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Synchronizing Music Players?

Posted by Cliff on from the all-at-once-now dept.

orn asks: "Lots of people now have MP3 players in the living room. Some people have players in the kitchen, bedroom, garage, and so on. They are great when it comes to getting to your music from multiple places, but when you walk from room to room, it's almost impossible to get the music aligned. Are there software packages or techniques for synchronizing multiple networked music players? One thought is to use streaming software to stream to all players — but is there any streamer that will let you account for the different delays in different hardware to create a single synchronized whole?"

6 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Easy solution by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 4, Funny

    but when you walk from room to room, it's almost impossible to get the music aligned.

    That's what the volume knob is for. I assume you have an '11' setting on it? Problem solved. You can hear it in all rooms simultaneously.

    1. Re:Easy solution by orkysoft · · Score: 3, Funny

      Another easy solution:

      MP3 players are portable, are they not? Simply carry the one you're listening to with you, and the only delay you'll get is relativistic, which (1) is negligible at the velocities of typical slashdotters, and (2) nullified by carrying the player with you.

      I believe Apple makes a suitable device for this purpose.

      --

      I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
  2. Simple. by harrkev · · Score: 5, Funny

    Simple!

    First, figure out what your slowest player is. Then, delay the others to match. Note that a lot of cat-5 cable might be useful -- about a mile or two should do it.

    Use an osiclloscope to compare two different devices, and figure out how much delay you need. Figure that eight inches of wire is about a nanosecond delay. Note that you might have trouble driving a mile or two of cat-5, so you might have to throw in a switch or hub along the way -- which will introduce additional delay. Simply measure the delay and use less cable.

    See, simple!

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    "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
  3. Re:Perfect (and simple!) solution by Jarjarthejedi · · Score: 2, Funny

    But...motion sensing is cool...and all...stop ruining my Star Trek dreams...keep them away, them and their normal ideas...I want my motion sensing radio with mood ring capabilities for music!

    --
    There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
  4. The things we have to struggle against by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 1, Funny
    > it's almost impossible to get the music aligned

    OMFG! Life is so hard!

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  5. Obvious by triso · · Score: 2, Funny

    Put a MP3 player in your pocket, with the tunes you want, put some headphones on and the music will follow you around, magically, without phase or synchronization problems.