REVIEW: just-released VirtualCE 4 – another great PDA controller alternative!

[Menneisyys]

Last Summer, upon the release of the brand-new, 6-series of SOTi Pocket Controller Pro and the free My Mobiler (click the links for a review!), I’ve already pointed out the “let’s control your Windows Mobile device from your desktop!” scene is really thriving.

Since the above reviews, here have been major upgrades. First, My Mobiler has been greatly enhanced (for example, TCP/IP connections have been added) and the bugs I’ve elaborated on in the review have all been fixed – while still maintaining its free status. In this article (and the accompanying chart), I also thoroughly elaborate on these changes.

Even more importantly, the, for long-time Windows Mobile users, known VirtualCE has been greatly upgraded and enhanced.

As VirtualCE has been written by the same developer as the well-known and very fast PQV and SmartGear – one of the best titles in their respective categories (picture viewers and pre-SNES home and handheld console emulators). I wasn’t disappointed: while there is indeed some missing functionality in the new version, its price, CPU usage and, at times, speed, speak for themselves. It’s evident it has been written by a Windows Mobile & C / assembly language guru that knows how to optimize code and, therefore, reduce the CPU (and memory) usage.


(The main interface screen and an example of remote controlling a HTC Vox / s710. The latter displays the VirtualCE client on the handset.)

VirtualCE is, feature-wise, somewhere between the free My Mobiler and the pretty expensive, albeit VERY capable and highly recommended SOTi Pocket Controller. In some respects, it’s definitely more capable than SOTi’s app (for example, see the parallel multicontrol feature, which is only present in the even more expensive Enterprise version of SOTi’s app; also, the much lower CPU usage should be mentioned); in other respects, it’s inferior to even My Mobiler (see for example the complete lack of handheld / handset -> desktop PC clipboard synchronization).

Installation, usage

Installation-wise, there isn’t much to do. Just download the trial version HERE (note that there is a different one for Pocket PC’s and MS Smartphones), start the installer on the desktop computer and make sure your handset is connected via ActiveSync so that the (handset-side) server can be installed.

Should you want to activate the connection, then, you’ll need to start Start / (on Pocket PC’s) Programs / Virtual CE on your handset and. Then, just start the VirtualCE client on your desktop computer.

Should you want to remote control your device via ActiveSync, just cradle / connect it to your desktop and double-click the default “ActiveSync” entry in the list. If you establish the ActiveSync connection between the desktop and your handset before starting the desktop VirtualCE client, it'll automatically connect.

Should you want to create a non-ActiveSync connection, go to Connection / New… and, after naming the next entry (you don’t need to do this, but is still recommended), select the connection type in the Connection Type drop-down menu:



Should you want a remote TCP/IP connection, select WAN / Internet; then, you’ll also need to enter the IP of the handset as can be seen in THIS screenshot. Should you “only” want to control a, say, Wi-Fi-connected device on the LAN, you can also select LAN (Auto Discovery). Note that the latter will make initiating the connection a bit slower, as, as will also be explained in the “SOTi vs. VirtualCE” section, you’ll always need to select the device from a list whenever you try to initiate a connection to it.

Functionality

VirtualCE supports most functionalities one can expect of a non-high-end controller: taking screenshots, rotating the screen to be able to take screenshots / control games using GAPI to switch to Landscape mode and/or Web browsers like Thunderhawk that also use the landscape orientation. Also, just like all the other, most recommended alternatives, it allows for TCP/IP connections, which means you can remotely access a (connectable; that is, non-NAT’ed / firewalled) Windows Mobile device anywhere in the world. This is of extreme importance particularly for Customer Service and/or enterprise folks, who may need to access the handsets of their customers / workers somewhere else in the world (that is, not connected to the local desktop, where ActiveSync would (also) work.)

It also supports connecting to several clients at the same time. This is pretty unique. An example is shown in the following screenshot (click for the original size!)



In here, I’ve shown an example of controlling no less than five (VGA WM5 x51v, VGA WM6 HTC Universal; QVGA WM2003 HP iPAQ 2210; QVGA WM6 Vox/s710 Smartphone; QVGA WM6 HTC Wizard) devices at the same time. Note that I’ve left the main server screen of VirtualCE on all the handsets to reduce the size of the screenshot (PNG’s don’t really like colorful, “natural” pictures, and I didn’t want to use the, for making technical screenshots, inferior JPG); I could have controlled these devices freely. Also note the different IP’s visible on the phones.

