WMP? (Nothing is displayed while remote controlling). Note that, in addition to videos and sound files, it’s also supposed to display images on the desktop. It, however, didn’t really work on neither of my WMP 10/11 systems – on the latter, nothing happened; on the former, all I got was codec errors when trying to view even the images shipped with the app.

WMP (note that the volume setter/changer/muter functionality works the other way as intended with WMP11), WinAmp, iTunes, Media Center PC; in addition, it has plug-ins for many other desktop-side apps and also for, which is new in version 4.0, full desktop control capabilities. Screenshot 1 2

WMP, WinAmp, Windows Mixer Media Center, PowerPoint, Media Player Classic, PowerDVD (click the links for the bindings it offers!); you can easily switch between them

WMP, WinAmp 2.x (doesn’t work with the current 5.x series! ) (see this and this); it hides these players, meaning you can’t control for example video playback

WinAmp

Trial?

30 clicks

n/a (free)

50% of albums are displayed as "z Pls Register z" ; 10% of track titles are displayed as "z Pls Register z"

14-day fully usable

Pretty restrictive

Fully usable; it displays a nagging screen between titles

n/a (free)

Every fourth song name is overwritten by a registration notice; now and then, registration boxes are displayed

2 weeks

+ (20 files listed / some seconds are played back of each song)

n/a (free)

OS compliance

Client: WM2003+, Smartphone, Palm OS, Symbian, J2ME (also see this); Desktop: PC AND Mac

Web-based version runs on any image map-capable browser; native PPC client is ARM

(browser-based (default port: 9999; moddable in \Program Files\ PlayerPal\ PlayerPal 4.2\WebServer\ PlayerPalWebServer. exe.config); that is, accessible from any device)

All (Compact Framework 1 required!)

PPC2k2+ (with CF1)

all

All ARM

PPC2k2+

PPC2k2+ (Compact Framework 1 required!)

PPC: WM5/WM6 and MS BT stack; desktop: MS BT stack

PPC2k … WM2003SE (NO WM5+! )

(browser-based (default port: 82); that is, accessible from any device. Note that, unlike what the homepage states, with current Pocket PC web browsers (tested with WM5 AKU3 IEM, NF 3,4 TP1, OpMobile 8.6), even the default skin works. You, however, may want to change it to the PPC skin because it's far more accessible on a PPC (for example, no scrolling is needed to see all the buttons) from here; just delete the previous contents of \Program Files\ Winamp\ Plugins\ html\ and decompress the contents of the ZIP file in there.

VGA?

+, in Web mode, you'll want to consider sticking to Landscape mode for better quality and resolution (this is the Portrait and this is the Landscape screenshot). If you don't have full screen capabilities (because, for example, you don't install any PIE plug-in) and you have a VGA device, consider switching to the native VGA mode to make the command and task bar smaller as can be seen in here. Finally, remember that the native client is FAR faster on the Pocket PC than the web-based one.

+ (browser-based)

+ (looks pretty slick on VGA devices)

+; GUI is double-pixeled

+ (looks really cool)

+ (note that the animation is very slow on the PL720; on the x51v, it’s OK)

Pixel doubling; forcing Vinyl\ vinyl.exe doesn’t help

+ (browser-based)

Requirements?

.NET 2 on desktop (fortunately, this doesn't mean it'd be slower on the desktop than native apps)

Just a (not necessarily capable) Pocket PC Web browser

.NET 1.1 on desktop; CF1 on client

.NET 1.1 on desktop, CF1 on PDA

.NET 1.1 on desktop; CF1 on client. The latter is automatically installed by the MSI installer if not present.

CF1

.NET 2 on desktop

MSXML3

Doc quality?

Pretty good (comes as a CHM help file)

Could be MUCH better. The system requires a LOT of hand-tweaking and forum reading to start working - it was pretty complicated at first even for me, the seasoned IT guru.

Not very extensive, but it's sufficient

Excellent PDF-based docs (albeit it still has a some omissions - completely missing sections etc)

Good (1 and 2)

Pretty good

Good

Very good

OK ( \Program Files\Awox\Awox Media CTRL\MediaCTRL [QuickStart].pdf )

Pretty good

(No docs; it’s not big a problem as the app is very easy to use and you’ll learn to use it in no time. Probably the only downfall of the server component, \Program Files\ Orion\Bluetooth Remote Control\ BTRemoteServer. exe, is its not starting at once; you must start it by hand)

Only a feature list

Pretty usable - after all, the application is pretty easy to use / configure

Connectivity: Type

TCP/IP and native MS / Widcomm BT

TCP/IP

TCP/IP also with auto-discover & reconnect

TCP/IP (with auto reconnect)

TCP/IP (1 2)

TCP/IP

TCP/IP, BT serial

TCP/IP

Native BT - MS BT stack only!

