November 08, 2005

Curious George: mp3 mayhem [Disclaimer: does not contain mayhem]

So I've got a PC, chock full a' mp3s, connected to my stereo. I've also got an iBook on the same network. What I really want is for some way for the PC to play its mp3s through the stereo, controlled by the iBook: ie, I can browse files, play, pause, etc, etc, from right here in this comfy chair. I've been trying to find a solution, but my Google-fu has failed me. Anyone got a solution? Ta muchly.

posted by Blaise Bailey Finnegan 19 years ago
  • itunes and airport express/airtunes. Store files on pc, connect to pc with ibook using itunes, control music from ibook, stream to stereo via airport/arrunes. nirvana ensues.
  • arrunes is, of course, airtunes, typed by an uncoordinated monkey.
  • It might a bit overkill, but you could use VNC (freeware) to control the windows machine from the Mac http://www.redstonesoftware.com/support.html#vnc. You need to set the PC up to be controlled and the mac to do the controlling, but it is pretty straight forward.

    The airport express/airtunes solution is more elegant, but costs the price of the airport express.
  • Well, that's certainly one option, but I was more thinking doing it without spending money. Sorry. Student.
  • oh, pull that out of the bag after the fact, huh? well, if you don't mind spending a little money, keep an eye on the apple store's refurb and sale page, and you could find an airport express for under $100.
  • I haven't tried any of these solutions, but this Google search for "control itunes from another computer" has some candidates.
  • Timbuktu?
  • Isn't controlling things for you when you don't want to get up the only reason to have children? At Least that's what my dad thought in the days before we had a remote...
  • chrominance: there are many solutions for controlling itunes from another computer, but many fewer when one is a mac and one is a pc.
  • move the PC in front of the chair?
  • 1) Wrap up all computers and stereo equipment, pack them carefully to prevent damage. 2) Ship to my house. 3) Wait no more than five (5) years for me to get the problem worked out.
  • Yeah, I was going to mention the PC/Mac issue, but I've been double-dipping posts way too much lately and figured it was probably obvious to the poster. So, to make this second post useful, I decided to actually look through the search results. Here's a possible solution, if you're handy. 1) Got Winamp on the PC? Good. Install httpq, which will allow you to control Winamp/Shoutcast via HTTP. (I don't believe you need Shoutcast for this.) 2) Install a web server with PHP on your iBook (I'm not sure if OS X comes with its own server or not; my suspicion is that it does). Then grab this script and put it on your local server. Access it using your web browser. Done. For bonus points, write your own PHP script to do things exactly the way you want. Or use a readymade program like netjukebox, which requires a webserver on the Windows PC. XAMPP is a nice, easy-to-use web server package. If you don't want to use/install a web server on either your iBook or your PC, you could try this Konfabulator widget (direct link to widget). No idea if it'll work with the current version of Konfabulator; I think it was written last November. If all else fails, you could simply control httpq via direct URL queries. Not for the faint of heart. Note: I haven't tried any of these solutions out because I don't have a Mac.
  • Thanks muchly for the advice. I tried everything you suggested, chrominance, but with no success. I discovered that I'm not nearly competent enough to configure a web server, and the Konfabulator jobby doesn't seem to work on version two. So, it looks like I'm going to have to get one of these Airtunes jobbies. That, or give up. Most probably give up.
  • can't you put itunes on both pc and ibook; share itunes library on pc to the network; connect ibook to stereo via standard audio jack with splitter, then playback the pc-hosted songs via the ibook?
  • clarification - playback the pc-hosted songs via itunes on the ibook.
  • This is kind of old, and winamp is kind of passe, but it might be what you're looking for. If you want an old version of winamp get it at oldversion.com. Another (non-free) option might be to spend a few bucks on a cheap IR or bluetooth remote for your computer.
  • I guess I didn't read chrominance's post thoroughly... my link should do pretty much what his setup would, except it's a lot simpler. I got it working on my computer in about 7 minutes. Don't have a mac around at home right now to test but I can't see why it wouldn't work.
  • Stripe, that worked perfectly. Thanks a lot. It was even simple enough to use for a moron like myself to understand. Thankyou, monkeys all.
  • I would like to take this moment to remind all of you that it's not really mayhem unless someone looses a limb. Literally.
  • you could use VNC (freeware) >Well, that's certainly one option, but I was more thinking doing it without spending money. Bzuh? I would like to take this moment to remind all of you that it's not really mayhem unless someone looses a limb. >Curious George: mp3 mayhem [Disclaimer: does not contain mayhem] Guh?
  • when I was saying I didn't want to spend money, I was referring to the Airtunes option. Which is significantly more expensive than free. VNC sounded… Hard. So I didn't try it.
  • Heh. You said "hard"
  • Ooh, I did, didn't I? I am a one.