I just upgraded to MC14 because of the new TRemote functionality and the possibility of not only controlling playback from another computer, but playing to multiple zones simultaneously. I tried synchronizing zones, but couldn't get it to work either.
Here's what I tried:
1. Run MC14 on 'server' machine and make sure the Library Server is started.
2. Run MC14 on 'client' machine (the rest of the steps are on the client)
3. From the File menu, select Library\'Search for Library Servers' (in my case, it finds the library from the 'server' machine and shows the IP address followed by the port # (81) under the title "Media Center" at the top of the app's window. This is the display window to the right of the player or transport buttons.
4. Click on the 'Playing Now' tree view and check if there are multiple green play buttons in the list. In my case there are 2. The first one is called 'Zone 1', I assume this means when I play music, it will play on the client, the other is called 'There:Zone 1', which I assume plays on the server.
5. Click the play button labeled 'Zone 1' and the top display should show the server's ip address followed by the port number xxx.xxx.x.x:80. When you play any music with MC14, the sound is played locally on the 'client' PC using the server's library. This is the same functionality we had with earlier versions of MC using the Library Server feature.
6. Click on the play button labeled 'There:Zone 1' and the top display should now add the text 'There:Zone 1' to the right of servers IP address:port. Now anything I play with MC on the client is played out the 'server' system, but I don't hear anything playing from the client. This is the new remote control (TRemote?) feature introduced with MC14.
7. From the Player pulldown menu, select Playback Options. The bottom half of this menu deals with 'Zones'.
note: Now the TRemote feature seems to work with the multiple zones features. This is a little confusing because I thought multiple zones were possible if you had multiple soundcards (or a multichannel soundcard with multiple stereo pairs) with different stereo channels assigned to different zones. You could define zones for areas in your home with separate amps and speakers, like your living room, kitchen, family room, etc. With TRemote, now maybe we can have multiple PCs located in our home with separate sound systems connected to each PC. Anyhow, I tried to get it to work.
Each zone is listed in the Playback Options menu. Clicking on one will make it the active zone. This works the same as selecting it under the Playing Now tree menu. The command a few lines down labeled 'Toggle Zone' does the same thing. There's also a command labeled 'Synchronize Current Zone' that displays another cascading menu with the options: 'From xxx', 'To All Other Zones', 'To xxx'. It looks like xxx will always be the inactive zone (unless you have more than 2 zones to choose from). The Zone Manager feature also lets you toggle between active zones and set synchronization. It also gives you the option of changing the name of your zones. In my case I changed the name of the server zone to "Musicplayer server" and the client to "Office-PC client".
Here's what happened:
Activate the server PC and play some music. You should hear music playing from that system (in my case I started playing some John Mayer downstairs). Now pick Synchronize Current Zone to the client PC. Now music plays on my client PC located in my home office upstairs. However, the music playing in my office is not the same music playing downstairs. I stopped playing music in each zone. I tried setting the active zone to the office-pc client, then played some reggae on that system. Then I tried synchronizing the current zone to the musicplayer server. Again, with reggae playing in my office, John Mayer started playing downstairs.
Has anybody been able to get this working? If so, could you give me/us a step-by-step set of instructions?
Thanks,
Gregg
Author
Topic: Playing both Here and There ? (Read 2441 times)