Ok, I have all my music in my PC, it can be accessed from any computer in my house and I can play any song, anywhere, at any time. But I can't seem to do one important thing and that is play the same song on two different PCs in synch. Is there an app that will stream from one computer to all the others allowing me to play one song from one PC on all the other PCs?
I'm talking about using my home giga-bit local ethernet of course. I shoudn't have to add a single piece of hardware, only software.
I'm talking about using my home giga-bit local ethernet of course. I shoudn't have to add a single piece of hardware, only software.
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Banned
Joined 2002
good luck, OH btw, gigabit doesn't really have any thing to do with it
unless you are running cat6 shielded cable throw that word down the toilet 
streaming media systems
Do not worry too much about bandwidth unless you plan to host your music to the world, then bandwidth is the least of your issues. Licensing is the one to worry about in this day and age. Now, let's move onto the answer since one of my pet peeves is to respond with information that has nothing to do with the original question!
You have many choices and each one is platform specific, so my first question is what operating system do you own? When you are looking at sharing music, the term is called "streaming". You can stream several types of media, Wikipedia can help you understand the theory: Streaming media - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Here is a list of streaming media systems: List of streaming media systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I suspect you have Windows, so an "open source" streaming media server that is free and well known is Icecast at Icecast.org
Reply back with what operating system you are using and exactly what type of files (.mp3, .wav, .xi, .ra, etc.) you want to share or stream and I will make a better recommendation bases on your needs.
Do not worry too much about bandwidth unless you plan to host your music to the world, then bandwidth is the least of your issues. Licensing is the one to worry about in this day and age. Now, let's move onto the answer since one of my pet peeves is to respond with information that has nothing to do with the original question!
You have many choices and each one is platform specific, so my first question is what operating system do you own? When you are looking at sharing music, the term is called "streaming". You can stream several types of media, Wikipedia can help you understand the theory: Streaming media - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Here is a list of streaming media systems: List of streaming media systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I suspect you have Windows, so an "open source" streaming media server that is free and well known is Icecast at Icecast.org
Reply back with what operating system you are using and exactly what type of files (.mp3, .wav, .xi, .ra, etc.) you want to share or stream and I will make a better recommendation bases on your needs.
Thanks for the help.
I only mentioned the bandwidth so that people would understand that I don't think that I would be bandwidth limited in my system.
I use Windows, yes. Several Win 7, others XP Pro. I'd like to upgrade everything to Win 7 64-bit because it seems to run well - although its backward compatibility has been an issue.
I am quite savy with PCs and networking and even thought of writting an app myself, but not being a "pro" I figured I'd see what was available. Syncronizing all of the PCs would seem to me to be the hardest thing since ethernet is not a synchronous system and the PCs do not necessarily have identical clocks. The latency in all this is not clear to me, nor is level that would be apparent as one went from room to room. Complex topic that!
I have all my music in WMA - lossless. Its on various PCs, but all of the Win Media players share the same songs. Its not critical that I use Media player, but it is critical that I use WMA lossless because thats what everything is in and there are over 700 titles.
Not an elegant solution, but setting up a Squeezebox server and then using Softsqueeze / Sqeezeplay / Squeezeslave on the clients will allow you to sync two players easily, and more if you use Squeezeslave's ability to pretend to be a hardware squeezebox.
Simple streaming won't work, the initial buffering will throw it all out of sync.
(Oh, I also believe there's a windows version of Pulseaudio available, which is a network aware sound daemon. Might be another way to approach your problem)
Simple streaming won't work, the initial buffering will throw it all out of sync.
(Oh, I also believe there's a windows version of Pulseaudio available, which is a network aware sound daemon. Might be another way to approach your problem)
That sounds like a hardware intensive solution - i.e. buy my box and everything will work fine.
Streaming would work if the source acknowledged the buffer is full and sent a "play" signal back to the server. Of course you could only add new devices at the start of a song, but I don't see that as a problem.
I simply don't see why it would be such a tough app to do. If the connection were fast enough the timing problems should be minimal.
I have a sling-box, but that seems like a lot of overhead for just audio. But I suppose it would work.
How to stream your music to any PC - Orb Solution
The path of least resistance is to leave your music library in its current home: your home PC. Because there's nothing to upload, you can start streaming almost instantly. You just need to choose an application/service that satisfies your needs.
There is a really cool Jukebox but is difficult to setup: the internet-jukebox program Jinzora. It's a killer solution, but perhaps a bit complex and time-consuming for most users, what with all the PHP script editing and MySQL databases. Thankfully, there are easier, faster options.
One of them is Avvenu, which can stream your music from other PCs or to a Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone. However, it was recently discontinued, so if your found a copy of the source code you may be on your own, and has library limitations.
Your best bet: Orb. It's easy to set up, chock full of great features and, best of all, free. Alas, the desktop software requires Windows (though it can stream to Macs—and even select PDAs and phones). Mac users seeking a similar solution may want to try the iTunes-over-Hamachi approach. Reply if this interests anyone and I will give deatils about this solution.
