A few days ago, I released the software that runs on my Android TV Box called OpenVLC. This is not a fork of VLC that is in some way more open. It is an application whose entire job is to Open VLC. Open is a verb here, not an adjective.

This is the companion software to that package. It permits you to select an instance of OpenVLC to … well … Open.

It is at precisely this moment that I realize there is a deficiency in that application; it provides no way to set its name. The identity "Living Room Television" is cooked into the code. Use the source, Luke.

Upon launch, it starts at an activity that shows the state of a mDNS search for any devices offering the _tvremote._udp service. [NB: I have not registered this name with IANA, it is entirely ad-hoc, and could conflict with other services present or future.]

After you select a television instance, it passes to the next window where it searches for SMB server instances. Upon click, it passes to a directory view of the selected server.

If you click on a directory, it goes deeper in the tree. The top row is the parent [Suggestion for programmer readers: Apply some kind of style that makes it clear that this clear]

If you click on a file, it will build an SMB url, and pass that in a UDP packet to the previously-selected television. If you have VLC installed, it should open the file within a second or two.

Source and Binary Release