Hi All,

Wouldn't it be great if there was a solution where you could stream
audio via your home network (wireless or ethernet) without adding any
USB or other device to your laptop?

Before you start listing such solutions, I would add that it not be
tied to any one appliction (like airport express only receiving itunes
audio), so you could listen to your mp3/Flac collection via your
favorite player of choice, listen to your videos, listen to your
Cakewalk or other digital multitrack software, basically any sound you
hear on your computer would also be played on your stereo.

Let's say there's a soundcard driver that you could install that looks
like a regular soundcard to windows, but it actually takes the audio
and sends it over the home network to a device you can plug into your
stereo. I guess it would be nice if it could send the audio back to
your regular laptop soundcard so you could hear it there too if you
wanted.

First one who makes this should be pretty rich, I would think I'm not
the only one who would like it...

Just my 2 cents..
John

On 7 Jan 2005 20:13:36 -0800, wrote:

Wouldn't it be great if there was a solution where you could stream
audio via your home network (wireless or ethernet) without adding any
USB or other device to your laptop?

A networked machine can play files stored on any other computer on the
network, wired or wireless. Set up your playlist and off you go.
What more do you need?

Yeah that would certainly do the trick. But it would be nice to not
have to buy another computer, and to use one's main laptop as the
"remote control", and have the laptop speakers playing the same thing
if you feel like t.

Push versus pull is what I want, there seem to be plenty of "pull"
setups available, not many "push" ones yet. Oh well, I guess
eventually someone will make it... Apple appears to be the only one
doing push properly, though tied to itunes only of course.

On 10 Jan 2005 20:27:33 -0800, wrote:

Yeah that would certainly do the trick. But it would be nice to not
have to buy another computer, and to use one's main laptop as the
"remote control", and have the laptop speakers playing the same thing
if you feel like t.

If wired ethernet is ok, why not a wire carrying an audio signal? :-)

Yeah I thought of that. I need to run it 30 feet though, so I would
think the audio quality would suffer, but I guess i should try and see
how it sounds. It would be nice to have the audio continue as I carry
my laptop around. I found an interesting RCA over ethernet solution,
but it was expensive and I think the ethernet cable could not be used
for networking at the same time.

Thanks for your suggestions, I think I'll spend time getting my audio
collection up to snuff and then see if new products are out yet...

Here are a couple of ways to stream any sound (not just iTunes!) from a
Mac to an Airport Express.

"...Slipstream is the first and best way to send audio from any
application directly to remote speakers attached to Apple's renowned
AirPort Express device. With Slipstream, audio from any application can
be sent to the AirPort Express...Slipstream will be available
exclusively for Mac OS X in early 2005..."
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/slipstream/

"...With Nicecast, you can send any audio to the AirPort Express...."
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/posts...any-2004-07-24

I'm not sure if I've missed some of your requirements BUT I think your
prayers have been answered. The best news of all is it is FREE. Slim Server
is an open source audio server that can be controlled from a browser and
played back on WinAmp or iTunes. I believe that other media players will
work as well. Slim Server resides on the home server along with the MP3s or
AAC files that you wish to make available. You may listen from anywhere to
the files available and or control the stream with a standard browser.

I'm not an expert but did play with the setup as I was interested in Slim
Device's Squeeze Box hardware player. The hardware they sell eliminates the
need for a computer to run WinAmp or similar media player. There must be a
server capable of running the open source Slim Server. The system
requirements are pretty minimal, 233MHz I believe. I found it pretty neat
stuff. It worked well and was quite flexible. I'd like to hear of other's
experience with the setup.

The hardware comes as a wired ($200) or wifi ($300) device but is is not
needed to make Slim Server work Slim Server is available for Windows, OSX
and Linux OS's.

Check out:

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_features.html

Tell me if this meets the requirement you set forth.

Best regards, BobH

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi All,

Wouldn't it be great if there was a solution where you could stream
audio via your home network (wireless or ethernet) without adding any
USB or other device to your laptop?

Before you start listing such solutions, I would add that it not be
tied to any one appliction (like airport express only receiving itunes
audio), so you could listen to your mp3/Flac collection via your
favorite player of choice, listen to your videos, listen to your
Cakewalk or other digital multitrack software, basically any sound you
hear on your computer would also be played on your stereo.

Let's say there's a soundcard driver that you could install that looks
like a regular soundcard to windows, but it actually takes the audio
and sends it over the home network to a device you can plug into your
stereo. I guess it would be nice if it could send the audio back to
your regular laptop soundcard so you could hear it there too if you
wanted.

First one who makes this should be pretty rich, I would think I'm not
the only one who would like it...

Just my 2 cents..
John