[aegis1888]

Hi Guys,

Please bear with me if this has been asked already, but I had a quick look on the forums and i couldn't find an easy answer. Basically I have just moved into a flat. The flat comes with surround sound speakers, connected to a 'media box' connected to the tv. What I've been able to do is connect my laptop to the media box and stream movies and music to the tv and hence the speakers. All is good...except when I move to the other side of the room and I cant take my laptop with me because its hooked into the media box.

So what I want to be able to do is play music and movies on my laptop and have them wirelessly stream to the speakers and tv. In other words, i want to press play on itunes and listen to music through the speakers. Or I want to open a movie on my laptop and watch it through the tv.

I've done some research and the only way I believe I can do this is by connecting the media box to a pc and then remote login to the pc to play content. Remote login seems like overkill so that is why I'm interested in xmbc. I have been looking at the following;

http://www.ebuyer.com/319554-acer-aspire...fAodkhkAwQ

I was thinking of putting my content on the revo and connecting it to the media box. The bit I'm not so sure about is whether I can install xbmc on revo and then control it from my laptop. In other words use my laptop as a remote control for the xbmc server. That way I can sit in my room and write long forum posts and listen to music playing on the surround sound speakers in the lounge. Then my life would be complete.

Would I be able to do this? If so, are there any articles on here or anywhere else I can read on this.

Cheers

[artrafael]

Welcome to the XBMC forums.

You can use the XBMC web interface to navigate and control XBMC (on your Revo) from a web browser (on your laptop). See the following for more details:

• Web interface add-ons wiki page
  
• Web interfaces subforum for discussion of various web interface add-ons
  
• Network settings wiki page, which explains how to enable web interface support
  

[aegis1888]

Brilliant! I'll get the revo and let you know how i get on with it.

[whitebelly]

Before you buy, make sure you know how you plan to install XBMC on the box. The REVO you linked to is a linux OS, not Windows, so that means you will use a linux installation, XMBCbuntu, or OpenELEC. Just be sure you are comfortable with those approaches. If you think OpenELEC is your answer, check the list of supported hardware. REVOs are listed, not that particular model, but it would probably work just fine.

Since you'd have XBMC, you could also use a remote for control.

[aegis1888]

Which version of XMBC is the most used, supported and stable version, Linux or Windows? I'm a developer so I can get my hands dirty if need be, but I really don't want to turn this into a project.

[nklerk]

If the mediabox or TV supports DLNA you could make a script that tells the mediabox to play a certain file. you could add this script as a player in XBMC. this should be easy for a developer.
This way you have the amazing XBMC interface on your laptop and media on your TV.
I own a perl script that allmost does this, programed by my self, and i am no developer. if you are interested i can share it.

what you could also do is:

Use serviio as DLNA server (free)
or XBMC as DLNA server (think servio is more ideal)
and a DLNA remote app on your tablet/phone if you own one.

in the end a standalone XBMC box is the 'best' sollution but this is not possible in every situation.

[aegis1888]

Hi nklerk, that's very useful info thanks. I am going to be getting a hold of a revo box next week, so will probably get in touch then if I run into any problems.

'this should be easy for a developer' lol if I had a penny for every time I heard that.

[live4ever]

I think one thing you need to clarify is what the 'media box' is. Is it an amp? How do you currently connect the laptop to it?

[Ned Scott]

XBMC is gaining the ability to "play to" DLNA/UPnP sources in the future.

[nklerk]

Hi aegis, i grabbed all the code that you might be interested in.
I wrote this becouse the HTPC i used before didnt fit with my current livingroom and my TV (samsung) is able to play DLNA content. so i wrote a web app for my ipad with all movies and music.
This webapp worked great on my livingroom tv and my bedroom XBMC HTPC but i realy missed XBMC in the livingroom so i bought a new smaller htpc for the living room. (if you have the budget have a look at this http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.as...D%20Series )

I wanted to rewrite my code so i could use my TV as a external player for 3D-sbs movies but i don't see myself doing this in the next months. so unfortunatly i have only the code that is written for a working webapp. and needs some relative minor modifications to be usable as an external player in XBMC.

For those of you interested, i included a script i still use verry often, tv-soap.pl This script sends SMS via soap/upnp to my tv. so you could let proccesses inform you on your TV even when it is on a different channel.

here is the link:
http://www.nielsdeklerk.nl/soap-upnp-dlna.zip

[nklerk]

I forgot to clarify that this script will not stream content itself. it indexes the UPNP servers on your network (UPNPindexer.pl) find renderers to play content on (findrenderers.pl) and is able to tell ask a given renderer to play a given stream (soap-upnp.pl) so its more like a remote that could be used as an external player in XBMC with so rewritten code. i dont know how XBMC will call external players but if i remember right the code searches for a matching file name in the indexed file.

[atvtester]

Link does not work or broken. It came back with HTTP 404 not found. Please relink for I am very interest

[cosso1]

Hi, I am new to the xbmc scene. I think I'm on the right thread for this. I have managed to install it on my PC with a few add ons, I have a Samsung Smart TV and I was wondering if I could stream from my PC to the smart hub on my TV. I have also ordered an Android TV box, but for now could do with streaming. Thanks

[atvtester]

Yes you can connect your PC to your tv provide that you video card from your PC had the video outlet. I tried and it works great

[cosso1]

I was looking more for streaming across my wireless network, as my PC is in a different room from my TV. I know I could just use the TV as a second display using an HDMI cable from PC, but this would have to be around 20m long. If I can't stream across the wireless, I think I will just wait untill I have my Android box delivered.