[RELEASE] Multiroom Audio & Video Streaming Plugin (Syncronized)

pssturges Wrote:Ahuh! No worries. I'll look forward to testing it when ready.

Thanks again for your work

Phil

Hey Phil... and everyone else that might have downloaded the initial Dharma version of the plugin (v1.0.2)

There was a problem with v1.0.2. I fixed it and regression tested it so here is the new version: http://xbmc-multiroom-audio-plugin.googl...v1.0.4.zip

I need more coffee!!!!

Thanks! I did have a bit of a play with 1.0.2 with mixed results. I think most of the problems were with my configuration. I will try 1.0.4 over the next couple of days and see if I do any better. I'll let you know how I go.

Thanks again for your fantastic work.
Phil

pssturges Wrote:Thanks! I did have a bit of a play with 1.0.2 with mixed results. I think most of the problems were with my configuration. I will try 1.0.4 over the next couple of days and see if I do any better. I'll let you know how I go.

Thanks again for your fantastic work.
Phil

Ok. Uninstall 1.0.2 first as that ver was busted. Let me know if I can help

Ok, so what is the best way to uninstall? Within xbmc ->system ->add-ons?

I think I'd be best starting my configuration from new is there some way to wipe all my settings and start again? Delete some files in my .xbmc folder perhaps?

I am still having trouble getting my head around the configuration. It may best to describe my settup then you may be able to point me in the right direction...

I have 3 systems on my network:

Living room - ip:192.168.0.4
lounge room - ip:192.168.0.2
Bed room - ip:192.168.0.3

My plan is that the living room machine will be my master and the other 2 will be slaves. I would like to play synced media through all 3. What info needs to be configured on each machine? In particular which ips go where?

Sorry if this all a bit basic. I just can't quite get my head around it yet.

Thanks for your patience.
Phil

pssturges Wrote:Ok, so what is the best way to uninstall? Within xbmc ->system ->add-ons?

I think I'd be best starting my configuration from new is there some way to wipe all my settings and start again? Delete some files in my .xbmc folder perhaps?

I am still having trouble getting my head around the configuration. It may best to describe my settup then you may be able to point me in the right direction...

I have 3 systems on my network:

Living room - ip:192.168.0.4
lounge room - ip:192.168.0.2
Bed room - ip:192.168.0.3

My plan is that the living room machine will be my master and the other 2 will be slaves. I would like to play synced media through all 3. What info needs to be configured on each machine? In particular which ips go where?

Sorry if this all a bit basic. I just can't quite get my head around it yet.

Thanks for your patience.
Phil

No problem.. ;-)

Go ahead and uninstall via the addons section, but I have noticed that the uninstall functionality of the XBMC still needs a little work (like removing the app_data created by the previous plugin) ... so once you have unstalled via the addons section, close XBMC and via naut, browse to the ~/.xbmc/userdata/addon_data directory and remove plugin.program.mutiroomaudio.

Now, browse to ~/.xbmc/addons/packages and remove plugin.program.mutiroomaudio...zip

Now you have a clean system. Hopefully the addons Uninstall feature will get better...it's still pretty cool already.

Anyhow,

Now for the 2nd part of your question...

(We are going to use the Livingroom pc for this example)
On your master machine, after you reinstall the plugin, go ahead and setup the plugin via the context menu "addon settings". We are going to take the defaults for now, so go ahead and select OK so that the system generates the proper playercorefactory.xml file.

Now restart XBMC on the master.

