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[Denti]

I have been able to play from one computer's library on another computer with MC installed. Great.

I have also been able to play using J.Remote from my iPhone and iPad. Great.

My question is: do I absolutely need MC installed on a computer to play music from my main computer (with my entire library), or can I access the music using a remote (such as J.Remote) and get that music to a different room via ethernet (or USB) and then straight into a DAC?

If not (and I suspect not), what would be the cheapest solution to getting music to output in a different part of the house, while still maintaining high quality of sound? I'm assuming a wired second computer with MC installed is easiest. But what if I don't want to invest in another computer just for that? Can I get a small network box of some sort that is compatible with MC?

[MrC]

Some of us use the (now defunct, but still available via eBay) Squeezebox line, using MC as the management tool and local playback player and use the Squeeze devices remotely.  Other options are also Sonos or DLNA devices.

Others setup low-cost PCs and use its sound output device to their DACs.

At home we use a combination of Squeeze devices, DLNA, and MC as the circumstances warrant.  Its nice, because this presents the same library on my office PC to all the devices around the house (we have no interest in managing a Media PC in our den).

[Denti]

So any DNLA device would work?

JRiver should offer a media box/receiver, both wireless and wired, with HDMI, USB, and optical outputs, preloaded and compatible with MC. This would be ideal.

[MrC]

Any DLNA device should generally allow you to playback audio, but many only support the required formats (lossy mp3).  So you need to do your research to see which support lossless.  This isn't a big challenge, however.

Furthermore, only a few DLNA devices support gapless playback, so that's another factor to consider.  Search this forum for "gapless".

DLNA is acceptable, but far from what I'd consider an optimal solution, for a variety of reasons.  Consider it an alternative mechanism.

[Denti]

Sure enough, when I turned my WDTV on it appeared automatically in J.Remote. Very cool.

But no gapless.

Another query: I have all my video on another computer, and would like to add it to MC there. How can I get the stuff from this computer to appear in J.Remote along with the rest of my library (from the main computer)?

[MrC]

Enable Media Network on the remote MC system, so that it can share the video library.

Note that JRemote can only playback MPEG-4 video on the device, but I believe it can initiate any video playback on the MC system.

You could configure your top-level video folder on the remote PC to be shared over the network, and have your main MC import those files.  Thus, it will be the "master" and you'll only need to connect to one MC server in JRemote.

[Denti]

It's enabled, but the one video I added is not appearing in the remote.

[MrC]

And you connected to that MC server via JRemote (i.e. you switched servers?).  You will also need to back out of the view to refresh it.

[Denti]

And you connected to that MC server via JRemote (i.e. you switched servers?).  You will also need to back out of the view to refresh it.

Ah, I see. Yes, now I see it.

If I went the other route (adding them over network to the main system) would the video go from the other computer over the network to the main computer and then get sent over the network to DLNA device? That's a lot of work.

Trying to play video from the remote is now not working. The player is showing "waiting" and the WDTV is not doing anything. Easier to just use the WDTV directly...

[MrC]

This all gets a little complicated, and you'll progress better by learning and gaining experience with one component at a time.

If you want the media to go from system A directly to DLNA device B, you need to configure system A as a DLNA server.

But there is nothing wrong with having system A acting as a file server A, and having MC send the media via DLNA to DLNA device B.  This is what file servers do all the time.  So long as your network keeps up, who cares?

[Denti]

To simplify and clarify:

System A (main computer with music library)

System B (laptop with MC and no music, but with HDs full of video)

Device X (WDTV)

I have been using device X to access the video on system B. Simple enough. But it would be cool to load these videos in MC (better sorting, tagging, etc.) and use J.Remote to play them from system B TO device X.

Not working.

[MrC]

If the DLNA device does not support the video type, you'll have to configure MC to convert the format to one the DLNA device accepts.  I know there are several threads in this forum regarding video and WDTV, so it might be worth searching for those.