Controlling your HTPC with your iPhone
Now you can control your HTPC with your iphone! Why is this so great? Well let me tell you…
The thing I like most about the iphone is having everything in the one device. My phone music etc. I always carry it around with me. So to not have to have a remote, but rather I can just get my iPhone out of my pocket and control it. This is really useful, because if I am in the kitchen, or on the couch, or doing something around my living room, I don’t really want to carry my big remote with me.
The other really cool thing about this is that you can use your iPhone as a visual HTPC remote. This means that you can see things on the phone, rather than having to use the TV, to do things. For example you can see the TV guide on your iPhone when you’re setting up recordings, which makes it really easy. And you can change channels easily (with all the HD channels and stuff coming in there are a lot of them), by seeing a list of all the channels on your iphone.
It’s like having one of those new, very expensive remotes with the LCD screens. In case you don’t realise, these LCD remotes cost almost as much as the whole HTPC itself can! But you can get all that with the iPhone.
This has been integrated with Macs so that you can control them with the iPhone or iPod touch, but what if you don’t want a Mac computer? Well now you can do this on your standard PC too.
The bad news is, it’s still in experimental stages. Both mythTV is releasing a free version called MyMote, and beyondTV has released software for use included when you buy beyondTV. These are still both being tested, and are quite a bit unrefined and clunky.
That being said, it’s bearable, and it will only get better as time goes by. I think this is a great idea and really shows the iPhones versatility.
Would I replace my normal remote with the iPhone? Well not just yet, I’m comfortable with my remote, and things are still in the buggy phase. But it will soon be a great way to control your HTPC – you get a remote with a screen, without having to spend all that extra money.
Related Posts
Comments
Leave a Reply