Via the Master (livingroom) pc we are going to define a slave via the MultiroomAudio plugin. Upon starting the plugin...
1) Select "Slave (Stream Receiver)
2) Add an index # of 1 and select done
3) The next dialogue that pops up, select done as nothing should go into this
4) In the Source URL dialogue enter the following: udp://@224.1.1.152:1152
select done (BTW...This is the default that the Master will stream from)
5) For the title enter the name of Localhost and select done


Now for the clients (we will use your "lounge room" pc as an example)

Ok... on the lounge room pc (assuming that you already followed the process to re-install)

Go to the Multiroom plugin and let define a new client to the master you configure above by:

1) Select "Slave (Stream Receiver)
2) Add an index # of 2 (the number 1 should be reserved) and select done
3) The next dialogue that pops up, select done as nothing should go into this
4) In the Source URL dialogue enter the following: udp://@224.1.1.152:1152
select done (BTW...This is the default that the Master will stream from)
5) For the title enter the name of the master (in this case) Livingroom and select done

Repeat this for the other client(s) ... e.g. Bedroom

Ok.. now lets start a stream

1) Via the Master pc (Livingroom) MultiroomAudio plugin - select the Localhost slave you created earlier (this is optional so that you will be to listen to what is being streamed on the master (livingroom) pc.

2) Still on the master pc and within XBMC goto Music and browse to a song and via
the context menu select "Play using" and select "MR_Audio_Stream

3) Go to the lounge pc and via MultiroomAudio plugin - select the Livingroom slave you
created earlier.

Now you should be listening to the "syncronized" audio in both rooms.

Let me know if you have questions.

Ok, got it working! Thanks for the detailed instructions. So now my impressions. Firstly, awesome concept and fantastic work so far! I know this is early days for this plugin and some issues are to be expected. Some things that I have found so far:

1) there doesn't seem to be any way to control the audio once it is playing. My master xbmc seems to freeze while playing the stream.

2) It seems that only one song at a time can be played. Once the 1st song finishes, the next needs to be manually started

3) the audio seems to be over amplified to the point of distortion. This seems to be worse with more slaves running. I noticed that if I close xbmc on the master machine, that the audio keeps playing through that machine, but at a much lower level. Seems like there is some sort of feedback issue happening. I just now started a stream with out listening to it on the master machine and this issue is not present. - Edit: just restarted and this issue seems to have gone away. Will keep on eye on it and report if it returns.

4) It would be nice if there was some sort of user feed back on the screen of all machines showing what is playing and be able to control the music.

5) Playing video, I get a blank screen on all machines, although the audio plays.

6) Pass through works when playing video ac3 on my master machine, but not in the lounge room. The audio is played as stereo.

I'm sure some of these things simply haven't been implemented yet and will come with time. Others may be my operation!

Hope this helps. This has sooo much potential! It would be great to see this mature. It would definitely be something that I would use all the time.

Once again thanks for your excellent work.
Phil

pssturges Wrote:Ok, got it working! Thanks for the detailed instructions. So now my impressions. Firstly, awesome concept and fantastic work so far! I know this is early days for this plugin and some issues are to be expected. Some things that I have found so far:

1) there doesn't seem to be any way to control the audio once it is playing. My master xbmc seems to freeze while playing the stream.

2) It seems that only one song at a time can be played. Once the 1st song finishes, the next needs to be manually started

3) the audio seems to be over amplified to the point of distortion. This seems to be worse with more slaves running. I noticed that if I close xbmc on the master machine, that the audio keeps playing through that machine, but at a much lower level. Seems like there is some sort of feedback issue happening. I just now started a stream with out listening to it on the master machine and this issue is not present. - Edit: just restarted and this issue seems to have gone away. Will keep on eye on it and report if it returns.

4) It would be nice if there was some sort of user feed back on the screen of all machines showing what is playing and be able to control the music.

5) Playing video, I get a blank screen on all machines, although the audio plays.

6) Pass through works when playing video ac3 on my master machine, but not in the lounge room. The audio is played as stereo.

I'm sure some of these things simply haven't been implemented yet and will come with time. Others may be my operation!

Hope this helps. This has sooo much potential! It would be great to see this mature. It would definitely be something that I would use all the time.

Once again thanks for your excellent work.
Phil

Thanks for the feedback Phil. Much of this is covered in the readme of the next major milestone release v1.0.7.

