Smallest, cheapest client/extender for MP? (1 Viewer)

What kind of MP client or media extender do you use?

  • UPNP or DLNA streaming client

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • independent system acessing common (e.g. NAS-based) media library

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    21

rsbrux

Documentation Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • April 15, 2007
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    Home Country
    Switzerland Switzerland
    I currently have a single-seat MP installation, but would like to have media extenders in every room. In the good old days, when there was a working UPNP server plugin for streaming music (thanks, kroko), I could listen to music from MP in the bathroom using an IPdio web radio. Unfortunately, this no longer works, and I am reluctant to install or activate yet another service with its own library parallel to MP for this use case. I am now looking for a more general solution, but am somewhat confused by the profusion of solutions which have been discussed in the forum in recent years and would like some advice on the best solution for the current and future versions of MP. The following possibilities occur to me:
    1. a classical "media extender" (e.g. Xbox 360) with attached TV, speakers and/or display
    2. a parallel system (e.g. Logitech Squeezebox, Philips Streamium or Sonos)
    3. DLNA-enabled consumer devices (e.g. new TVs) for each room
    4. cheap, compact PCs (uATX-based?) running MP client SW
    5. even cheaper, compact PCs (uATX-based?) running web client SW (MPextended web?)
    All of these solutions seem messy and complex to me, involving multiple components, cables etc. I liked the elegance of the web radio solution, with an all-in-one box containing speakers, display and operating controls (however primitive). The only option that seems to come close is the Logitech Squeezebox. Is there some alternative I am missing? Here are my use cases (UCs), in order of priority (and probably increasing difficulty):
    1. listen to music in other rooms
      1. from the MP library, independent of what the main HTPC is doing
      2. synchronously, as remote speakers to the main HTPC
    2. watch recordings (film, TV) in other rooms
      1. from the MP library, independent of what the main HTPC is doing
      2. synchronously, as a remote monitor to the main HTPC
    3. watch live TV
      1. synchronously, as a remote monitor to the main HTPC
      2. independently, using the 2nd tuner in a dual-tuner card
    UC1 is for me by far the most important, and applicable to any room (I don't plan to have any monitors or TVs in the bathrooms). The video use cases "would be nice".
    What experience do others have setting up such clients or extenders?
    Which options are worth considering?
    Which options are likely to continue to work in the future (e.g. with MP 2)?
     

    logifuse

    Portal Pro
    January 19, 2011
    118
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    Sydney
    Home Country
    Having video in sync over the LAN is practically impossible (i.e. 2 or more TVs showing the same thing in sync).

    Sound can be done via Airfoil. You can use it with PC clients or Apple AirPort Expresses as clients.

    A Shuttle XS35GT-V2 fanless PC is a good option for a full extender. The Arctic MC001 should be good too, but I was never able to get it to have smooth video output.
     

    rsbrux

    Documentation Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • April 15, 2007
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    Switzerland Switzerland
    :D for the tips!
    Video in sync is my least important UC anyway, so not so tragic.
     

    cubii

    Portal Pro
    November 1, 2006
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    Hi i think i have the same wishes than rsbrux and i am using mediaportal since years.
    And this will be a long post!

    First: Music and videos should be separated.

    Why?: Because Mediaportal is not designed to be a multi room audio player. Just for multiroom Tv.

    I am experimenting with many music players. I want the possibility to have different music in every room, but sometimes i want the same music in every room.

    This is not possible with mediportal until now...

    So my solution is (and this is just theoretical, just tried some parts of this solution) :

    Use one of the following players for music:

    j.river mediacenter: can be used for multiroom audio with two or more soundcards, or with gizmo (an android app) with nearly synchronized sound.

    use squeezeplayer/ Logitech mediaserver: Softwareplayer and controller for android/Windows/and ios and ofcource the hardware players that exist

    or airplay from apple (also via android or ios device or xbmc-device) (but this wont give different sound only sync)

    This means for music you have one server and clients with ios/android or windows/linux (squeezeplayer)

    And for tv mediaportal in combination with the android plugin (ampdroid or else) this should also work (but not perfectly sync but the same program on all clients. ( so windows/linux(xbmc) clients or android clients)

    Videos are a bit more complicated, but i cant think about a user scenario where nearly sync video is needed (apart from musicvideos -> solution is to watch music tv..;) .)
    If you want to watch the end of a movie in for example the sleeping room, mediaportal can remember the watched position of the movie and starts playing it from there. (This would? only work with windows clients)

    Some points to think about / to try:

    Mediaportal and many other musicplayers can use the itunes library as a source, this could help to have only one point where the music database has to be managed.

    a good client could also be the raspberry one, a arm-linux device for only under 40 dollar (with openelec/ xbmc with airplay, pvr plugin for watching tv via MP and squeezeplayer plugin) but i cant test it until i have one.


    So this post is just summarizing all my thoughts and also some experiments about the multi room audio and video Problem, i am open for any suggestions, or questions...
     

    rsbrux

    Documentation Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • April 15, 2007
    1,137
    117
    Home Country
    Switzerland Switzerland
    Hi cubii,
    Thanks for your thoughts. I was hoping to be able to use a light weight client like the raspberry, but it still looks very complex to get all of these different components working together. I try out Jriver from time to time, because listening to music is my most important HTPC function, and it seems a bit further developed in this area, but I always come back to MP, because of its 10' interface and because it is a more complete solution. It never occurred to me to use both Jriver and MP together. Isn't this just asking for trouble? Either one is not all that simple to configure, so I am a little leery of trying to maintain compatible configurations of both together. Please keep me posted on your progress!
     

    cubii

    Portal Pro
    November 1, 2006
    627
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    48
    Isn't this just asking for trouble? Either one is not all that simple to configure, so I am a little leery of trying to maintain compatible configurations of both together. Please keep me posted on your progress!

    You are right....

    While using j.river, i never listened to music with mediaportal...

    Best solution could be , and thats the part i am experimenting right now, a squeezplayer plugin for mediaportal. But that is missing.
     

    userjan

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • March 14, 2008
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    USA, Greeneville, TN
    Home Country
    Netherlands Netherlands
    This been a quest for me too, what i want is in theorie pretty simple, i just want to use my mediacenter in the livingroom to play music but like to play this music also in other rooms like the bathroom and in my barn and yard.
    I have been looking for a FM broadcaster, I think that would be my ideal, since you could just use any simple radio to pickup the FM signal anywhere around the house.
    I have not found any broadcasters that are strong enough though and I believe there are some regulations involved with it too, although I live very remote so it would not matter in my case.
     

    cubii

    Portal Pro
    November 1, 2006
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    there exist hacks to make the fm transmitter more powerful, but this could be illegal...
    THis would be the simplest but effective solution, especially because you only need a small old radio. but Sound quality will be not that good
     

    logifuse

    Portal Pro
    January 19, 2011
    118
    11
    Sydney
    Home Country
    I've used one of these FM transmitters for years (mainly to distribute streaming radio): http://www.edmdesign.com/ - the 100mW LED model (including the case) which is no longer available. I'm in Sydney (Aus) & we have a very full FM band (plus I live on a hill & get all the weak signals), so it's been hard to find a free frequency. I found a weak one & the 100mW is enough to over-power it for the house.

    Sound quality is fair, but I wouldn't use it for music.
     

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