This is my first post here, and I apologize if something like this has been asked before.

I'm a bit of a home theater nut. One on a tight budget

For the longest time I've been trying to find a way to control my mp3's without the need of a screen or laptop in the room. I have a nice yamaha receiver which operates the entire house through 3 zones. Some area's do not have tv's, and the main area has a front projector. I hate having to turn on the FP just to see what song I want to listen to.

Laptop has been my method of choice for remote so far. I have a HTPC dedicated for media purposes and it has been through various media centers trying to find an easy to use ( for the less techy in the house) combination of server and remote. I have xbox's, mod'd with xbmc. Best media center of anything I've tried...but during parties it does get used for "other" things. I HATE the 360 for media, it uses the darn ID3 tags for everything, horrible search options, and just confuses people, and it to gets used for "other" things as well during parties.

So I went back to old skool Winamp. It's on my server with my music, which is attached to my receiver of course. I have a plug in called Browse amp, which allows remote control via web interface on my laptop and has different skins for it. Web interface is not the prettiest, but does browse using a Folder tree (which I insist on having as ID3 tags like the 360 and WMP uses suck) and it has volume control, playlist option, and even an eq controlled via web interface. Laptop obviously works fine for this, but lets just say that intoxicated people+laptop is certainly going to = dead laptop someday and I don't want that.

So, I see this cool little tablet called the n800. After my wall of text here's my point

Obviously the n800 has a web interface, but the way browse agent works on Winamp, the folder listing is small, and since I can't see the n800 in person I am concerned with the size. I seeing it myself is really only going to solve this. There is a zoom function I know, but is there a way to increase font size in the browser permanently?

Wondering if there is some other mp3 server software/ n800 software that is more tailored for this kind of idea. I just briefly read of Canola2 which looks cool but it didn't seem to connect to a windows share, and regardless it won't "remote control" the pc right?

Does the n800 have issues connecting to windows shares? I would also use it for a quick easy way to view pics. Again Canola looked perfect for this, but does it connect to Windows shares...with username and password?

I've considered a PSP as well, but the lack of a touchscreen I think would make web browsing hard. And I considered the itouch too, but smaller screen, lower res, and it's more of an MP3 player and I don't need something with lots of local storage.

mpd with mmpc

Another option would be to use VNC (or remote desktop) to control your PC with N800. I've just installed VNC and it's quite OK to control the player with it.

The good part is that there's no need to learn new interfaces, you can use the existing playlists etc. The issue for parties might be that the the screen is small so you'll need a stylus for lot of the control.

Hi all,
New member here... I am using VNC from the N800 to a desktop, within the desktop I have Sondigo which connects wirelessly to my receiver, the media player is media monkey, and from there you have a choice to either use Salling with a phone or a palm... if you have any of those phones supported, then you are in luck since it is a very good app.

I'm using VNC for my htpc control via my home LAN. Go to www.realvnc.com and install the server on your XP PC. Then install VNC on your Nokia internet tablet. Search this forum for VNC and there are detailed instructions on how to get it working. You can't use rdesktop because the screen of the serving PC goes blank when you connect.

Ummm... but this doesn't affect what the tablet "sees", so I'm not understanding why that would be an issue...

yeah, vnc is too clunky. Tried that using laptop and remote desktop as well before I went back to winamp/browse amp. Remote desktop/vnc just draw to slowly when you have 1000's of songs to go through. And allowing people at parties onto your PC through remote desktop isn't something I like doing either. Too bad there wasn't a skin for the n800 for browseamp.

Another question. Is it possible to have the n800 boot, and automatically start the web browser? How long does it take to boot? and I'm assuming it has a sleep function of somesort?

I'm not sure I understand the rdesktop issue either. I've not had any problems with it, and in fact I prefer it.

Check this out. Might be interesting for a HT enthusiast with a N800.

Regards.

thanks, that does look cool