I don’t know if this is possible, but here’s what I want:
A) A way to schedule TV recordings remotely from another PC. This might be possible just using RDP, I don’t know, I haven’t tried (yet).
B) A way to change my TV recording schedule from a Smartphone, using HTTP or some other remote access method. I’d imagine this would work by having some lightweight server application on the Media Center PC, and a small client app to which you provide the Media Center’s IP address. Assuming the proper port forwarding is set up, it should be easy to make a simple interface for changing/adding recordings to the schedule. This way if I’m out to dinner and someone says “Oh damn, we’re going to miss such and such great show/event tonight,” I can say “Huzzah! I’ll just use my cell phone to tell my computer at home to record the program! Then we can all go watch it later!”
The primary purpose of this application, of course, is to that I get to say “Huzzah!” in public.
Now, getting someone to write a program like this that will work with my Treo… that could be harder. But then, I am hoping to move to a Windows Mobile device soon (either keeping with Sprint and the new Audiovox PPC 6601 / XDA III device, or switching to T-Mobile with the HP 6315).
On another note, I just found that there’s an RDP client for the Treo. Unfortunately, even with Sprint’s pretty impressive 1xRTT data network, I don’t think RDP would be especially useful for me in that form. Now, on a Pocket PC style phone with WiFi and a bigger screen… perhaps.