[Uncorrected OCR text; may include adjoining page content]
remote control
mSSm
Take control!
Anthony Caruana demonstrates how to convert an old PDA into
a remote control capable of handling TVs, VCRs and even a PC.
Almost all PDAs come with an infra-red port. The
port was designed for transferring contacts and files
between devices but it can also, when paired with
the right software, convert your handheld into a
universal control for your TV, DVD player, stereo and
even the latest media centre PCs.
Bonos DVD software
NoviiRemote for Palm and
Pocket PC trial* Sailing
Clicker 2.2. Files can be
found under "From the
Mag".
Skill level
Beginner
Requirements
Palm or Pocket PC PDA
with IR port (preferably
Consumer IR) * IR booster
hardware (optional).
COOK PORT-SIDE
The first thing you need to know about your device
is what flavour of IR port it has. Some ship with
Standard IR (SIR), while others have the preferred
option of Consumer IR (CIR). CIR has a range of
around 10 metres, as long as there isn't any signal
interference. SIR is limited to a couple of metres
but don't despair if that's what you have, as you
can add a more powerful transmitter with a booster
that connects to the 3.5 mm headphone jack.
There are many different software solutions
for both Pocket PC and Palm OS devices. However,
all the applications work the same way. If you
have an iPAQ Pocket PC it may already have the
software, as several models ship with Nevo Remote
pre-installed in ROM.
While configuring remote control software can
be straightforward, look at the instruction manual
first and see what information it provides. All devices
are programmed with specific remote control codes
and if you know the code for your device, setting up
the software may just be a matter of entering that
code into the software.
If you don't have the code, you can still avoid
programming each button as most apps ship with a
long list of preset configurations. Select the make
and model of your appliance, tell the software, and it
will all be ready. If there are several similar models
available for selection, trial and error testing will
quickly find the right setting.
Time to complete
1 hour (approx)
Inside
Universal Remote Control Codes
www.xdiv.com/remotes
Infra-red Data Association (IrDA)
www.irda.org
Infra-red remote control
technology
www.epanorama.net/links/
irremote.html
MANUAL PROGRAMMING
If the software doesn't have a preconfigured
setup for your appliance, you'll have to program
each button manually. This can be time-consuming
but, in the end, you'll have a personally designed
interface for your home entertainment equipment.
The first step is to decide what you want to
control from your PDA. A minimalist approach is
best, as a PDA's screen offers limited real estate. If
you have a TV, DVD player and VCR, you should be
able to design a single screen that provides basic
controls for all these devices.
For the TV, six buttons will suffice — power,
channel up and down, volume up and down and
AV source. For the other two appliances, power,
a play/pause toggle, forward and rewind will deal
with most tasks. This makes a total of 14 buttons,
which should fit on to a single screen.
Using NoviiRemote for the Palm as an example
(included on this month's cover DVD), you can create
a control system for a typical lounge room. Add a
new codebase called Living Room by pressing Setup,
then the Start Learning button.
NoviiRemote generates a set of standard
buttons. Tap the Power button and press the Power
button on your remote control, aiming it at your
Palm's IR port. Repeat this for each button. Tap the
Stop Learning button when you're done.
Once you've finished programming buttons, test
each one and make sure your appliance responds in
the way you want. If any buttons don't work, you can
retrain them by returning to Setup and using the
ReLearn option.
COMPUTER CONTROL
As well as using a PDA to control entertainment
devices, you can also use it with a PC. If you have
a Palm device and a Mac with Bluetooth, you can
use Sailing Clicker (included on this month's cover
DVD) to effectively turn the PDA into a mouse with
some applications.
After installing Sailing Clicker, pair your
PDA and Mac. Launch Sailing Clicker and follow
the instructions to connect to your Palm and
install the PDA side of the software. Run the
application on your PDA, connect to the Mac, and
you can control a number of the iLife applications,
presentations, and even remotely view pictures
from iPhoto.