TCP/IP

If TPC/IP is supported, multicast discovery (incl. true WM5 AS connections, as opposed to (restricted) pre-WM5 ones))

- with true TCP/IP; + with BT

+ (works great over BT PAN, contrary to what the doc states)

+ (see the Scan Network button in Connection Settings)

Dynamic BT discovery; desktop and PDA doesn’t even need to be paired

(Even remote) IP address w/o multicast discovery?

n/a

BT serial or native BT connection support

+ Both MS and Widcomm! Excellent!

- (BT AS is supported though)

n/a (albeit it’s MS BT stack-compliant)

With free TCP/IP (even remote Internet) access, does it have password protection?

+ (only with TCP/IP, not with BT)

+ (Windows user login/password; you can also enable no-password login)

-; you can, however, fine-tune access parameters for individual URL's (by default, remote connections only see what you're watching / listening to but can't have any control effects on it); see step 5 in "How Do I Install Snowcrash?"

WMP playlists: does it fetch all the user and automatic playlists? (Note that I've only tested this with WMP playlists!)

- it doesn't seem to support WMP playlists at all

+; 1 2

n/a (no WMP support). As far as WinAmp is concerned, it fetches the list of all titles from the player; additionally, you can also supply it a directory (with selectable auto-update) in the server

WMP / iTunes

Its own server (no true WMP / Winamp playlists).

Local playlists only (doesn’t import that of WMP and doesn’t create a server-side playlist either); on the desktop, server-side directories must be passed to the Vinyl server; refreshing the list and initiating it

n/a (no WMP) support; as far as WinAmp is concerned, it gets the files from the player; you can also select any file / directory in anywhere in the file system from the client with the bottom-most icon. The selected files / directories will be added to the global playlist of the player.

Does it allow for local playlist creation / editing?

+ (only adding the currently played title to any already-existing playlist)

- (they can only be played back, not edited); you can only remove entries from album view

While it does allow for creating (1 2) , you can't actually add anything to them. You can't even edit (for example, delete items from) existing playlists

+ 1 2

+; Editing

+ ; very logical to use, unlike some other titles. Screenshot (sorting / editing / creating (1 2 )). On the desktop, it’s also possible to add songs to the default playlist

n/a

n/a (no playlists are transferred)

Locally: Up/down, delete, save/load, instant play

You can add MP3 files (NOTHING else!) to the desktop- (and, consequently, the client-side) playlist from the client by traversing the file system from there.

Synchronizing the created / edited playlists back to the desktop?

+ (everything runs on the desktop - the client is a real thin client!)

n/a (no editing)

It synchronizes back the created playlists but there isn't much point in this as, as has already been pointed out, it's not possible to edit playlists

n/a

Additional features / goodies: Cover (album art) in the same directory / embedded in the file (if WMP hasn’t already extracted the thumbnail to become a directory-level one)? Does the latter, when supported, override the album-level one with it?

- / - / n/a

+ (it just reads the first JPG file in the given directory) / + / -

+ / - / n/a

- / - / n/a

+ / - / n/a

+ / ? / -

Displays album art – not only in WMP format (but unconverted ones too - the first image in the given directory)

MP3 ID3v1 / ID3v2 Tags?

Almost nothing

Album / Artist/ Composer / Genre / Year only

- (only to show the Artist / Album)

Pretty weak: with WMA’s / MP3’s not edited with WMP11’s tag editor, it displays most of them in a non-formatted way; with edited files, only the first row of the comments

- (only the artist is displayed)

Restricted: only genre and release year

-; only basic file info is displayed, which is often erroneous – for example, videos are only displayed with ‘0 s’ duration. As far as images are concerned, EXIF / IPTC data (see THIS for more info on this question) isn’t displayed either

MP3/WMA tag lyrics support? If yes, synchronized lyrics? Note that WMP only supports tag-based lyrics, not file-based (.txt / .lrc) ones.

No lyrics support at all

Supposed to support; due to the hard-to-understand and pretty much messed up playlist synchronization / download interface, I couldn’t test

No lyrics support at all

Works with WM10. Couldn’t test with WMP11 because of the timed-out trial.

No lyrics support at all

The Genre / Album / Artist etc.-based sorting of the WMP media library on client? If not taken from WMP, does it try to parse the sound file filenames / tags to find out more?

