media director for network players

Anyone know if the media director can control any available network media players/servers?

Does anyone know of any good network media players/servers with HTTP (or any other) access for use with the Colour Touch Screen?

There are lots out there - just need to find the right one.

The only problem with using Windows Media Center is you are stuck with one output - my PC is downstairs and I would like to stream music upstairs - without spending lots of money

 

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this? If you have a PC running MCE, you can set up multiple "Extenders" to that one PC, and run as many as you like, up to the limit of the network you are running. For example, you can have an MCE PC in your office, an Xbox in your living room, a network media player in the upstairs lounge, a laptop in a bedroom, etc, all connected to the MCE PC in your office streaming media all over the house at once.

As far as Network Media Players are concerned, there are many available that work well with Media Centre, such as the ones made by D-Link (which, by the way, are the only D-Link products that I've come across where the quality is actually reasonable).

However, I have no knowledge of the ability of the CTC to control these, so hopefully someone else can point you in the right direction.

Good Luck

 

Media Player Classic
supports win lirc control through thhp

 

Gd day,

I am not sure of your requirements. But you have to be precise in mapping out your requirments; for example:

1. Do you require like a PA (Public Address) Type of inhouse broadcase of the same streamed music or...
2. Do you require individual controls from each output but all from the SAME SOURCE (then Pt. 1. does not apply, but as an optional feature)
3. Do you require all your media to be stored onto one media server type devices for you to centrally store your media?
4. Does individual output settings (other than volume) matter in each room, hall etc...
5. Does it have a web-interface?

If most of the questions above keeps you pondering, probably you would like to think carefully how to setup your AV distribution. For example:

The Central Media Repository can be the following:
Home Type Network Attached Storage- http://sg.hardwarezone.com/priceguide/priceguide.php?id=165

ROKU SoundBridge (Support Wifi, Ethernet Port, iTunes and AM/FM Tuner)

The AV Distribution Component can be the following:
Your existing AV amplifier

TCPIP and / or WiFi Network
(I use LINKSYS Structured Solutions Gigabit Copper and Wireless N on repeater type for extended network coverage)

MARPA

BARIX (I use BARIX over TCPIP)

The Software Component can be the following:
iTunes
Windows Media Player
Any web capable devices (i.e. WM5.0 with ethernet, browser supporting multimedia streaming)

Ultimately, the products above may not be the one you like, but just to let you keep your thinking hat on as to structure your solutions into various components building blocks (a.k.a. like C-Bus) so that you can upgrade/insert/delete whichever component you like.

Just my 2 cents note from Singapore.

 

The Media Director software currently only works with the windows media player plugin and the iPodServer that is provided with PICED/HG/S+. The Media Director is simply a light weight front end program. To interface this with any other media players/programs a dedicated back end will need to be written to support it.

Perhaps people would like to provide suggestions on commonly used media systems that could be interfaced with the Media Director software?

Regards,

Matty

 

Now were talking - but I don't know which one to interface with - maybe that is another market for clipsal to develop their own network media device - at a low cost of course

What I meant was if your had - say two sound cards in one PC - it would be nice to select one for local output and one for remote output - e.g. CTC remote control....low cost solution. The whole idea is not to buy another PC just for serving streaming media - waste of a PC unless it resides in the same room you want the media.

This sounds like the best solution for interfacing with the CTC - thanks.

Do you know how the IR blaster function works on it? - is it IR in or out?

Can you select to turn on/off outputs individually?

 

Hi JasonCox,

"This sounds like the best solution for interfacing with the CTC - thanks."
First on the list looks like a SlimServer interface.

"Do you know how the IR blaster function works on it? - is it IR in or out?"
The IR feature will reticulate almost any IR remote control. When you point a remote control at the Squeezebox 2 things happen.
1. The IR signal is reticulated directly to the headphones port. Simply connect an IR transmitter to the headphones port.
2. The Squeezebox sends all the relevant IR information back to the SlimServer to be sent to all other Squeezebox's to transmit via their headphones port.

"Can you select to turn on/off outputs individually?"
Each Squeezebox can be controlled by its own IR remote or from the SlimServer web server. A PC running SlimServer will stream music to several Squeezebox's simultaneously all listening to different stuff.

Hope that's of some help

Regards,

Matty