[AppleTV2]

Hi there,

I want to buy 3/4 ATV2 for my house and jailbreak them to run XBMC.

I wanted to know if it is possible to sync all to playback the same audio file together. I want to create a multi-zone audio environment so that when you transition into another room in the house the same audio file is playing.

If it is possible, am I able to switch on/off each zone independently using the android xbmc app?

Thanks

If audio is all you want ... Airplay already does what you seek
iPhone as a remote you can control all atv2 (so play all or one)

Look at Apple's atv page for more info

Yeah as is ozblogger says no need for xbmc or jailbreak the stock atv2 can already do what you want.

Thank you - I hadn't heard of Airplay, seems like it would do the trick.

I've tried to read up a bit on it, from what i've seen it appears you need itunes. Is this definitly the case? I hate itunes. I store all my music on a freenas server and any portable devices are able to pick up the samba share.

If you do as suggested above, you will need to use iTunes and be locked into its limitations.

Another option that may work is to synchronize all databases. Search the forums for instructions.

Airfoil (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/) will let you use any app you want, on Mac OS X or Windows, for Airplay audio. There's also an XBMC plug-in called multi-room audio, but I have never used it myself.

nicks88 Wrote:[...]
I wanted to know if it is possible to sync all to playback the same audio file together. I want to create a multi-zone audio environment so that when you transition into another room in the house the same audio file is playing.[...]

I would also love this to be a baked in feature of XBMC. As others have mentioned you could use Airplay, but I appreciate why you don't want to - I hate iTunes as well, and also, I think it kinda defeats the object of having a nice low-powered media player if you then have to switch on you PC/Mac to prop up its playback capabilities. Anyway, </rant>. It's been brought up a few times before in the feature suggestion forum, but there doesn't seem to be the interest in it from the devs. As Ned Scott mentions above...

Ned Scott Wrote:There's also an XBMC plug-in called multi-room audio

...but this requires VLC to act as the player. VLC cannot be installed on ATV2, so the multi-room audio addon won't work on this platform.

Credit to Ned Scott (again) for bringing up Airfoil (I'd totally forgotten about it). If you wanted to use your PC/Mac as the main player and then stream the audio to your ATV2s from there then Airfoil could be useful and wouldn't require the use of iTunes (I think they'll be in sync with this solution). AFAIK there's no solution which doesn't involve using a PC or Mac as well as the ATV2s.

P.S. If anyone does know a way of doing sync'd playback without an additional PC/MAC - i.e. with only the ATV2s, or with a low-powered NAS (I use a ReadyNAS Duo) - then you'd make my day if you could share the How-To, or point me in the right direction!