Artist-based only

Only album-based

All the three

Partial: Non-tree based and only artists and albums are supported (incl. All); genre isn’t.

Only in the Artist / Album / Song direction; for example, no “All” is possible

n/a with Winamp; n/t with iTunes

Genre / Album / Artist

+ (creator / genre / art; this is also stored in \Program Files\Awox\Awox Media CTRL\AwoxMediaServer.mdb )

n/a / -

Video on the desktop PC?

+; it also supports still images (including slideshow)

- (WMP plays in the background)

+, works great (if you manually bring WMP into the foreground). My only grief is the lack of, say, full screen switcher button.

Supposed to have (and the app has icons to bring WMP in front on the desktop / maximize it; however, it doesn’t display video files, not even ones in server-side playlists)

+ (supposed to)

+ (excellent!)

- (only the sound is played back with WMP)

+ (note that it didn’t work on my WMP11 system, only on my WMP10-based one)

Skinnable?

+ (See Skins and Resolutions in the main docs)

+ (some built-in skins: 1, 2 and the PPC client)

+ (in HTML; there're some skins already)

Searching for a given title?

+ (previous searches are not stored); no joker chars

+, excellent, even saves the results of past searches 1 2 3

- (the built-in search functionality, when present - currently, in NetFront only - can be used for this, though)

Equalizer?

+, excellent graphical equalizer

Only for iTunes, not for WMP

Battery and desktop friendliness, possible problems and bottlenecks: PDA-side : CPU usage on client while active

~10% at 312 MHz when in foreground and 0% in background OR in, for example, the built-in Help, then, it's only the BT connection that takes some CPU time (with the MS BT stack, about 1% at 208 MHz)

Native client: ~0% when not actively doing anything; otherwise, around 40%. Browser-based clients ditto.

- (browser-based; there is not even autorefresh-based status)

11% on main control dialog through playback (about the same with Control & Zones enabled in there); 8.5% on the Queue tab (still while playback)

At least 5% at 624 MHz (most probably because of the smooth title scrolling); this is an issue even when minimized / on another tab / with switched-off screen. Note that if, for some reason, the server component exits (happened to me once), the client CPU usage increases to around 100%. Also, sometimes the CPU usage just increases for no apparent reason. In addition, during my tests, over time, it increased the CPU usage gradually. Therefore, it’s best to suspend the PPC if you don’t actively need it. Disconnecting it will decrease the CPU usage to 3%.

10% when in foreground (because of scrolling); under 1% otherwise, including switching to the Info / Lyrics tabs. Therefore, try staying in these tabs.

20% at 624 MHz when in foreground, 1% when in background. That is, you WILL want to switch to another app, minimize the app or switch to its about / config dialogs to avoid excess CPU usage

16-20% because of scrolling; therefore, if it does scroll, you'll want to go to the playlist editing tab (It’s the most easily - with just one tap - accessible dialog where there isn't scrolling); in there, only 0.5-3%

0 when it doesn’t scroll the (sufficiently short) title; ~8% at 624 MHz when it does, even in the background. From the app, the only way to disable scrolling is clicking the scrolling title area – this is highly recommended.

~1%

0; the refresh can also be set in the server config dialog

Built-in screen off; if not, is it compatible with system-level button-assigned or Start menu-based tools?

-; +

-; + (as with all browsers)

-; +

-; - (buttons are locked); Long-pressed Power button works

-; + (as with all browsers)

Can the PPC (and, therefore, the connection) be suspended while remote controlling?

Desktop-side RAM / CPU usage: while inactive? (If CPU usage isn't explicitly stated, then, it's always very close to 0%)

WinClicker.exe; 33M, 0..2%

Pretty much: around 70-80M. Note that the program itself reports about an order of magnitude less memory usage.

PlayerPal.exe; 79M with 1800 songs

31M / 0

RudeoControlServer.exe: 25-26M

ZeramaServer.exe; 14M / 0

WMService.exe ; 21M (accessible from \Program Files\ CRPSoft\ Media Control Server\ Media Control. lnk)

RemoteAmp.exe; 7.6M / 0

12RemoteServer.exe; 15M / 0

Awox Media Renderer.exe; 22M

MFCServer.exe; 1.1M

BTRemoteServer.exe, 13-27M with opened window, 3-4M with closed window

VinylServer.exe; 3.5M / 0

- (only loads when WinAmp is active; no separate process)

while active?

The same

Same as above - you must start (and, then, mimize) the full application to enable the server

Can even grow further: on my test notebook, it even grew to 250 Mbytes!

