can i do 480x640 on PPC?

[robwillis1]

I have the new Toshiba e805 which has a resolution twice the size of normal PPCs (480x640). I noticed in the help guide that netremote for PPC was fixed at 240x320. Is that a hard limit? Can it be changed through a config file?

If not, can this be added as a feature?

[QuickCarl]

I believe it is dependent upon the resolution of the CCF and not controled by the NR code. If you use 'custom' from within Tonto you can make a CCF at any size resolution you wish. -Carl

[Dave T]

Yes, Carl is right. NR will support any resolution that you build a CCF for. Most pre-built ccf's are at 320x240 for ppc's, or 800x600 for the Simpad. I think there are some 1024x768 ones for use on a computer, but I don't know if anyone's done a 640x480. But, you can build your own with Tonto.

So, how do you like the 805? I didn't know that anyone had a 640x480 PPC out yet. How's the form factor compare to an IPaq or the Toshiba 700 series? How about battery life?

- Dave

[robwillis1]

But, you can build your own with Tonto.

Good to know. I've been experiementing with doing just that. I've been taking stuff from Moe and Jen's CCFs. I want to control Sage, ZoomPlayer, Media Center, Denon 3803, and general PC control. I still have a long ways to go.


So, how do you like the 805? I didn't know that anyone had a 640x480 PPC out yet.

So far I have nothing but good things to say about the 805. It has 640x480, Wi-Fi, Compaq Flash slot, and SDIO slot. And the screen is just beautiful compared to the competition. I looked at the iPaqs, they just dont compare.

Form factor isnt much larger than the Toshiba 740 - it certainly doesnt put any strain on my hand :)

Batter life with the WiFi on seems to be a little less than 2 hours. With WiFi off, i think it can go 4 hours - not really sure on that count. I keep it on the charger in the living room most of the time. The unit has a handy wifi on/off switch on the side so you can maximize your batter life.

Anyway, it has been treating me well so far.

[Dave T]

Rob:

How's the life if you don't put it in the cradle? I have an e740, and it (annoyingly) will drain the battery if I put it down for only a day, without even using it. Even more annoyingly, when the battery drains down, I have to do a backup recovery to get my installed programs back.

Regarding your ccf - how are you planning on controlling your Denon? I have a 4802 that I control through NetRemote, via RS232. I'd offer you my code, but it isn't really useful outside of my particular setup. You could probably get most of what you want by using a RemoteCentral Denon ccf, a UIRT or RR3, and NRIRServ...

- Dave

[Ben S]

Rob - NetRemote will definitely support the resolution, but you might be my guinea pig on some things. Right now it treats any non 240x320 device like a simpad, not a pocket pc. It will probably look a little weird in non-fullscreen mode.

Unfortunately I have 3 pocket pc's and need to wait until the cost of the toshiba comes down before buying one to experiment with.

[QuickCarl]

Just a comment on resolution vs. screen size...

There is no practical difference between a pocketPC and the 805 when doing a touchscreen application. Buttons (controls) still have to be of a size that is 'touchable' by a human finger. Even if that button has twice the pixels, it will still have to be the same size. Just some thoughts base upon touchscreen application development. -Carl

[Dave T]

Carl:

I hear you - I've done a lot of touchscreen app development too. I see the advantage of the higher resolution on the 805 as something that lets you use a smaller font in a media library view, thus supporting more lines of text. If you use the stylus as your input device, you can target something a bit smaller than the minimum font size that's usable in a 320x240 screen. And, isn't the 805 screen a little bigger, too?

- Dave

[robwillis1]

Carl:

I hear you - I've done a lot of touchscreen app development too. I see the advantage of the higher resolution on the 805 as something that lets you use a smaller font in a media library view, thus supporting more lines of text. If you use the stylus as your input device, you can target something a bit smaller than the minimum font size that's usable in a 320x240 screen. And, isn't the 805 screen a little bigger, too?

- Dave

The touch screen is a somewhat bigger than other PDA screens, but certainly not twice as big. Still, my plan was to use a stylus as my input device. I'm currently cramming alot on each screen, so I doubt it will be finger controllable.

I'll hopefully have some time this weekend to make some forward progress on my layouts.

I'm still waiting on my USB-UIRT to arrive in the mail before I get really serious about automating everything.

Dave - havent had a chance to try your battery test yet (leave it off the cradle). In regards to the battery problems of the 740, I read several reviews of the 740 and 805 and knew about the battery problems of the older models. Those issues are supposedly fixed in the newer version - though I cant say yet if i agree. I'll try to give you some hard numbers after this weekend.

[mhwlng]

(I have an e800 too, but haven't tried it with NR yet)

what's interesting about the toshiba,is that you can rotate the screen 90 which gives you a similar landscape screen layout to simpad etc...