Regarding the distorted audio you mentioned, this could be the result of 2 instances of VLC playing the same stream. The continuous play issue is only with Linux based systems and has been reported (XBMC Ticket#10106.

Regarding your audio channels, you can change the SOUT info in the addon settings, in your case just add a space and --sout-all and that should fix it.

Think I fixed the video issue that you were having. Got alot more work to do...

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been waiting for this as well!

I have a master set up, but still need to get a slave set up to test. Will try to do so this weekend and provide feedback.

a_madman Wrote:Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been waiting for this as well!

I have a master set up, but still need to get a slave set up to test. Will try to do so this weekend and provide feedback.

Thanks!!

I am "slaving" away at making it better but all of the input I can get the better!

teshephe Wrote:No problem.. ;-)

Go ahead and uninstall via the addons section, but I have noticed that the uninstall functionality of the XBMC still needs a little work (like removing the app_data created by the previous plugin) ... so once you have unstalled via the addons section, close XBMC and via naut, browse to the ~/.xbmc/userdata/addon_data directory and remove plugin.program.mutiroomaudio.

Now, browse to ~/.xbmc/addons/packages and remove plugin.program.mutiroomaudio...zip

Now you have a clean system. Hopefully the addons Uninstall feature will get better...it's still pretty cool already.

Anyhow,

Now for the 2nd part of your question...

(We are going to use the Livingroom pc for this example)
On your master machine, after you reinstall the plugin, go ahead and setup the plugin via the context menu "addon settings". We are going to take the defaults for now, so go ahead and select OK so that the system generates the proper playercorefactory.xml file.

Now restart XBMC on the master.

Via the Master (livingroom) pc we are going to define a slave via the MultiroomAudio plugin. Upon starting the plugin...
1) Select "Slave (Stream Receiver)
2) Add an index # of 1 and select done
3) The next dialogue that pops up, select done as nothing should go into this
4) In the Source URL dialogue enter the following: udp://@224.1.1.152:1152
select done (BTW...This is the default that the Master will stream from)
5) For the title enter the name of Localhost and select done


Now for the clients (we will use your "lounge room" pc as an example)

Ok... on the lounge room pc (assuming that you already followed the process to re-install)

Go to the Multiroom plugin and let define a new client to the master you configure above by:

1) Select "Slave (Stream Receiver)
2) Add an index # of 2 (the number 1 should be reserved) and select done
3) The next dialogue that pops up, select done as nothing should go into this
4) In the Source URL dialogue enter the following: udp://@224.1.1.152:1152
select done (BTW...This is the default that the Master will stream from)
5) For the title enter the name of the master (in this case) Livingroom and select done

Repeat this for the other client(s) ... e.g. Bedroom

Ok.. now lets start a stream

1) Via the Master pc (Livingroom) MultiroomAudio plugin - select the Localhost slave you created earlier (this is optional so that you will be to listen to what is being streamed on the master (livingroom) pc.

2) Still on the master pc and within XBMC goto Music and browse to a song and via
the context menu select "Play using" and select "MR_Audio_Stream

3) Go to the lounge pc and via MultiroomAudio plugin - select the Livingroom slave you
created earlier.

Now you should be listening to the "syncronized" audio in both rooms.

Let me know if you have questions.

Hello there,
Did the setup instructions change for version 1.07? I dont see the index# you refer to and the interface options are different than described.

Also, I'm having trouble getting my head around how this works too. Using the above scenario, why is the udp address the 224.1.1.152? Wouldnt it need to be the IP address of the master - 192.168.0.4? And then, wouldnt each slave unit need to refer to that IP?

Are there other VLC configurations that need to be made, or firewall / port forwarding settings that have to be set up as well?

Following you instructions, I dont get the master/slave to link up - in fact, XBMC drops out and I get a command window that says it cant find VLC.EXE, although I did make sure the path was set right.