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[andyc56]

Hi,

I'm an audio buff who is currently using a Squeezebox and the SlimServer software.  My Squeezebox recently had a hardware failure, so I am looking for alternative hardware and software.  For hardware, it looks like the Linksys WMB54g wireless music bridge might be a good choice.  For software, JRiver media center is looking good.  However, I'm not clear on the exact nature of its multi-zone capabilities, even though I have done some searching.  Let me describe a proposed configuration and what I'm trying to do.  What I'd like to find out is whether JRiver media center supports such an approach.  Here goes:

Spare bedroom:
Cable modem and wireless router
Music server with all music on RAID 5 array and using Linksys software so WMB54g will act like a sound card to the server.
Music server is cabled to wireless router

Living room
Stereo system with WMB54g, with its digital output cabled into S/PDIF input of standalone DAC.
All listening is done over stereo system in living room.
Windows laptop with no music and very little else on its rather small hard drive.  I hope to control the server from this laptop.

In my existing setup, I control the SlimServer located in the spare bedroom from the laptop located in the living room.  This is done using SlimServer's web browser interface and Firefox on my laptop in the living room.  I organize playlists and play them, select and play internet radio stations, and control play, pause and stop of the music from my laptop in the living room.

Here's what I'd like to do with JRiver media center.  I'd like to keep all the music files on the server in the spare bedroom.  I want to control everything from my laptop in the living room, from my listening chair.  I'd like the control program to be a Windows native GUI app on the laptop in the living room, used as a client to the server in the spare bedroom.  I have tried remote desktop solutions, but my server has a high res display, while the laptop display is small and my eyesight poor.  This makes the server's desktop appear nearly illegible on the laptop, making the remote desktop approach unusable for me.  That's why I'm looking for a native Windows GUI client for the laptop.  Also, I'd like to have the streaming take only one wireless "hop" as follows: Server->ethernet cable->router->wireless stream->WMB54g.  Is this ability provided with JRiver?

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

[John Gateley]

If I understand everything, you don't need the Linksys, nor multi-zones.

Instead, run Media Center in the spare bedroom as a Library Server.

Run the laptop in the living room with Media Center as a client of the spare bedroom Media Center.
Feed the output from the laptop into the stereo (I use a "USB soundcard" to do this).

j

[andyc56]

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply.  The solution you mention requires that the laptop be committed to the stereo rack in the sense that it's cabled to the stereo system.  I'd like to have the laptop be "free standing" and be at the table next to my listening chair when I'm listening to music or whatever.  In fact, I'm typing this on my laptop now, which would be impractical if it were in the stereo rack.

Would that work with the WMB54g setup?  Or does Media Center require that the audio output be taken from the client computer, rather than the server?

[John Gateley]

I use a really long cable (15ft, from laptop to stereo), though this isn't the most convenient solution.

If I remember right, you could use the server to drive the WMB54g, and use the "client" via Remote Server to control the server. I haven't done this personally.

Or you can get  a UPnP compliant box, such as Philips Streamium, connected to the stereo, and use the remote control that comes with it to control the Streamium. You don't get the entire GUI, but you do get playlists and smartlists.

j

[MusicHawk]

I use a Linksys WMB54g (and reviewed it here: http://advisor.com/doc/00966). It gives you a virtual "long cable" from the audio output of a PC to the audio input of a stereo. The "long cable" is an Ethernet connection on a wired or wireless LAN (I use wired whenever possible).

To the PC, the WMB54g software appears to be the PC's audio system, so whatever audio is generated on the PC (ALL AUDIO, including beeps and other software) is routed to the remote WMB54g hardware device, which is plugged into the stereo amp.

You MUST truly play the music on a PC running WMB54g software. So there's no need (or role)  for an MC "server" as such, unless you choose to do the playback on another PC on the same network; then THAT PC would be running WMB54g software, sending the audio stream to the device connected to your music amp. Thus, MC's server would essentially be a remote storage device that isn't involved in the WMB54g circuit.

Linksys software lets you switch back and forth between the PC's local speakers and the remote WMB54g device. However, the software in the box is poor; you must restart your audio source (such as MC) EACH TIME you switch audio output. Linksys.com has an updated driver that mostly fixes this.

A wonderful benefit of WMB54g is that you get to use all the controls of MC, such as gapless playback, volume leveling, and smartplaylists; some of these are lost when using other devices to directly access MC's library. A downside is that you must go to the playback PC to control things, AND during music playing you can't use it for anything else that might generate sounds. Also, the output can be directly only to ONE WMB54g; the software can't act as a broadcaster, such as to route the PC's music playback to two or more music systems in a house, yard, office, etc.

[JimH]

A downside is that you must go to the playback PC to control things...

Unless you used MC's Remote Server on the server and controlled it from a client PC.  NetRemote and MusicLobby are other possible ways to control MC remotely.  They're listed in the FAQ (see my signature).

[JONCAT]

Poor man's Squeezebox = Airport Express. The units have digital output too (Stereophile reviewed them claiming low jitter via optical).

I am currently using three Airport Express units in my house (WDS w/ WRT54GS wireless router). Right now my wife's laptop plays .ape files off of mapped drives with MC12 hijacked by Airfoil. I can sync all three Airports with Airfoil.

You could your use your laptop in this fashion with either Library Server (gives you transcoding) or using mapped drives (I prefer mapping so I can edit/tag files).

Regarding Zones:
Airfoil can output one hijacked stream to the Airport units of your choice; just activate the zones you want. You can not run mulitple instances of Airfoil to hijack various streams. Since Airfoil does not support ASIO output I am able to have my HTPC use Zone 1 ASIO for local stereo playback and utilize another zone (Virtual Audio Cable or EMU USB device) for Airfoil to hijack. This fact combined with mulitple PCs allows you some flexibility in utilizing Airfoil to ouput unique streams to unique zones. This will come in handy when I set up more zones e.g. outdoor speakers. The more zones the more tricky it becomes to satisfy unique playback with this setup but so far so good.

Some people have pointed out that your then using the laptop to play files and are not simply using your laptop as a remote control; I prefer to have full access to my files, view schemes, and playlist via MC12 GUI so this works well for me.

I looked into the Squeezebox and while they seemed to be devices of high quality I wanted the full MC12 interface.

DC