muzza 0 Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Hi, I'm new to this forum so I hope I'm in the right place. I've been using Media Browser for a few years now and it's great. Well done on an excellent product. Having now moved to MB3, I run MB server on my HTPC. I also run WMC so I run MB Classic which works well . I now have MB working on my android phone. However I would like to be able to use my phone as a sophisticated remote control that allows me to select what I want to see, but I select playback it occurs on my server screen, rather than on my phone. This behaviour is similar to another app called "My Media Center" where I can use my phone to choose what I want to view from Recorded TV, and when I hit play, it plays on my HTPC rather than my phone. Is there currently a way to do this with MB for Android that I have missed or is it a possible future feature ? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianW 1053 Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 If you use the WebUI on your phone you can select MBC (or other currently running apps, including devices like smart TV's) as the playback device. Click the "Select Player" button at the top right of the WebUI to select the player. You can also bring up a remote control screen from the same menu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzza 0 Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 Thanks for you reply Adrian. I tried as you suggested but when I look at the Select Player menu the only option I have is "My Browser". There is no MB Classic option even though I have Windows Media Centre running on the server. If I open the Server Dashboard page on the server (IE) I then get an additional player choice of "Internet Explorer 11.0 Dashboard". Is there some service I need to run to get MBC to show up on the list of client player choices ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14946 Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 What version of the server and MBC are you running? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianW 1053 Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Make sure you're actually in MBC not just in WMC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzza 0 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Thanks Adrian, You're right, I was only in WMC. When I went into MBC on the server it was then available as an option on my android device and it does work. This is not quiet the behaviour I was expecting as it's a bit "clunky" in it's implementation. ie I have to load up WMC, go into MBC on my HTPC, then select the available display device on my android, but I guess it works. Perhaps as a future suggestion to make it more user friendly (for SWMBO) the server could be made aware of it's display capability (or WMC) and offer it as a "sticky" choice on the client app. In that way the client app can be setup once only to point to the server display, and from then on, the user could do everything from the client app, instead of having to start certain programs on the server such as WMC before you can use the display. Thanks for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14946 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 You can do that if you use DLNA play to. But for communicating directly with one of our apps there is no way to do that unless that app is actually running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzza 0 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 But MB server IS running on the server so why can't it be used to trigger apps such as WMC to play videos ? This is exactly what the android app "My Media Center" does. It can start and play media center video & recorded TV through WMC even when WMC is NOT running. If one app can do it I don't understand why Media Browser can't ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14946 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 If everything was always on one machine that would be fairly simple. But, in our case, the target app is not necessarily going to be on your server. In fact, in most cases, it won't be. This means we would have to have an application of some sort installed and always running on each machine in order to receive commands and start the appropriate programs. It would be possible to do that but we haven't done it yet. However, you can start videos (or anything else) in the web client on the server from a remote machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 There is and app for Media browser called MPC remote control that will allow you to do what you want except it will open the file in MPC-HC on a windows machine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzza 0 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Ebr, Ummm I think you're over complicating things and making the request more involved than it really is. I'm not asking to run displays on all sort of devices. I'm specifically asking that MB Server have the capability of playing videos using MBC on the server. As I said "My Media Centre" from Ceton can do it, and apparently Vidman (above) says "MPC remote control" can do it. These apps all work by having a service running on the host machine. Hence I'm suggesting, you incorporate this capability into MB Server then Media Browser can have the same capability as these other apps and therefore attract more users to Media Browser. Yes, obviously it requires, as you say "an application of some sort installed and always running", but that already exists as MB Server and is already running on the host, so really it should only be a matter of making an option in MB Server for example "Play media on Server Display using MBC" and direct the output to MBC, in much the same way as using the web client on the server. I would think this would be a fairly simple change that would enhance Media Browser and possibly increase your client base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Umm i think you are over simplifying things. ..this should not be a function for the server. ..the server is designed to run headless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzza 0 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Just because a server is designed to run headless doesn't mean it cant have the ability to start apps on itself and those apps can address a display if it's connected. I've quoted an example of this in action. I get the impression that you guys don't want to consider to my suggestion despite the fact that other companies are making money doing it. Obviously I'm not a member of the MB Clique so just forget I mentioned it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vidman 589 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Well they're is already an app that does this which i mentioned. ..or you could just leave MBC running minimised Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14946 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Yeah, you can already do this using the app Vidman mentioned but it plays it in MPC-HC. However, this should be relatively inconsequential since all you really want is to play the item. And you are over-simplifying a bit with MBC specifically. MBC is a WMC plug-in not a stand alone program and there is no defined mechanism to pass parameters to a WMC plug-in. But, as I said, what you ultimately wish to do (play back the item) is possible now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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