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    Audio Control

    I would like to get an idea of what others are doing to control audio in their homes. Presently I have a 300 and a 200 disc cd changers hooked up to a slinke and use CDJ to control them from scripts from Homeseer. I have been having problems lately where Homeseer is getting stuck on the scripts to control CDJ. I was using the mcsMusic plugin and thought this might be the problem but I removed it and I am still having the problems. I have been looking at MusicLobby and their programs but I don't want to spend unneccesary money on new programs. So could others list their audio setups for me. I don't have to stay with the cd changers but I want to get some ideas first. Thanks a lot for this help/info.

    #2
    Have you thought about getting rid of the CD's and ripping them all to mp3's and serving these. This is what I did and now I simply control WinAmp with my CF01's. The KISS principle is a time saver.
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      #3
      That's one of the options I am looking at. That was the reason for looking into the Musiclobby software, but I would rather stay with something that works well with Homeseer because I am getting tired of having to reboot the computer when everything freezes. Could you explain how you are controlling WinAmp from Homeseer? Thanks.

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        #4
        I've also ripped most of my CDs to mp3s. Whenever I get a new CD, i usually rip it before I even listen to it the first time.

        However, I'm not playing them or controling them through HS. On my server (happens to be the HS machine), I'm running winamp and using browseamp (www.browseamp.com) to control it. This gives me a nice web-based front-end for music (controlled from Audreys, etc.). I have not worried about interaction with HS so this may not be applicable to you. I have a link from my HS pages to the browseamp pages and vice versa - they are just different web servers running on the same machine.

        I also play mp3s (from the same server) directly on Audreys (running PHJuke and connected to an external amplifier) or my MediaMVP. It's definitely more versatile than a "real" CD player (although I never moved up to a jukebox - just single disc and 5-disc players).

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          #5
          Andromeda, http://www.turnstyle.com/andromeda/, is another web based mp3 web interface that I have looked at. Seems very nice...but not free.

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            #6
            sonypoolplr
            I'm using something similar to smee in that I'm using winamcom which is a com interface to winamp and some asp pages that I wrote. There's also a good plugin for WinAmp written by Dale for use in the HS evironment.
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              #7
              I also only play MP3. CDJ has caused some reliability problems in the past. With mcsMusic I use Winamp for all my music. I exercise WMP, CDJ, and SliMP3 only for development testing. The winamp interface via mcsMusic uses the API calls directly and does not need winampcom. WinampCom is good if you want to control it via scripting. When considering remote operations (winamp running on a computer other than homeseer's) I found that a client application must reside on the remote computer because it is no longer possible to remotely start an interactive process on W2K. If it is not interactive then a window handle does not exist which means it cannot be controlled via automation since the control interface is to the Window via the API.

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                #8
                Michael,
                What version of WinAmp allows direct api calls? Where does one get the API calls?
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                  #9
                  Version 2 & 5 and Version 1 also, but with a smaller subset of control capabilities. Snoop around the nullsoft web site developer area and you should be able to find the references. There is also a message board that is quite active.

                  The primary difference between using a script to control winamp vs a plugin such as mcsMusic is the other support features that are associated with a plugin. Playlist generation, album pickers, query searches, VR, and virtual device controls for control and playlist quick picks are examples.

                  The biggest difference I found between Winamp and WMP is that WMP can be embedded in a client's browser while Winamp can control multiple sound cards on the same PC. From a developers prespective WMP is much richer with object models and has lots of growth headroom while Winamp is pretty constrained to the equivalent of a command line interface.

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                    #10
                    So if I use WinAmp with mcsMusic I can control it from Homeseer almost like I am controlling CDJ from Homeseer? I am using palmpad romotes to select devices in Homeseer. I like the idea of using mcsMusic because I can build playlists from other computers on the network. (Hopefully because I haven't got it work with CDJ) Thanks again for all the help and replys.

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                      #11
                      That was the concept behind mcsMusic. Provide a common user and homeseer interface independent of the player actually doing the processing of the mp3 file. There are some capabilities that exist with one player or the other, but generally they all do the same basic thing. mcsMusic uses the CDJ format Access database so anything you developed to directly process information in this database will still be usable.

                      When you use a player other than CDJ then the playlists need to be in m3u format rather than pla format. The plugin will do the conversion with a button push, but it does need to be done. These m3u playlists should be in a different folder than the pla ones.

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                        #12
                        As always thanks for your help. I am going to rip a few CDs into the computer and then try out mcsMusic again to see if I have better results than I had before.
                        Michael, one question about using CDJ with mcsMusic, if I use it to play the songs as an mp3 player rather than a controller of the CD players do you think I will have better results?

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                          #13
                          <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> The biggest difference I found between Winamp and WMP is that WMP can be embedded in a client's browser while Winamp can control multiple sound cards on the same PC. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

                          Michael,

                          Does this mean that if I have an audio distribution system, I could direct Winamp to different cards that are wired as input sources to the distributor? Like I want to play some Stones in the living room and the kids want to play Brittney Spears in the recroom? Does mcsMusic have that capability built in?

                          Using browsers with WMP instances is an interesting concept, too. I wonder how that would work.

                          Thnanks,
                          Jeff

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