Home » Big Screen byRemote Windows Phone 7 App Review
HTPC Portable Media Reviews

Big Screen byRemote Windows Phone 7 App Review

Big Screen byRemote Windows Phone 7 App ReviewHave you ever been away from the house, not by a computer, and remembered that you really wanted to record a show that was about to come on. Maybe the big game was about to start and you needed to make sure you marked it to record. Perhaps you just wanted to see what was on tonight when you get home. All of your problems have been solved with Big Screen byRemote for Windows Phone 7.

Features:

  • EPG browsing
  • Record shows & series
  • Statistics on WMC7 storage
  • Delete and manage recorded shows
  • Local and Remote connections
  • ..and more
  • So this is a pretty big feature list. The Windows Phone 7 App basically takes the entire byRemote silverlight browser application and brings it to your hand held device. Not only does it mimic the features of it’s browser counter part, but it does it with style, speed, and great value. To get going with byRemote for WP7 you will need to install byRemote for your HTPC, which is a pretty simple process by downloading it from BigScreenGlobal.com. After you install it on your HTPC you are good to go for local browsing of EPG data. As you can tell from the feature list there is a lot going on here. You can view all of your EPG data in a nice UI, record shows and series, cancel recordings, search for shows, view show data (pictures, descriptions, ratings), and even manage your recorded shows with a click of your touch screen. To top it all off it is all flawless.

    Big Screen byRemote Windows Phone 7 App Review

    User Interface:
    The user interface on this application is simple and beautiful to look at. They have completely themed the application to the theme color of your phone, so in my case it is nice and pink, but whatever you have it set to the app will turn that color. Everything is displayed in a nice panorama display with nice animations, and easy to read lists. Everything just comes together perfect on this app.

    Big Screen byRemote Windows Phone 7 App Review

    Setup:
    The local setup was simple, install the server app, enter the IP on the phone and boom done. You can even have multiple servers and it will pull in data from all your sources. I have tried a few other apps already for “remote” functions that had a similar server and this was the easiest. The only thing that bothered me was that I had to sign up for an account on their site. I spent a bit more time setting up the “internet” access for the app. This was a bit more complicated as I had to manually forward a port on my router that went to the IP of my WMC7 machine. After about 20 minutes I figured everything out and had it working. It is relatively simple if you have done port forwarding before, however it would have been nice if the install would have done it for me.

    Big Screen byRemote Windows Phone 7 App Review

    Value:
    The server app is completely free as it works with the “basic” byRemote. The WP7 has a free trial which is pretty limited, but allows you to check out all of the features. If you want to buy it, it is only $4.99! I think it is a great value for everything you are getting here. The ability to view all of your EPG and schedule recordings from ANYWHERE is where it is at.

    Summary:
    Let’s get this straight, this is not a “REMOTE” application. You can NOT control your WMC7 with this application. You will need another application to do that (reviews coming soon). However application sticks to what byRemote is and does it extremely well with a great user interface. My recommendation is download the Trial and then download! For more information checkout the apps page at http://bigscreenglobal.com/bgbyrwp7.aspx?PID=BSRV1.

    Video Review:

    Advertisement

    About the author

    James Montemagno

    2 Comments

    Click here to post a comment