WHAT’S
HOT
The ability to control your Media Center PC remotely
without having to use line-of-site infrared, and create play lists offline
then synchronize when you’re within range are the most important features
of this program.
SETUP
The Rudeo MCE Control includes a Pocket PC
application as well as a Server application that runs on the Media Center
PC. Installing both applications is a simple matter of running the installer
which you downloaded from the Rudeo website. After that, you have
to decide what method you want to use to connect your Pocket PC to the
Media Center and there are many.
Using WiFi, you can connect to your Media Center PC using the network
connection. Using Bluetooth, you can connect to your Media Center
PC with a private network configuration, network connection, or a Bluetooth
ActiveSync connection. Detailed setup instructions for each of
these methods are on the
Rudeo Website. You can also use a wired ActiveSync connection
to connect to your Media Center PC. This is useful if you just
want to upload your playlist changes that you made offline on your Pocket
PC. The preferred method is to use WiFi, however since my i-mate
Pocket PC Phone only has Bluetooth and does not support any Bluetooth
networking profiles, I will use the Bluetooth ActiveSync connection
option.
Next you have to establish a connection between the Pocket PC Client
software and the Server. First we have to set up ActiveSync for
Bluetooth Connections. In Windows XP SP2, create an Incoming COM
port with the Bluetooth Settings Control panel.
Then open ActiveSync and go to File>Connection Settings. Make
sure "Allow Serial Connection…" is turned on, and choose
the COM port number you just created in the Bluetooth Control panel
from the COM port pop-up menu. Then set up an ActiveSync over
Bluetooth connection from your Pocket PC. Since I’m using an imate
Pocket PC Phone 2003 which uses Microsoft’s Bluetooth stack, I’ll use
the "ActiveSync Setup" Start button in the Bluetooth Settings
control panel to bond with the desktop. Then the "Connect
via Bluetooth" menu item in the Pocket PC ActiveSync application
will connect my PDA to the Media Center PC wirelessly.
Right click on the Rudeo MCE Control Server icon in the system tray
and choose the Server Status Window to find out your IP. If you’re
using a WiFi or Bluetooth network instead of ActiveSync, you don’t need
to manually enter your IP address into the client’s Server Options dialog
since the "Find Server" button will work. It can’t find
Rudeo servers through Activesync, but you only have to type in the IP
address once to set it up.
After making a connection via ActiveSync, start the Rudeo Control application
on the Pocket PC. Choose Extra>Server Options, and enter the
IP address of your Media Center PC. Press the "Test"
button just to make sure it works. Then hit OK, and you should
be connected to the server now. You can check your connection
status by looking at the circular icon to the left of the Extra menu.
If it has a meatball inside, that means it’s connected. It will
then let you to download your Media Library. This step will create
an offline version of your media libraries meta-data information so
that you can sort it and create playlists without being connected to
the server.
PRODUCT
FEATURES
The Rudeo Control software for Media Center
PCs includes 5 tabs along the bottom of it’s interface.
The
Main tab holds the interface that functions as the Media Center remote
control. The buttons are well laid out and large enough to press with
your finger or often more likely, your finger nail.
The Playing tab has a media player type interface at the top which
lists what is currently playing and gives you controls for stopping,
pausing, and skipping the tracks as well as volume and seek controls.
The listing pane below this shows the contents of the "01 rudeo
now playing" playlist which could be different than what is actually
currently playing on the Media Center PC if you used the Media Player
interface to select music. At the bottom in the menu bar are
a series of blue arrow icons. They don’t have tap-n-hold tool
tips that say what they do, so you’ll have to figure it out by trial
and error. Or you can read the manual… Or I can just tell
you… The first up arrow brings the selected track to the top of
the playlist, the up arrow without the line above it brings the select
track up one place, the down arrow brings the selected track down
one place, and the down arrow with the line below it brings the selected
track to the end of the playlist. The green up arrow (on this
tab) lets you save the currently playing playlist as a new playlist,
or you can replace an existing playlist. Be careful not to replace
an existing playlist by mistake, there’s no confirmation explaining
what you’re about to do. I might like to see a dialog that lets you
choose whether you want to replace the destination playlist or add
to it.
The Music tab gives you two listing panes at the top, and a third at
the bottom. The two at the top are for artist and album selection.
If you select an artist from the top left pane, all of the albums that
the artist is listed on appear in the Album pane. You can also
select "All" to show all songs by that artist in the third
pane. Then in the third pane you can check off which songs you
want to add to your currently playing playlist. The green up arrow
in this tab will send the selected tracks to the "Currently Playing"
playlist (unless you have a different target playlist selected.)
