Feature request - Ultimate Xcard remote

[mediahome]

I am one of those frustrated Xcard owners trying to find a way to make the most of SageTV and the Xcard. I make the following feature request without knowing it is technically feasible. If it is this would be a killer feature.

I would like to use a tablet PC as a remote with the full SageTV UI visible on the tablet PC and the video sent to the TV via the Xcard. To do this Sage would need to support a secondary MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter. I can envision this working two different ways.

The basic solution would be to have the Sage UI associated with the primary decoder filter and the Xcard on the secondary decoder filter. Connecting Remote Desktop in to the Sage server would give you access to the UI with simultaneous video out to the TV via the Xcard using the secondary decoder. This would provide a full featured remote UI for the Xcard that Xcard owners have been asking for.

The killer solution would be to support a "remote network decoder" in a manner similar to the remote network encoder option that is currently available. The tablet PC would run Sage Client with the "remote network decoder" pointing to a PC with a TV attached. I would make this a very low power PC with an Xcard in it but it could also be a beefier PC with a software decoder.

Imagine. The full Sage UI on a touch screen tablet. It would be nice.

Is this feasible?