How do I control my media center remotely?

May 31, 2008 9:59 AM

How do I control a media center pc from a laptop? The catch: I want to make my terminal session run as if I was logged in at the console. This is to control a media center from afar.

Right now I'm running Microsoft Vista Ultimate. I realize that I can add a patch to enable concurrent sessions, but that just starts another session. I want control the console session, so that the audio and video plays through my HDTV and my receivers. Right now I'm using a wireless mouse and keyboard, but it'd be so much easier if I could just use my laptop to terminal in.

I'm not wedded to Vista, and am looking at XBMC on OS X, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to do this. The end result is I want the video/audio to be selected from a terminal session and output to my DVI/optical out on the headless machine (or a web browser like a SlimServer setup ... in fact I loved the ability to select songs and albums from a web browser and have them output through my Roku and receiver).

FYI I found that media centers, as a whole, disappoint. It is much easier to navigate the file directory and play something in VLC. This is hard on the eyes when you're 10ft away.

posted by geoff. to computers & internet (10 comments total)

I can think of a few ways to do this on OS X. It sounds like you'd prefer to work in the terminal, so why not just SSH into your media center computer? A possibly better option is to simply allow your MC to share its screen; this way you could control the media on that machine with any interface you like, even iTunes.
posted by StrangerInAStrainedLand at 11:06 AM on May 31, 2008

So screen sharing is possible in OS X natively? Can I use the RDP client that comes with Vista?
posted by geoff. at 11:23 AM on May 31, 2008

Oh sorry by terminal session, I meant RDP. I'd like a graphical interface. I'm trying to do this without additional software for the client.
posted by geoff. at 11:41 AM on May 31, 2008

mstsc /v:[putserverhere] /console (or /admin when using a Vista RDP client)
posted by tracert at 11:46 AM on May 31, 2008

Two possible solutions: first, you can force Remote Desktop a.k.a. Terminal Services Client to grab the console and not spawn a new GUI. Running "mstsc /console" from the Run... menu or command prompt will do this in Windows. This will allow you to remote in and control the media server directly.

I personally use XBMC. It has a web interface that's pretty slick and mimics the on-screen interface. Open up your XBMC's address in IE and you can browse your file/music shares the same way you would with the TV interface (which you can also control with the remote). I love it, and haven't found any turnkey product that does the job better.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 11:48 AM on May 31, 2008

What about a VNC server/client?

I control my MacMini using a Windows laptop to do this. RealVNC viewer on the PC, and Vine as the VNC server on the Mac.

Just checked, and the free version of RealVNC doesn't support Vista though...
posted by saintsguy at 12:14 PM on May 31, 2008

I'm not entirely sure what your setup is but I can give you a few pointers.

-If your media server is a Windows PC and your laptop is a Mac, try looking at RDC. This is not VNC as in it actually sends the draw commands so I do not know it will fare with the media center UI but worth a try.

-There is a XBMC port for Mac, it's pretty neat from what I heard (and they actually released a new version just today. Lifehacker has good tutorials here. I haven't used it personally though so I cannot say anything about its Web interface (I actually didn't even know about it.)

-If you go the VNC way; switch to Leopard first. It has built in VNC server (have to activate it from System Preferences/Screen Sharing) and client (Command + K on finder and enter the address with the vnc:// header). If you can't switch to Leopard, Chicken of the VNC is a good client and Vine OSX is a good server. But really, switch to Leopard. TightVNC should be a free and good enough client for Vista (though I can't attest to that either)

-Those are the first few that come to my mind. There are probably geekier solutions such as running a VLC Server and then streaming but probably not worth the effort.

-My vote is on XBMC port for Mac.
posted by the_dude at 2:17 PM on May 31, 2008

Okay I went ahead and picked up a Mac Mini. The RDP switch (mstc /console) for Vista works, but for a variety of reasons (size, sound), I decided to go ahead and buy a Mac. If I need Vista I can just bootcamp it or run it in a virtual environment. I put on XBMC, the integrated mini-port means I have to buy an optical adapter, but otherwise it looks good. I'll let everyone know how it works. I have a lot of HD content in 1080p running off an SMB share (Windows 2003). Everything is gigabit and wired. It should run fine ... let's cross our fingers.
posted by geoff. at 3:14 PM on May 31, 2008

XBMC has a quite servicable web interface, but dropping in a replacement will allow you to use more of the features.

That's how I control my vid from a laptop.
posted by pompomtom at 10:03 PM on June 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

This worked out well. Here's a bit of a summary of what I did:

Physical Machines:
- RAID5 2U HP GL100, ~ 1.5TB @ 7200RPM
- Mac Mini (the 599 model)
- Gigabit switch, everything wired ethernet

I have the file server setup in Windows 2003 R2. I could probably improve the workflow of obtaining content -> converting content if needed -> move to appropriate folder with correct naming convention. As it is I just terminal in and do it all by hand. I would love to see how Kaleidescape does it. I would eventually like the ability to view this all via the web in a SlingBox sort of way, but I think that might actually be the easy part. By far, the most complicated part of this whole endeavor, lay in trying to figure out how to organize and collect the data so the various systems could read it correctly.

In any case, steaming the data to the XBMC on a Mac Mini runs flawless. I can run 1080p content without any stuttering or noticeable system strain. The upscaling on non-HD content is amazing. L'Avventura looked almost as good as the HD copy of Seventh Seal. The XBMC interface seemed more clunky than Vista's implementation, but I think it has a large part to do with the key-mapping. Regardless, it is by far the best media center I've encountered.

My biggest worry was the ability for the Mac Mini to play 1080p content. I have no problem with this and full surround sound. It works so well I want to get a Mac Mini for each television and move my cable boxes to the basement and have them separate from the displays. I have a feeling DRM and other crap is going to make that difficult to impossible. In any case, having all my movies and digital content just there is really amazing.

If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to ask me. Thanks
posted by geoff. at 7:33 AM on June 2, 2008