I know you can do this with *any* PDA using NYDITOT etc., but on the toshiba, the rotation is done in hardware so has better performance.

see brighthand e800 forums for more info....

P.S. I use the vga resolution mostly in combination with microsoft reader...

Marcel

[dalopey]

OK - i finally got my e805!!! yay - actually got it a couple weeks ago and have been tweaking it with all the appropriate hacks and loading on softwares.

Now i have been playing with NetRemote, which is it's final destination!

I have problems with it.

Sorry Ben I tried all sorts of things.

I use it in 640x480 (sideways - as it's hard to use Tonto in 480x640) I thought i would at least try to get a prototype working on the e805 first.

It won't load the ccf. The only thing the I have not tried is making a VERY basic ccf and see if that loads... I'll try that in a few minutes. But anyway, it won't load my ccf that I converted down from 800x600 (I originally thought I would be getting a Simpad like all you great folks but changed my mind!!)

When I say would not load, I mean the screen just froze. Nothing appeared.

I can load the default nrmc19.ccf, but when I try to click anything it freezes the unit and I have to soft reset. This is most likely because I don't have the WiFi on, I'm not at home, so no girder to contact... Kind of a minor problem if my girlfried forget to turn on WiFi... but no biggie.

So it loads the provided CCF... so I took this CCF into tonto, changed resolution and then tried to load it on e805 again. WELL - it displayed, but NOT any of the content I put into the widened screen. Basically I resized nrmc19.ccf to 640x480 and added a couple buttons into the resized area of the library "tile" -

The e805 is FANTASTIC for anyone who is in decission mode. The high res is great for viewing playlist in small font as i can see from the nrcm19.ccf. I can make bigger buttons in tonto to make buttons "finger-friendly"...

well - i hope that was descriptive enough. I don't mind being a guinea pig either. I will keep plugging away at it. Please let me know what you want me to try. You can send me emails directly if that is easier, although during the day I can only see my work email. Firewall blocks Yahoo.

-dennis

[dalopey]

Well ok - I made a BASIC ccf and got it to display full screen on the e805.

However, still a couple problems.

1. When netremote first starts up, it does NOT use the whole screen with my 480x600 (the resolution I'm using for testing) I actually have to go to File and Load CCF - then choose the SAME ccf - at that point it displays FULL screen. But at first it only starts displaying the default PDA size...

2. Clicking on buttons definitely freezes up the PDA. All I did was make some simple buttons, which when clicked jump to panels under Devices. I'm next going to try making all panels under under the "Home" and see if that makes a difference. I should not have to do anything with Girder or over the network at this point. OH - keep in mind that I'm actually at work doing this, and not at home... so contacting my home IP address won't happen until I troubleshoot more at home tonight...

I will report those findings tomorrow. Now I will try putting panels in HOME...

[dalopey]

well - I just tried to upload an attachment to show my screen shot... but it did not work - does this forum allow attachments?

Anyway, I played around and figured out that if you have an e805/800 then your NON-full-screen size is really 480x588. If you do full screen then I suppose it's 480x640

It was a crappy screen shot anyway!! :P

And a good button size for fingers is about 60x60 or 70x60

OH yeah - AND putting all the panels under HOME did not keep NetRemote from freezing the PDA again... so it must be dependent on contacting Girder or something first before jumping to the next panel.

[dalopey]

I finally got NetRemote to work at home!!! Yippeeeee!! I'm totally stoked!!! However, I didn't use my e805 because my battery wore out and I didn't have my backup at home.... it's at work...

That freezing stuff above that i was talking about may only occur if netremote on the PDA cannot contact Girder. I will get to test that tonight.

I will be making 480x588 templates now, for those who have e80X's... I don't know how I will post them though. I have a website at home. Maybe I will set up a special site for this stuff. I've been thinking about it a lot lately.

I have not been able to post any attachments to this forum. Is there a size limit?

[Ben S]

Yes, there is a size limit, but it should be around 50k. Can you shrink the screenshot down a but?

Right now the PPC assumes it is 240x320. If it is larger, it assumes that it is a Windows CE tablet (similar to the Simpad) which may be confusing things.

I will investigate to see if there is anything I can do to make it better support the higher res pocket pc's.

[dalopey]

Thanx Ben... I will limit the size down the best I can - Probably best to save as a PNG - or JPG... I'll try both and see which is smallest.

I would also like to provide my PhotoShop PSD files for those who want to play with my graphics at all. Those tend to be bigger, so I will probably re-visit the website idea... but until then...........

I finally got the Tosh e805 to do right!!! YAY! I totally didn't see the settings option you had for Tosh users! I guess I was used to looking at the setting in Win32 client so I overlooked it.

