PC Remote?

July 16, 2009 11:39 PM

What is the cheapest remote control option for our pcs?

We've been watching a lot of downloaded TV lately on a VLC on a Dell laptop, connected to our TV via HDMI cable. It's a great low-cost option for watching torrented episodes of The Wire, but it's a pain to get up to pause, rewind, etc.

What is the cheapest, easiest remote control option? I'm thinking something like the Apple remote, but for a PC. It looks like my options are:

>> wireless (USB or bluetooth) presenter remote. These look good but are about $50 (a little more than I'd like to spend) and I want to be sure that I can map the powerpoint-specific buttons to VLC functions (or just map them to space bar, alt-left/right, etc).

>> iPhone or Windows Mobile app to control VLC from a fancy phone or iPod touch. I don't have one of these, so it isn't an option.

>> PS3 bluetooth remote? This looks the most promising, but I don't see anything about whether or not it can be used on a PC, and I don't know how the keymapping would go.

>> expensive Logitech universal remote like the Harmony -- way too expensive.

At the very least, I want to be able to pause, rewind, and fast-forward. I know we could get better results by switching to a media center application, but at this point it's not worth setting up, so I'm only interested in a means to play files through VLC.

It seems like this would have come up before, but I'm Googling around and can't find anything.

posted by rossination to technology (9 comments total)

>> expensive Logitech universal remote like the Harmony -- way too expensive.

You can get much cheaper versions of the Logitech remotes - my 525 cost NZ$100 and their are cheaper ones than that; they use the same software and command suites as the Harmonies.

My Sony Ericsson non-smart phone has a remote control software with profiles for Media Centre, Amarok, Elisa, and a host of other software, so your phone may well have J2ME apps that will do the job you're after.
posted by rodgerd at 12:10 AM on July 17

Official MCE remote for $40, and this software?

You might be able to use a knock-off certified mce remote too, such as these for $20 but I don't know for sure it'd work.
posted by ArkhanJG at 12:14 AM on July 17

Do you have a (wireless) laptop? You could run a VNC client off that, to connect to the Dell. That's about as free as it gets (assuming you already have a laptop).
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:26 AM on July 17

I've heard good things about the official MCE remote. It's designed for Windows and works well with it, especially MCE editions and Vista Premium/Ultimate.
posted by JauntyFedora at 12:33 AM on July 17

Do you have a (wireless) laptop? You could run a VNC client off that, to connect to the Dell. That's about as free as it gets (assuming you already have a laptop).

I think the point is the ability to start/rewind videos with the push of a button.

That said if you're more worried about "really cheap" then you are about "not unwieldy" you could get a $20 wireless keyboard and use the spacebar, etc to control the video.
posted by delmoi at 1:05 AM on July 17

I think the point is the ability to start/rewind videos with the push of a button.

I don't know if Windows has the equivalent of Quicksilver for Mac OS X, but if it has something analogous, perhaps the user can map a key combination to a media player action. Then he or she will have a remote control with VNC and a laptop.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:21 AM on July 17

If you already have an iPhone, there's a VLC remote control app for that.
posted by flaterik at 1:52 AM on July 17

I use a cheap Vista-certified remote I got for $29.99 at NewEgg (now sold out). It works fine since they all use the standard Microsoft reference design.

On the software side, I use EventGhost. It has plugins for both the remotes and the applications. So you enable the Vista remote plugin, and the VLC plugin, then just say the rewind button on the remote should trigger the rewind action in VLC. Pretty straightforward.
posted by smackfu at 6:18 AM on July 17 [1 favorite]

How about http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129977?

You should be able to find somewhere in the USA which sells this. Also given the crazy markup of pricing we have in the UK, it'll probably be no more than $5.
posted by mr_silver at 11:12 AM on July 17