Apart from the convenience of using your
PDA as a remote control, this can be a great way to
extend the life of an old PDA. And it can be fun
wreaking mischief at friends' homes while they're
watching TV… E0H3
march 05 ► workshop ► pda remote control
View a differ
VIDEO MAGICIAN
Powered by
Authorized Distributor
¥2
YW
DVD MAKER USB
DVD MAKER PCI
&
WORKSHOP
Free DVD authoring, part 1
If upgrading to a DVD burner has left you strapped for cash,
Daniel Winter shows you how to create DVD movies with nothing
but freeware applications.
Bonus DVD software
DVCap • DVIO • WinDV •
Zwei-Stein Video Editor •
VirtualDub • BeSweet •
BeSweet GUI • VirtualDub
1.5.10* VirtualDub-
MPEG2 • QuEne • AviSynth
• IfoEdit • DVD Decryptor •
DVDAuthorGUI • XviD.
Files can be found under
"From the Mag".
Skill level
Intermediate
Requirements
DVIO* VirtualDub*
BeSweet * QuEnc • AviSynth
• digital video camera or
other video capture device
• PC FireWire port.
Time to complete
2 hours (approx)
In this series …
Parti — March 05
Creating DVDs with
freeware
A DVD burner definitely makes life easier. Being able
to back up files larger than 700MB is worth the price
of a DVD±R drive alone, for video as well as other
data. The problem is that home-made video files
won't necessarily play on a standard DVD player.
Unless your player supports MPEG-4 formats such as
XviD and DivX, DVD-Videos will require an additional
authoring process before they can be used.
There are commercial DVD authoring packages
available which transparently perform all the tasks
required to make this transformation, but this
two-part Workshop walks you through each step
of the process, from capturing to burning, using
nothing but open source and free software.
CAPTURE AND EDIT
The first step is to get the video footage onto the
computer. This process involves converting an
analog or digital video source to AVI or MPEG files on
your hard drive. This Workshop assumes you're using
a digital video camera. Regardless of how you get
the video onto the PC, once it's in AVI format it can
be used for the rest of this Workshop. If you need to
convert from another format, such as MPEG, use
VirtualDub-MPEG2 (included on the cover DVD).
Working with digital video requires a FireWire
cable to connect the camcorder to your PC via the
FireWire port on your motherboard, capture card,
sound card or separate FireWire card.
Most digital camcorders also support "digitising",
meaning they can be used to convert an analog
signal coming from a device such as a VCR. Simply
plug the output of the VCR into the line-in socket
of the camcorder, then ensure this feature is
r CR SET
Hi Ft SOUND
DIO. MIX
NTSC PB
SI PRETURN
cSj
jFVCaptureVFootage 01.avi
Stop Capture from Camera
Copyright (C) 2000 by Michael Carr (mcart@umich.edu)
enabled. In Sony camcorders, it appears as AV > DV
OUT in the camcorder's main menu.
Many FireWire cards and some video cameras
come with basic editing and capture software which
can be used at this stage if preferred. Otherwise
DVIO and WinDV are freeware capture utilities
provided on this month's cover DVD.
DVIO is a straightforward application that
streams whatever is being played on or through the
camcorder straight to disk. WinDV is slightly more
user-friendly, and provides a preview window so you
can view whatever is captured in real time. In either
case, a drive location must be selected for storing
the captured video. Ensure the destination drive has
at least 20GB free (this will store about one hour of
digital footage).
Once the video is captured on the hard drive,
it can be edited with Zwei-Stein (on the cover DVD)
or any other video editing software, such as
Ulead Video Studio or Sony Vegas. Zwei-Stein is
a full-featured, multitrack freeware video suite
that supports titles as well as a large number of
transitions and effects.
UNCROSSTHE STREAMS
From Zwei-Stein you need to export a WAV file as
well as an AVI file, as the visual and sound tracks
need to be encoded separately using VirtualDub.
multimedia dvd authoring
To install VirtualDub, extract the ZIP file on
the cover DVD to a suitable location on your
hard disk. From there, run the
VIRTUALDUB.EXE file to launch the program.
In VirtualDub's main window, select File
Originally published in APC (Australian Personal Computer) on 1 March 2005: https://archive.org/details/apc-2005_03