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[Peter_T]

Hi All -

I currently have MC set up on a laptop tucked away out of sight and use JRemote to play from that laptop to my main receiver via analog audio (3.5mm - RCA).  It works great most of the time.

I also travel a fair bit for work, and stream audio into my hotel room and various work sites around western Canada.  That also works great whenever my hotel wifi or cell phone connection is cooperating. 

Here's my weak link: the laptop I mentioned is connected to the internet (as well as a NAS) with one of those DLINK powerline adapters, and every so often I need to restart (unplug/replug) that guy to get things going again.  Not a big deal when I'm home, but not physically possible when I'm on the road.  The wifi on the laptop has been flaky as well, I'm not sure which has a better track record. 

What I'd like to do is move the laptop over to my router and hardwire it in - my NAS is connected directly to the router and is pretty darn solid - that was I would be less likely to lose a connection when I'm away, but when I'm home I would have to be in my utility closet to listen to MC.

Sounds like a good case for a media network... I have a google chromecast audio lying around but I've found the bubbleUPNP/DLNA option to be less reliable than my powerline adapter. 

Which brings me to my question:  what should I use to stream my audio?  I think the obvious answer is a mini pc running as a second zone (or an Id) running next to my receiver... how rock-solid would that be on a scale of 0-10?  I'm hoping for at least an 8, and a 9 or 10 would be better. 

Thoughts?

[RoderickGI]

Hmmm, maybe Play Power could shut down and restart your DLINK Powerline Adapter once a day on a schedule so that it is always "fresh"? You could also have the laptop reboot on a schedule for the same reason. But also, some of those power line type adapters have one or two ethernet ports these days, I believe. Maybe try those sorts at both ends and see if you get a better result since no wireless would be involved, just the network connection over the power wires.

Is your Receiver DLNA capable? If so you could put your laptop in the utility closet and always play audio via DLNA to the Receiver. There are some caveats though, as DLNA is probably as flaky as your DLINK Powerline Adapter, as you found with BubbleUPNP/DLNA. But if your Receiver is capable of running as a Renderer that may be a better solution than Bubble or Chromecast. Some Renderers don't support all formats and require conversion to play though. You would have to try and see.

Does your laptop have an HDMI output and your Receiver an HDMI input? HDMI cables can be pretty long, and support multiple channels well. Could you switch to using HDMI from the utility closet to the Receiver for all playback?

So back to an Id or similar. I don't know how reliable and rock solid they are, as I don't have one. But Media Network itself has been basically 100% reliable for me from my HTPC to my Workstation Client for audio. I can sometimes cause problems with video on the Client, but that is usually because I am doing lots of unusual things, like pausing and restarting often, testing stuff, tagging lots, and so on. Audio via Media Network to an Id should be very solid.

[Peter_T]

Super suggestions - thanks!

I think I can dig up an old mini PC to test out the Id (client) based option before putting a proper silent and small machine in there. 

[Peter_T]

So I now have a second PC just running MC and hooked up to the stereo... It's set up as a zone and I'm streaming over my wifi network.

I am having A LOT of cutouts... music will pause for 1-3 seconds and then pick up where it left off. 

Any ideas?

[JimH]

Try changing the setting for SetNextAVTransport in the DLNA Server settings in Media Network.

[robt]

You could run Whitebears Digital Media Renderer Analyser http://www.whitebear.ch/dmra to make sure your DLNA settings are optimum.

If you just had both computers hard wired to your network (not using the powerline adaptors) all these issues would just go away.

Bite the bullet and run a couple of wires, its so worth it!

[MikeO]

Sounds easy BUT ....

I have just been drilling large holes in walls and I now have to waterproof and sun protect the external LAN cables on the roof

The curse of the solid concrete slab roof !!!

Mike