INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 12 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: gummbah on February 23, 2008, 08:42:14 am
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I have one computer upstairs with all my music and acts as server. In the living room I have a laptop that connects to the upstairs computer as client. When I am doing things throughout the house it would be nice to have the same music playing upstairs as downstairs?
Is this possible with MC?
Cheers
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Using MC's playback Zones, you can setup and 'sync' multiple zones. However, there is a great deal of difficulty in trying to sync zones perfectly due to latency issues, so if you can hear both machines playback at the same time there may be some 'echo effect' due to a several millisecond lag.
My way to beat this was to go "old school" and serve all "zones" with the same signal using a source selector switch setup in my speaker wiring rather than trying to do it in the computers. I can still run each zone independently from it's local machine if I prefer, or play the same program on all speakers with the flip or a switch.
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Ok, I am looking into zoning now.
How do I confugure zones so that one zone is my computer upstairs and the other downstairs?
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well, hopefuly you have either two soundcards or one card with multiple stereo 'channels' (i.e.: Front + Rear).
In MC's menu Player select Playback Options then select Zone Manager
Here you want to set up one Zone for each 'output' selection (i.e.: Zone 1 = Card 1, Zone 2 = Card 2 or Zone 1 = Front, Zone 2 = Rear). Name them as desired and select each one's playback options.
Once they are working, you can 'Sync' the zones to each other in various ways (send or receive the same 'Playing Now' list). To easily switch between zone, use Ctrl-T
I expect the Wiki has some better info on this, http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Multizone_Playback (http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Multizone_Playback)
edit: probably should have just sent you there in the first place ;)
edit 2: wiki looks a bit sparse on this area as of yet
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Hmm I do have two soundcards, but this is not exactly what I was looking for. That would mean connecting the stereo below with the output of my computer upstairs.
What I want is that the client computer plays back in sych the same song as the upstairs computer without physical connection, i.e. through wireless connection.
Is this possible with zones? Can I for example appoint my client computer as a zone in the server computer?
Or are there other sollutions?
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I understand what you are looking for, you basically want to send the audio out to both your soundcard and to a stream to be played elsewhere in the house.
I have not found a way to do this, and if you could you would be faced with worse latency syncronization issues than with multi-zones on one machine. This is because now you must also deal with the network latency + machine latency.
I suspect an answer would be to use some kind of "radio station" software to broadcast the playback stream over your LAN, then "tune-in" to the stream on both machines. This likely would not eliminate latency/sync issues either though.
This is why I used good ol' fashioned wire and switches.
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Ok thanks.
I hope someone figures out a way to do this simple without the need for cables soon :)
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I think THIS (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/) may be what you are looking for.
I've played around with older versions that only worked with Apple's mini-802.11 base station, the AirPort Express. The newest version allows any wireless client to act as an audio destination....
Hope this helps,
Brad
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Thanks! Airfoil looks promising, gonna try it out.
Maybe one day such a feature could be included in MC?
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RDP + this (http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:9gCW9g35XhsJ:concurrentremotesessions.netfirms.com/+concurrent+remote+desktop&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us)
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Is it possible to burn a mp3 CD with folders names with the Playlist names?
Of course with the Playlist's files inside this folders.
I know its possible to use Artist, Album , etc.. for a Folder name. But when I want to burn a Playlist then I cannot keep the files in a "Playlist" folder.
Thanks
Jorge
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Some help about this????
Jorge
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When you burn a CD, you can click on the little icon in the upper left corner of the Action Window to get the options.
I don't think the one you want is possible.
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Yes, I know about the Options.
I am using it.
But to make folders with Artist / Album or Album Artist (auto) / Album.
But If my Playlist have a lot of Artists I must a write a Name for the Folder by myself.
With more than one Artist itīs better to use Playlist name.
There is no rule to make a Folder name = Playlist name.
With this new rule would be possible to burn a lot of Playlist a the same time.
It seems now is not possible, but will be possible in a next version???
Thanks
Jorge
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You could do the following:
- Create a user library field named "Playlist".
- In each playlist select all files and and write the actual playlist name in the field.
- Add this field in the folder rule.
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VERY GOOD IDEA, ALEX ! THANKS !
One question : What about some music in more than one Playlist?
Jorge
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Change the field to list type and then files can have more than value for a field. You can even nest now....