music pc

[spacejay]

not sure where to put this but as it is to do with my music pc it can go here.

what i want to know is if there is a way of running it headless to dispense with a clunky monitor and what i would need. firstly though, i know sweet f a about networks but i made the music pc so i can fiddle about with stuff to a small extent, so please bear that in mind if you reply.

so the mobo is an intel d945gsejt and i have a cheap android tablet. what do i need to get the two to talk to each other or is it even possible? i have a vague idea about what is required but could be completely wrong so i would like to get some advice from an expert before i expend any money/effort.

[terrybooth]

It all depends on the network connection, OS and applications you are using.

First problem: switching it on. There are two options here: use the button on the machine or wake on lan. For wake on lan you will need to have bios support (there will or will not be a wake on lan option), a physical network connection to the PC and a fixed IP address on the PC (and, fo course, power to the PC). If you have that, there are a number of options available on the Android market. To boot Windows 7, I use Unified remote. There is an application to install on the PC but with that and Unified Remote, you can turn the PC on and off using Unified Remote.

Second problem: choices. Now you have the thing turned on, you want to make it do something. To my mind there are two options here: firstly a generic keyboard and mouse remote and secondly a remote for the application you are using to play music. The problem with the first option is that you have an android tablet and that doesn't have a keyboard and mouse. There are a number of options around that, but, if you want to go down that line, a netbook is probably a better option. Assuming that you have configured the PC to start the music playing application, then you'lll need a remote for that application. I use a TFS and that comes with JRiver Media Player which has a remote - Gizmo. Now that works fine if you want to select music, skip tracks, stop start and such, and you can set the thing to automatically import tracks.

Third problem: where the music? And how do you get it: ripping CDs, you need to control a PC; downloading, you need to control a PC. I use another PC to download/rip CDs then copy the files onto a network storage device. This means that I always have a digital backup, and, in the case of a CD, a physical backup as well (cheap CDs are the digital bargain at the moment - instant backups and cheaper than downloads!)


More questions than answers I know.

[spacejay]

crikey terry , you have bamboozled me somewhat. i think i will have to downgrade my opinion of my limited pc skillset. maybe i should give more details to you and jason.

i have an htpc where i keep one set of my music as a back up (as well as one on a hard drive off site). when i rip a cd it goes on this and is then copied across to my music pc (which is stand alone and situated in the room next door). my music pc uses a stripped down version of xp service pack 2 (i think) which may be a problem.

i have a wireless network which i connect the tablet to. i figured that i needed to add a network card and that my best bet is jriver with gizmo. i don't know whether i could run gizmo on my tablet though.

[terrybooth]

Sorry. Couple of things. I presume the wireless network has a connection to the internet. If the tablet has google play, then you can download gizmo.
Xp sp2. May be a problem with support. When you say "stripped down" what do you mean?

[spacejay]

the music pc is standalone and in a different room to the router so i would need to make it wireless. no laptop. i got the o/s down to the bare minimum using the instructions on cplay.

just had a fiddle about with tablet and it looks like i can download gizmo

[terrybooth]

Gizmo is no use unless you are using JRiver Media Player. You mention cplay, which appears to be a music player. If you are using that, there doesn't appear to be a screenless remote option - the options I can see use a wireless mouse and looks like some at least depend on seeing a screen. Depending on the PC you have, you might be able to find a usb remote which might give basic control (start, stop, skip track). The implementation of ASIO that I have bypasses the PC sound control, so volume is controlled at pre-amp only. Not sure if that is the same with cPlay.

If that is all correct, then it looks like you need to connect the music PC to your tablet. Here the options are wireless network or bluetooth. Then you'll have to find some sort of remote terminal software (there's lots of choice) which gives you keyboard, video and mouse access. That would be pretty straighforward if you used a laptop or netbook for your remote control device (because they have keyboards and mousepads) but I'm not sure how successful any tablet based remote would be. Unified Remote supports bluetooth (but I haven't tried it with that connection) but it doesn't have a keyboard/video/mouse remote.

[spacejay]

oh yeah i know that i would have to get j river to use in conjunction with gizmo. i wouldn't want to shell out for it though if i can't achieve what i want to achieve.

i think i will have to rethink the whole idea....

[terrybooth]

You can use JRiver on a free trial for 30 days.http://www.jriver.com/download.html. Although you might be better doing with version 16 (17 introduces a lot of video stuff you probably don't want).

What sound card do you have in your PC?

I have to say that I haven't got to 'a headless' music player yet.