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[TXgary]

JimH
the sl300i works as advertised.  It was my TV. 
Now a couple of questions
1. Does replay gain work when sl300i plays the music to the TV and stereo?
2. Can you use the sl300i and select a song to play then select another song to play while the first is playing and the 2nd will start when the 1st finishes (like a juke box)?  Then select a 3rd and so on, like at a party with everyone selecting their favorite song.
3.  When switching tracks does fadeout and leadin work as it does when play thru MC11 direct without sl300i?
4. Will the image of the Album cover show (when there is one) as it does in MC 11 direct?
Thanks for all your help.

[JimH]

1.  I don't think so.
2.  No.  But you can make playlists on the server and play them on the device.
3.  Playback is completely a Streamium issue.  I don't think it can do fades.
4.  I don't think so.  It may be possible in the future.

Good to hear you got it running.

[TXgary]

JimH
so why NOT run MC direct to TV-OUT and run in Theater View. 
What is the down side?
I like everything about MC11 but want to use it as juke box for party so people can select another song for the que while one is playing.
Gary

[JimH]

JimH
so why NOT run MC direct to TV-OUT and run in Theater View. 
What is the down side?

It's good.  You could do that.  I do it.

[TXgary]

I would need to run a TV-out cable about 80 feet.  is that a problem and what cable do you use?

I think, if this works, it is a much better solution than the Streamium.....
Then I have the internet available.

How do you control MC on the TV ---NetRemote?

I do not know much about that kind of stuff...

Gary

[TXgary]

JimH
Was hoping you would respond to I prior response (just above).
Looking to connect pc to TV via TV-out but need way to respond to PC that is 60 ft away. 
And what about video quality at the TV when running 80 to 90 feet.  as should I use Cat 5 or Coaxial with connectors to s-video?
Sorry for the lengthy questions but trying to nail this down.
I did purchase the Streamium SL300i but will return it as it has some built in problems.  It does work as advertise,
BUT
Replay Gain in MC11 does not work when playing thru streamium using MC11. 
The speed when looking at 23,000 MP3s leaves a lot to be desired.
I feel direct connect is the best way to go, but not sure.  Looking for validation.

[JimH]

The two common solutions to this are:

UPnP device connected to TV
or
PC connected to TV (often called a Home Theater PC or HTPC).

MC can work with either.

The HTPC solution can also be a client PC that uses your existing PC as the server.  In that case, you run MC's Library Server on the server and MC on the client.

[TXgary]

JimH
Yes, the PC connect is the way I want to go
There are so many variables in this solution.
Where to put the PC
I want to leave it and run a long run to the TV -80 ft
can that be done successfully and what cable.  I do have s-video out on my PC and s-video in on my TV, but the 80 feet could be a problem.
Then how to control the PC from 40 feet away with no line of sight.
Any thoughts from anyone on this.
JimH thanks for all your help.................

[glynor]

With my old setup I did a 75 foot run of S-Video and had no problems.  Just because I happened to have one, I did use a cheapo Distribution Amplifier from Radio Shack, but I don't know if that helped or not.  Buying the S-Video cable costs a lot though, so be ready for it.  The quality wasn't really quite as good as it is now (with a much more reasonable S-Video run) -- there was some noise -- but it was perfectly acceptable.  I would NOT go with regular Composite (RCA-Style) cables, as you will get distortion, noise, and dot-crawl with those.

The audio run is another story.  That long of a run of Audio Cabling (assuming your audio feed needs to go to the same place) will act like a giant antenna and pick up interferance.  I'm sure there are filters you can buy that will sort this out for you though.  Mastif  ... help?

[dcpete]

Actually, S-Video is more sensitive over long runs than composite.  You really need to get a quality cable to run S-Video 80 feet.  But you should be able to find one that works well.  I believe you start running into problems over 100 feet with S-Video.  I think if it was me, I would just run composite, but use quad-shielded RG-6.  I've gotten excellent results with this type of cable.  Another solution if you want S-Video is to run dual RG-6 and connect them on either end with a BNC==>S-Video adapter.  This trick is commonly used by installers to extend the length of S-Video runs.  I've tested this myself and saw marginal improvement compared to a standard S-video run, but I was only testing a 50-foot length.

