I am toying with the idea of moving my eJukebox PC away from the stereo during parties and putting it in a different place, where it is more
convenient to use for my guests.
It is my understanding that the best way to do this would be to use this software called Shoutcast, correct?
What I want to do is to have a small laptop connected to the stereo via an external USB Soundcard and use my existing WLAN to feed the audio to it
from the eJukebox PC.
If I understand correctly the FAQ on the Shoutcast Homepage, all I need to do is:
A) On the Laptop:
- install Winamp
- Run Winamp and tell it to open a stream at the IP Adress of my eJukebox PC on port 8000
B) On the eJukebox PC:
- install Shoutcast DSP Plugin
- install Shoutcast Server
- configure Shoutcast DSP to connect to localhost Port 8000
Then, I supposedly run eJukebox to select the music which Winamp plays and which the Shoutcast DSP Plugin sends to the Shoutcast Server from where the
Laptop picks it up.
So, before I go do all this...is this the correct procedure? Does anyone here have experience with this?
Yes, that is exactly the correct procedure.
Thanks, Audiosoft, works like a charm. However, I am not happy with the overall solution. As I use a WLAN and the music is stored on a server, using
Shoutcast means I have to "stream" the MP3 music via a network share to my eJukebox machine, from there it gets reencoded(!) into another
MP3 stream which then travels to the laptop over the WLAN. While this works, it is a big waste of resources (CPU, Network Capacity) and of course
lowers the sound quality due to re-encoding on the fly.
So I am now experimenting with a much better idea: Why not just send the actions of eJukebox to the target machine, instead of the music data?
And I found a plugin called "Cubicle" that is supposed to do just that: remote control Winamp from another Winamp!
If I get this working, I would only transmit the Play, Stop, Next Song etc. over the network, just a few bytes per song. My eJukebox machine would
simply remote-control the Winamp on my laptop and instruct it to play the same files...
I'll let you know if I get this working!
why not remote desktop onto server and "bring sounds to this computer"?
That could work also (would have to be tested), but I don't use XP and under 2000 this is afaik not available...
A completely different solution would be to use wireless sound transfer. We are experimenting with this at the youth club. I bought a sender and a reciever, and have been using it at home with great pleasure, sitting in the livingroom listening to the music emitting from my room to the livingroom stereo, and watching eJ on the livingroom TV, also broadcasted through the same device.
Remote desktop for windows is available on any Windows platform.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdclientdl.mspx
OR you can use VNC, OR any number of a thousand remote desktop programs, some even web based vie IE.
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Heres a new revalation I discovered tonight to add to this discussion.
I tried this on both Win2k and win2k3. I also tried this with a spanking new Sondblaster live and a MadDog(?) soundcard.
When you RD or TS to the server, it all looks good and seens ready to go, but when you try to "bring sounds" to the client desktop Winamp
gives you a error mesg telling you your audio device is either not configured or isnt present. If I check sounds on the server all is well, but you
cant bring sounds remotely with Winamp according to my experiment.
On the bigger more annoying side, if you try the exact same experiment with WinXPpro it works. There is a slight backround hiss, but not enough to
bother me from the light testing I was doing.
I am thinking this has somethign to do with the fact that you cannot have more then one concurrent user loged into a standard winXP install via RD.
Therefore, when the new user logs in, even with the same name, it closes the old session, and restarts a new one, drivers and all.
With the server editions, they allow multiple concurent connections. Winamp seems to take over the soundcard, and does not want to share or play
nice, thus only one logged in user can do it, and only after everybody has logged out and one person logs back in.
I screwed with this half the day.
I hate to install WinXP as a server, since Ill be doing other things as well, but if its teh only way, I suppose I will have to jsut work around it.
Demnos,
i really think you should give KaVoom! a tryout.
Leave the eJukebox server hooked up to the stereo and use KaVoom! to control it from the laptop
Thats a dang fine idea!
Until I noticed they wanted as much for their software, as a real kvm on eBay. You cant replace a real kvm with software.
i kinda thought it was reasonable ... $9 plus $10 for each system.
i paid $49 for 4 systems and i know i would pay a lot more for a KVM switch and all the cables.
i still have a 2-port KVM switch and the keyboard/video/monitor is 24 feet from the switch. i can say there is some ugly artifacts on the monitor
using the KVM switch that disappear using KaVoom!
did you give it a trial and check it out? i was amazed at the speed. it's like sitting at the remote system. eJukebox is a little graphic
intensive and shows when using KaVoom! but still very impressive IMO
KVM wise I use a Belkin and a genric and never had any issues with either of them, including my lust for giganto screen resolutions. (I use 1600x1200
on my main computer)
Its a good idea no doubt.
I think Im jsut salty however. I installed 4 OSes to deal with my intital "bring sound to desktop" issue, only to find a fricken Winamp
plug in to fix this very same issue today.
Kinda my luck it seems lately.
linkie-poo=remote winamp sounds with server editions.
Back to win2k3 like I initally wanted.
Probably the worst thing I am encountering so far is the fact that I can do pretty much everything eJukebox does with various plugins. BrowseAmp does
a far better job of remote control, and has the ability to change teh html very easily to suit your website styles. It even has album covers in it,
but not auto lookup, although Im pretty sure I can figure that out somehow.
In the least, eJuke has taught me a lot about building a home system.
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guys,
trust me. i tried everything availabe for a couple years just for this solution.
i tried VNC - windows and linux servers. wrote my own app in PHP.
i tried RDP - slow and cumbersome and had connection limitations
windows terminal server - i have a subscription to M$ Ation Pack. TS is OK but required a lot administration.
shoutcast etc. - don't want streaming audio. don't need it because it just makes a small problem bigger. i already have a CA4.4iL
distributed audio system.
so, a couple months ago i installed eJukebox on my music server and loved it. i then installed KaVoom! on it and my workstations and i was done.
worked immediately and ever since. no hassle inexpensive solutions.
and, i can control EVERY app. on the server. not just eJukebox. if you stick a plugin into EJ then you can control only EJ and you will have to
install EJ on every workstation to control EJ or winamp or however on the server.
if you want that beautiful interface of EJ and you want remote and simultaneous multi-user control and you want it simple and hassle free - try
KaVoom!. it will give you all that and more.
did i also mention that one of my workstations is a ProGear touchpad i bought on eBay for ~300 US ?
it is a Transmeta CPU at 400MHz and about equal to a P2-266. it has 128MB RAM and runs XP on its 6 Gig HD. it connects to my wireless network and
using KaVoom controls EJ. and plenty fast enough.
SWEEEET!
if EJ wasn't so graphic intensive (which is why we like it!) you would think you were at the server running an application. if you try out
KaVoom, run Word or Notepad or Excel or something else. you'll see what i mean.
sweeeet!
Just tried Kavoom! - it is brilliant! Thanks for recommending it. Until a true functioning "remote control" Winamp plugin shows up, this has got to be the best solution by far. Like you said, easy to install, and very fast!