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Re: Multiroom Music Server

  • Subject: Re: Multiroom Music Server
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 19:51:50 +0000
  • Newsgroups: alt.linux
  • Organization: schestowitz.com / MCC / Manchester University
  • References: <i44m93xafn.ln2@loki.cmears.id.au> <42rcspF1k6rbfU1@individual.net> <dfen93x2o1.ln2@loki.cmears.id.au>
  • Reply-to: newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • User-agent: KNode/0.7.2
__/ [Luc The Perverse] on Saturday 14 January 2006 14:25 \__

> "J.O. Aho" <user@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:42rcspF1k6rbfU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Luc The Perverse wrote:
>>> If there is a much better way to do this, feel free to enlighten me ;)
>>>
>>> I would like to develop a music server which could serve multiple rooms.


Is the project intended to be scalable and serve a wider audience? If not
(assuming a personal customisation), how many rooms are involved? I
personally set up my speakers so that they serve 2 rooms, but there is only
a single stream involved. A second sound card and separate (sessions
of/multiple) media players could send signals to the different cards, from
which wires will be extended to the required room/s. I never dealt with
multiple sounds cards on the same system though.


>>> The box would run linux and be controlled remotely over a network and
>>> have
>>> options for playing directly from the controls on the front.
>>
>> MythTV or Freevo could be used to take care of the playing, may need some
>> hacking for your feature. I do suggest one of those ATI (usb) remotes, as
>> you
>> can control the machine upto 15 meter away and you don't have to be able
>> to
>> aim at the computer with the remote as it uses radiosignals.


...Assuming you can see what's on the screen. I have always found these
cordless mice and keyboards to be more of a gimmick. Remote controls for
computers (in this case a laptop, I presume) have been impractical ever
since I came across IR peripherals 8 years ago. Even remote controls for the
CD-ROM left you staring at the plastic case, sometimes with a tiny,
dimmed-down track counter (now obsolete). With a projector, the case might
be different though.


>>> Now, I was planning on using a 5.1 Surround Sound (or higher) System, but
>>> instead of being surround - seperately using the channels to serve
>>> different
>>> rooms - I would send this to a local amp, which would boost the signal to
>>> be
>>> sent over speaker wires to the speakers in the remote destination.
>>>
>>> Are there convenient libraries available for accessing the different
>>> output
>>> channels and independantly controlling volume etc?   I would prefer to
>>> program from Java, but also know how to code in C and C++.


I don't think programming will be necessary. It rarely is. There's plenty of
code out there already; it only requires that you discover it and maybe
tweak it slightly.


>> I think this is best solved on the driver level, not sure if you need to
>> hack
>> the driver itself or if you will manage to just make your own quite
>> special
>> alsa driver setup (seen works on making two soundcards to work as they
>> where
>> one with a lot more channels, so it could be possible to configure things
>> the
>> other way too).
> 
> 
> Hmm thanks.
> 
> I easily found the project pages.   I wonder what kind of processesing
> power
> it would require to do multiple streams.  AFAIK broadcast TV only comes
> through in stereo, so I could use the two main channels at the TV itself
> and run this like a Tivo and a music server at the same time as long as it
> wouldn't trip up.  Of course I could just use two sound cards as well ;)
> If I got an MP3 decoder chip, I could alleviate a great deal of strain off
> the processor, but I don't know if any MP3 decoder cards will allow
> multiple simultanious streams.


Judging by the specs (listed later), the load will be rather low. As Mr. Aho
pointed out, you could always 'nice'. either positively or negatively, the
processes that should receive more and less CPU capacity. Some music players
allow you to tweak this without having to muck about in the command-line.
There's also buffering.

Roy

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