If
you tap-n-hold in track listing area, there’s also a context sensitive
menu giving you a number of other useful options. One minor problem
with the way you select and play songs from your library is that the
Rudeo Software only controls the "01 rudeo now playing" playlist.
So if you select to play an entire album, it won’t show up in the Media
Center PC’s recently played music listing.
The Playlists tab has a pop-up menu at the top which lets you select
both auto-playlists and custom playlists from your Windows Media Player
library. You can use the same sorting controls to re-order songs
as well as add them to the "Currently Playing" playlist.
Shown above, the "Target Playlist" pop-up menu is shown.
This allows you to add the checked tracks to a playlist other than the
"Currently Playing" one. This is a great way for you
to maintain and manage your playlists from a Pocket PC.
Lastly, the radio tab lets you ad streaming web radio broadcasts to
your playlists.
HELP
SUPPORT
There doesn’t seem to be any Help program
included with the software, however the Rudeo website does include extensive
answers to frequently asked questions as well as downloadable user
guides. This method should make updates easier for the developers
anyway. After emailing support I received a response very quickly.
SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS
The Rudeo MCE Remote requires a Windows XP Media Center Edition PC with
Windows Media Player 9 and the .NET Framework version 1.1 on the desktop,
and a Pocket PC 2000 or higher with the .NET Compact Framework SP1.
If you want to use the wireless functions, your Pocket PC will also
need Bluetooth or WiFi capabilities.
BUGS
AND WISHES
When using Rudeo MCE Remote, I ran into
a few bugs that the developers had not seen previously. One problem
was that my media library had an excessive number of tracks that contained
incomplete meta data. The client application would crash when selecting
a playlist that included items with blank Album metadata since the number
of files with missing data exceeded 256. After sending my media library
data to the developers, they quickly provided an update which would
fix the problem and the current version of the software includes these
fixes.
Another issue is that the Rudeo Control’s Playing tab uses a specific
Playlist called "01 rudeo now playing". The reason is
has the 01 in front of the name is because the software can currently
only use the first playlist that appears in alphabetical order.
I found this out because I had a number of playlists that began with
"00" which preceded the proper Rudeo playlist. Thus,
my Rudeo Control kept trying to play Kylie Minogue no matter what I
did. This is easily fixable by renaming your other playlists.
Rudeo Control tends to interrupt Media Center upon connection.
I found this a bit annoying, since I don’t always have my Pocket PC
connected to the Media Center while using Media Center. In other
words, if you’re watching TV and you connect your Rudeo Control to Media
Center, it will quickly scroll through a number of menus presumably
to make sure the Rudeo Playlist is synchronized. However, that is a
good indication that the software is functioning.
Another minor thing is on the "Main" tab with the remote interface…
the numeric keypad there shows what letters each number represents,
but in use, the numbers only type the number. With the Media Center
PC’s infrared remote, repeating each number scrolls through the letters
it represents. Rudeo Control only enters the number repeatedly.
What would be really great is if in the Main tab, I could activate the
software input method on my Pocket PC, and type the letters into the
Media Center PC interface. This would make searching for songs,
TV shows, using Napster or CinemaNow much easier.
I think the feature that I would most like to see in future versions
of this software is the ability to download the Media Center PC’s Television
Guide data. I’d like to be able to scroll through the program
listings and select certain programs to be recorded. Then upon
my next connection with the Rudeo Server, the Pocket PC client would
synchronize this information with the Media Center PC.
PURCHASING
You can purchase the Rudeo Media Center
Edition Remote Control software directly from the Rudeo
website, for $29.95. Another version that works with Windows
Media Player 9 on non-Media Center PCs is also available for $19.95.
PROS
Remote
control of Media Center PCOffline
management of desktop PC’s playlistsMany
ways to connect
CONS
No
way to search your media library using keywordsInterrupts
current Media Center activities when connectingNo
way to input text into form fields in Media CenterNo
TV Listings data
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
Despite some very minor issues, which I’m
sure will be fixed in future versions, I was very pleased with this
software. It’s a great way to manage you’re home’s music library
from your Pocket PC and it’s also a great way to control your Media
Center TV without having to use a big infrared remote that you have
to point in the direction of the infrared receiver. I would definitely
recommend this software to anyone who has or is planning to purchase
a Media Center PC, Wireless network, and a Pocket PC.
Originally published on Pocketnow on June 24, 2004. More Reviews articles from the Pocketnow archive.