However, it lacks some basic functionalities; most importantly, the ability to copy some text from the handheld to the desktop. While I agree the opposite direction is far more widely used (think of, say, quickly pasting loooooooooong registration numbers to your just-purchased app!), in cases, the opposite may also be desirable, particularly with folks that publish a lot of articles on Windows Mobile devices. (For example, I need to copy text from, say, Web browser User-Agent strings like in THIS thread.)

CPU usage

Traditionally, PDA controller apps have had high CPU usage. The two other, highly recommended controller apps (SOTi, My Mobiler) too have high CPU usage – particularly when controlling a VGA device.

Not so with VirtualCE. It has the least CPU usage of all; in this regard, it’s way the best. If you have problems because another remote controller app (either SOTi’s or My Mobiler – but are way worse in this respect) takes too much CPU time (which, for example, results in a very bad slowdown), make sure you give VirtualCE a try.

Speed

The screen refresh rate has always been causing the most problems with most remote controllers. (Actually, this is why I don’t recommend any of the alternative controllers at all: they’re plain slow, even with low-resolution (QVGA) devices, let alone high-resolution ((W)VGA) ones.)

In this regard, VirtualCE fares pretty well. Compared to (the free) My Mobiler, it’s faster in every respect; this is particularly visible in the full-screen animation video (see later). On QVGA devices, the difference isn’t that big, though – My Mobiler is perfectly usable on the latter.

Compared to SOTI’s much more expensive, but, apart from the CPU usage and the inability to control several devices at the same time and LAN discovery, vastly superior remote controller, there are two remarks.

1. If you need to control an application with frequent full screen upgrades (a game or even wildly scrolling the, say, Programs screen), SOTi’s app is much better and faster on high-resolution ((W)VGA) devices.
2. If, on the other hand, the changes are only restricted to a comparatively small area of the screen, VirtualCE updates the desktop-side screen somewhat faster than SOTi.

Again, the speed difference between these three apps are only really visible on high-resolution devices like WVGA or even VGA ones. On low-resolution (QVGA or 176*220 Smartphones) ones, there won’t really be (at least annoying) differences. There, My Mobiler will be the slowest but still really well usable.

I’ve made several, easily comparable test videos of all these results so that you can see I’m not lying. Two of them (the one based on my self-written test counter suite; the other on the new, excellent game Nanobotz) show changes restricted to a small area on the screen; the other shows a small portion of a full-screen animation. (Note that I’ve run the counter test twice on the VGA Dell Axim x51v: underclocked to 208 MHz and at the default 624 MHz to emulate slower and/or underclocked VGA devices).

Use the built-in Windows Media Player to play back the sample benchmark videos (all of them are linked from the chart). Unfortunately, the otherwise free and highly recommended (VideoLAN) VLC client isn't able to play them back.

[Menneisyys]

How does it compare to Pocket Controller Pro?

Pros

1. First, it’s way less expensive, particularly if you have more than one Windows Mobile devices. In the latter case, you would need to purchase a license to each of these devices from SOTi.
2. It has way less CPU usage, resulting in a far snappier client. This is especially useful on (W)VGA Pocket PC’s, where the CPU usage of SOTi can easily become an issue.
3. It allows for controlling more than one Windows Mobile client at a time. This is only available in the significantly more expensive version of SOTi’s app.
4. It not only supports (remote) TCP/IP connections, but also LAN discovery (for example, Wi-Fi connected handsets on the same local area network). An example of this:
   
   
   
   This frees you from having to enter the client IP. However, this also makes initiating the connection a bit slower as you’ll always end up having to select the LAN-connected device you’d like to control from a list whenever you try to connect a LAN-autodiscovered device.
   
5. It doesn’t display a connection message when you start the connection. In SOTi’s app, this can’t be suppressed, which means you can’t start the control session in several games / other, mostly full-screen programs without, say, the top taskbar being imposed over the image displayed by the controlled application. (BTW, in this regard, My Mobiler is also better than SOTi’s app.)

