VNC Server + Win32 Viewer, suitable for TV display

For those who are interested in a VNC server/viewer that scales nicely to a full 640x480 display, showing a combination of "track" and "now & next", you can try out something I developed based on wfaulk's VNC server.

It is available at http://strobos.cee.vt.edu/EmpegVNC

I did it so that I can see my empeg on the display in my navigation system and/or my TV in my living room. I still control the empeg with a remote that sends signals to it via an IR-Extender.

Very cool! I can't wait to see what people do with this!

Very cool! I can't wait to see what people do with this!

Yow!

(Ummmm, like insert picture here from September 2003 of Jim sitting in cockpit of boat completely encrusted by brine but *still* able to hit VNC Playlist button on his new Daylite laptop...)

Hi.

Really awesome.

But one question came to my mind: Could one (or you possibly) include a scaled up version of the empeg screen (like 256x64, smoothed a little*) along with the additional info you provide? Hmm, I think I need to create some mockup of what I mean. I will come back here later I guess.
But apart from my suggestion, you did a really great job there.

Edit: I just read your page and see you didn't actually create the image on the empeg, but tweaked the client. too bad, thi smeans I can't easily use your solution, since my application would be a TV-display via a Linux based computer (VDR). I hope someone can help you move the text rendering from client to server and possibly (optionally) integrating the real empeg display into it.

cu,
Sven

Thanks.

The scaled image of the Empeg screen is possible/easy to place there, but I have no clue as to how to smooth it. In effect, when you bring up a menu or search, what you get is a 3x magnification of the empeg screen or relevant portion. I'll include an option to permanently show a 3x magnification of the screen in my todo list.

Rendering text in the server should be easy for someone who has done any kind of linux development. Doing it on the client side was very easy because I am familiar with the Win32 apis to do it. I would appreciate it if anyone could give pointers on how to do it at the server.

I must add, however, that sending the text and rendering on the client is 20 times more efficient from the perspective of network bandwith usage. The best solution would probably be to add the TextRect VNC data format (I made this up for this project) to the Linux VNC client.

-jules

Mmm.. doesn't run on my Linux machine.

Oh well, so much effort, so little future.

Cheers

Wow! What a coincidence, this very old thread relates to that VNC thing I worked on over a year ago. I was just soliciting testers for a newer, different application (see here). Yes, unfortunately it is a Windows XP thing, which excludes many of the folk in this board. Too bad. Wish I had proficiency in Linux to do it there....

Java.. Java..

Works everywhere.