Orb is actually designed to provide remote access to all kinds of media: music, photos, videos, documents, even live and recorded TV. For our purposes, however, we'll stick to the music side of things. Start by downloading and running the Orb software. During the installation process you'll be prompted to create an account. You'll then be asked to choose what kinds of media you want to access remotely. Deselect everything except audio (unless, of course, you want to stream other stuff).
The final step is to point Orb to the folder(s) containing your music, which you can do by clicking the green Orb icon in your System Tray and choosing Configure. When that's done, fire up any browser on any PC and head to mycast.orb.com. Click Open Application and select Audio. Presto: Your music library awaits!
This web-based jukebox interface packs in the features. You can sort your library by all kinds of criteria (just by clicking the column headers); drag and drop songs to create playlists; listen to (and even record) Internet radio; and share songs via a public Orb page, MySpace page, e-mail, SMS, RSS and so on. My only complaint is that the interface can be sluggish, especially when you're trying to resize panes. What's more, Orb can't stream DRM-protected tracks. But other than that, the service rocks.
Hosting online
If there's a downside to using a service like Orb, it's that you need to leave your PC running 24/7 (though if you configure your standby mode correctly, you may be able to work around that). What's more, it consumes system resources and more than a little of your available bandwidth (what with all that outbound streaming) when you use the Orb service outside of the local LAN.
Consider, then, a service that hosts your music online, thus taking the load off your PC and network. I looked at three: MediaMaster, MediaMax and MP3tunes. If any of these interest someone, let me know and I will post more details.
That is it for now, Xerocomm Audio
The path of least resistance is to leave your music library in its current home: your home PC. Because there's nothing to upload, you can start streaming almost instantly. You just need to choose an application/service that satisfies your needs.
There is a really cool Jukebox but is difficult to setup: the internet-jukebox program Jinzora. It's a killer solution, but perhaps a bit complex and time-consuming for most users, what with all the PHP script editing and MySQL databases. Thankfully, there are easier, faster options.
One of them is Avvenu, which can stream your music from other PCs or to a Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone. However, it was recently discontinued, so if your found a copy of the source code you may be on your own, and has library limitations.
Your best bet: Orb. It's easy to set up, chock full of great features and, best of all, free. Alas, the desktop software requires Windows (though it can stream to Macs—and even select PDAs and phones). Mac users seeking a similar solution may want to try the iTunes-over-Hamachi approach. Reply if this interests anyone and I will give deatils about this solution.
Orb is actually designed to provide remote access to all kinds of media: music, photos, videos, documents, even live and recorded TV. For our purposes, however, we'll stick to the music side of things. Start by downloading and running the Orb software. During the installation process you'll be prompted to create an account. You'll then be asked to choose what kinds of media you want to access remotely. Deselect everything except audio (unless, of course, you want to stream other stuff).
The final step is to point Orb to the folder(s) containing your music, which you can do by clicking the green Orb icon in your System Tray and choosing Configure. When that's done, fire up any browser on any PC and head to mycast.orb.com. Click Open Application and select Audio. Presto: Your music library awaits!
This web-based jukebox interface packs in the features. You can sort your library by all kinds of criteria (just by clicking the column headers); drag and drop songs to create playlists; listen to (and even record) Internet radio; and share songs via a public Orb page, MySpace page, e-mail, SMS, RSS and so on. My only complaint is that the interface can be sluggish, especially when you're trying to resize panes. What's more, Orb can't stream DRM-protected tracks. But other than that, the service rocks.
Hosting online
If there's a downside to using a service like Orb, it's that you need to leave your PC running 24/7 (though if you configure your standby mode correctly, you may be able to work around that). What's more, it consumes system resources and more than a little of your available bandwidth (what with all that outbound streaming) when you use the Orb service outside of the local LAN.
Consider, then, a service that hosts your music online, thus taking the load off your PC and network. I looked at three: MediaMaster, MediaMax and MP3tunes. If any of these interest someone, let me know and I will post more details.
That is it for now, Xerocomm Audio
Thanks, Orb looks like what I wanted to do without buying anything.
As for Earl's latency/clock issues, I don't see a solution for the fact that the 96kHz clocks in two different computers could slowly drift apart with time.
Correct me if I'm wrong but you want to open three separate instances of a listener on three separate computers in your house and be able to walk around without any wierd flanging/comb-filtering artifacts.
As for Earl's latency/clock issues, I don't see a solution for the fact that the 96kHz clocks in two different computers could slowly drift apart with time.
Correct me if I'm wrong but you want to open three separate instances of a listener on three separate computers in your house and be able to walk around without any wierd flanging/comb-filtering artifacts.
