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[Nexus]

I just recently purchased MediaCenter v9. and have been very impressed overall.

I installed MC on a Win2000 server and setup MediaServer. I have also setup multiple zones through the Zone Manager... living room, outdoors, and family room. Additionally, I have two client PC's running MC and attach to the MediaServer. To play back multizone audio, I'm running a SB Live 5.1 with eX drivers. This allows three separate stereo outputs for three separate zones of audio.

If I select each 'zone' from the server I can play different music in each zone. Everything works great, however switching the zones at the server becomes inconvenient. Is it possible to switch zones remotely from a client running MC or through the web client?

Additionally I would like to be able to control the volume of each zone remotely as well. Is this possible in the current version?

If these features don't currently exist, could you please add them to the customer wish list?

Thanks for the great product!

[JimH]

Mastiff is the reigning world expert on multi-zone:

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=MediaCenter;action=display;num=1044549138

[Mastiff]

Present and accounted for, sir!   And thanks! My wife suggested that I print out your post and hang it on the wall, and who am I to argue with my wife?

First the simplest answer: NetRemote. You don't need to use the MediaServer for this, that's created for having one central media library and streaming audio/video/images to other computers. Have a look here: http://www.netremote.org

With that you can change songs, browse the library and to many other things from a Win32 running computer or a PPC (I have 2 PPCs and I'm waiting for a WinCE webpad as well, I'm totally hooked on this system!).

The larger problem here is the volume control. I have petitioned the gentleman posting above me and his cohorts (well, maybe begged and threatened more than petitioned) but it seems like adjusting zones volume independently through MC is a problem. Which brings us to the probable solution: Girder. Install Girder and use that to control the volume via the kX (not eX, that's SoundBlaster's external connection boxes for Audigy & Audigy 2 sound cards) drivers. I must admit that I haven't done that myself, and that Girder has a slightly steep learning curve. I use the volume control on the receiver/boom box/car stereo instead (I've got three computers running MC with all in all 12 zones, three of those in the car (car stereo and headphones for both kids - and it's in a metal suitcase so I can bring it to any party or anywhere there is a place to plug in power and phono or mini jack plugs, and it has the full backup of my 30K+ MP3 tracks (I had to do backup of all that work, so I decided to do something fun with it)) and I do volume through either the original remote, through NetRemote's use of a unit called an USB-UIRT (which is Universal IR Tranceiver - it both sends and receives signals, so it can control non-computer equipment - very amusing to annoy the kids if  they're watching TV to early in the morning!) or  even (when pressed) by walking over to the receiver or whatever and pressing the button (very primitive, I agree).

So all in all you should look to NetRemote, and perhaps also Girder (http://www.girder.nl) for your needs. And you could have a look at my webpage to see how I have arranged my system (it's slightly outdated since I have bought the USB-UIRT since it was created, but who wants to do website work in the summertime?). It may even give you some good ideas. Right now it's running like a multi-zone multi-dollar system from any of the big names at a fraction of the cost. I wonder if even Bill Gate$ has a multi-zone sound system in his car...  

[Nexus]

Mastiff,

Thanks for chiming in! I actually had a chance to read your threads and visit your website. I found the information very informative and it addressed many of my concerns. After reading about how you implemented NetRemote, I downloaded a copy. I plan to experiment this evening.

Also I appreciate the correction on the kX drivers. Having three zones on a single SB Live 5.1 card is great and extremely cost effective to boot.

Your portable multizone system sounds great! Maybe that will be my next project.  

If I need your assistance with NetRemote or other MZ related questions, can I send you an email?

Thanks again!

[Mastiff]

Sure, glad to help. But you'd better start by sending me a PM here or at the NR website, since that's the only place I give out my address.  

[JimH]

Even better would be to keep the discussion here so others might benefit from it.

[Mastiff]

Very good point. Let's do that! I'll get an E-mail everything something is written in this thread, and e-mail comes to my cellphone as soon as they're in, so I'll be able to answer just as fast here. But not right now, because here in Norway it's nighty-nite time!  

[Nexus]

OK, we will keep this discussion in the forum.

I've installed NetRemote and it's up and running. I can stop, start, reverse and forward through my music with ease. I also see the cover art and can switch between zones. RemoteServer is running on port 8080 and NetRemote is configured for the same port.

The only problem I've encountered is NetRemote isn't populating the media information (playing now, media library, and playlist). It just says 'Loading'.

