Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[simonmason]

I just downloaded and installed MC11.  I have a media server that is connected to a whole house audio system.  I initially set up MC as two zones on the server, one per sound card and was able to get both zones playing through my whole house system just fine.  So far I am very impressed.  I have a series of questions that hopefully some folks can weigh in on:

MC12 - I see a lot of people have already taken the plunge - is it stable enough to set up in the environment I mentioned above?  I gather from the posts in the forum that auto-montoring of folders is now available, something I am looking for as the files are currently being maintained outside of MC.

Is there a way to connect to the server and access the sessions in the two zones?  For example, if I have zone 1 running through the whole house system and I want to add a file to the playlist, it appears I have to use a remote desktop function (I have pcAnywhere installed - but this is not suitable for providing access to other members of the household) to take control of the server and do it?  It would be nice if the client application would allow accessing the server zones and controlling all of the playback functions.  I should mention that the server is in a wiring closet in the basement so it is not easy to get to the keyboard and monitor.

I want to control the main MC zones from my home automation controller.  I got the IR target working but I don't see any IR commands for accessing zones.  I did find some documentation on commandline operation, but this is kludgy.  Is there anyway to access the server - through a telnet connection or something similar and send commands to it.  Serial control would be a second best option.

Thats all for now, I am sure I will have more questions as I play with it more.  Thanks.

[JimH]

MC12 is stable enough for your use.  It's on the download page now.

This page may help:
http://www.jrmediacenter.com/devzone.html

User Mastiff has a lot of info on his site about zones.

[simonmason]

Jim,  Thanks for the prompt response.  I have started poking around in the development zone.  Do you know if anyone has written a plug-in to allow serial port control of MC?  I can't find anything on the message boards other than some pointers to Cinemar as a way to achieve this?  I have a fairly complex system using Crestron and other components so the only common denominator is serial control.  Thanks.

[JimH]

Check Girder at promixis.com.  Also take a look at Netremote.   Try searching for both here.

Good luck.

[simonmason]

Thanks, I checked out Girder - using this as a serial control that then operates Media Center through window control seems no better than direct IR control.  I dug into the IR control within Media Center and found it to be quite robust.  The only thing I am missing is some sort of acknowledgement of commands (true also with the Girder approach).  When I send a command to Media Center I am doing it blindly, assuming it goes through without issues.

Also, I noticed that MC12 doesn't work with Cinemar right now - Cinemar yelled at me and shutdown.  Is there an updated driver for MainLobby or should I stick with MC11 for the interim?  Thanks.

[JimH]

You'll need to ask at Cinemaronline about that.  I don't think there's anything more I could add.  Maybe someone else can help.

[modelmaker]

I believe Cinemar is stuck at MC 11.111 or thereabouts. I think I read on they're forum a couple of months ago that they were waiting for MC12 to be released before updating MusicLobby.

A lot of us have been using MC12 for several months and I for one have not had any major issues. Build # 12.130 seems to be rock solid.