Ots User Support Forums

The Social Zone! => Music, Videos, and Playlog discussions => Topic started by: mikehende on March 07, 2013, 09:38:54 PM

Title: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: mikehende on March 07, 2013, 09:38:54 PM
If yes, which model tablet are you using please and can you give a review on how it works with latency in particular and also the connection type you are using? Reason I'm asking is since summer will be here soon enough, I will want to sit in my yard while hanging out on the weekend and be able to control OTSAV from a small device so I am thinking a tablet would be the best option for this since the screen may be big enough for me to see the entire OTSAV interface? Also, I have internet connection out there so I can use Teamviewer for the connection, the range I need away from my rig would be only 50' at max.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: milky on March 07, 2013, 09:58:22 PM
My son has a Motorola Xoom, which runs under Android. If you have wifi connectivity to your internet, you can download the VNC app which lets you connect to another PC and control it remotely. Response is very good - not instant, but close to it. My only gripe is, without a mouse, the ability to select tracks etc is a bit fiddly. BTW, the same app will work on any smart phone, and you can zoom in on the text.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: mikehende on March 07, 2013, 10:18:09 PM
Thanks for the advice, will definitely look into it. I had thought about upgrading to the latest Samsung Galaxy for this purpose as it is a bigger phone but I am worried that it may still be awkward to type and select tunes?
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: milky on March 07, 2013, 11:12:06 PM
My son also had a Samsung Note ll, and can run VNC in that too. They all suffer the same problem, including my Motorola smart phone. For instance, to bring up one of the context menus (right click), you have to touch with two fingers, one slightly behind the other. We still use it, and it is way better than having to go inside to start, stop, pause etc, but it is just a bit tricky to get to some options in a program that was designed for a mouse pointer. Hence my comment in another thread about Windows 8 being touch screen oriented.  

Actually, I said before you need wifi to the internet. So long as your Ots box has a fixed IP adress (or a share name), you can access it across a provate network without internet connectivity. I've tried Teamviewer and also Logmein. Both will let you control the PC from the other side of the world if you so desire, but the response is a lot slower than VNC connected locally.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: djba on March 08, 2013, 12:35:50 AM
I posted this about a year ago but haven't looked at it since.  As I recall it worked pretty well.

http://www.otsusers.com/forum/index.php?topic=13163.0
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: mikehende on March 08, 2013, 12:50:55 AM
I've been controlling OTS for a  few years now with a Snapstream remote from 75' only to play, pause, next or previous tracks but I need something to mainly search and cue songs and I am not sure the small screen of any phone will do that justice. I had tried using a phone years ago too but the latency was terrible and navigating around the screen was a major pain which is why I am looking into using a tablet.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: djba on March 08, 2013, 02:29:44 AM
Hi again,

I didn't read your initial post closely enough. I see now what you are trying to do. I have an Asus tablet.  I will download TeamViewer and see how that works. 
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: milky on March 08, 2013, 04:21:13 AM
Quote from: djba on March 08, 2013, 02:29:44 AM
Hi again,

I didn't read your initial post closely enough. I see now what you are trying to do. I have an Asus tablet.  I will download TeamViewer and see how that works. 

Anything which needs to go through the internet to a server and back out again is bound to be slower than a direct wifi connection via something like (free) VNC.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: mikehende on March 08, 2013, 12:06:17 PM
Quote from: djba on March 08, 2013, 02:29:44 AM
Hi again, I didn't read your initial post closely enough. I see now what you are trying to do. I have an Asus tablet.  I will download TeamViewer and see how that works. 

Hi, yes, please inform me of your results, thanks.

Milky, I am not sure that vnc will work better than wireless net connection since I had used a Palm device years ago with vnc and as mentioned, latency was terrible but now with faster and more updated software maybe things have changed? Best thing would be to try BOTH to see which performs better but there is almost zero latency with Teamviewer when remotely controlling another pc in my experience.

Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: djba on March 09, 2013, 12:27:46 AM
Hi again,

I have had a chance to play around with TeamViewer and I have some good news and I have some bad news.

First let me say that I am using an Asus Transformer which is a 10" Android tablet.

The good news is that Teamviewer connected very easily enabling me to control my PC from the tablet. Once connected I had a small version of my desktop on the tablet. It took a few minutes to get the hang of controlling the mouse especially for tasks like draging songs from the library to the playlist. After I got the hang of it (double click and hold)  was able to drag things pretty easily. One of the control features that made it very easy to select specific songs was the pinch movement that zooms the screen in and out.