I checked NetRemote's forum and the only related topic I could find indicates  that int_webremote may be running and interfering with RemoteServer. I can't find int_webremote in the Plug-In list and don't know where else to look.

Any thoughts on how to troubleshoot this?

Thanks!

[Mastiff]

No, I don't operate with thoughts. I give answers!   It's actually very simple: NetRemote needs a remoteserver.dll that's developed far beyond the one in MC (the problem is that things changes too fast now so it's not practical to send every new version to the guys at JRiver, we can't expect them to give out a new version of 9.0.180 every other week just because of that, can we?).

What you need to do is to go back to the NetRemote website, download NetRemote Suite and run that. Then you remove all the marks except for the one called "Install plugin" (not "Download /Install, that will upgrade/install your full MC9) below the heading Media Center 9. Make sure MC9 isn't running (and hasn't been for the last minute or so, sometimes Remote Server takes a little while to close because of the tcp-thread), or it won't work. Let it finish (that takes only a few seconds) and run MC again.

It will work. If not, there has been a glitch somewhere, but it's very unlikely. Usually when people say it doesn't work, they have forgotten to shut down MC9 completely before they do it.

Let me know how that works out for you!  

[Nexus]

Mastiff,

OK, I'll try your suggestion tonight. I did try just selecting the "Install Plugin" option but I also had "Download/Install" selected. So I'll try to deselect that and re-run the installation. Does it download an old version of the remoteserver.dll? I also made sure MC was completely closed out before running the install.

[Mastiff]

No, it shouldn't do that. I can E-mail you the correct version of the DLL if necessary. Send me your E-mail address as a PM.

[Jaguu]

Hi Mastiff,

thanks for your advice, had the same problem with "Loading...". Will try out your suggestions tonight!

[skeeterfood]

I've found that the Netremote Suite Install sometimes won't overwrite the remoteserver.dll that's installed by MC.  If you delete the current remoteserver.dll in the MC directory (with MC shut down of course), then install the remoteserver.dll from the Netremote suite, it usually works...

-John

[Mastiff]

Seems like very sound advice.

[Nexus]

skeeterfood and Mastiff... thanks for the assistance, that did the trick.   I had to delete the RemoteServer.dll first then re-install the new plug-in.

Now if only I could control the volume in each zone separately... maybe someday. :-/

This really is a fantastic and cost effective way to setup multizone audio. On that note I would like to thank JRiver for their efforts. I would also like to thank the great people in this forum for their support.

[aussie1]

Thank you Mastiff et al!  I had the same problem and hadn't started to try to figure out the cause.  You help is great!!!!!!!

Which ccf file are people using?


OT: I'd love to be able to use NetRemote to navigate to a webpage (www.npr.org, for example) and play a streaming real audio file from there.  Is this possible?Morning Edition, Marketplace, and All Things Considered played over the web is my main source of news.

[Mike Noe]

I've been using the PDA MC-only CCF (nrmc19.ccf) almost exclusively since .99 came out with it, very nice and simple.  Been working on my own "MC-only" CCF for some time now, but for daily usability nrmc19.ccf is still my favorite.  I haven't really spent any time on the Win32 version of Netremote but seems like there are some nice CCFs for that as well.  Check the "user upload" section on netremote.org.

One suggestion if you're a frequent updater (betas) of MC:  make a copy of remoteserver.dll, then after every MC install, just rename the version that came with MC and copy the saved version to it's place.  That way, you can always swap back and forth quickly and easily.

[Mastiff]

I use my own, based on the "brushed metal" looking CCF that Keith Beer made. But it controls a lot more than just MC, so it's pretty big. It's on the User uploaded files area on the NR website. As for streaming that's not possible, at least not now. This app is not really centered around the PPC as a content provider, just a controller. You can partly surf the Net, though.

[TheSaint]

OT: I'd love to be able to use NetRemote to navigate to a webpage (www.npr.org, for example) and play a streaming real audio file from there.  Is this possible?Morning Edition, Marketplace, and All Things Considered played over the web is my main source of news.

Looks like they have found a way to stream media to the PPC, with WMP anyway, on the NR boards:
Feature Requests->TV on NetRemote

http://www.netremote.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=370

HTH,
Patrick

[Mastiff]

Yeah, I need to watch my mouth better. One week, and the answer is obsolete! That has to be some kind of record!