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[smarskwid]

I am looking at picking up the Roku Soundbridge Radio (compatible with Media Center 12) for the sole purpose of streaming mp3 files over 802.11g wireless. However...all my MC library files reside on an external hard drive attached via USB to my laptop (which houses the 802.11 wireless network card). Is this going to pose a problem for serving/streaming...the fact that the MC library files are not on the laptop native hard drive but on an external drive? Just wanted to check before I spend the $300 on the Roku device.

[John Gateley]

Are the files in mp3 format, or are you converting? If you are converting on the fly, you'll need to make sure the laptop has enough CPU to do that.

One issue you might run in to: the Roku is persistent about remembering servers. If your laptop gets an IP address by DHCP, and it changes, you may need to power cycle the Roku before it'll see the "new" address.

j

[smarskwid]

The files are already MP3; no on-the-fly conversions and the only processing/memory usage will be in running Media Center from my laptop.

My internet service is provided by Qwest using a 2Wire 2701HG-D wireless modem/router and an 802.11g wireless card on my laptop. Not sure if that would be DHCP or static IP address.

[John Gateley]

Should be fine....

j

[haylo75]

I've been looking at the Soundbridge as a wireless streaming solution as well, but my scenario is a bit different.  I am currently using MC12 with a local library stored on a NAS RAID5 share.  Using the Library Server, I currently stream mp3 across the internet to a PC in my second home.  I'd like to use the Soundbridge to create a final leg from the remote MC12 client to my home theatre there.  Has anyone tried this, and if so to what degree of success?  My thought is that the 11g wireless network in my second home is as fast if not faster than the upstream link from the Library Server, so I don't foresee any issues.  Thoughts?

EDIT - At the remote location I'd like to use the MC12 interface to queue and play tracks on the Soundbridge.  In reading some threads I am not sure whether this is possible.  Any advice on this item is greatly appreciated.

[John Gateley]

To answer your second part: no, you cannot control the Roku from MC. You can only control it with the remote.

And I think this leads to the answer to the first part: it would be better (less network traffic) to have the Roku access the server directly. I'm not sure if a client MC can share with a Roku, though I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't at the moment.

j

[haylo75]

John,

Thanks for the reply.  The more I thought about the second part the more I thought that the remote would need to be used.  This becomes an issue from the standpoint of library size as I have around 50k tracks.  Library size was also the reason for my first question as replicating a 50k track library is no small task and I already successfully use the remote client across the internet.  I have a Squeezebox2 in use at my main home, but I don't think I can test with it in this scenario because it needs physical access to the sound files if I'm not mistaken.

[John Gateley]

It just requires a little more preparation: making a nice set of playlists so you don't have to scroll through lots of tracks. -- j