The most basic streaming annoyance

DavisBXL

Hi guys,

I (stupidly) resisted ever setting up streaming on my home network - until now. Not quite sure why I resisted so long (time, paranoia about sharing my music?!). Anyway, I've now got it working through the presumably highly basic WMP11 reading my external HD and playing through a Freecom MusicPal (standalone web player with the ability to read a media server: www.freecom.com/ecproduct_detail.asp?id=3593&catid=400).

So, the question!

That all works fine, but I am puzzled as to why I can't select a song via WMP11 on the PC and hear it simultaneously through the MusicPal in another room and the PC. For now, I only hear what I clicked on the PC through the PC speakers, and MusicPal similarly can select and play any song in the library but it doesn't come through the PC at the same time. In fact, both are playing different songs as I type.

I realise many people buy lots of fancy new hardware to have this multi-room experience, but all I want is the basic idea of playing my music as always sitting here at the PC, and then when I wander around the house I'd like to hear it still going on a second device. Is there checkbox I'm missing?! Or a better piece of software (no doubt!) or any other advice?

Apologies for the noob question but some googling turned up nothing music aside from other software.

Thanks a million in advance!

ronkmonster

I think they are completely separate devices. Media player can act as media server for separate devices, so you can have multiple users sharing the same library - Not that they all hear the same song.

DavisBXL

Thanks for the reply. I'm ok with dropping WMP like a hot potato if somebody could point me to a better program.

I realise I didn't specify that although the library is pulling songs from an external HD it's just plugged in by USB, so it in itself is not appearing as separate source on my network (which I presume would make things a lot easier!)

ronkmonster

Even if you switch to another media server, it wont play the same on all devices.

It's designed to let several separate devices play individually, at least that's how it has always worked for me. If you had a 2nd pc or laptop, you can also connect and play a 3rd different song.

Snowbat

You could set up your own stream with Icecast and the edcast plugin for Winamp or Foobar. Then point your MusicPal to the stream (eg. http://192.168.100.1:8000/stream). I use Icecast for streaming some things over our LAN here.