More robust xbmc control JSON

I am very close to purchasing the entire roomie remote setup, along with itach and all. I am an active user on xbmc forum, and avsforum, and would love to start recommending it. The only area thats weak that alot of users use, is of course xbmc. The new json xbmc control is very basic in roomie, their is no volume, and very few other controls. I almost feel like its importance is being neglected given the amount of users interested in roomie will be using xbmc as well.

A couple things I would like to see added to the new json is a few things offered in their official app, at which point i can put aside the app, and will purchase roomie and begin to suggest it to others as a fully functional automated remote for xbmc and other applications.

The big one is wake on lan, this ability is included in their official app..... this would be huge for us htpc automation users, and their is alot of us who need this feature. I do not see a wake on lan feature, and with roomie adding this ability recently, its strange something like that which screams xbmc users is not available for the xbmc. A simple volume controller and a keyboard for the json version would also be ideal.

 

I think if you could add these and simply take a moment and look at the official xbmc app for iphone and see what features are included their, i am sure many of these functions could easily be added to rommie and allow us to not rely on the app and allow us to use roomie entirely. But at this point, its to basic to be considered an actual way to control xbmc.

The other XBMC JSON commands should be in the next library update in the next day or two. Keyboard support might not be there yet. As XBMC 12 is obviously a moving target, we're adding these things as they grow. Meanwhile, our support for the stable release of XBMC is still there and does have keyboard support for instance.

Wake on LAN can be sent to any device including XBMC of course (whether it responds to Wake on LAN or not is up to the target device of course). If it isn't an auto-discovered device (like XBMC), you just need to enter the MAC address per the FAQ as shown in the command:

roomieremote.com/faq#wol

These commands, including experimental keyboard support, were added in lastnight's library update. The keyboard support was added at the last second without testing so it may or may not work, but we thought it better to include it as it wont hurt anything.

just got the last library update 1/15/13. Pretty much all the commands for XBMC (JSON) are there but I can't find the volume and mute command?

The next library update will be able to set the internal XBMC JSON volume. It will look a bit funky until Roomie 1.8 though as the feedback is all completely different from the stable XBMC that works today. It will start blank until you first set the volume and then it will be correct. Roomie 1.8 will display it correctly always and add lots of other feedback for it as well.

Hi,

The player does not seem to correctly tell what is playing on and also the slider does not work. The keyboard also sends single letters so if I am searching for adele only a will go and show me everything that has an "a" in it.

I normally use the "m" key to bring up the menu in one the themes. I tried that with the remote so send an m and nothing happens.

I am using frodo.

Regards,

Right, those are 1.8 features and will look a bit out of place right now or at least wont do anything until 1.8.

Thanks really appreciate the xbmc effort, there is a large community of us who will be very interested in roomie!

I guess beside the noshall comments, the only thing I would like to ask for yet, would or will there ever be support like in xbmc apps where we can view our library right from roomie? Or is that going to be difficult to keep up with or implement?

i guess beyond that my only concern is that roomie will keep up to date with any xbmc changes, i want roomie to be an entire house solution for all devices for the family so I would just hate to have things broken whenever a new official final xbmc version comes out and roomie is behind on the changes for weeks and things constantly stop working.

 

They usually have a new version every 6 months.

 

Other then that very happy to see the changes. And thanks for the work on it.

 

 

The rate of change in Roomie is lightspeed compared to something glacial like XBMC, so I wouldn't worry about that. The JSON changeover is a once in a lifetime type of thing for them. We have XBMC library management in development, but it didn't make the cut for 1.8. It'll be part of a future release's HD Guide Pack. VLC's media guide did make 1.8 though. It is incredibly fast (compared to something like iTunes for instance.)

Thanks.

<strong>Will Price</strong>, Founder

<span style="color: #0066ff"><strong>Roomie Remote, LLC</strong></span>

<span style="font-size: xx-small"><strong>appstore</strong> <a href="http://appstore.com/RoomieRemote">appstore.com/RoomieRemote</a></span>

Thanks great to hear.

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One small thing not to nitpick but the menu button seems oddly assigned to the context menu. Its very nice the context menu button is included because not every xbmc app or remote solution i tried even has a context menu button, but its in the main directional pad area. Typically the menu in the xbmc apps, and mce remote for htpc's brings up the OSD/menu for play pause ff, rr, subtitles, audo, video, ect... is there anyway this could be swapped or the OSD could be placed so its easily accessible in the directional pad area where info, back, menu are also located its a pretty key button especially during playback of movies and music as its used for selecting subtitles, audo, video, settings, it just feels akward its hidden with extra buttons at the bottom as its important button during playback.

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Other then that I will patiently wait, the new features sound great, and its very exciting to hear about the increased attention xbmc is receiving.

Two other notes as I had time to play around with roomie and xbmc. Compared to the xbmc apps it takes quite a bit of time to connect it seems at times, sometimes i have to wait about 20 seconds before a key press would register.

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The only other issue is the response. Using xbmc iphone app, or constellation you can scroll quickly, pressing over rapidly to get where you want, and its very smooth, with roomie on xbmc, it seems to skip and is generally not as smooth or responsive when pressing the directional button at any quick speed.

Hopefully this can be improved a bit.

We can see why it might be a bit jumpy with 1.7. We could deploy a library update to fix that, but with 1.8 just days away, we probably wont as what's going on is related to 1.8's new feedback and 1.8 is smooth.

I still cant get xbmc to work with keyboard roomie support. I can click on keyboard, but xbmc ignore keypresses on the onscreen roomie remote.

Also, are there still keys missing? Example. When adding a video source, I can select browse, but cannot find a way to get down to the bottom of the window to select ok, down scrolls the folders down, right goes to the scroll bar, left is ignored and up scrolls the folders up, how would I get to the ok button?

I also still dont have a working keyboard, its also still just as jumpy pressing over and up and down...

The other poster's keyboard issue was resolved in support. You just need to tap Done to submit what you type.

Analyzing jumpiness is going to require diagnostics via support.