Hey, trying to find the best solution for this, hard to get a clear answer from google for my particular situation.

What I'm trying to do:

From playing audio or a video on my computer, I'd like to push one button on the computer (or phone) and have that audio played synchronously in another room, then one-button stop playing in other room when I come back to the computer.


My current setup:

Windows 10 computer in living room with wired stereo computer speakers (from audio-out on mobo). Ethernet to router, which has good wifi connectivity to entire apartment. Home theater setup on other side of living room with Nvidia Shield and Yamaha receiver (recent-ish model). The rooms I'd like to send audio to are on other sides of walls maybe 15-20 feet away.


Restrictions/Preferences:

I do not currently have a wireless/remote speaker to use and would need to buy one, although I'd prefer not to spend more than $100 (pref closer to $50). If a solution involves a smart speaker, Google is preferred, as I'm more deep in their ecosystem.

I don't want to run cable for the other-room speakers. I'd prefer not to play all this through the receiver, as I don't leave the receiver on all the time and would prefer a "one-click, now it's playing in the other room" rather than ****ing around with zones/whatever on the receiver.

I also don't want to interface with some other device (besides the remote speaker) in order to play music/podcasts/whatever. E.g. I don't want to **** around w/ a Sonos remote to find the same podcast and get to the same point I was listening to on the computer, if that makes sense. If I'm 1 hour 32 min in on a podcast, I want to listen from exactly that point from when I get up from computer to when I walk into other room.


What I most need advice on:

A clear explanation on if this is possible, how I can do it, and what I need to buy. Would love to hear what works for you, as well.

Thanks so much for any assistance!

if and i mean IF

you use google cast , you can do this with google home and multiple chromecast audio devices arranged in a group. can play one stream to all devices in sync.

if you dont want to listen to one just power off the speaker(s) or amp. can adjust volume of each device separately in google home as well.

cannot set static IP which is not great but I just assign by mac address in router

only drawbacks to this is setup is the only native mp3 player is google play music and it wont stream from local drives, need to upload your music to their servers and stream it. ****ing retarded. also doesn't support replaygain . but recent updates have added a feature to normalize the audio but i haven't tried it yet.

i play my music 24/7 and never lose connection for months, wasn't always like this lol. thus the static IPs that i set.

i also use a bubbleupnp server and an audio grabber to capture the stream from foobar2000 since it has the best features and replaygain. third option is built in to foobar via plugins but they are just passthrough audio and replaygain isn't applied.

last option is vlc 3 , it has a new rendering output that allows you to cast the stream to your google home grouping . vlc playlist is crap and replaygain not available either. but it can do other stuff like podcasts and network streamings i guess.

it's awesome but very limited.

another option i have is 900mhz wireless speakers. the controller plugs in to speaker out on my soundcard and send the audio to the speakers. i have two, they are mono each but pretty reliable if i want to have them on the deck or in the bathrooms.

I know you mentioned the Sonos remote thing but their speakers are some of the best (WiFi) speakers for the money and simple to use from a control standpoint. The big speaker manufacturers make their own proprietary versions (DefTec and whoever) but Sonos has the best price/quality ratio that I could find as far as that goes.

As far as resuming where you left off, you can set it to be playing on every speaker (put them all in the same zone) and just turn down the speakers you don't want to hear it from. Then you could just pause, turn down one speaker, turn up another, press play and be done. I don't know if you can easily switch audio from one speaker to another if you have them broken up into different zones though, never tried it.

Sonos has both PC and mobile apps so pick your poison there. Each speaker has physical controls as well.

The Sonos One is their cheapest smart speaker and the Play:1 is the cheapest normal speaker. Both are above your price point though and its hard to find them on sale.

Other than Sonos you're looking at bluetooth speakers or some kind of custom setup (normal speakers with a receiver and setting up a PC with all the necessary software to control everything).

Originally Posted by FiEND

if and i mean IF

you use google cast , you can do this with google home and multiple chromecast audio devices arranged in a group. can play one stream to all devices in sync.

if you dont want to listen to one just power off the speaker(s) or amp. can adjust volume of each device separately in google home as well.

cannot set static IP which is not great but I just assign by mac address in router

only drawbacks to this is setup is the only native mp3 player is google play music and it wont stream from local drives, need to upload your music to their servers and stream it. ****ing retarded. also doesn't support replaygain . but recent updates have added a feature to normalize the audio but i haven't tried it yet.

i play my music 24/7 and never lose connection for months, wasn't always like this lol. thus the static IPs that i set.

i also use a bubbleupnp server and an audio grabber to capture the stream from foobar2000 since it has the best features and replaygain. third option is built in to foobar via plugins but they are just passthrough audio and replaygain isn't applied.

last option is vlc 3 , it has a new rendering output that allows you to cast the stream to your google home grouping . vlc playlist is crap and replaygain not available either. but it can do other stuff like podcasts and network streamings i guess.

it's awesome but very limited.

another option i have is 900mhz wireless speakers. the controller plugs in to speaker out on my soundcard and send the audio to the speakers. i have two, they are mono each but pretty reliable if i want to have them on the deck or in the bathrooms.

This is good! A couple questions/thoughts:

- I primarily listen to podcasts on YouTube, and I've noticed the "play on TV" button is available now that I started using the nvidia shield (which runs AndroidTV OS, has Chromecast as a feature, and is in standby all the time). Would this YouTube button allow me to send it to the other-room speaker? And/or would it send to the "group" you mentioned? A link to detailed info on setup for this kind of thing would be great.

- What's the problem with dynamic IP addresses in a Google Home setup? Does it lose track of which speaker is in which room or some such?

- What's the benefit of Replaygain (e.g. what problem does it solve)?

