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Windows => Third Party Plug-ins, Programs, and Skins => Topic started by: Shiraz on January 11, 2008, 03:26:49 pm

Title: So what's your Airfoil experience been like?
Post by: Shiraz on January 11, 2008, 03:26:49 pm

I've been using Airfoil with MC12 for about six months now.

1. The 5-second delay I can handle.... but...

2. sometimes I get a lot of drops, to the point of being unlistenable.

3. my local computer and the Airfoil stream are *always* out by about 200ms, enough to sound bad -- even when re-syncing (and using the latest version of Airfoil). It does get out of sync worse than that, but when I resync, it goes back to what Airfoil thinks is right, and that's the stream being about 200ms behind the local computer.

I know that #1 is common. But I'm wondering if others are experiencing #2 and #3. #2 in particular is a near deal-breaker.

Thanks,

Shiraz

ps. has anyone tried both Airfoil/Airport Express and the Linksys WMB54G? Which would you recommend?

Title: Re: So what's your Airfoil experience been like?
Post by: datdude on January 12, 2008, 12:39:46 am

#1 is not common for me, it is about a 3 second delay max.

Title: Re: So what's your Airfoil experience been like?
Post by: JONCAT on January 16, 2008, 08:52:40 am

I had lots of drops before some of the newer updates. I haven't tested it in a bit but I'll hook hook all my zones and test today.

Prior to ditching my wife's old Dell, Airfoil didn't perform real well with light mutli-tasking, with her new laptop performance is much inproved.

DC

Title: Re: So what's your Airfoil experience been like?
Post by: Rob L on June 16, 2008, 10:56:52 am

So does airfoil actually install as a virtual sound card that you can then assign as a zone in MC?

I'd been looking for something like this for a while, though to be honest I'd rather have something that could just output as a plain audio (e.g. MP3) stream so I could pick it up on DAPs round the house...

Title: Re: So what's your Airfoil experience been like?
Post by: JONCAT on June 16, 2008, 11:24:29 am

Airfoil can't handle zones; it hijacks MC but can't distinguish different zones. It works with two instance of MC but that can get iffy trying to keep track of which is which.

Title: Re: So what's your Airfoil experience been like?
Post by: bspachman on June 16, 2008, 01:28:06 pm

I've noticed that my sync issues are much better if I close MC and Airfoil, then launch Airfoil first--letting it take care of launching MC.

Even in that case, the local (computer) and the networked (airport) get out of sync after some stopping and starting of playlists.

My biggest problem with Airfoil is that it crashes when MC plays a multi-channel audio file (AC3 or DTS/WAV).

I haven't had time to investigate for the developers....

brad

Title: Re: So what's your Airfoil experience been like?
Post by: adamsp70 on September 22, 2008, 09:58:12 am

Works well for me - but i don't play on the local computer as well (as it's under the stairs).

But it broadcasts what MC is playing out to a PC, a Mac Mini and an Airport Express really well - all in sync.

Using xpTunes to remote-control via a PDA or iPod Touch etc just sweetens the whole experience....

Title: Re: So what's your Airfoil experience been like?
Post by: Shiraz on June 26, 2009, 05:08:14 pm

Just wanted to update this to say that the latest Airfoil for Windows versions work beautifully. Synchronization issues are just about 100% resolved and dropped connections are very rare.