I think http is the best, since it doesn't tie up the player for very long -- there are a very limited number of simultaneous connections allowed, and ftp would hog them.

But you can probably switch to using "BUTTONRAW" to send the raw hex press/release codes, if you like. That way you send one button press when somebody "presses" a button in the tray, and a corresponding release when they let go of it. Much less traffic, and the longpress functionality will work. I hope you are getting your screen dumps from /proc/empeg_screen.raw or /proc/empeg_screen.png, so that Hijack menus are visible, right? (or do you even have screen dumps?)

-ml