.
 
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