Comments on: synchronizing mp3 playback

By: sharon rover

sharon rover — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 05:00:24 +0000

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your effort to explain this in such a great depth.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:12:16 +0000

I mean seriously I am considering just installing a whole house audio system…. It would be less trouble maybe.. lol

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:10:46 +0000

Is there a readme for building this for windows xp?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:05:55 +0000

@Jason, thanks for the interest! unfortunately, it's not really very usable for end users. if you're adventurous and don't mind building from source, though, you're welcome to download it!

also see P4, the more modern platform rewrite without the music-specific parts.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:56:37 +0000

So how do I get this and use it?

By: bjorn400

bjorn400 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi, I have been keeping tabs on this report. Thanks for the great info. I like vlc player for local multicast streaming, because my roomates use ibooks, and I use a self built pc. Of course it eventually falls out of sync in the hundreds of a second range as you describe. Pretty annoying. I look forward to more info on how to minimize this sync gap. Thanks! -bjorn

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Great work guys keepit up :) I will definatly be interested in a final version. will it be freeware???

- DonkyBoY

By: ryan

ryan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

thanks! if and when we make an official release, it will definitely be free, both as in beer and as in freedom.

development has slowed down some, though, since the plugin latency in the vast majority of players is too high. when a plugin says "seek here!", it needs to actually happen, from the player down through the sound card driver, in under 100ms at a bare minimum. winamp can do this, but not itunes, nor any *nix players i've found. :/

still, we might come back to it. until then, you're welcome to try out the latest version! it come with the core sync library and experimental plugins for xmms, zinf, and mpd, available for most *nix platforms.

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was excited to find this page, but worried when I noticed there was no posting date, and downright disappointed to hear that development has stalled. I have exactly the problem you describe: Two computers in disparate parts of the house, which I want to be able to play synchronized music from my own library or tune to an Internet radio station. I have a local Shoutcast server to feed a common stream, and my local network latency is low enough that via remote access, I can kick off playback on both machines nearly simultaneously. Unfortunately, drift is dramatic: One the order of 5 seconds an hour! Within five minutes, I can already hear a distinct echo.

I'll download it and check it out, but does your latest version make any attempt to keep two playback machines in sync, or does it only try to synch the initial start of playback?

Thanks, Jim

- Jim

By: ryan

ryan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

hi jim! absolutely, it continuously syncs the players, not just at the beginning. as i mentioned in the “playback rate” section, we noticed the skew that you noticed too, so we had to account for it.