WHAT'S HOT
NetRemote Music Suite allows complete control of your host PC's media library over your wired or wireless network. View your entire media library from your Pocket PC and control playback from wherever you are. Think of it as a wireless control center for your media system!
PROGRAM FEATURES
Here is NetRemote Music's main screen. Notice that you have everything you need to control playback of the music. Also included is the album art and currently playing song's information. Notice the buttons at the top of the screen. These buttons all give you accesss to the Windows Media Player library. "Queue" is the current list of songs that have been selected for playback. "Library" allows you to view the entire library on your desktop system. "Search" allows you to look for certain song files in your system.
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Now, notice the two buttons at the bottom of the screen, on the right side. The top button gives you a pictoral view of your desktop's media library and the bottom buttons gives you more playback controls. When you tap the "Control" button, you see the above dialog box pop-up. From this screen, you can change the playback position in the current file, you can change the system volume, or mute the system. You also have information about the host computer.
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Notice that many of the album covers for my albums are not set. Not to worry, if you just tap an album, you will get the details for that particular cover. It would have been nice if album cover list would have included a little bit of text on the album. Any time you see the little plus symbol (+) it means "Add to the queue". If you are looking for a particular song, I would suggest not using "Covers", but instead using the "Search" button at the top of the screen. More on that later. "Covers" is a nice way to browse through a library and is quite a nice addition. If you want to see what tracks are on a particular album, just select "Tracks" from the details page.
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Tap the Queue button at the top of the screen and you'll see the list of songs that have been selected for playback. If you tap and hold on any song, you can remove it from the playback list, or immediately play it. Tap the Library view and you can browse the entire library on your desktop PC. Again, tap and hold on any album, artist or song file name and you will can queue it up or play it immediately.
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Tap the "Search" button at the top of the screen and you can enter in search criteria. Once you have found what you are looking for, tapping and holding that file in the list will let you add the file to the queue, add the entire album to the queue, or play it immediately.
If you start NetRemote Music and don't immediately connect to the NetRemote Music server on your host PC, then you will receive the following feedback, along with a link to troubleshooting help.
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to some of my controls? |
When NetRemote Music first starts, it does so in regular (i.e. not-Fullscreen) mode. I tend to not like full-screen mode programs very much (especially applications -- games are different), and so I didn't find the extra playback controls (see above) and the "Covers" mode until I switched to full-screen mode. This may be a function of the skin, but I still think that all of the controls should be available in this mode, too. The button just to the left of the "Close button" (the "X" button on the skin) is the Fullscreen toggle. Only in this mode, however, do you have access to NetRemote Music's menubar.
From the "Tools" menu, you can change the interface file -- which is useful for NetRemote Music's different applications NetRemote IR and NetRemote PRO. You can also change the Interface Skin. You can also view and change NetRemote Music's properties (see below), switch to Fullscreen and exit.
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Here is NetRemote Music's "Help" menu. From here, you can view the online documentation (if you are connected to the Internet), you can view your registration information, you can download a 30-day trial of NetRemote PRO, upgrade, check for updates, and view the About screen.
When you tap "Properties" from the "Tools" menu, you will see the Properties dialog box. From here, you can view and change NetRemote Music's General, Plugins, Default Host, and Hotkeys properties. From the General tab, you can change the settings for the font of the interface (which should not be changed in most cases, according to NetRemote Music's documentation), change the way time and date are displayed. You can also choose to have NetRemote Music start in full-screen mode, and you can turn off automatic discovery of the NetRemote Music MediaBridge over the network.
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The "Plugins" tab is used mainly for troubleshooting, but shows what plugins for NetRemote Music have been installed and their properties.
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The "Hotkeys" Properties is usually not needed either, but is only used if you are having problems configuring your device. Below is a screenshot of the MediaBridge, the application that runs on your host PC and connects with your Pocket PC over the network. As you can see in the screenshot, I have one client connected.
NetRemote Music MediaBridge
HELP SUPPORT
NetRemote Music does not include any inline help file but there are PDF manuals that can be downloaded from Promixis' website. If you want more information, you can visit Promixis' website. You can also download NetRemote Music's User Guides, or check out their Support Page.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
According to the product manual, NetRemote Music works on any computer running Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP and 2003 or on any Pocket PC running Windows Pocket PC 2002 and 2003. NetRemote Music supports J. River MediaCenter versions 9, 10, & 11, Windows Media Player 9 and 10 and Apple iTunes 4.7 or higher. NetRemote Music works on wired and wireless networks and works over TCP/IP port 20002 by default (though this can be changed).
BUGS AND WISHES
NetRemote Music is great and works wonderfully. I tested it with Windows Media Player 9 over my home wireless network. I found that Windows Media Player was extremely responsive to NetRemote Music over the network. I had no problems with NetRemote Music at all, though if I had to improve the application at all, I would like to see the user interface improved. There were some buttons on the interface that I was unsure what they did. Usually, tapping and holding on a button of this type will reveal a flyout that tells what a control does. Unfortunately, NetRemote Music's user interface did not respond like this.
PURCHASING
NetRemote Music can be purchased from
Regnow's NetRemote Music product page directly. The current price is
$19.99. You can download a demo from Promixis' product page directly.
PROS
Control playback of your desktop PC's media library wirelessly
Browse through your media library, add playlists, view album covers and details about playing tracks
Fully skinnable and extremely responsive
CONS
Graphic User Interface on the Pocket PC could be a little more intuitive
No online help file included
OVERALL IMPRESSION
NetRemote Music may be a bit expensive for just
the Music product, but for just $10 more, you can get the InfraRed application
along with it. NetRemote PRO is a great automation and remote control
product. I'd like to see more applications such as this that take advantage
of wireless technology to bring relevant, real-world solutions. With
NetRemote Music, my Pocket PC becomes a portable control and command center.
Be sure to try out the demo!