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Yes, basically thats correct. I believe that the clock difference issue gets better if each song terminates and then start again for the next song. That way any drift would be kept as short as possible. You could just add a sample or take one away to always keep within one sample of delay. Seems that could get tricky.
Question for xerocomm: Would three computers running the same web page stay synchronous? Seems that could get to be far more than just a sample or two. If it does and its truely free then it works for me.
latency/clock issues
Correct, you will be able to "open three separate instances of a listener on three separate computers in your house and be able to walk around without any wierd flanging/comb-filtering artifacts".
If you run into any trouble, I would be happy to help you. Please post any issues to this thread. If I can not answer them, we can create a secure Crossloop session to your PC and fix the issue via remote.
Keep me posted with the results.
Correct, you will be able to "open three separate instances of a listener on three separate computers in your house and be able to walk around without any wierd flanging/comb-filtering artifacts".
If you run into any trouble, I would be happy to help you. Please post any issues to this thread. If I can not answer them, we can create a secure Crossloop session to your PC and fix the issue via remote.
Keep me posted with the results.
Three computers stay synchronous
There should be no issues. Yes, it is truly free - it is called "open source" software. The terms and conditions are usually manged by OSI or similar agencies. Many of us out in the programming world are there for the many, not the few. We feel that if we all collaborate together a better product will be developed, thus one of the reasons for open source.
Let me know if you run into any trouble, I would be happy to help.
There should be no issues. Yes, it is truly free - it is called "open source" software. The terms and conditions are usually manged by OSI or similar agencies. Many of us out in the programming world are there for the many, not the few. We feel that if we all collaborate together a better product will be developed, thus one of the reasons for open source.
Let me know if you run into any trouble, I would be happy to help.
Just wanted to note that my proposed SoftSqueeze solution involved no extra hardware at all, every tool involved is freeware software (and even has the source available, although it'd be a stretch to call it open source since it's developed in house by Slim Devices).
That said, yes, at heart they develop devices for logitech to sell.
Please post back if this Orb solution works out for you, I can think of a few uses for such a thing if it truly can run synchronously requiring nothing but a browser on the client end.
That said, yes, at heart they develop devices for logitech to sell.
Please post back if this Orb solution works out for you, I can think of a few uses for such a thing if it truly can run synchronously requiring nothing but a browser on the client end.
OK devils advocate here, I decide that a certain opera needs to be played back at 95kHz to sound right, but that sound card is only on one of my computers. Asynchronous TCP/IP streams should work fine with any output clock frequency (within reason) via sufficient buffering. My point is the output clocks are local and not synchronized to the data stream. The server could care less what frequency the output is at. It simply serves a data stream when asked.
BTW hats off to your software contribution.
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Thats cool! Thanks.
But for me, I like to see people make a fair profit for their hard labor or significant expertise. I am not so impressed by "collaboration" if it means that we all starve together, but I'll collaborate with anyone if I can be fairly compensated.
Thanks again.
With all do respect I don't think the problem is understood. Earl you could probably do what you want with some relatively simple software that connects via a TCP/IP socket with a little custom handshaking. NASA has some public domain code for connecting telescopes over the internet that has the basic skeleton you need. AFAIK there is no simple way to simply walk from room to room and turn on an audio stream via a browser and have them all sychronized. I can walk from my office to my LR and connect to NPR's archive and they are offset by the amount of time it took to get there. In fact the actual IP address of my computer is relatively anonymous as far as the internet is concerned. You are asking a server to assure 10usec alignment of recieved data between two or three of thousands of connected nodes.
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Once again, I propose the Squeeze solution - it's DESIGNED for multi-room audio, and support synchonisation of two software players.
Squeezebox Software Beta Downloads - Version 7.4
Just download the Squeezebox Server and point it at your media library, then install Squeezeplay on the client machines. They'll autodetect the server and connect you to your library.
Then just follow these instructions when you want to sync: Slim Devices : Support : FAQ
It's not elegant, but it will work, and you can set up playlists and control playback from a web browser on any computer on your network (or indeed any computer on the internet if you set up appropriate port fowarding).
Squeezebox Software Beta Downloads - Version 7.4
Just download the Squeezebox Server and point it at your media library, then install Squeezeplay on the client machines. They'll autodetect the server and connect you to your library.
Then just follow these instructions when you want to sync: Slim Devices : Support : FAQ
It's not elegant, but it will work, and you can set up playlists and control playback from a web browser on any computer on your network (or indeed any computer on the internet if you set up appropriate port fowarding).
Thanks for that link, actually someone has implemented just what Earl wants and it was linked on the Squeezbox site. It uses Java and ssh tunneling to sychronize streams. EDIT - I read some of the docs, good luck.
Softsqueeze 3.8
Softsqueeze 3.8
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Scott, you are correct. I misunderstood the question, thus I gave an incorrect solution. Along this path, you are correct with the problems.
I have used this application and coded it for a different application but this should work. I also think VLC does the same thing but let me check first.
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