Windows Phone 7 XBMC Remote

NOTE - There is another XBMC Remote which is not this one on marketplace. Please be advised to pick the one from "ashtech software" when looking for XBMC Remote from this thread.

(Updated 12/5/2010) List of features added in V2.1 -
• Backdrops when viewing movie/music/tvshows details (when available).
• Ability to clear image cache
• Remote left/right/up/down supports repeat presses.
• album view by artist.
• bug fix in season number sorting
• selection color change to accent from grey and few other fixes.

UPDATE (11/17/2010) - V2.0 released to marketplace.
Changelog -
1. Movies by genre, released year
2. Watched information for movies/episodes.
3. Recently added movies/episodes
4. Redesigned contextual app bar.
5. Download songs to local device & play locally.
6. Integration with Music+Video hub (all your local songs information will be updated and app can be launched from Music+Video hub).
7. Feedback bar on top of the app.
8. Storing your local playlist across reboots (automatically resume music when you launch the app again).
9. Running under locked screen.


UPDATE (11/08/2010) - V1.1 released to marketplace. (you will need Zune software on your PC or use it from phone. Also, search XBMC in windows phone marketplace to find it)
Changelog -
1. Better image handling and caching.
2. Improved scrolling performance.



UPDATE (10/30/2010) - V1.0 released to marketplace. (you will need Zune software on your PC or use it from phone. Also, search XBMC in windows phone marketplace to find it)
The deep link (you need Zune software) -http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=pho...237de2db9e

Hello all,

The first thing you will notice is another post similar on windows phone 7 and would be wondering why is this happening now. Its because of all the buzz around windows phone 7 and the ease of application development.

I started thinking about building a remote control application for xbmc since quite some days and was initially hoping to collaborate with other cool talent around here rather than building from scratch. I posted the idea for building this app and its great to see dstruktiv already started making progress on this. unfortunetly, he decided to not collaborate and thus I had to start from scratch.

Here is some of the early work on this project. My main motivation is to have fun and build something which is really useful, have nice sleek interface and designed very well. I am taking it slow and really looking forward for comments from you all.
A dedicated blog page for this project is - http://ashterisk.wordpress.com/xbmc-remo...s-phone-7/

Link to the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VYDaQYH_qM

Screenshots -




NOTE - The screenshots are not the final version and have changed a bit in the released version.

Its been a week and I was busy making improvements to the xbmc remote. Its in a state where I can show some updated screenshots of the work. I have also captured a video to show the end to end working (sorry having problems uploading video so it has to be later).

Some completed features -

1. Music, Movies, TV library working with Playback (& queue in case of music).
2. Playback and Queue options are available for album, genere, songs. One can drill down into albums and select individal songs form the album as well.
3. Movie details and playback.
4. TV show series details with ability to play episode.
5. Progress bar animation after play or queue command.
6. Connections management screens (add, delete, edit and select default connection).
7. Images for thumbnail are downloaded once and cached in local storage on phone.
8. Home screen has status for connecting, connected and failed state.
9. Many other minor improvements

Next steps -
1. Playback controls.
2. Memory usage optimizations.
3. Now playing pages
4. Generic xbmc navigation
5. and many other features

So here you go.. enjoy the images and video.

Added new images in post 2

Finally I am able to capture video of my work and hopefully its worth the wait.. Here is the link to the video. I have also updated first post with some latest screenshots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VYDaQYH_qM

Also, please post what additional features would be useful. My next in list is the generic XBMC navigation.

Looks cool, the windows 7 phone interface looks pretty nifty. Hopefully it'l get enough apps to make it a success. Puts the iphone xbmc remote app to shame

Thanks weldon. Its pretty cool to develop on win phone 7 because of silverlight. I really hope it comes popular .

Working on the generic remote for xbmc. Are there other buttons which might be useful (and some which I have included but not useful)

Updated the remote -

great to see someone developing a remote for windows phone, who knows i may get one of them phones one day, but have an android at the moment

all i would say is remove the 6 buttons at the bottom as i do not see them as useful, or would it be possible to hide them in settings? that way there is more room on the screen for more useful buttons so that you could make the 6 buttons at the top center of the remote twice the size, that is just my opinion so i hope i do not get grilled for saying it, but i think it would be cool to have an option to hide them, or just remove them 6 buttons at the bottom

apart from that, keep up the great work, you are going to make loads of people happy

I got a Samsung Omnia 7 today and I'm really looking forward to getting this app. Any ideas on when it wil be out (or a beta version)?