Chris

[jgreen]

Ditto for the Composite out.  I tried this a couple years ago using RCA and a cheapo Radio Shack Amp on the head end, travelling 70 feet.  The results were not terrible, as far as signal fidelity.  The better the amp and cable shielding, the better your chances, but that gets into more money, a LOT more money.

As for audio over long runs, I did it two different ways, over 70 feet.  First, I tried a lineout signal to an analog amp, and it wasn't bad at all.  Signal diminution skews to the high end, I'm told, and once I was told that I could swear that there was more bass in the music, so I pre-amped accordingly. 

Eventually the knowledge that my signal was skewing got too much to take, and I went out and bought another digital reciever, and fed digi-coax over the 70 feet.  The theory here is that the square-wave, serial nature of the digital signal will hold up better over long runs.  Having spent a bundle on that idea I immediately announced that I could hear the improvement, although I was never forced to do a blindfod test, which is lucky, because there wasn't a big difference and I'm not sure I could tell which was which.  YRMV.

If I was doing it again (which I'm not) and had a lot of extra money lying around (which I don't), I would do the HTPC, right under the TV.  I would have enough storage on board for all my music, and then run cat 5 to synch occassionally with el serverino.  Then I would simply use a wireles mouse on my coffee table or a net remote and be done with it.   Simplicity may not seem important now, but it will once you start laying cable.

For a lot of money, you can feed KVM a long, long way.  Video facilities do it, you can too.  But the idea is so crazy in this context that even I didn't do it.  Alright--I tried it, but came to my senses and took everything back. 

[TXgary]

I bought 100 ft of S-Video and connected it to my PC and then out to my Computer.  Actually is works very very well. 
But, I cannot see video when I play video files to the TV.  Photos work as well as MP3 with albums appearing on the TV screen while the MP3's are playing.  So I can see images, just not video of any kind.  I tried, wmv, divx, to name a few.  No luck.

So what is causing the problem.  I have the output set on my PNY GeForce video card to duplicate both PC monitor and TV screen.

Any suggestions.  I believe it is in the setyp on the PNY  GeForce video card

[dcpete]

It sounds like your overlay is not set up correctly for your TV output.  I'm not sure about GeForce cards, but with ATI cards, there is an Overlay setting that needs to be checked under "Display Properties Settings".

Chris

[jgreen]

Right-click anywhere on your deskstop, select  "nView Properties".  At the bottom right of the dialogue box select "display settings",  at the bottom-right of that box  select "advanced", click on the tab for your geForce model, wait for the stupid drawer to open on the left side. "Overlay controls" and "full screen video" finally show themselves, and submit to adjustment.  If full screen video is what you want, don't forget to enable the option "full screen device". 

[TXgary]

jgreen said
Right-click anywhere on your deskstop, select  "nView Properties".  At the bottom right of the dialogue box select "display settings",
But I do not get a "display settings" dialogue box.  I get a lot of tabs to select from
Desktop Management
Profiles
Windows
Applications
ETC.
Where do I go from here??

[glynor]

No need to fear, this is certainly just a Video Overlay setting.

First, you want to make sure you have the most recent video card drivers installed.  If you aren't sure that you do, or if you know you don't, then download them from here and install them.

Next, check out this help document from nVidia: No video on secondary monitor in dual monitor mode.

Glad the S-Video worked for you!  I was reasonably sure it would, as long as you used high-quality S-Video cable.  Not sure where you picked it up, but I got some very nice long runs of S-Video from CDW.  In theory, what dcpete said before about S-Video vs. Composite should be correct, but in practice, I find the distortion you get on a long composite run is far worse than that with a long S-Video run.  That holds up to about 150 - 175 feet (and depends on your tolerance for dot-crawl).  Above that, the super-shielded Composite or RG6 suggestion made is really the only way to go.  Again, though, you loose the benefits of the S-Video cable then (color fringing, dot crawl, signal clarity, etc).