Cons

1. While, particularly on (W)VGA devices, VirtualCE clearly beats SOTi’s app in capturing and transferring changes restricted to a very small screen area, the latter is much faster when there are (nearly) full screen changes. This means you may want to prefer SOTi’s app when, say, you want to take screenshots of a game.
2. There are no built-in video recording features. While with an external, desktop-side application capable of recording any screen area into a video (like SnagIt or Fraps), you can easily record what the controller shows, built-in video recording capabilities would be even better. This regard, SOTi’s app is way better / more convenient.
   
   Note that, as far as other controller apps are concerned, the non-recommended dotPocket and the free and, now (as of version 0.91b), WM5-compliant VH PocketPC Capture are both capable of video recording. They, however, are significantly inferior to the most recommended “Holy Trinity” of handheld controllers (SOTi Pocket Controller Pro, VirtualCE and MyMobiler). Should you still want to give the latter two apps a try (I wouldn’t bother with dotPocket; VH PocketPC Capture is a tad better), see THIS for more info. (Note that the article still discusses the previous, 0.9b version of VH PocketPC Capture; it wasn’t, back then, WM5-compliant. Now, it is.)

How does it compare to My Mobiler?

Pros

1. Lower CPU usage
2. Ability to control several devices at the same time in wildly different networking topologies (again, in these two respects, it’s better than even SOTi’s Pocket Controller Pro).
3. Definitely faster in every scenario
4. Ability to custom rotate the screen
5. Doesn’t display an icon on the Today screen on Pocket PC’s / on the taskbar on Smartphones

Cons

1. It isn’t free (albeit $10 is REALLY cheap if you take into account its capabilities)
2. No PDA -> PPC clipboard synchronization
3. Impossible to reduce the zoom factor to 0.5 (when, for example, you’d like to take a QVGA-sized, low-res screenshot of a VGA devices without manual resizing in another program like ImageMagick.)

Comparison / feature chart

As usual, I’ve created a comparison / feature chart. Because of the size and the useful links inside, I can’t include it in here. IT IS HERE – CLICK THE LINK!.

Verdict

Now that there is another, highly recommended remote controller application, it’s even harder to choose from the “Holy Trinity”: SOTi Pocket Controller Pro, VirtualCE and MyMobiler. There are tasks one of them is best and there are tasks when the others.

Just some cases / examples showing you which of the three controllers you choose, depending on your particular needs:

1. for example, if you need to take a video / animation of a screen, particularly if it’s a VGA; then, your best choice will be SOTi’s app (or, probably, VirtualCE, if there aren’t frequent full-screen changes or animations and you can put up with using an external, generic video recorder like SnagIt).
   
   (Note that, in this case, absolutely the best and fastest solution is using a PDA with a VGA (an example: Dell Axim x50v/ x51v (see THIS); you’ll also need an external VGA-to-analogue converter) or an analogue (non-VGA) output like that of the HTC x7500 / Advantage / Athena. If you plan to make a video of, say, a fast-paced action game where the quality degradation introduced by the double digital -> analogue -> digital conversion isn’t a problem, this might be the best solution. If, on the other hand, you can’t introduce analogue artifacts (blurred screen), you will still need to stick with a PDA controller app to take your videos. Unless, of course, you use so high a video compression rate in the final output file that effectively hides the artifacts introduced by the dual D/A and A/D conversion.
   
   Note that some of the PDA’s with a built-in VGA output are pretty slow; an example of them is the (old) e800/e830. Also note that the old(ish) CF / SD-based video output cards or Bluetooth-based video output solutions like the Mobility Electronics Pitch Duo Presentation Device, Colorgraphics Voyager CF, Video Output SDIO Card From Spectec, Pretec VGA CF, or the discontinued Margi Presenter-to-Go and Presenter-to-Go SD for Select (see THIS for more info & links on all these) are, in general, pretty slow too and can’t match the speed of the video output speed of the Dell Axim x50v/ x51v or the HTC x7500.)
   
