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Topic: Play same music through different computers at the same time. (Read 1631 times) previous topic - next topic
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Play same music through different computers at the same time.

So I'm not 100% sure how i should try to explain this but I'll do the best i can.

I have 2 computers with the same library of music (i just copy over the music folder whenever i make any changes or add any files) and i would like for these 2 computers to play the same files at the same time through both of my computers speaker outputs.

lets call my computers 1.Desktop and 2.HTPC

on my desktop i have a pretty strong 5.1 system which i absolutely adore, it blows the socks of anything I've ever owned before.
on my HTPC i have an good sound bar with a satisfying sub woofer.


What i want to do is for foobar to play music through both of the speaker systems at the same time through the different computers. right now I'm accomplishing this by playing/pausing trying to synch them up manually for an even better sound experience and it works but it very annoying when you can get it exactly right.

both computers are on windows 8.1 and on the same network.

any more info needed i will gladly supply if it will help me in this endeavor

Play same music through different computers at the same time.

Reply #1 –
Quote
What i want to do is for foobar to play music


If using Foobar is a requirement skip rest of post.

I've been using Logitech Media Server (once Squeezebox Server) for quite a long time, because I have a squeezebox. It will do multi-room stuff, and you can install player software on another computer. You can even play on you Android phone.

I think, though, that a whole heap of server/client music stuff is now available that I have had no reason, as yet, to look into.
The most important audio cables are the ones in the brain

Play same music through different computers at the same time.

Reply #2 –
Here is a free solution for streaming to a single machine on a LAN.
I use ffmpeg to capture what is sent to my soundcard and push the stream to another machine on my network.
It was hard to configure but this is what I use :
1/ On the foobar machine (Please note you have to setup your soundcard as the default recording device), use this command line (replace your soundcard name and the target IP according to your setup
"C:\Program Files\ffmpeg-win64-static\bin\ffmpeg" -f dshow -i audio="Wave (ASUS Xonar DG Audio Devic" -acodec copy -f rtp rtp://192.168.128.252:5004

2/ You can read the stream with ffplay (... or use any other player like vlc for instance) on the target machine, with this command line
"C:\Program Files\ffmpeg-win32-static\bin\ffplay" -nodisp -vn -stats  -acodec pcm_s16le config-wav-pcm16le.sdp
where config-wav-pcm16le.sdp contains
Code: [Select]
v=0
o=- 0 0 IN IP4 127.0.0.1
s=No Name
c=IN IP4 192.168.128.252
t=0 0
a=tool:libavformat 55.3.100
m=audio 5004 RTP/AVP 10
b=AS:1411

Please also note that on the target machine there is sometimes (if you leave ffmpeg and ffplay running permanently as I do) some unwanted buffering and delay, so I ended up with a workaround using this little vbs script instead of the command line #2 above, which will kill and restart the receiver every hour :
Code: [Select]
@echo off
:start
start "Read Stream" "C:\Program Files\ffmpeg-win32-static\bin\ffplay" -nodisp -vn -stats  -acodec pcm_s16le config-wav-pcm16le.sdp
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 3600000 >NUL
taskkill /F /IM ffplay.exe >NUL
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 1000 >NUL
goto start

Now as you have guessed this works for a single machine only.

Edit 2016-08-05
I have ported the receiver to a raspberry pi, command line and script below:
Command line: lxterminal -t Streaming... --working-directory=/home/pi/Streaming -e ffplay -nodisp -vn -stats -infbuf -acodec pcm_s16le config-wav-pcm16le.sdp
Loop script : while /home/pi/Streaming/Readstream.sh; do : ; sleep 36000 ; pkill ffplay ; done

Play same music through different computers at the same time.

Reply #3 –
That reminds me: The Squeezebox stuff I mentioned has a WavIn plugin to allow the Squeezebox software to play whatever the computer is playing --- so it could work hand in hand with Foobar or other media players.

The software is free from Logitech, whether you own a squeezebox (sadly discontinued) or not; the wavin plugin, and on-pc play are community efforts (and I think free) and the android apps, if required, are free or low cost.

Squeezebox Community Forums

Whilst I've never actually done multi-room simultaneous play, I understand that this setup is capable of actually keeping it in sync
The most important audio cables are the ones in the brain

Play same music through different computers at the same time.

Reply #4 –
+1 for Logitech Media Server. You can run the free and open source "squeezelite" on both computers. For me, sync is pretty tight. As networked audio has been all the rage for quite some time, though, there must be at least a dozen other solutions which can do the same thing.

Note that a downside of Logitech Media Server is that it's based on a client-server model. One of the computers (or a third device) will have to act as the server. Server and client can run on the same device, no problem. As the previous poster mentioned, if you want to sync anything but music on Logitech Media Server, it may be doable via the WaveInput plugin.