Hey guys... hope I'm not duplicating a topic (I've search for anything like it), but thought I would share a solution I found for streaming low-latency PCM (uncompressed) audio over LAN. I live alone and have MC on my home automation server and use it to play whole-home audio (via EOS wireless devices -
http://www.eoswireless.com/) to various rooms around the house. I have no need for zones or whatnot.
Anywho, my main desktop in a room near the closet with the server I had wired via a simple audio patch cable from the line-out of the server to the line-in of the computer in the office. Needless to say, I was having ground loop issues (and other interference in this ~50 ft run). I knew there had to be a better way just using the LAN (other than just moving to balanced audio or digital) and have spent many evenings searching for any kind of audio-over-LAN software that would make this better. I spent MANY hours reading, trying various different things, all to no avail. The closest I came was Jack Audio, but for some reason it would crash on launch on the server, which is still running XP. I simply could not get the thing to start.
Finally, I ran across the Virtual Audio Card tools from
http://www.barix.com/downloads/Software_tools/221/. Needless to say, been using the beta 2 version of it and it so far, it has solved my problem. It simply sends a stream from the server (the source can be defined) to a receiver (happens to be the same software on the client). Almost no latency.
Mind you the server is very old (an old AMD Sempron), so using the "virtual audio card" driver supplied with that utility caused stuttering, but then I tried using the Virtual Audio Cable software and it works great. I send all audio to the Virtual Audio Cable sound driver, use that as the input for the Barix streamer utility and also have the Virtual Audio Cable driver repeat the audio to the EOS audio driver to the rest of the house. Best part is I can actually set a buffer in the repeat in the Virtual Audio Cable, such as to match the latency between the the audio in the rest of the house and my client PC.
Anywho, I wish the Barix streamer software had a little more configuration (such as buffer), but it does allow you to set bitrate and PCM vs. MP3. Can't complain since they have it free on their website.
If anyone has found something similar, would be great to know. In the meantime, if you have looked for something like this, definitely something to give a try. Even with this old server, there is almost no drop-outs. Even when the rare one happens, it recovers instantly. I know that my tests the reverse direction have no issues (my desktop is a quad core newer PC), so it's probably just time to replace the server finally.
After the many hours and hours over time searching, can't believe there isn't a really simple solution sitting out there that is obvious. Maybe I just totally missed it. If not, hope maybe this solution may be useful to those in a situation like this.
Author
Topic: Stream PCM Low-Latency Audio Over LAN Solution (Read 6946 times)