Setup / Comp Requirements

[mwigtkm]

I have been playing around with Xlobby for quite sometime (back when I got into htpc's almost 3 years ago), but never really tried seting up an xlobby system (I put together a few with some old computers just to play around), but now I am ready to start running wires/etc and really get this done.

Here is what I plan:
Living Room: Sony Surround sound package, so I am going to run RCA's (with wall jacks) so I can use that receiver

Rec Room: Kenwood receiver/JBL surround package, RCA's with wall jacks

Masterbedroom: 2 channel amp in the basement with in ceiling speakers in the room upstairs

Outside Back Dek: 2 channel amp in the basement driving 2 outdoor speakers

Garage: 2 channel amp in basement driving two speakers in garage


Total in all: 5 zones.

I will be running this with a wireless laptop as my client

Here is what I need to know:
1. What will I need for processing power?

I tried 3 zones with a 766 celeron with 512mb of ram and it would hit 100% CPU usage every 10 seconds and anytime I tried to change screens it would cause the playback to skip also. I am only using MP3's encoded at 192kps. I have a 1 ghz athlon sitting around that I could swap out for (if I picked up a mobo) if that would be enough power or else I am probably going to have to buy something new (I will only be streaming mp3's and no video whatsoever since I use SageTV for that). Will I need to run some type of RAID 0 Setup in order to supply 5 zones?

2. Can I control volume of all the zones independently and all together when in party mode?

I am currently using 2 SoundBlaster Live! Values with KX drivers to supply 4 zones and the onboard sound for the 5th (I haven't tried all 5 zones since 3 seemed to be too much for my rig). I have seen some work done as far as how to use the DSP programmer in the KX software to do this kind of stuff, so I think I just need to play/practice a little bit more.

I may also at some point use my main rig as a fat client if I want to add a 6th zone, but I think this is probably going to be very rarely done so isn't really part of my overall plan.

Also, Party Mode is probably my ultimate goal, as I see that as more important than then individual zones (it will be done on the occassion, but I think party mode will be my main use).


Your help is greatly appreciated!!!!

[Marbles_00]

1. What will I need for processing power?

Please see my post here:
http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4704
More importantly, view my last post on that page where I indicate limitations using two CL cards/on board audio (7 zones) with a P4 1.7Gig w/512MB Ram/IDE drive. The more important thing is if all five independent zones will be running simultaneously. I would say in a household of four, only four zones max would be used at once....but not everyone/every family is the same. For five zones, I would look into getting the Athlon up and running, especially if your seeing limitations on your test jig.

Could you define your setup a little more...or let us know if this is correct: One CL 5.1 card is used for the Living Room (to give you full surround sound), the other card you are using the kxdrivers and setup 4/5, 6/7, 8/9 for Rec room, materbed, backyard and then the onboard for garage? In essence, I'm just trying to understand your setup more as you have the possibility for seven individual zones as well (like what I'm trying above), but you are almost not even using a card. I'm wondering if you could swap out one card, and replace it with a cheapy soundcard to give you three zones from one CL card, 1 zone from the onboard audio, and your fifth zone from the cheapy addin sound card. You then have an additional 5.1 which you could keep for something else, or sell off.

Were you also planning on syncing all the zones for a "Party Mode"? Personally, I wouldn't party in my garage, and I wouldn't want the masterbedroom included as if my kid's are having a party, I'd rather lock myself in my bedroom and be able to select music indepenent of the rest of the house. If that is the case, you could use one CL card's 0/1 output and do what I mentioned in the other forum post linked above.

2. Can I control volume of all the zones independently and all together when in party mode?

Each zone is a different instance of Winamp. If you set to control a zone, then you will have individual control of the volume for that zone. The exception is if you use the Party Mode/Zone that I mention, then the volume of that instance of winamp will control the volume of all the zones. One way around this (and if your a DIY'er) is to build a volume control circuit that can be controlled via the parallel port, RS232, USB, IR and using Girder to interface with it for each amp. I'm in the midst of re-designing a cicruit such as this using the parallel port. It will be a 4x4 matrix which will allow up to 8 volume pots to be controlled bi-directionally (otherwise it would only be four from 8 data I/O lines).

Hope this was helpful.

