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[agirard]

Just downloaded 19.0.117 trial version for PC.

JR sees my Airport Express with the Air UPNP download and all other instructions followed as per the following link, to which I was directed at the JR FAQ page.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=66536.msg446673#msg446673

I can see my AE in "Playing Now" but can't hear it through my AE > Music Fidelity VDACII > Parasound Halo A23 power amp > Dynaudio Audience 50s (no preamp in this setup). Music through the "Player" zone works and sounds fine on the PC integrated speakers.

Haven't read through the following thread closely, but my sense from skimming it and the general lack of clarity in Interact (that I've found) about how to get AE working right with JR is that it's just not going to happen.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=84828.0

Would love JR to work with AE if it's possible. Can someone please help?

[6233638]

I ended up buying Airfoil, which was the only product I could find that streams audio to the device perfectly (stable connection without crashes or interruptions etc.) and while that side of it works well, the integration could be better for the way that I use it.
 
It's possible that other solutions may still work if you're on an older version of Windows, but most just wouldn't work at all for me on Windows 8.
 
There was an open-source command line tool I found which worked well to send audio to the device, but there was no way to integrate that with Media Center, and as you can see from that topic, the JRiver team have no interest in it.
 
I think it's a missed opportunity, as there are more and more AirPlay products being released now, due to "dock" style devices being phased out after Apple moved away from the old 30-pin connector, and for anyone that has invested in AirPlay hardware, it's one more reason to stick with iTunes rather than buy Media Center.
 
 
There are two ways you can use Airfoil with Media Center:

• Capturing all audio from Media Center's DirectSound output.
• Acting as a virtual sound device, streaming all audio that is sent to it.

 
The first method works fine if you are happy to use DirectSound and have sound playing locally as well as being streamed to the Airport Express. (at least I think it did that - it's been a while)
 
The second method works much better for how I use Media Center, as it allows you to set up the Airport Express as a separate Zone to send audio to.
 
 
The integration issues are that:

• Every time you connect to an Airport device with this feature enabled, it changes your default system audio device to their virtual one, and captures all system audio.
• When you enable streaming to an Airport device, it holds onto that connection, even if there is no music being played.

 
These two issues mean that I cannot leave Airfoil running on my system all the time, or nothing else can stream audio to the Airport Express, and that every time I start Airfoil, I have to manually switch my default sound device back.
 
 
I have been in contact with Rogue Amoeba about this, and they say that they have been considering adding a time-out for the Airplay connection, so that it would disconnect when idle rather than holding onto the device.
 
They don't seem to have any interest in preventing it from changing the default audio device every time you connect though.
 
 
Basically, the product seems to have been designed as an easy way for people to send whatever is currently playing on their computer to their Airport Express - and for that purpose it works very well.
But the issues I have mentioned above mean that it's not all that well suited to a 24/7 music server, unless you don't care that it prevents anything else streaming audio to your Airport Express, or don't mind having to manually enable/disable it.