How do I remote control a DVD player without a remote?

Question

We have a proto-media centre, which is just a box in the corner, running Ubuntu, and connected to a projector.

What is the best way to control a DVD player running on that box, without a remote control? We would like instead to control it from a laptop/phone over the network.

I'm open to suggestions for software to use, and the more flexible the interface, the better.

Solution 1

The first idea that jumps to mind is to just use mplayer. SSH into the remote machine, and control playback normally, DISPLAY=:0.0 mplayer dvd://1

The same could be done with xine too.

Solution 2

I use VLC on my computer and VLCRemote on my Android phone, works just beautifully. A one-time preference change is needed to enable the web interface in VLC.

Solution 3

VLC has a powerful set of interfaces you can use, including a web interface and a CURSES-based one that I use all the time for streaming video and controlling playback. The web interface can be customized with HTML/CSS for phone control or if you care about branding, and there's quite a bit of documentation available on the VLC wiki. Engadget had a nice article on this too: http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/29/how-to-stream-almost-anything-using-vlc/

Solution 4

In software center, try anyremote (there should be a list of related interfaces if you search for it). On the website you can download a client for your phone. The documentation page contains extensive instructions on how to set up anyremote with your application, and a device for controlling the application remotely.

• I will update my answer with more choices as soon as I can (unless this is more than enough for you).

View more solutions