I will try to be brief!
I have no internet connection at home save for my mobile phone data. This makes it difficult to use "normal" remote applications for media players like Kodi because they require a network connection.
I have used the Android app Yatse at school and really liked it. I would love to be able to use a similar media remote app to control my Pi, but it would have to be offline using Bluetooth or an Access Point connection created by my Pi. A Bluetooth remote might be the best option, because if I connect my phone to an Access Point WiFi connection, I will not have an internet connection on my phone, rather inconvenient.
I have a Raspberry Pi 3 and an external hard drive filled with movies and music. My main concern is playing/controlling music, movies/TV shows are secondary. For what it's worth, I also have a HiFiberry attached as an audio output. My goal was to sit my Pi atop my stereo and crank some high quality tunes!
In the past I tried Moode Audio. The Access Point mode worked, but the web based interface was very slow with my large library of music, and the web interface was difficult to control using a phone. Perhaps it is better suited for desktop/laptop or even tablet use. Also, as mentioned before, when I connected to the access point WiFi, I lost internet connection on my phone, so I could not, for example, browse Reddit while listening to music. Furthermore, it seems like it has become a paid service since I tried it (a few months ago).
Ideally, I would love to be able to somehow use Kodi. I liked using it in the past and thought it worked well for me, but controlling it offline has been difficult (impossible) for me.
I should mention that I have minimal experience with Linux, command lines, and the like, so please have patience with me!
Edit: The solution I am using right now:
- Install OSMC to my Raspberry Pi's microSD card.
- Hook up my USB hard drive, keyboard, and mouse.
- Run the setup on my Pi, it basically runs itself.
- Install Yatse (android app) on my phone.
- Turn on the WiFi hotspot mode on my phone.
- Setup OSMC on my Pi to connect to my phone's WiFi using the mouse and keyboard.
- Enter the Pi's IP address into the Yatse app, and viola! It works!
If anyone else has troubles with this method, I can provide more detail!