2. if you need absolutely the least CPU usage (because you don’t want the app / game you control / take screenshots of to be executed with a snail’s speed), your best choice might be VirtualCE
3. if you need to paste a LOT of text from the handset’s screen to your desktop (and you don’t want to use a file-based, very awkward transfer method), go for anything else than VirtualCE
4. should you need an easy way of editing / accessing the Registry, running keyboard macros etc. on your handset, get SOTi’s app
5. if you have more than one handset you’d like to control, but don’t have much money, you won’t want to go for SOTi because of the increased price (need a license for each and every client)
6. if you need to make screenshots of a WM game well into the game, but running it under a remote controller would really slow it down to a crawl, you will want to go for a controller that doesn’t mess up the game screen when activated – well into the game. SOTi’s app, in this respect, might turn out to be the worst solution because the dialog it displays on the handset may fully mess up the screen of the currently running application – or, at least, alter it to some degree. In this case, you may want to go for either VirtualCE or My Mobiler.
7. should you need PNG or JPG output with selectable (!) quality, either go for anything non- VirtualCE or, if you stick with the latter, make sure you install a third-party app to convert the output images (I recommend BMP) to PNG’s or JPG’s; now, with the needed quality.
   
   Albeit I’ve already elaborated on this issue in some of my articles, let me quickly recite what you’ll need. First, get and install ImageMagick. Then, copy all the files you’d like to convert to a directory and put one of the following commands in a batch file (change http://www.winmobiletech.com/012008Controllers/Program Files\ImageMagick-6.3.1-Q16\convert.exe to the path of your version):
   
   FOR /R %%X IN (*.bmp) DO "C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.3.1-Q16\convert.exe" "%%X" "%%X.png"
   
   (this converts from BMP to PNG)
   
   FOR /R %%X IN (*.bmp) DO "C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.3.1-Q16\convert.exe" -quality 50 "%%X" "%%X.jpg"
   (this converts from BMP to JPG, with settable output quality – here, it’s 50%).
   
   By just running the batch file(s) in the directory you’ve collected your VirtualCE screenshots to, you can easily fix the complete lack of PNG / settable-quality JPG files.
   
   Finally, note that VirtualCE excels in that it allows for one-click screenshots with auto-numbering. This can prove to be extremely useful in some cases.
8. etc. – the list continues

[Menneisyys]

This also shows there simply isn’t an all-the-best application. Everything depends on your needs. What I recommend is the following: if you have the money, get both SOTi Pocket Controller Pro and VirtualCE. Then, you’ll have the best of both worlds – all your future needs will be satisfied. If you can’t afford SOTi’s app but can still afford VirtualCE, don’t’ hesitate to purchase it – it’s still better and faster than the free My Mobiler and is really cheap. Then, however, just in case you’d need (frequent) handset -> PC text copy/paste, also make sure you download and install My Mobiler. (You won’t need the latter if you go the first, that is, the SOTi + VirtualCE route as SOTi’s app also supports this direction.)

Finally, if you have absolutely no money, My Mobiler is still way better than any other, free alternative like Microsoft’s remote controller or the various VNC-based tools. That is, go get it and forget all the other, free alternatives, no matter what some other people say – believe me, it’s vastly superior to them.

(Note that the current, tested, 4.0.2 version occasionally crashes, mostly upon saving into BMP24 screenshots, rotating the view and when, after having connected to a Portrait device, connect to a Landscape one in multiple device control mode. I haven’t encountered similar problems with connecting devices using strictly the Portrait orientation. Hope these bugs will be very quickly fixed by the developer.)

[Menneisyys]

UPDATE (01/31/2008): MoDaCo frontpage

UPDATE (01/31/2008): Thanks to beemer on my blog, the just-released My Mobiler 1.0.70821.010 has the following enhancements compared to the version reviewed above:

-It now rotates the screen manually
-It uses 50% CPU on a G900 against 90% CPU of SOTI pocket controller.
-It allows to hide the icon on the PDA Today screen tray bar from the desktop tray bar icon menu.

[Menneisyys]

UPDATE (02/01/2008):

1. Pocket Controller 6 IS able to (auto-)discover other clients in a (for example, Wi-Fi) LAN.
2. Unlike with ActiveSync, when connecting thru Wi-Fi (which may mean other kinds of TCP/IP connections - I haven't tested this), in PC6, the connection dialog isn't displayed.

(thanks to 3pears on my blog for the info!)