Streaming music over network?

[LeperousDust]

Not really sure if this should be in Audio or here since its quite technical.

I need a program (don't think VLC will do this out the box anyway) to stream whatever i'm playing on this computer music wise over a network. So whatever music program i use that uses directsound i want to be picked up and multicasted or however.

Also i wouldn't really like any lag, so i was thinking i could mute the default audio player and have a copy of VLC running in the background minimised playing directly to my soundcard bypassing directsound? So the main computer also experiences the network "lag".

Any idea if this is possible? I'm fiddling around with VLC and i can obviously have that mutlicast its own playlists and files (norton on a few PC's is being the usual PITA though). But i can't get VLC to use the directsound a an input...

//Edit: Or any other method of duplicating whatever is played on WMP or iTunes on one PC over about another 2-3 over a network (wireless unfortunately but it shouldn't be that bad, it's only audio anyway)... Long story short we've got a party coming up and me being a bit of a (failing) geek i want to have the music all co-ordinated instead of a mishmash around the house...

[Mark]

If it's just music, then the ShoutCast server plugin for Winamp will do the job, though it can be a little pedantic to set up.

[LeperousDust]

Haven't got winamp installed, i'm not really a fan of the winamp setup, but i might just go ahead with it anyway if its easy enough.

I seem to be having severe network problems at present though, if i set up VLC to multicast i can recieve it via the ip on my computer but so far the other 2 computers i can test can't. One does and one doesn't run Norton. I can't imagine why, it seems like maybe something to do with my router?

[Burble]

Assuming the other 2 computers are on the same subnet as yours then the router doesn't come into play.

This is something I want to play with myself, I've jsut never found to time to do it.

[Mark]

Incompatible router/network hardware possibly. Multicast support is one of those things that often gets left out to save on development costs.

[LeperousDust]

Wasn't a cheap router, Linksys WRT300N I was hoping it was multicast compatible!

Oh and i've just installed winamp and remember how much i don't like it, and it'll noly confuse everyone else, i'm not babysitting at this party, thus why i want either WMP or iTunes...

[Daz]

Multicasting within a subnet will not even reach the router, it's a switching thing. I'd be surprised if that was your problem though.

If you have a cross-over cable, a simple test would be to just connect 2 boxes up and make sure they work before doing anything else.

[LeperousDust]

No crossover cables, i've got about a million normal cables that come with routers etc... I could try plugging mine into the router over ethernet, and another that won't work currently cover ethernet too, see if i can at least get it working like that? Would that tell me anything?

Either way i still need to be able to feed directsound into VLC for multicasting too thats a big problem atm...

[leowyatt]

I had an app on the old windows box that streamed music, need to boot the box up and check what it was. I think it had a web interface, will have a look and report back. I streamed music from there and listened to it on the iBook upstairs.

[LeperousDust]

That sounds pretty good cheers :)

[leowyatt]

Seems I un-installed the app but have found this (http://www.mediamaster.com/) which might work

EDIT: result!!!!!!! (http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_features.html)

[LeperousDust]

Cool looks excellent, having a play in a bit, but i does strike me like a placeshifter rather than a duplicater. I literally just want to be able to hear music on the other computers not actually control it! Nor be able to play separate music...

[leowyatt]

yeah you just add all your music to a library and press play :D

[petemc]

One long winded way would be to install iTunes on all the computers and share out the library on the main one. Then, after syncronising your watches, everyone hits play at the same time on the same playlist. It might work.

[LeperousDust]

It's not really what i'm after, although it does look good for future use as a general program, i'll be keeping it.

Simply put i wan't to be able to duplicate whatever is played on one computers speakers on others over the network, thats it really, it actually seems a lot more difficult than you'd think, or i'm searching for the wrong stuff!?

[Mark]

You *will* suffer lag doing that (it'll sound like what happens when you're within earshot of two different sets of speakers at a concert). No question whatsoever and no way to avoid it.

