External control of PC-VCR

[James Macnicol]

I use my G200+RR-G primarily for watching TV and not having a remote control is sometimes annoying.... Assuming I could find some way to signal the PC that I wanted to change channels/mute the sound etc. is there any way to control the PC-VCR process from something else in Windows?

I'm thinking of something like: write a little Linux program and run it on my Toshiba Libretto which I have in my lap while watching TV, which sends some sort of message over Ethernet through to the Windows box where there is some simple app that picks up the message and somehow passes it on to the (running) PC-VCR. The first part of this is simple, I'm just not clear on the last bit.

Any ideas?

[Peter555]

Might have just the thing for you, as long as you are not using NT (unlike me.) Check this out and see what you think. http://www.sigmadesigns.com/product_remote_ctrl.htm


[This message has been edited by Peter555 (edited 29 November 1999).]

[James Macnicol]

Peter,

Unless I misunderstand the web page that only seems to work with the Hollywood+ DVD kits. My question really is one of programming: how can one manipulate the PC-VCR from another program? I assume it is possible to fake a mouse click by sending a Windows message but hopefully there would be a more elegant way.

[Elie]

Just buy an IR Keyboard and an IR mouse and your set.

[Haig]

Hi James,

If youa re looking for a physical remote control, there's a neat little gagdet from Anir Multimedia where it will control all aspects of our PC-VCR in their "real" remote.

You hook up the receiver's IR device to a com port and use the remote to either be a mouse or use it's vcr functions as our remote.

I played with it for a while and had no problems. I only tried the play, pause, RR, and REW.

Haig

[Peter555]

James,
Opps. Sorry, looks like i got it backwards.
Like you i have the same needs. It's surprising something so potentially usefull is so hard to find or non-existant.

[A_BIT]

These guys have the gadget you're looking for. It's called the Mouse Remote and it is $24.95. For $69.95 the Mouse Remote comes bundled with a 2.4 GHz wireless video sender/receiver for transmitting DVD from your PC to a TV.

http://www.x10.com

-Anthony

[This message has been edited by A_BIT (edited 30 November 1999).]

[James Macnicol]

Well, I had a bit more of a hack at this yesterday and I actually got something to work. I wrote a little 'C' program that finds the PC-VCR Remote window and then the window corresponding to the button you remotely want to "press". It then sends fake button down and up messages to that window. I then wrote a network server that listens for requests (and runs the control program accordingly) as well as a (Unix) client that sends requests to the server. All up it's less than 100 lines of 'C' and Python code. I will be adding a GUI for the client later on.

If anyone is interested I can send you the code or binaries.

If there is a more elegant way of doing this I'd still like to hear it.