Same; CPU usage can be considerably higher; when in normal operation, 3-10%; it can even have peaks of 20-25%

~27M

19M / 0

same

10M / 1…4%

Increasing memory usage (to 20-24M) / 0

The same

Same as above

12-15M / 0

Not measurable

Does a huge number of desktop-side songs cause problems?

- (the PDA skin makes sure not much information is fetched / displayed at a given time)

- (albeit loading playlists / categories with many entries may take a while)

? (couldn’t test because of the 20-file restriction of the trial)

n/a (no listing capabilities)

+ with the default skin, downloading for example 1800 songs' titles can really choke the device

Controls? : Basic functionality (stop / start / next / previous / pause / volume)

Everything, even balance setting and some other goodies like playlist shuffle and play random track

Everything (screenshot of the "Advanced: features)

Everything

Everything (incl. volume)

Everything. Note that volume controlling didn’t work on my WMP11 system, only on my WMP10-based one

Everything

Everything (incl. volume)

Everything

Freely seeking in a song?

Slider is promised to work; didn’t work on either my systems (WMP11 and 10)

Fast forward / rewind only

- (only 5 sec stepping; this can be combined to quickly go back/forward)

Any PPC hardware buttons used in addition to D-pad? Is the D-pad utilized?

- / + (volume up/down and previous/next)

- (both clients are solely touchscreen-based)

- (Browser-based and, therefore, the browser's defaults are used)

All traditional buttons are used; on the D-Pad, left/right is 7 seconds forward/backward and up/down is volume. To move to previous/next songs and to pause/play, other app buttons are used

- / + (volume up/down and previous/next)

- / - (you can only navigate the list; Action, unlike with 1-2-Remote, doesn’t work)

- / + (volume up/down and previous/next)

Excellent: You can assign any control functionality to any button in File / Settings / Buttons

- / - (you can only scroll up/down the list and, with Action, can play a given title)

+ (everything is button-controlled – for example, the touchscreen is not used at all)

+ (Calendar: Playlist; E2C: Artist; Today: Controls)

- (Browser-based and, therefore, the browser's defaults are used)

Verdict: Pros

Moderately priced

Compatible with the Mac on the desktop site

Has Symbian, Smartphone and Palm OS clients too

Pretty easy to use and not convoluted

In native BT mode, it suports both the MS and the Widcomm BT stacks

also supports PowerPoint and BSPlayer

Free

web-based remote version works even on the lowest-end Pocket PC's / browsers with exactly the same GUI as on the desktop

supports FooBar 2000, Zoom Player and video playback

Equalizer

Searching

0% CPU usage on the PDA, as opposed to most other titles

seeking

searching capabilities

0% CPU usage

browser-based and, therefore, works on anything

supports four players, which is pretty impressive: WMP, Winamp, iTunes and J.River Media Center

also supports (ARM/XScale-only - there is no TI / Samsung support) infrared remote controlling (should you ever need it) and Girder, a VERY powerful remote control solution able to control a lot of additional desktop-side, and, otherwise desktop-only multimedia center solutions; for example, SnapStream Firefly PC Remote - if you want to devote some time to learning it, though

has a barebone built-in Web browser (I've never managed to make it work though)

Multicast discovery

searching

seeking

remote playlist editing

Album art

Seeking

Lyrics (if it does work)

free!

Album art

WMP grouping

multicast discovery

equalizer

searching

lyrics

album art

serial BT support

0% CPU usage when you disable title scrolling

excellent remote playlist editing

looks cool

quick

video playback

almost no PDA-side CPU usage

pretty capable for the price, even of some of the modules (for example, the remote desktop control skin) are mediocre

Powerpoint and PowerDVD support

native support for the MS BT stack on both the client and the desktop

free

album art

free

Cons

No equalizer

no searching capabilities

no album art

no lyrics

limited playlist editing capabilities

almost non-existing tag support

WMP categories are artist-based only

I couldn't make WMP work

Web-based remote version is quite slow

absolutely no button support

has a STEEP learning curve

no WMP playlist support at all

no lyrics support at all

Only album-based sorting

high RAM usage on desktop

No equalizer

no album art

no lyrics

sometimes VERY high RAM usage on desktop

no HW buttons

no seeking

Unfortunately, the there ex-NetRemote subapplications are no longer sold as separate entities, unlike in the past, when the Pro (which only costed $30), the media controller and the IR controller versions (only costing $20 each) were (also) separate entities - you MUST pay for the Guirder / IR support even if you don't want to. This is surely a problem as, now, NetRemote is by far the most expensive application. That is, it's far too expensive if you don't need the additional capabilities / features

