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Play music on two computers simultaneously? -- Possible?

C

Compuwiz

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 16, 2003
Messages
277
I'm interested if it is possible to play music on two computers at the same time using same playlist. I'm having a party and thought it would be cool to have music coming from my speakers and my roomate's speakers. Also, if I press "next song" it would switch on both computers also.

From what I know, I don't think it is possible, but interested if there is anything out there that can. Need some kind of application / configuration?

Any input would be good. Thanks
 
Oddly enough, this question was brought up a little while ago. I believe there is some sort of software solution, though I'm not familiar with it (I think delay was an issue - and delay would most certainly be an issue, as even 10ms can completely throw things off).

Probably the easiest way to do this, of course, is to simply have a physical connection with your roommate's speakers. Most computer speaker setups these days have two or more inputs, so all that would be required is a few splitters and as much additional cabling as necessary. Have your roommate switch the input, and wabbo: instant multi-room system. An increased noise floor may be evident due to both cable interference and a reduced line level for both sets of speakers, but this method shouldn't result in any perceivable delay between both sets of speakers (<1ms), and is the most logical route.

The main issue with sending synchronized data over ethernet is that packeting, packet routing, NIC overhead, router overhead and CPU overhead all factor into what can be a sizable delay (5+ms).
 
phide said:
Oddly enough, this question was brought up a little while ago. I believe there is some sort of software solution, though I'm not familiar with it (I think delay was an issue - and delay would most certainly be an issue, as even 10ms can completely throw things off).

Probably the easiest way to do this, of course, is to simply have a physical connection with your roommate's speakers. Most computer speaker setups these days have two or more inputs, so all that would be required is a few splitters and as much additional cabling as necessary. Have your roommate switch the input, and wabbo: instant multi-room system. An increased noise floor may be evident due to both cable interference and a reduced line level for both sets of speakers, but this method shouldn't result in any perceivable delay between both sets of speakers (<1ms), and is the most logical route.

The main issue with sending synchronized data over ethernet is that packeting, packet routing, NIC overhead, router overhead and CPU overhead all factor into what can be a sizable delay (5+ms).
Click to expand...

Thats a very good responce, thank you for your input. Yeah, I would be doing it over our wireless network which would definately be some lag there plus all the other factors you said. I'm not going to go out and get all the splitters and extra cables though, was more of a general inquiry. If there is a software package out there that does this, I'd still be interested in testing with it atleast.
 
you could always set up a radio station, I haven't done it for a while, but I know it works just fine with Winamp if you set it up right.
 
Ohh, duh. That is a good suggestion. I've done that before a long time ago, wasn't that hard. Thanks, simple and affective. Anything else?
 
Grab a splitter and a long cable and your good to go. Thats what I did at college.
 
Compuwiz said:
Thats a very good responce, thank you for your input. Yeah, I would be doing it over our wireless network which would definately be some lag there plus all the other factors you said. I'm not going to go out and get all the splitters and extra cables though, was more of a general inquiry. If there is a software package out there that does this, I'd still be interested in testing with it atleast.
Click to expand...

You're just all kinds of lazy. Cables > Wireless.
 
Compuwiz said:
I'm interested if it is possible to play music on two computers at the same time using same playlist. I'm having a party and thought it would be cool to have music coming from my speakers and my roomate's speakers. Also, if I press "next song" it would switch on both computers also.

From what I know, I don't think it is possible, but interested if there is anything out there that can. Need some kind of application / configuration?

Any input would be good. Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, you can play music out of one PC (using a Y-Adapter) and send the sound to the INPUT of the other PC. All you need is the Y-Adapter and some extention cords to run from one PC to the other.
 
aznx said:
You're just all kinds of lazy. Cables > Wireless.
Click to expand...

Its not the fact that I'm lazy, I just dont want to spend the money on getting over 50ft of cable to hookup my roomate's computer/speakers, which is why I'm looking for alternative methods.
 
Compuwiz said:
Its not the fact that I'm lazy, I just dont want to spend the money on getting over 50ft of cable to hookup my roomate's computer/speakers, which is why I'm looking for alternative methods.
Click to expand...

50ft cable, $5.16
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...&cs_id=1021802&p_id=651&seq=1&format=2&style=

3.5mm f/f, $1.50
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...&cs_id=1040109&p_id=678&seq=1&format=2&style=

RCA to 3.5mm m, $1.95
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...cs_id=1040107&p_id=2120&seq=1&format=2&style=

Stop being cheap, priceless.
 
It'd be best to stop the personal attacks. There's no need. He can be as "cheap" as he pleases.
 
what about a local shoutcast server? it's free, but i have no experience with it (like to mess with it, though!).
 
phide said:
It'd be best to stop the personal attacks. There's no need. He can be as "cheap" as he pleases.
Click to expand...

Haha, thank you. The main point of this thread was to learn more about alternative ways of playing music on another computer.
 
iroc409 said:
what about a local shoutcast server? it's free, but i have no experience with it (like to mess with it, though!).
Click to expand...

probably going to be nearly impossible to get them to sync up tho
 
Just to throw out another idea (above ideas are good).

Check out Slimserver. It is a web based application meant for serving audio for the Slimdevices Squeezebox hardware players. However the Slimserver software is free and runs on Linux,Windows, and Mac. And it includes a java based software emulator of the Squeezebox. What does this mean to you, well one feature of the Squeezebox is the ability to SYNC multiple players, well you can sync the emulators too.

It supports many audio codecs, however it can NOT support DRM'd music. Worth checking out and is free.
 
Ok I just tested this. You can play mp3's using VLC. On one computer you set it up as the streaming server and then you can run vlc on the other computer as a client and connect to the server to play music. On the server computer you can run another instance of vlc to act as a client and have it connect to the loopback ip and voila, both computers are playing the same music simultaneously. There might be a very very slight lag. I've done this with videos and movies, and it works very well.
 
m1abram said:
Just to throw out another idea (above ideas are good).

Check out Slimserver. It is a web based application meant for serving audio for the Slimdevices Squeezebox hardware players. However the Slimserver software is free and runs on Linux,Windows, and Mac. And it includes a java based software emulator of the Squeezebox. What does this mean to you, well one feature of the Squeezebox is the ability to SYNC multiple players, well you can sync the emulators too.

It supports many audio codecs, however it can NOT support DRM'd music. Worth checking out and is free.
Click to expand...

Ok I just tested this. You can play mp3's using VLC. On one computer you set it up as the streaming server and then you can run vlc on the other computer as a client and connect to the server to play music. On the server computer you can run another instance of vlc to act as a client and have it connect to the loopback ip and voila, both computers are playing the same music simultaneously. There might be a very very slight lag. I've done this with videos and movies, and it works very well.
Click to expand...

Interesting concepts, I'll check both out. What is VLC?
 
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