I've been peeking in and out of these forums for a while now in the hopes of coming up with a definitive home audio solution and I was hoping that maybe asking would give me a better summary than any info I have gathered so far.
I currently have a cat6 LAN setup at home, with 6 main rooms, each has a computer connected or one that is available to connect to it.
I was thinking that from these computers I could hook up my external amplifers (not great but they will suffice) and TVs, this in combination with one computer set up as a server would then hopefully stream either music or dvd's/movies to any of the computers that wanted to watch it/listen to it (I dont know enough to decide whether drive mapping and overnight cloning is better than streaming).
Assuming I am on safe ground so far...
... so several questions:
1) Could i then run single instances of xptunes on each computer, and therefore have discrete control over the individual zones? (the idea here is that when i get the time i program a little index web page of all zones - directing you to each of the discrete xptunes pages, allowing my tabletPC to chose which zone it is and therefore what its playing).
2) Is there anyway that MC would have control over the amp vol and or other (normally remote controlled options)? Like if i used a usb ir blaster (redrat etc) connected to the pc's? and would xptunes have control over the IR also?
3) If i stream an internet radio station, but want it playing in multiple zones (i.e. kitchen + living) will there be any noticeable delay between the two?
4) If i have a local input (in this case an old record deck) through mic channel (or if i can get the money together better quality input), can I stream it to other zones? (i.e. kitchen + living)
I know there's a lot of questions there, but if MC can pull it off, it beats the hell out of many other whole house audio solutions hands down, especially on price!
Many Thanks
