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[milknkukis]

Hi all,
I'm very new to MC, but i'm optomistic its the answer to my prayers!
Does anyone know if MC is closer to multi-zone playback? I did a few searches but couldn't find anything under a year old on the subject. I only have one pc, but i have two 5.1 sound cards, one providing surround sound for films in the sitting room, the other i'm hoping to split for different volume levels and music in bathroom and kitchen. The one thing which would make my day would be to be able to have the same music playing through the whole house when i want it.
I know that true syncronisation is a problem, but to honest i don't really care! So long as each track started at nearly the same time it would be perfect for me, the shear amount of cable i have between the pc and the bathroom, plus the time it takes for the sound to travel back through the house means there is a slight echo effect anyway, and then you can only hear it in the hallway.
Would it be possible to write a plugin which plays the same playlist in all zones one after the other? What kind of delay would this introduce? (has anyone tried?!)
Sorry if i'm asking stupid questions, but with only 27 days to work out if MC is going to be any use to me i want to find out as much as i can!
cheers all
mark

[Alex B]

Make a search for "Zone" in MC Help. There is lots of information.

Maybe Mastiff's wide experience in this area can also help. He is a member here.

http://mastiff.now.nu/

[Mastiff]

It's actually very easy. You just need to use Girder. I have a Girder GML that I'm about to finish for upload (since most people here don't understand that much norwegian I'm translating it to english...) that opens playlists created with Nila's Album ID plugin. On my system you can simply push for instance 666 and get Mercyful Fate's "Don't Break the Oath" album (why do I always use that as the example?  ). And it's very easy to make that same album go to all zones, it just has to fire three commands, one to each zone. I haven't tried it, so I have no idea how long the delay will be, but I would suppose a second or two. Is that acceptable?

Then there's another approach: Have one more sound cards than you have zones and route the digital out from that one to the digital input on the other cards. Then there will be full sync.

[milknkukis]

Thanks for the info, The idea of an extra sound card is inspired! Although i think i will stick with my low budget option i have come up with. For now i only have two zones, and two sound cards, BUT i have a switch which allows me to decide which sound card one of the amps listens to. So when i want music through the whole house, the front channel from the lounge also feeds the the other amp via an adapter.
Having a delay of a second or two would be a bit too much i think, i don't have many doors in the house so the sound travels from room to room, although its good to know its an option if i need it.
I have spent quite a bit of time reading your website, thanks for taking the time to write it all down, its a great resource! Have you ever tried spiltting the channels of the C Media onboard sound? I was hoping to be able to do this but now it doesn't look possible, oh well nevermind.
thanks again
mark