WebGuide 3- use any PC as a remote for your Media Center

Kevin Tofel was asking me just a couple of days ago if I knew of any program that would turn a Tablet PC into a remote control and look what I found today. WebGuide 3 is a free program that allows users to provide scheduling and recording control for a Media Center PC through any device with a web browser on your LAN.  Can I hear a “that’s perfect for the Tablet PC” from someone?  MCE WebGuide’s features:

• Allows you to schedule recordings of shows anytime and anywhere from a web browser.
• Installs quickly and runs with the familiar easy-to-use MCE interface.
• Accesses your own MCE PC which means live scheduling without delays.
• Provides LAN-based access to recorded TV shows via networked PC's with playback in Windows Media Player.
• An improved homepage that provides quick access to recent and upcoming recordings.
• Improved guide listing that scrolls in-place, rather than scrolling the whole browser. This makes it very easy to get program info without having to scroll to the bottom of the page.
• A much improved search interface. Similar to Media Center, you can now get your search results grouped by show rather than just sorted by date/time.
• Ability to set manual recordings and adjust the settings of scheduled recordings.
• PocketPC and Smartphone enabled EPG.
• Localized languages include: Dutch, French, German, Norwegian and Swedish.

You can hear more about WebGuide on this episode of the Media Center Show with Ian Dixon.  BTW, since WebGuide 3 is browser based it also works on PPCs and smartphones.

Comments

[Fahad Fateh]

Yes that is a very useful thing. I always wanted a remote for my machines and here we go. Nice find James.

[Ian]

I also found a nice development tool that allows you to control Media Center via TPC.
So any developer could make a very nice remote for the tablet to control Media Center.
And since I have my tablet pc on all the time it would be great for me.
http://kindel.com/blogs/charlie/archive/2005/05/11/1791.aspx

If only I had more time!