My recommendation of ShoutCast would work (it's precisely what it's designed for as a lot of internet radio stations use it), but it'd still suffer lag. If you've already ruled that out then I'm out of options anyway.

Edit: you could of course connect up the soundcards to avoid lag, but that's kinda pointless. :)

[LeperousDust]

I know i'll experience about a few seconds of horrendous lag, thats why whichever primary computer was playing i was going to play from the network stream it was sending out too, so everything suffers the same lag...

The watch thing would be great, if it people weren't going to keep changing the music all night! :D

Shoutcast is like multicasting right? I don't mind doing that but i want to be able to do it from within iTunes or WMP on the primary computer....

[Mark]

Even if you run all the PCs off the stream, you'll still get horrendous lag. There are at least three buffers in the way between the two PCs, and only one of them is on the server.

You can get ShoutCast to stream from the PC's 'live' output, and possibly from other outputs too, so you could still have WMP or iTunes as the front end. What you wouldn't be able to do though is play the streamed output from the main PC.

I think the answer is that you can do what you want to do, but it'll be a bodge with several ill-fitting pieces of software, and it'll sound crap. Best avoid IMO.

[LeperousDust]

Ok ok i see, well i don't mind the primary computer not playing at all, thats fine. Looked at shoutcast got royally confued. How would i set this up so it just streams whatever WMP or iTunes is playing? Its probably better this way, i can leave the computer in the center of the house and have nodes around the house playing the shoutcast, quite nifty...

[Mark]

Like I said, it does take some setting up.

Start with post #4, here:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90040

Then go here to see how to set it so you can stream from WMP/iTunes:
http://www.streamsolutions.co.uk/flash/New_Tutorials/Decks_mic/

If you need a FAQ, try here:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=187583

[LeperousDust]

How frustrating the Open mixer dialog button does nothing on my Vista machine, and i've got all the music. Sounds about right, gonna get it up and running on another but he's got norton installed and i truly hate it :(

[LeperousDust]

Where can i get that "What u hear" program thingy googling doesn't seem to bring up much... I feel i'm getting close though...!

[LeperousDust]

Having no luck with just general Shoutcasting either here, what the fubar is going wrong, its not like i haven't streamed media at home with the same settings something is wrong with my network here...
I also can't access the Edinburgh website via VPN even though i'm using the EXACT same setup as i did at home, even with the same bloody make of router!??! Something doesn't feel right...

[Will]

What we used to do on the yachts is put the music into audio/video processing multiplexers, then route them through on a specific channel/stream throughout the yacht. Then when you selected than channel you'd hear whatever is being streamed - however this kit cost 5-6 figures usually so not much help for you! :o

There must be some streaming server software out there that you can use no?!

[LeperousDust]

Apparently not, apart from shoutcast which looks ok, cheers Mark! Shame it's flat out refusing to work past my computer... Nobody can actually recieve my shoutcast :(. Forget it i'll just turn the speakers up really loud (thats what i was trying to avoid, i wanted an even spread of music rather than one really loud room which is what is gonna happen now...

[Mark]

I assume you let it out through whatever firewall you're running.

Oh, and if you do use it, remember to set it so it's not a public stream - otherwise you'll get people trying to listen (not that that's a problem if you're behind a router).

[LeperousDust]

Yeah i'm behind a router, and the only firewall is the windows firewall on mine (don't trust norton as mentioned on another) it did initially moan but its not blocking now, and i've tried it with it turned off too. The obvious basically, i don't think its that, because i've got this weird problem with my VPN too, which works on this laptop behind my home router, but not behind my uni flat router (they're actually the same router too though, and both setup by me! =\ )

[Will]

Hmm maybe it's worth getting dedicated hardware to do it?

[LeperousDust]

It really isn't for just this party :p I'll turn the music up louder, and we have to suffer with different music being played in different rooms... It'll only sound odd as you walk between areas. People will be wasted and not really notce :)