Now for the bad news. I assume the latency you are asking about is the time delay between the tablet and the PC. For some tasks there was a pretty big delay (a couple of seconds).  This was for tasks like opening the OMQL menu. It sems like the delay time was much shorter for things like clicking play or pause.

Let me know if there are other things you would like me to try.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: mikehende on March 09, 2013, 01:15:09 AM
Cool, thanks for the update, can you try the VNC Milky mentioned to see if it works better than Teamviewer? Also, "my" main purposes for using a tablet would be to both type a search for tunes to load in the playlist or switch categories but mainly the typing of the tunes I will be searching for will be my key issue.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: djba on March 22, 2013, 02:17:43 AM
Hi again,

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. I have tried Jump Desktop, Android-vnc-viewer, Pocket Cloud Remote,and Splashtop Streamer. I was only able to get a couple of them to work and the ones that I did made TeamViewer look like a lightening bolt. They were super slow. From what I have seen, I think Teamviewer is the way to go.

Milky, if you know the name of the VNC program that your son uses, if you will post it here I will try to test it.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: mikehende on March 22, 2013, 11:03:08 AM
Thanks for the update, yes, I think you are correct here, best you try what Milky's son has used to finally know which is best for this purpose.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: DJ M on April 24, 2013, 12:43:36 PM
I have a galaxy note 10.1 and have a free app called Jump that enables me to mirror my laptop desktop onto my tablet. I have to say it works pretty well. There is obviously some screen delay but its minimal. Ive only tried it at home though and it does need wifi.

The great thing about the note 10.1 is the s pen. Much easier than fingers!
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: mikehende on April 24, 2013, 12:53:18 PM
are you able to type tunes in the search window and load songs easily?
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: Dale James on April 25, 2013, 07:47:39 AM
I'm using Team Viewer on my Galaxy Note II LTE & Ots works a treat
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: mikehende on April 25, 2013, 10:25:05 AM
Same question, can you type to search for a tune and load easily and do you have the Smartphone or the tablet please?
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: milky on April 25, 2013, 08:40:58 PM
One last time. ANY program which uses the internet will be slower than a wifi connection, no matter what the program is. If you search the android app store, there are a dozen (at least) VNC program emulators. Most are free, some cost $3. You simply create a link to the IP address of your Ots box, and you should get near-realtime performance. You will NEVER get that over the internet. Sure, Team Viewer, Logmein etc will work, but there will be a degree of lag. Fine for home entertainment, but useless on the dance floor.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: clover-leaf-productions on April 25, 2013, 10:27:46 PM
This sounds really cool, but.....  I downloaded 4 free Android apps for my tablet, and a new version of Ultra VNC for my XP pro Ots machine.  After fighting with the XP machine firewall for an hour, along with fiddling with the Android apps, I finally got one of the apps to connect to the XP box.  The connection is as fast as Dr. Milky proclaims, but the particular app I got to work on the tablet has a real issue with getting the courser to track to the exact point you tap your finger on the screen.  So this makes the connection really difficult to make function.  I would not want to be trying this on the dance floor. :angry1:
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: Dale James on April 26, 2013, 06:37:02 AM
Quote from: DaleCEnt on April 25, 2013, 07:47:39 AM
I'm using Team Viewer on my Galaxy Note II LTE & Ots works a treat

Apologies, I should have added that I wouldn't use it for DJ'ing ... i find it far more effective (wow factor) to use 'Pause' directive when away from the decks with mic.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: Darryl on April 29, 2013, 04:08:50 AM
You can also use team viewer with the ip address in direct mode with no internet connection btw.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: DJ M on May 01, 2013, 09:55:54 PM
Its a little tricky but works ok 
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: djba on May 02, 2013, 11:44:53 PM
Hey,

I just downloaded and installed Jump Desktop (which is Amazon's Free App of the Day).  It seems to work better than any of the other options I have tried.
Title: Re: Anyone controlling OTSAV remotely on a tablet?
Post by: clover-leaf-productions on May 05, 2013, 05:33:18 PM
Great Call Bill!

Jump desktop truly is the best Android app I have tried using to interface with Ultra VNC on the Ots box. :thumbsup:  It actually connects easily, and quickly.

I like the JD's zoom screen feature on the Android device, and it is very accurate for the positioning of the desktop pointer.

This is the first app that makes the thought of using the tablet as an Ots controller, at an event a real possibility.