Can an Android phone control Ubuntu like a remote?

I am looking at making a budget media centre. I am new to Linux and have not yet installed it but think I can manage. I want to use Ubuntu and would like to use my Android phones to control or work as a remote for media playing to a TV.

My setup will be the media box to TV via HDMI (no keyboard or mouse connected) then to my Wi-Fi router via Ethernet.

So I want to be able to turn this PC on and after it's booted directly from my phone control the PC remotely to open the media application and run videos and open photos directly to the TV.

I am using a Samsung Galaxy S II and soon a new Sony for the wife.

Solution 1:

If you install the xbmc packages (and use that environment), you can control your machine from android, because there is an app called xbmc remote in google play. It works flawlessly for me.

Solution 2:

You can use anyRemote too

Solution 3:

There's actually an Android app written specifically for this use case. It's called Couch Potato. In addition to providing a virtual mouse and keyboard, it allows you to register your machine, and subsequently boot it by sending a Wake-on-LAN packet.

Full disclosure: I'm the developer.

Solution 4:

If you use VLC (a popular video/music player) in Ubuntu you could use one of the apps from the Google play store.