[mwigtkm]

I am just planning to output only Stereo to all 5 of my zones. I am only going to use Xlobby for sharing Mp3's (I have gotten really tired of CD's). I also saw your post last night and will probably duplicate what you have done. After what you recommended and what I read of your previous posts, here is what I am going to do (note both of my soundblaster's only due 4.0 sound so from my understanding I can only control 2 zones with each).

Soundblaster Live! #1:
Rec Room Receiver - Winamp 1
Living Room Receiver - Winamp 2
Party mode for indoors - Winamp 3

Soundblaster Live! #2:
Garage Speakers - Winamp 4
Deck Speakers - Winamp 5
Party mode for outdoors - Winamp 6

Intel Built in Sound:
Master Bedroom Speakers - Winamp 7

Then all I would have to do is Sync Winamp 3, 6 and 7 to do whole house (and to be honest the only time I will use whole house is probably for parties and the Masterbedroom wouldn't be used then anyway so really I would only sync 3 and 6 together). Under this, I would only have to go to two different zones to turn the volume up and down and we would use the garage for parties(I do enjoy a cigar on special occassions once in awhile and I won'd do it in my house).

There is only two of us in the house (and 2 dogs mind you), so if I go with this, the most I will ever use is probably 3 zones at a time. I wonder if I can get away with a 1ghz athlon with 512mb of Ram. Hmmmm. I guess worst case is that I can move it all to my Sage box (athlon64 3000+).

[Marbles_00]

Sorry, I was thinking SB Live 5.1 as opposed to a Live card.

I'm not sure you will be able to sync winamp 3 and 6 together at the same time, and seperately from the other instances of winamp. If you use Steven's sync command, it will sync all the instances of winamp, which means you will here double sound out of winamp 1, 2, 4, and 5 because the audio will play from each of those individual instances, then play from winamps 3 and 6. Trust me, I made that mistake when first experimenting with the KX drivers and syncing and wondered why it sounded like crap. That's when I came to the conclusion to stop music from the individual zones then start playing from the winamp instance directed to output kx 0/1. Since experimenting with two CL cards (though I haven't had time to mess with them recently) from what I can tell, the two party zones would be independent of each other, and you won't be able to get a true sync between them, unless there is a way to configure a winamp instance to direct its output to each CL kx 0/1 output at the same time.

You could have two independent party zones as you indicate, and should work nicely with no sync issues to each party zone.

What would be cool, and may have to be a requested feature for Steven, is the ability to select which zones you want to sync together...now then, you could then combine winamp 3 and 6, it would only appear to be two zones...less load on the CPU, could use Steven's sync command, and most likely be able to achieve true sync by it with a fast system (the athlon maybe too slow but worth experimenting with).

Hope I didn't confuse you more.

[mwigtkm]

I didn't even think of the fact that I wouldn't be able to sync just certain zones. Hmmm. Well crud. I know the athlon won't be able to handle 5 zones. Guess I am going to have to throw everything into my Sage Server. Good thing all it does is record shows (all with hardware encoders) so it has a lot of spare processing power.

EDIT: And no, you didn't confuse me. I followed you the whole way. Thanks for talking me through this!

[mwigtkm]

I just found this plugin for winamp. I think this would actually do what I want. I am going to play with it more later on as right now I am away from my xlobby server:

http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=147344

[mwigtkm]

I am sure I am just posting this for no other reason than for my own need, but here is what I have done:

Soundblaster 1:
Living room - Winamp 1 (output 4/5)
Rec room - Winamp 2 (output 6/7)
Both Living and Rec - Winamp 3 (output 0/1)

Soundblaster 2:
Garage - Winamp 4 (output 4/5)
Deck - Winamp 5 (output 6/7)
Both Garage and Deck - Winamp 6 (output 0/1)

Intel integrated sound:
Master Bedroom - Winamp 7

All zones are run thru Winamp 8

Winamp 8 runs all zones using 2 waveOut plugins (I have both 2.02 and 2.1 loaded in winamp) and the plugin listed in my post above. Waveout 2.02 runs the Soundblaster 1, WaveOut 2.1 runs Soundblaster 2 and the Direct Sound runs the Intel integrated Sound. The best part about this, is that it only takes 1 instance of winamp!!!! I still have a bit more testing to do, but it seems to be working at this point.