For those with a Toshiba, go into Properties on PPC client and put a check mark in the "Disable Blink (Toshiba fix)" box. Then restart netremote.

Now i also reinstalled the PPC client using the suite download... So i don't know if the fix is part of a new recent thing or not... so if in doubt, reinstall PPC client.

I will post a snap of my CCF shortly!

[dalopey]

Here's a snapshot of my CCF so far. I know - the GIF is really awful looking... but is less than 50K constraint for posting. It's a CCF for 480x588 (not 640 yet...) didn't want full screen yet, but will eventually.

I am only showing the Media Player (MJB) section. I've simplified it a lot... really don't need all the fancy stuff, just the basics.

The blue "window" displays the title, artist and album. Not displayed here because I'm not connected here at work.

The other transparent window is where the album cover displays. And it does nicely as I tested it last night from home!! The shuffle and CONT buttons don't work, because the Transparency is only VISUAL!!! These buttons are actually UNDER the Metal frame, so un-clickable! I will fix that soon.

That slider thing is the time elapsed position thing... It's from someone else's CCF, with someone elses graphic... but on extra is that is displayes the Time Elapsed in between those little arrows!!! My 2 cents! :)

The top area will always display just like that... Home, Full Screen, the Time and Date, and the power button. Ahhh, that power button is pretty but not mine!!! I got it from one of you guys out there!! If you recognize any of your graphics I hope you won't be offended... I plan to creat all my own eventually. I just wanted to get something up and running before really enhancing.... So, sorry and thank you... :?

Then, as you go to different screens, the TITLE in the top area will change. See? the top area is not recreated everytime because in Tonto you can set up the MasterTemplate under the System folder. Then as other panels are opened, they just overlay the TITLE up in that area. This really makes the CCF smaller.

There will be lot's of changes coming as I continue learning.

Well enough chattering!!! if you have questions let me know!! Here it is, I hope... It's 50K so hopefully will upload. I will do it in a reply under this reply.

[dalopey]

Ok - here it is - it worked!!

[dalopey]

Oh yeah -

I got the PNG's to work in the CCF on the PPC... I don't know if re-installing the NR ppc version fixed that.

Those Gray balls and the Plug power thing are PNG's... and not originally mine. The only things that are original are the Metal Frame, the wood background, and the SHUF and CONT buttons, which look quite cool when pressed!

I will try to do another snapshot at home with some content displaying on it to get a better idea.... are I could just do a snapshot on my PC here...

Hmmmm - ok - let me do that.... be back in 1 hour, or so.

[dalopey]

OK - faster than I thought... OH - and I don't actually have any Album Covers, yet!

Two things:

1. sorry about GIF - it's fuzzy but actually MUCH sharper in Real Life.

2. the playing now area in the bottom is supposed to be Transparent, or at least that's the "color" I chose in Tonto. BUT then on the PPC, it shows up as White.

WHY?


Thank you and enjoy.

[dalopey]

snapshot - win32 for Toshiba E805 480x640

[dalopey]

And here we are at the end of the day - I have a new snapshot


CCF total size: 258K :) Not bad!!

AND a nice PNG capture - the wood background made GIFs and JPGs too big I think - too much variation.

Got rid of the gray bubbles and wood backgrnd, changed the sliding bar, made it totally 480x640 (so cool with full screen), and fixed SHUF and CONT buttons to the top (over the metal frame)

I will probable get rid of the metal frame next, and make the blue window transparent like glass with the words showing UNDER it! Alpha Transparency is FUN!!!!

I have to fix the blue buttons, too - the white glare is bleeding out of the blue part.

[Ben S]

Looking good, Dennis.

Are you still having problems with the PPC starting in non 480x640 mode? I'll need to look into fixing that.

[dalopey]

no Ben - actually ever since a couple things... i did run the NetRemote Suite and did upgrade - i think... and I did the checkmark in the Toshiba blinking fix. Ever since then it has opened into full 480x640 without reloading the CCF...

So I cannot really say what it might have been.

If you want I can remove and try again and see if there's still a problem for your future e805 users..........

Which means I will need help removing NR off the PDA, because it says pronto font is read only... So if you want me to do a CLEAN install to make sure the 480x640 thing is fixed, you let me know what to do!

[midiboy]

Hi !

I guess there will be many more users soon with Pocket PC´s that offer a 640x480 resolution. Asus anounced the A730 at Cebit with that resolution and Microsoft is soon offerning a Pocket PC upgrade pack that will support 640x480 too.

I will probably buy the Asus PDA when it arrives at stores after June so if there are any compatibility problems with Netremote @ 640x480 it would be very cool if they were solved by then ...

Hoping for the best !
Thanks !
Alex