Almost no local playlist editing capabilities

No lyrics / ID tags

client CPU usage

unpredictable, sometimes very high CPU usage

Not so snappy as some of the alternaives (-12-Remote, Salling etc)

no lyrics / album art / MP3 ID tags

"only" WMP is supported

doesn't look very cool compared to most alternatives

limited WMP categories)

while some of MP3 ID tags are displayed, they are not well-formatted

editing playlists is far from easy

high CPU usage (fortunately, minimizing the app helps)

"only" WMP is supported

no playlist editing

no support for WMP

high CPU usage (can be very easily fixed)

full button support

Not the cheapest

Original price very high (Expansys UK price is far better though)

no WMP playlist support

abandoned and, therefore, doesn't seem to have future

it REQUIRES the controlled program to be run in the foreground and have focus; this also means that, unlike with most other solutions (like jaylee.org’s Bluetooth Remote Control for Windows Mobile), you need to have access to the desktop to switch to another MM player you want to change them on the fly

limited controllability (no for example seeking)

volume compatibility problems

only works with the MS BT stack

pretty simple - no extra capabilities

no WM5 support

not very pretty on VGA devices

no WMP support (only supports WinAmp)

severely lacks features like lyrics, album art, seeking etc.

All in all,

If you have MS BT stack making it impossible to create a BT PAN connection, this will be one of the very few alternatives - and, if you have a Mac, the only one. Otherwise, it's still pretty usable and well-thought out - recommended, even if a bit minimalist.

While a bit complicated to configure, doesn't support WMP playlists, a bit slower, doesn't support for example lyrics than some other titles and is quite a memory hog, it's really capable and recommended if you're looking for the cheapest possible, but still high-quality title.

If you strictly need Web-based access, then, SnowCrash may turn out to be a better choice because it’s free, unlike this $30 title. SnowCrash, however, is definitely weaker in many respects (support for WMP, search, album art etc). Also, make sure you check out Xlobby, the other (also) Web-based solution.

A comparatively nice, but quite expensive all-in-one remote controller with definitely lacking functionality (lyrics, local playlist editing) and some definite disadvantages (CPU usage on both the PPC and the desktop) when compared to, say, 1-2-Remote by SFR Software, which I consider a considerably better title with a better price/performanceration. However, if you also need Girder and IR remote control capabilities, video playback or support for WinAmp / J.River Media Center, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Well, could be better, particularly unpredictable CPU usage-wise. With so many inherently better titles out there, I don't recommend it.

I don’t think the UI has been designed very well – I’ve never managed to find out how, for example, download the current playlists from the desktop to the client. It isn’t particularly pretty either. All in all, I don't recommend it.

If you’re looking for a free, audio-only WMP controller with D-pad support and can live with the high CPU usage (which requires minimizing the app), you may want to give this title a try.

The biggest advantage of this title is the equalizer and the hardware button support. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support WMP. However, if you are looking for something WinAmp / iTunes-compliant and don’t mind it being commercial, give it a try.

Few other titles sport searching for (even partial) strings, (MP3 tag) lyrics, VGA screens (many alternatives look pretty ugly compared to this title). In addition, it supports serial BT connections (in the latter, only jaylee.org’s Bluetooth Remote Control for Windows Mobile 0.6.0 and Salling Clicker are comparable). In other respects (for example, CPU usage when compared to, say, Rudeo, Kiwisrus or Zerama, where it’s much harder to be absolutely sure the app doesn’t kill the battery in vain), it’s highly recommended. I only wish it supported videos.

Far too overpriced for what it is capable of (particularly with WMP11), and Awox’s having dropped the title is icing on the cake. Not recommended

If you’re looking for an all-in-one, tolerably priced, comparatively decent solution (without local playlist / lyrics and the like support as it only supports remote control), you can give this title a try. Note that, unlike with most other apps, this app REQUIRES the controlled program to be run in the foreground.

If you need for example a Powerpoint or PowerDVD remote controller (or a simple, no-frills media remote controller) for free for your Microsoft BT stack-only (!) desktop and PDA, consider getting this title – it’s pretty worth it. If you don’t have MS BT stack (for example, you have Widcomm or the Bluesoil BT stack), then, it’s best to forget this title altogether.

If you have a pre-WM5 device and audio remote controlling & full TCP/IP connections are OK (no for example BT native / serial support) suffice, give it a try.

Compared to the other free titles, not really recommended. It also works on non-Pocket PC, but browser-enabled devices (Zaurus etc.)