How to play same output on Squeezebox and PC?

[andy23]

I would like the exact same sound to come out of my Squeezebox and my PC
speakers. All I'm really interested in is having the same radio stream
playing, but in exact synchronization so there's no delay between the
two.

As I'm mainly thinking about using this in the morning - Squeezebox
radio alarm wakes me up, then I turn the PC on next after getting up -
I guess it makes sense for the PC to replicate what the Squeezebox is
playing, although doing it the other way would be fine too, scheduling
the PC to wake up and play.

What are my options?

[bpa]

All I'm really interested in is having the same radio stream playing,
but in exact synchronization so there's no delay between the two.

Getting exact sync between PC and Radio is v. unlikely due to fact that
PC hardware and OS audio subsystem is outside control of software
players. On some PCs it can work but it is not guaranteed and there
seems to be no definitive way to determine which configs work.

[Soulkeeper]

(...) in exact synchronization (...) What are my options?

As perfect sync is a requirement, you've god exactly two options, as
far as I can see:

1) Turn your Squeezebox Radio into an extension of your PC's sound
card, by connecting an analog cable between the PC's line out and the
Radio's line in.

2) Connect your PC speakers to a hardware Squeezebox (Classic,
Receiver, Touch, or even a Radio or Boom's line out).

Perfect sync is not possible when a software player is involved, for
the reasons bpa stated. The amount of latency in your PC sound card is
unknown to the Squeezebox system, and therefore cannot be compensated
for.

[stevix]

interesting - installed Squeezeplay, and the Media Server allowed me to
"synchronise" the Squeezeplay with the Living room receiver. The same
song starts playing, but sadly,.. NOT in sync :-(

[garym]

interesting - installed Squeezeplay on PC, and the Media Server allowed
me to "synchronise" Squeezeplay (on the PC with its speakers) with the
Living room Squeezebox Receiver. The same song starts playing, but
sadly,.. NOT in sync :-(

software SB players (SqueezePlay) have difficulty doing a good sync
because of the extra "variables" involved in the software audio (unlike
hardware SB players that are rock solid in synch).
--
garym

*Location 1:* VB Appliance 6TB (1.10) > LMS 7.7.1 > Transporter, Touch,
Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio)
*Location 2:* VB Appliance 3TB (2.0) > LMS 7.7.1 > Touch > Benchmark
DAC I, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio)
*Office:* Win7(64) > LMS 7.7.1 > SqueezePlay
Retired: SB3, Duet Receiver
Controllers: iPhone (iPeng), iPad (iPengHD & SqueezePad), CONTROLLER,
or SqueezePlay 7.7 on Win7(64) laptop
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[bpa]

The main reason for inability to sync using Softsqueeze is that it is
written in Java and uses JavaSound which means the same codebase works
on Linux, Windows and OSX. In theory, Java Sound has the ability to
determine which audio sample is being played and SoftSqueeze uses this
feature but in practice it doesn't work. It used to work quite well on
Windows on simple audio hardware but I think the Java Sound library has
kept up to date with PC audio hardware.

It's probable there is a similar issue with Squeezeplay as it uses
Lua.

The best bet for full audio sync would be a player which interfaces
natively with the OS in a compiled language suchg as c/c++. I think
Squeezeslave is written in C but I think it also uses 3rd party
libraries to facilitate being ported to different OSs.

[andy23]

OK, thanks for the answers. I was hoping a Squeezebox could perhaps be
used as a wireless speaker but it would seem not so.

[derijckwouter]

Does this mean there's no way round the fact that you need to have a
premium account to be able to listen to spotify with your squeezebox?

I'm looking for solutions to listen to my (free) spotify account with
my squeezebox. Connecting my laptop to my Squeezebox with an audio
cable is one solution. But is there another way of transmitting all
laptop-sounds to my squeezebox (wireless)?

[bpa]

If you are using Windows - there used to be an alternative solution
DSBridge - I think it can stream sound from an application not all
laptop audio.

See
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=64590

I know nothing else about it.

[bluto99]

Post by derijckwouter
Does this mean there's no way round the fact that you need to have a
premium account to be able to listen to spotify with your squeezebox?
I'm looking for solutions to listen to my (free) spotify account with
my squeezebox. Connecting my laptop to my Squeezebox with an audio
cable is one solution. But is there another way of transmitting all
laptop-sounds to my squeezebox (wireless)?

If you are using Windows or Linux you can stream system audio as 320kb
MP3 using VLC and "tune" it with your Squeezebox, works very well. It
might be possible w/ Mac OS X too but I couldn't get it to work.
PasTim has posted here on ways to do this with Windows and Linux and
his info got it working for me w/ Ubuntu