[narcan]

Wow!

I'm using the Aeon-skin. The icon size is not the same as in your screenshots. Is that a problem, or do you handle every type/size?

I've been basing that off the standard grabbers for XBMC, so no it doesn't support all type/size. But if you give me some examples of where things are different I can look at supporting this.

Is it possible to turn of the xbox from your app?

I forgot to mention that if you turn the iphone upside down it will turn into a
'standard' remote with up/down/left/right etc , and this will have the ability to turn off/restart there.

Where can I donate?

No where yet! Appreciate the though, will have somewhere once it's released.

It's looking very good, but you should use standard Apple icon glyphs. [quote]

I agree, I want to keep everything as standard as possible. Though unless I'm missing something most of the icons that apple uses in their remote aren't included with the SDK. So I'm missing most of the icons at the moment, hopefully I'll be able to come up with something, but if you know of anywhere that has appropriate icons that would be helpful.


[quote]
Will this work on an iPod Touch or is it only for iPhone? Asks a total Apple noob

Will work on both ! (Assuming you've upgraded to V2.0)

I've actually only got an iPod Touch myself which is what I'm testing on.

will it control my PC XBMC like a IR remote control or is this for watching and listen to files in the IPHONE instead of computer?

It's to control your XBMC from your iPhone/iPod Touch.

No video/sound is transferred to the iPhone/iPod Touch.

[psike]

It's to control your XBMC from your iPhone/iPod Touch.

No video/sound is transferred to the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Great, I've been looking for something like this since I can't get my remote to work with XBMC and I'm getting tired of getting up and walk to the computer for changing episodes .

Looking toward to it.

[Rand Al Thor]

I've been basing that off the standard grabbers for XBMC, so no it doesn't support all type/size. But if you give me some examples of where things are different I can look at supporting this.

Aeon uses images for tv shows that are the same aspect/dimensions as movie posters. That is the only difference. They can now be scraped via thetvdb.com scraper. You can set your preferences in the scraper dialog. So, I am assuming that if all your app is doing is connecting to the xbmc db and displaying the image then there shouldn't be a problem. Only thing I can think of is there is no space to list the shows name. You could perhaps use the same layout as you use for movies. Personally, I would like to see all the images a little bigger, but that is just my preference. Great work by the way. Absolutely looking forward to this!

[narcan]

Aeon uses images for tv shows that are the same aspect/dimensions as movie posters. That is the only difference. They can now be scraped via thetvdb.com scraper. You can set your preferences in the scraper dialog. So, I am assuming that if all your app is doing is connecting to the xbmc db and displaying the image then there shouldn't be a problem. Only thing I can think of is there is no space to list the shows name. You could perhaps use the same layout as you use for movies. Personally, I would like to see all the images a little bigger, but that is just my preference. Great work by the way. Absolutely looking forward to this!

Currently the TV show tries to determine if the cover art is of the 'wide' aspect. If it is, it assumes the name is in the art and chooses not to display the text. Otherwise it just displays the standard text with no image.

I can extend it so that when there is no wide aspect but there is an image available to switch to the 'movie cover' display.

Good point on the image sizes, I agree it's just getting the balance between text/image size right. I'll have a play around and see if I can improve on this.

I'm wondering if it would be preferable to go really big with the movies. So for instance you see maybe two movies per page which would then give the option of showing some extra info (year, rating, director etc) along side it. As I guess in this instance you'd prefer to see more about the movie than more movies at a time, but this could come down to your movie collection size and personal preference..

Was also considering adding an info page for the movies before they are played. So you select the movie, which would then present the movie info at which point you could then you'd click 'play' or 'back'

[Rand Al Thor]

Those all sound like great ideas. Since I am no iphone dev I don't really know how it works but, would it be possible to include say 2 or 3 views for each section? For movies one view could be very visually appealing, with large cover art and some movie info. This same view could perhaps have the alphabet listed along the side in small letters to make jumps to particular letters of the movie collection. Then a second movie view that would allow fast scrolling through a large collection, ie similar to what you have now smaller images and lots of items on the page. You could maybe switch views by rotating the phone. Vertical for list and horizontal for large images with info. Or perhaps use the rotation of the phone to bring up a true info screen as you had mentioned before with full movie details and a play button. As a skinner, I would also like to know what the chances are of the interface being at least minimally skinnable? ie. color scheme/background images, nothing fancy. Just some thoughts. Great work so far!

[pantherman007]

I was so glad to find that someone was working on this. I will totally donate to you on the side, or pay via iTunes, for this app!

Based on how you've described the design, I'm assuming that the images for movies/TV/albums aren't stored locally on the phone, but stream across the network as the remote is being used. If local caching of the images is possible, that would be my preference for performance reasons. Especially as I've been using large, high-quality images so that things display nicely in 720/1080 on the HDTV - it would be unfortunate if those caused slowness when using the remote app.

