Well not really an extender, but i couldn't find a better place to post.......
I have a spare laptop and i want to turn in into a digital photo viewer/frame.
But I also want the Laptop to be some kind of control unit for my Mediacenter (Windows XP MCE).
So kind of like those touchscreens one sees in some HTPC cases. But those screens are secondary
screens to the HPTC itself, mine is off course a stand alone ‘screen’ because it is from a laptop
who is connected through the LAN/WLAN. Also it doesn’t have a touch screen off course.
I don’t need/want to actually control my HTPC through this ‘screen’, the laptop/screen is standing
just next to the HTPC and I want to control the HTPC by using a normal IR remote. I just want it to
act as a control/check/monitor device. So that I don’t have to turn on my TV screen every time I want to play music.
I think it is going to be used primarily (an only?) for navigating through the my music, selecting music and then playback the music through the audio output from the main HPPC.
It only has to show (information from my HTPC).
To put it in a different way: there is not going to be any input/pointing device connected to the laptop. Is is just only the screen which is viewable and accesible, and it is NOT a touchscreen.
The only device i want to use to 'navigate' is a standard MCE usb IR receiver/remote, which is connected directly and only to my main MCE computer.
I looked at options like remote access (VNC/Radmin/remote dekstop), these look ok, because one sees the actual screen of the HTPC and navigating through the HTPC (menu’s) is seen on the VNC client (laptop) off course. But everything Is kind of ‘sluggish’ and I also see (performance) on the VNC server (the HTPC) that a VNC client is connected. Besides this, I don’t want to see everything on this laptop, for instance; when watching TV/Video/DVD I only want to see this on the main screen. Off course I can then turn off the laptop, but this is also influences the performance of the HTPC (server) I noticed. And i believe VNC is not so stable for permanent use......
My hope is for a light weight Linux, who can ‘connect to and read from' a MCE pc and maybe play a slide show on itself. I looked at
MCE Guru, but is is aimed at really controlling the MCE (with a PDA/Cell phone). Also looked at
MCERemote, same thing; control.
I found one app. Which seems to be doing exactly what I want;
Niveus Media Center Companion, but that requires an Vista MCE (server) and a XP+ client. I still run XP MCE and the laptop is too ‘weak’ to run XP (P2 400Mhz, 128Mb RAM)……. The app is too 'heavy' anyway.....
I found things about using a laptop also for navigating/controlling with the laptops-keyboard. I want to use the/a standard IR (harmony) remote control and just (only) see what i'm doing on the laptop-screen.
Does anybody have any other thoughts?
