wireless audio?

[bigle]

has anyone used any of the wireless audio senders that are on the consumer market?  if so, any recommendations on which one to get (or not to get)?

so this is what i'm thinking.  i've seen a bunch of the jukebox projects and am starting to get the jones.  i've even got an old stereo that i could use in it.  however, i've also got about a grand's worth of home theater audio equiptment that would be a shame to waste if i listened to all of my music on my shiny new jukebox.  so i thought to myself (wait a second, who else would i be thinking too?) why not build a small jukebox that would house the computer, control pad, and monitor, and then send the output to my main stereo?  the idea i'm currently kicking around is to build it into some sort of slick looking pedestal type contraption.  i know i could run a wire but then i would need to place the juke near the stereo (which isn't that convenient).  plus, with the wireless, i could route it to several sources for parties where the same songs would be playing in all rooms.

thanks

[Silver]

I've not tried any of the off-the-shelf wireless audio senders. I've the Apple Airport works quite well, although not sure on software/hardware requirements.

I'm building a mini jukebox - mini-itx motherboard, 7" touchscreen - with all the music stored on another pc. At the moment the plan is use the output from the jukebox and plug it into the stereo of my choice, with a wireless connection to the music store (This means I'm not tied down to having the music in one room for example.) I've got a 11b wireless network and it works very well - when testing from windows media player there is no noticeable delay in music playing. The jukebox software must support streaming though - I'm usuing Chris' WinCab software which at the moment doesn't stream (so there is a delay while the whole file is downloaded before play) but he is thinking of adding streaming support.

The other option (DIY) is to have the music output in the same place as the music, and just have the selection from your minijukebox - like you are suggesting - which works fine as well, no problems with delay at all, although you are stuck with music from one place. Control is slightly more fiddly as most jukebox software is geared to playback from the pc it is running on. I got around this in testing by using VNC on the remote jukebox to select the tunes on the main pc. Works fine although is probably network heavy and caused accuracy issues for me with my tiny touchscreen.

If you know you just want music in the one spot, checking out the senders for sale may be a good idea as they will probably be cheaper/smaller than my approach that requires 2 pc's.

[bigle]

that's an interesting thought you've presented.  i never considered not having the hd with all the music in the juke.  i'm also interested in your touchscreen.  is it going to be the only display or will you be using one screen to display the juke and the touchscreen to display/activate the controls?

the main reason i was considering the wireless audio was to eliminate the need for speakers/sub in the juke (making it much smaller) and i figured i could use multiple recievers to play on several stereo sources throughout the house.  i am also considering an rf remote so i could have access throughout the house.

[Silver]

At the moment the plan is to have just the 7" touchscreen. Yes it does look small, but the quality is surprisingly good (it has a direct VGA input, happy with 640x800 or 800x600).  It also runs off a 12V supply with low power use, so I can have 1 power cable powering my pc and screen (its a mini-itx motherboard so is powered off a 12V supply also = no fans *anywhere* at all.) Using a USB wireless adapter (the size of a pendrive) the whole unit gets to be around the size of a desktop lamp or something. Although I have not built a case yet....

I could use an extra monitor though - but then it has TV out as well so I can just stick it into the tv if I'm setting it up in one place for a while.

The idea of multiple recievers is a good one, although more complicated software wise - there are off-the-shelf products that do extactly that (and let you control any output from any point etc...).

I'm aiming to make mine v portable so I won't need a remote, but thats another good idea.

[johnnysmitch]

At the moment the plan is to have just the 7" touchscreen. Yes it does look small, but the quality is surprisingly good (it has a direct VGA input, happy with 640x800 or 800x600).

I'm looking into doing something similar - could you share what screen you got/where you got it?  Please keep us posted on this project - most of the other jukebox projects here are fullsize cabs; I'd like to see some cool modern small units (I wanna make mine wallmounted, maybe double as a wallsconce...)

[Silver]

I picked up my touchscreen from ebay (new). It's a 7" widescreen touchscreen made by lilliput. Search ebay for lilliput touchscreen and you will find some - they also do an 8" 4:3 touchscreen I think. They are intended for use in cars I think, but come with a small stand/attachment as well as a remote control. Takes composite/svideo/VGA input, with a USB cable for the touchscreen function (I think the drivers are windows and dos - the only reason I didn't go for all dos solution is the lack wireless dos drivers. Cisco make dos drivers for some of their wireless products but they tend to be extremely expensive...)

