Streaming FLAC to laptop

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mcgsxr

Streaming FLAC to laptop
« on: 12 Feb 2006, 02:38 pm »
My brother has my previous SB3, and a "server" in his basement, where the slimserver s/w lives.  He has the same router I have, and connecting his SB3 is done.

He can use the laptop as a remote, but his question is this - how can he set it up so that (should he wish to) he can listen to music from the server, on the laptop?  FLAC only, no MP3's etc.

I think it can be done, but have never tried it, since I have only a server, and an SB3 - no laptop as yet.

Thoughts?

mgalusha

Streaming FLAC to laptop
« Reply #1 on: 12 Feb 2006, 02:41 pm »
Mark,

There is a program called SoftSqueeze included with slim server. It does exactly what you are talking about. Basically a PC emulator of the SB. It even looks similar to the SB.  It's one of the last items shown on the left pane of the main page of your slimserver.

Mike

eg

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
Streaming FLAC to laptop
« Reply #2 on: 12 Feb 2006, 10:00 pm »
Hi Mike

Thanks for your response. At first I could not get Softsqueeze on the "satellite" (laptop) to connect to the "base" (desktop computer with FLAC files). After considerable bumbling around I discovered the preferences tab on Softsqueeze, which allowed me to choose the host. Before that it defaulted to Slimserver on the "satellite" where no music is stored. By choosing the "base" computer as the host name, that problem has now been resolved.

In my other attempts to make this work, I tried remote streaming to WinAmp. This does work for mp3 files, but it will not work with FLAC files (I tried to download and install the patch that is supposed to make FLAC work on WinAmp, but I could not get it to work -- it is possible that I have not done that right. Is it also possible that the remote streaming option only works for mp3 files and therefore the WinAmp player is not getting anything sent to it? Mind you the title of the song does show up, just no music).

My next goal is to be able to connect remotely to my "base" computer from my workplace computer. I am anticipating a lot of difficulty with this step, but I am willing to try it and would appreciate any insights into the process.

Thanks again!

mcgsxr

Streaming FLAC to laptop
« Reply #3 on: 12 Feb 2006, 10:09 pm »
Hey eg, welcome to AC!

mgalusha

Streaming FLAC to laptop
« Reply #4 on: 12 Feb 2006, 10:17 pm »
Good to hear that you were able to get it working. In regards to using Winamp as a streaming client from slimserver. It's almost certianly not SlimServer as it streams the data in the same way regardless of client.

One thing to consider. If you have server side FLAC decoding enabled, you will actually be streaming a WAV file to Winamp. It needs to understand this and I haven't used winamp in quite a while so I'm of little help there. Even if you aren't using server side decoding, it may be that Winamp won't deal with any streaming data except for MP3.

Quote from: eg
My next goal is to be able to connect remotely to my "base" computer from my workplace computer. I am anticipating a lot of difficulty with this step, but I am willing to try it and would appreciate any insights into the process.


This could work but there are several obstacles that you will have to overcome.

1) Bandwidth. Does your home internet connection have sufficient outbound bandwidth to support a FLAC stream? Most DSL and Cable providers use asymetrical bandwidth in that upstream speeds are genearlly much slower that downstream speeds. My provider, Comcast, provides 4Mb downstream but only 256Kb upstream. Not even close to enough for a FLAC stream.

2) Router configuration. You will have to configure your router to allow inbound connections to your slimserver on the correct ports. How this is done varies from vendor to vendor. Of note is that you will be allowing traffic from the internet access to your PC. This of course carries some risk. I have no idea how secure SlimServer is or if their are exploits for it. Personally I would have SlimServer on a dedicated machine if allowing internet access to it.

3) Public internet address. Chances are high that your public internet address is assigned using DHCP. Assuming your router is always on, this likely won't change often but it may. You will need to log into your router to determine what this address is. That is the address you will need to use from remote systems to connect to your SlimServer.

Mike

eg

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 5
Streaming FLAC to laptop
« Reply #5 on: 13 Feb 2006, 01:00 am »
Hmmm -- this may be well beyond my limited IT skills. I might be better off finishing my FLAC encoding project (on about CD 330 of 700 or so) and then doing some selective copy/conversion of the FLAC files to mp3 in order to use the existing "mp3 streaming" function of SlimServer to WinAmp as I have already tested. After all, the egregiously bad soundboard and speakers of my office computer hardly warrant the trouble of using a lossless format  :lol:

More pressing right now is whether or not I will be able to get all those FLAC files on one drive. Since SlimServer will only look into one file location, how can I link other storage devices to that folder?  :?:

The whole process is fun -- rediscovering a lot of music (some of it simply awful) that I had long forgotten I ever had!

mgalusha

Streaming FLAC to laptop
« Reply #6 on: 13 Feb 2006, 02:27 am »
Quote from: eg
More pressing right now is whether or not I will be able to get all those FLAC files on one drive. Since SlimServer will only look into one file location, how can I link other storage devices to that folder?


You can just create a shortcut in your music directory to a second (or third) drive. Not seamless but pretty painless.