- 900mhz speakers: Any suggested brands/models? Could these play concurrently with the computer speakers or is would there be conflicts on the motherboard (sorry if that's too motherboard-specific)?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Bughead

I know you mentioned the Sonos remote thing but their speakers are some of the best (WiFi) speakers for the money and simple to use from a control standpoint. The big speaker manufacturers make their own proprietary versions (DefTec and whoever) but Sonos has the best price/quality ratio that I could find as far as that goes.

As far as resuming where you left off, you could probably just set it to be playing on every speaker and just turn down the speakers you don't want to hear it from. Then you could just pause, turn down one speaker, turn up another, and be done. I don't know if you can easily switch audio from one speaker to another if you have them broken up into different zones though, never tried it.

Sonos has both PC and mobile apps so pick your poison there. Each speaker has physical controls as well.

The Sonos One is their cheapest smart speaker and the Play:1 is the cheapest normal speaker. Both are above your price point though and its hard to find them on sale.

Other than Sonos you're looking at bluetooth speakers or some kind of custom setup (dumb speakers with a receiver and setting up a PC with all the necessary software to control everything).

Thanks for your thoughts! Yep, I took a look at Sonos and saw too that it had solid reviews from nearly everyone.

My thing is 1) the price was a bit prohibitive, and 2) my apartment isn't that big (~750 sqft) and I'm hoping a more modest, simple solution is feasible. Plus I didn't immediately see how I could run a 1-click setup like I described.

With a larger home, I'm pretty sure Sonos would be my go-to.

For a smaller place you could probably just get away with some good bluetooth speakers, but even those can get expensive for decent audio quality.

I tried these, but the Sonos sounded better and was in the same price range.

Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 4 | Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Same with this, Sonos sounded better.

JBL Boombox | Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Both are way too expensive IMO lol.

replaygain allows me to set all my mp3 at a standard volume (db level) for playback. so my 80s music and 2000s music sound about equal in volume.

i found one or two speakers would cut out once in a while then come back. but the way google home (chromecast) worked, if it lost one connection it would stop everything. giving static ip seemed to allow for more time if one speaker dropped out for a longer time. it's not an issue lately but i havent tried it normally to know if it still makes a difference.

skip to 11 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNNKMF-zmQ?t=636

i haven't tried grouping my chromecast and my chromecast audios .. i also have my sony amp connected to the group but it pisses me off because if i stop sending audio, say reboot my server for something, when i restart the audio playback my stereo automatically turns on.

i will look into this more though...

they started allowing CC and CCA grouping a few months ago. so if you were playing music from google play music, you could send it to multiple devices including your shield and your shield would have ambient display , so show song info etc on screen.

as for sending video to shield and also be able to send audio to CCA devices, that's unknown yet - i'm reading you can set prefered device for audio... so send video to your shield then you could switch the audio part to another device within the app.

Get the dogs involved with this. Maybe strap speakers and wireless repeaters on them. Or cats. Whatever.

I have a few sonos1's around the house. They can play different **** or they can sync and play the same ****. This all makes it one click basically. Group and ungroup. Google can also cast to it, as can iOS.

I pair 300 watt LG soundbars with my chromecast audios in all my rooms and two are also connected to media players and tvs so multipurpose and quite a bit cheaper than sonos

also my phone connects to foobar2k on my server so i can remotely control the music playing. foobar2000 controller in play store.

jriver media player does multiple zones

You can link zones so the same content plays in them or have different stuff in each. You can link through network using DLNA.

Yesterday I had a movie streaming to the TV, music going through the blu ray player and different music thru the PC speakers (just to test it out) I was controlling it all from an app on the ipad.

Check it out it's pretty good and pretty cheap, there is also a free demo.

JRiver Media Center software

Media Network - JRiverWiki

They also do a small NUC box with the software on it that you can use instead of your main PC. You can access your content from anywhere (and stream to it) using a web interface or their app.

JRiver Id

I like google chromecast play ecosystem a hell of a lot better than my sonos 1/5 setup

Dude, you're getting STADIA!

Originally Posted by FiEND

only drawbacks to this is setup is the only native mp3 player is google play music and it wont stream from local drives, need to upload your music to their servers and stream it. ****ing retarded.

I'm presuming the PC client must work significantly different to the Android one, because I play local files with Google Play Music on my phone all the time?

Play lets me use local music i use it on the plane

just get headphones, attach to phone... multiroom audio solved

Originally Posted by MC Hamster

I'm presuming the PC client must work significantly different to the Android one, because I play local files with Google Play Music on my phone all the time?

yes of course, but try casting your local music ---- edit

just loaded some music on my android 9 phone and it is allowing me the option to cast my local library now. need to set up my sony and a few other things and test it. could be a game changer.

Originally Posted by HaPpY

just get headphones, attach to phone... multiroom audio solved

Simple. I was thinking find the dial that says "volume" on the Yamaha receiver and turn it clockwise a couple of big turns.

jriver - uses all you local content plus has inbuilt streaming so you can use whatever service you like.

If you don't want your receiver on all the time then you will have to get a wireless speakers with dlna. You could get multiple ones and each would be seen as an individual zone by jriver. You could link them to pump the house with the same music or unlink to stream Pop to the kitchen and Garage to the garage (or play House through the house).

srsly it's a piece of piss if you are half tech savvy, good **** once you suss it out. Although DLNA is an unreliable ***** no matter which software/hardware you use, direct play is always better. That is why I dragged out an old record player and amp, it's way easier to just stick a record on. Although now you could probably say 'hey google ....play this **** for me in the lounge' and it will just work.

Easiest thing is to just switch the receiver on when you need it. You may even be able to do a wake up signal somehow through the network.