Ideally I wanted this unit to be moving parts free - at the moment it runs off an old laptop harddrive on a stripped down XP (about 250megs). I have a 512meg compact flash card with IDE adaptor that I can (and want) to boot from  - the only catch is I have since learnt that apparantly the compact flash is not good for prolonged read/write use which XP is notorious for doing, even with pagefile disabled. WindowsXPEmbedded has a feature that enables it to boot from a read-only device, but I tryed a trial version of XPE and could not get it to install on my motherboard even using Via's own XPEmbedded data....

May just stick with HD but its not ideal.

[bigle]

well you're way ahead of me silver.  definately keep us updated with pics.

[Fat-Johnny]

has anyone used any of the wireless audio senders that are on the consumer market?  if so, any recommendations on which one to get (or not to get)?

I personally have tried all of the solutions.  See me lengthy post here

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=12058

Since that post, I have been using the RCA Lyra Wireless setup for over 1 year, and could not be more happy with the units.  The range is great, it will go from under the bar in my basement to my detached garage with no crackles, pops or hiss.  Very low noise, great sound quality.  My only gripe at first was price ($99 per set, ONLY sold in the full set), but I see you can pick up a set on fleabay now for $35-$50 for the set (receiver AND transmitter).  Search fleabay for

[bigle]

thanks for the heads up.  i started checking out the lyra and have a question.  it says it's set up to work with a special version of musicmatch but can you use it with other software instead?

thanks

[Fat-Johnny]

...can you use it with other software instead?

Yep, I am using mine with Virtual Music Jukebox (VMJ).

Basically, the Lyra is an external USB sound card.  Any music, sounds, or noises that your PC makes will be transmitted through the Lyra.   As soon as you plug the Lyra into your USB port, it makes itself the default (and sole) sound card on your system.

Try one out from fleabay for $35 or so.  I guarantee you wont be disappointed in the range or the sound quality.  Very nice.

FJ

[Ghoward]

I'm not sure what wireless audio is like but I was using a wireless B network link to my Arcade machine. I also store all my MP3's on another pc but I found that if the weather was good it played great. However if the weather turns bad the signal strength went right down and I would get lags.

I've just installed a wired network in my house which is so much better and I'm also planning to install wired speakers in a number of rooms. It

[TVNut]

I've been using a NetGear MP101 ($79) for about 6 months. Works great, easy to set up, good sound. 

A server applet runs on my PC which is connected to my home net. The MP101 is 802.11b/g compliant and it is connected my stereo.  When the MP101 boots it connects to my wireless net, then finds the music server. Via a simple UI on the MP101, you can select playlists, artists, genres, etc. and away you go.

[screaming]

Just a quick reply..

  There are a couple different ways of getting "wireless audio" to a set of speakers, each with thier pros and cons.  This post is not meant to be an evaluation of any different kind, but rathe r a quick-tip guide to maybe help you know what to ask.

  1) Wireless speakers.  I can't really comment on the quality or performance on these.. I'm guessing this kind of setup is pretty expensive to do it right with decent surround speakers and sub. Maybe someday when I upgrade my stereo system

  2) FM Transmitter.  Generally speaking these products lack in sound quality. And by "lack" I mean you won't get CD-quality, but FM quality (like in your car) at best. If you want pristine sounding music coming through your expensive hifi, this option probably won't appeal to you. These types of products are generally cheap in price though.

  3) Wireless network with a wireless-network-connected receiver. This is the one I have the most authority to comment on out fo the three.  It allows for the most flexible setup and has a much higher geek-factor than the other two.   

It's also generally a lot more complicated to set up than the other two, except for the Apple Airport/AirTunes setup which is pretty no-brainer. Sound quality is as good as your source (MP3s, FLAC, Audio CDs, etc). Price can range from $129 (for the AirTunes getup) to $500 or so depending on what kind of hardware you already have.

  Personally, I voted for option #3 and I now have a Linksys NSLU2 hooked up directly to my router and another router hooked up to my Xbox running XBOX Media Center.  I control everything through my TV using the XBOX remote or control pad. I get all my MP3s, videos, pictures, weather, shoutcast streams, iFilm browsing, etc.. All done in a nice clean interface, with visualisation effects (while music is playing).

  Now if I want music/videos/pictures/whatever in another room, I just need a cheap receiver (like the NetGear MP101 for music) and a set of speakers and I'm golden.

  My setup is a lot more complicated than the AirTunes setup, but I wanted to make sure I could control everything through my TV without the use of an additional computer (besides the xbox).  Plus streaming music to my hifi directly from any of the thousands of internet radio stations is just cool.

shrug

-Steve