[narcan]

I was so glad to find that someone was working on this. I will totally donate to you on the side, or pay via iTunes, for this app!

Based on how you've described the design, I'm assuming that the images for movies/TV/albums aren't stored locally on the phone, but stream across the network as the remote is being used. If local caching of the images is possible, that would be my preference for performance reasons. Especially as I've been using large, high-quality images so that things display nicely in 720/1080 on the HDTV - it would be unfortunate if those caused slowness when using the remote app.

Yeah nothing is currently stored on the phone.

I've been testing with the default out of the box xbmc settings as far as images go, which don't seem to slow things down and all the fetching is done in a separate thread and one at a time to try and avoid getting in the way.

Though I'm yet to test with images of 720/1080 size, but I'll look into it and see if there are any issues.

But I had been thinking about caching. I know you can save data out but unsure as to if there are any limits to the data etc that can be stored .. can't see anything in the documentation though it all appears to be possible.

Caching would certainly make things more efficient as I could store the iphone optimized versions of the images rather than the larger ones that it needs to pull down.

But anyway, usability is at the top of my list of priorities. Trying to make sure it's scalable and I'd really hate for it to be anything less than fast.

[narcan]

Those all sound like great ideas. Since I am no iphone dev I don't really know how it works but, would it be possible to include say 2 or 3 views for each section?

For movies one view could be very visually appealing, with large cover art and some movie info. This same view could perhaps have the alphabet listed along the side in small letters to make jumps to particular letters of the movie collection. Then a second movie view that would allow fast scrolling through a large collection, ie similar to what you have now smaller images and lots of items on the page. You could maybe switch views by rotating the phone. Vertical for list and horizontal for large images with info

I'm trying to stick to the apple way of doing things and not overloading the users with a bunch of options for each screen and trying to strike a balance to suit most cases.

Though I have been thinking about this (cause it would be handy) and may look at supporting different views using the multi touch gestures. So using the pinch gesutre to zoom in/out would change the view.

All depends on how usable it is as it would probably have to regenerate the table which may get in the way.

Maybe something to look at for a subsequent release.

As a skinner, I would also like to know what the chances are of the interface being at least minimally skinnable? ie. color scheme/background images, nothing fancy. Just some thoughts. Great work so far!

Again with the 'apple way' it generally dosen't include skinning as an option.

Though a great place for skins would most likely be the 'Remote' part (when you turn it upside down).

Also possibly the 'Now Playing' screen.

Again , probably look at this for release 2.

Thanks for the input.

Cheers,
Dave.

[w84no1]

I love the idea, but I would like the ability to control multiple xbmcs. I have 3 xboxes and two PCs running xbmc. I have to change the IP address everytime I want to control a different machine. If you could add all of your xbmc ip address in the settings, then when you start the app you are at a screen with a list of you xbmcs. If you only have one ip address defined then the app could work as it does now.

Thanks for a great app.

[Rand Al Thor]

That is a nice idea. I'd like to second that one

[narcan]

I love the idea, but I would like the ability to control multiple xbmcs. I have 3 xboxes and two PCs running xbmc. I have to change the IP address everytime I want to control a different machine. If you could add all of your xbmc ip address in the settings, then when you start the app you are at a screen with a list of you xbmcs. If you only have one ip address defined then the app could work as it does now.

Thanks for a great app.

Already supported

Switching between xbox's just involves two clicks. One to the settings tab, then one on the host you want to use.

I had also played around with a feature to make all the hosts play the same song. But this has a load of caveats and won't be able to be supported properly without some extra changes to xbmc. Still didn't work too bad, if slightly out of sync.

[Rand Al Thor]

Already supported

Switching between xbox's just involves two clicks. One to the settings tab, then one on the host you want to use.

I had also played around with a feature to make all the hosts play the same song. But this has a load of caveats and won't be able to be supported properly without some extra changes to xbmc. Still didn't work too bad, if slightly out of sync.

Very nice

[w84no1]

Already supported

Switching between xbox's just involves two clicks. One to the settings tab, then one on the host you want to use.

I had also played around with a feature to make all the hosts play the same song. But this has a load of caveats and won't be able to be supported properly without some extra changes to xbmc. Still didn't work too bad, if slightly out of sync.

Cool, I must have missed that.

[pantherman007]

This is sounding better and better.

I'm curious what options Apple/iTunes gives developers for alpha & beta testing? Do you give Apple a list of people that you approve as testers and only they can see in iTunes initially?

Whatever it is, I'm volunteering to help test if and when you need it.

[w84no1]

Right now you can only use the app if you have a jailbroken iPhone/touch.