More > JRiver Media Center 20 for Windows
[REQ] Linking Zones When Video Is Playing
6233638:
--- Quote from: jmone on August 24, 2014, 06:57:43 am ---For me it is still the dream of "Whole House" media where you can play content in sync across multiple devices.... Say play a music video on the main system and have the audio pipe to around the house.
--- End quote ---
As long as every device can be hooked up via HDMI and accepts the same signal formats (i.e. 1080p) it seems that using something like a Gefen HDMI Detective to capture the state between your primary display and receiver, and then connect a matrix splitter/switcher to the output of that device, would be the best solution for this.
This has its own limitations, but seems like the easiest way to do it.
--- Quote from: Hendrik on August 24, 2014, 07:02:57 am ---Different videos, sure. The same video, in perfect sync? No such luck.
Sync would be a big problem with remote playback as well, and somewhat the same problem for local audio-only cloning, as linked zones work by simply playing the same file, and not by rerouting the audio internally.
--- End quote ---
Makes sense.
With the way that madVR handles playback/video sync/smooth motion, I wonder how much work it would actually be to support synced playback across multiple instances, but that would be up to Madshi.
glynor:
--- Quote from: Hendrik on August 24, 2014, 07:02:57 am ---Different videos, sure. The same video, in perfect sync? No such luck.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: glynor on August 23, 2014, 10:24:03 pm ---I realize the sync might not be perfect in these cases, or worse than usual, but that's not a massive deal in all cases.
--- End quote ---
In the majority of the cases where I'd use this, you can't see the display, and can't really hear the sound from each place, so perfect sync isn't a massive issue. The issue is, if I Link those two zones, and then someone plays a video for a minute (like adds a music video to the playlist), the zones unlink.
I've encountered the same limitation a bunch of times when doing DJing gigs too.
glynor:
--- Quote from: jmone on August 24, 2014, 06:57:43 am ---For me it is still the dream of "Whole House" media where you can play content in sync across multiple devices.... Say play a music video on the main system and have the audio pipe to around the house.
--- End quote ---
I should add, yes. This is my "dream" too. It is a thing your average AV Receiver can do that MC cannot.
But I'm not looking for perfection here. A step in the right direction...
mojave:
JRiver can already convert video to audio. Perhaps this could be done on the fly with the the audio pushed to other Zones. Then the other Zones only see the audio.
For starters, maybe users could pre-convert video to audio as an MP3 that is linked to its video file.
glynor:
--- Quote from: mojave on August 24, 2014, 09:38:46 am ---JRiver can already convert video to audio. Perhaps this could be done on the fly with the the audio pushed to other Zones. Then the other Zones only see the audio.
--- End quote ---
I thought of that, initially, because it would solve my actual problem. But...
MC can play videos simultaneously to multiple "displays". I knew before that you could do it with multiple Detached Displays (this runs all day long every day at the office, in fact, it works perfectly and has since MC14 or earlier). I didn't actually realize you could do it in Standard View too with the split view and Playing Now, but there's another case (clever boy, 6233638).
MC can play multiple videos simultaneously.
MC can play the same video simultaneously, just like it does with linked local zones and audio playback. I wasn't sure that's how it did the audio linking before, but Hendrik seems to have confirmed that above, making it even more practical.
Just to make sure of the latter, I just tested it:
Heck... After a few tries, I could get the sync within a second or so, and I was just doing it meat-fingers style (click one one, Control-P, click on the other, Control-P). Surely doing it programmatically you could do better and get it within a few ms or so of each other. I did tests with un-recompressed BluRay rips to MKV, so 1080p with DTS audio and all of that. It works fine, even on my now-somewhat-older Ivy 3770.
So... Why artificially limit it to audio-only "secondary" zones. Just. Do. It. Or try anyway...
In fact, I can think of reasons it'd be cool to have this for Photos too and image slideshows, so not even just video. For remote zones, it is admittedly somewhat harder, of course. But, MC clients that can all locally access the files directly? Heck, that might even work well enough, if you aren't going to play a single Playing Now list for hours (allowing them to get super-out-of-sync over time) and you can't hear one place from the other clearly.
In my case, I'm looking for interspersed video, mostly. But it would be cool to be able to play a video in your house, and have it go to multiple sound systems, and displays if you have that set up (with detached, fullscreen displays perhaps, or maybe separate MC clients). Even if they weren't perfectly in-sync, if we're talking about separate rooms around the house separated by floors and multiple doors? Who cares?
Here's another place I'd use it:
I have some friends over. We're drinking, carrying on, hanging out. We have a movie on that makes us laugh that we've all seen a bunch of times that we're kinda half-way watching and making fun of and whatever. You know... Right now, it is Frozen because three-year-olds. We decide to go downstairs to my man-cave to throw some darts. Since it is Frozen, it is a relief to escape it, but let's pretend it is a movie we actually kinda want to keep watching.
If I can link the zones of the HTPC and the basement server, the movie could be already playing down there, at basically the same spot, when we walk down the stairs. Maybe some of us (the womenfolk, perhaps) stay upstairs and keep on keeping on as before. That happens. We drink, carry on, throw pointed objects. Keep watching. Walk back upstairs when said-adult-bevarage is empty to rejoin the others or re-up? The movie's still going up there. Sure, maybe an hour in, they're 2 minutes out of sync? So? In this instance, it makes no difference at all really. (And, I'll note, I think that estimate is high, you can do better.)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version