I want more AirTunes!

[hob]

I thought of something late last night.

My setup in my student house is:

iMac -> Amp -> Speakers

I get annoyed by computer noises ruining my music experience now and then. So I thought "perfect idea, I'll use airtunes for my main speakers" (I have an AirPort Ex under me desk). That way, tunes come out the speakers, other noises come out of the iMac.

Except when I want to watch a Movie...

Any ideas?

 

[mkrishnan]

Doesn't Airfoil address this issue?

EDIT: They say that they don't recommend it for video? Mmmm, I didn't realize that. Sorry. 🙁 Out of curiosity, when you play a video from inside iTunes, can iTunes stream the audio using Airtunes? I don't have an Express.

 

[balamw]

FWIW Unless you're watching poorly dubbed kung-fu movies you won't find the sync between the audio and video good enough with any kind of wireless computer speakers.

B

 

[hob]

mm. that's a shame. you'd think it would be quite easy to make work, guess not!!

cheers guys

 

[mkrishnan]

mm. that's a shame. you'd think it would be quite easy to make work, guess not!!

Yeah, it appears that the big problem is that the system must have some sort of feedback loop to know the lag time that the wireless network generates, and then use that to play the video at a different time position than the audio. Although... you might experiment with Airfoil and something like VLC (I think VLC can do a time offset between where the video plays and where the audio plays).

Apple's long-term solution is iTV, I guess. Once you're streaming both audio and video over the wireless network, ironically, it doesn't make a difference anymore. 😀 (I can stream from my DVR to my iMac now).

 

[redeye be]

Get an iMic (griffin) or any other external sound card.
OS X lets you choose which output you'd like to use for system sounds and the likes.
Works great for me and looks to be thé sollution to your problem.

Cheers

 

[asherman13]

Get an iMic (griffin) or any other external sound card.
OS X lets you choose which output you'd like to use for system sounds and the likes.
Works great for me and looks to be thé sollution to your problem.

Cheers

Could you explain how this works, and whether or not you can play video through this setup?

 

[redeye be]

Could you explain how this works, and whether or not you can play video through this setup?

The iMic is just an external USB sound card. Once connected it shows up as an output (and input) possibility in system prefs:sound.
There you can choose which sound output you choose for system sounds and others (music, movies). Some apps (eg skype) let you choose in specific which one they should use. This way you can split up sound and not have system sounds disturb your movies.
This has nothing to do with airtunes. It just sounded like a viable solution for Hob to split up his sound.

Cheers

 

[Kitrik]

Solution to Video over AirTunes

You *can* use airtunes with video! You will need VLC and AirFoil. Have Airfoil launch and take the audio output from VLC. Play your video through VLC now and while it's playing, you can adjust the audio delay by pressing the 'f' and 'g' keys. I find that a delay somewhere around -2600ms is close to right (-2600ms = the audio is played 2.6 seconds before the video, thus when streamed with a delay, the audio will match the video on the computer). I don't know if this will work with movies/shows purchased on iTunes as I don't know if you can play those files in VLC (something tells me you can't...).

Hope that makes sense!

 

[ryan.pro]

In browsers

You *can* use airtunes with video! You will need VLC and AirFoil. Have Airfoil launch and take the audio output from VLC. Play your video through VLC now and while it's playing, you can adjust the audio delay by pressing the 'f' and 'g' keys. I find that a delay somewhere around -2600ms is close to right (-2600ms = the audio is played 2.6 seconds before the video, thus when streamed with a delay, the audio will match the video on the computer). I don't know if this will work with movies/shows purchased on iTunes as I don't know if you can play those files in VLC (something tells me you can't...).

Hope that makes sense!

hey is it possible to do it while im on youtube? like have the youtube audio come out of the speakers that are connected to the airport express...

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Doesn't Airfoil address this issue?

EDIT: They say that they don't recommend it for video? Mmmm, I didn't realize that. Sorry. 🙁 Out of curiosity, when you play a video from inside iTunes, can iTunes stream the audio using Airtunes? I don't have an Express.

That app may not work for OP's purposes, but thanks for the recommendation! VERY COOL APP! 😀

 

[waw74]

airfoil does come with a video player, it can do DVDs, and DIVX and the like.
Although I'm pretty sure it won't work for content purchased from the iTunes store though, but i could be wrong. Try the free airfoil trial to check.

With Airfoil Video Player, you can watch video on your Mac and send the audio to your remote AirPort Express, and have it all play in perfect sync. Try it out - Airfoil Video Player offers support for dozens of video formats, including all formats supported natively by QuickTime Player, by the Perian plug-in, and by any additional plug-ins you've installed, including Flip4Mac for WMV support. Airfoil Video Player also features preliminary support for DVD playback!

As far as youtube compatibility, not really. you can listen with airfoil, but it would be out of sync. remember youtube is really not a full featured player, just a fancy interface in your browser. but you might be able to download, and playback with airfoil video player

 

[Laurencia7]

here's an idea instead of making a video player, why doesn't airfoil fix the sync problem. They say it in the wifi issue with airport express, but if there was a sync issue wouldn't it happen while playing itunes?

songs are always in sync.

hmmmm!

 

[waw74]

here's an idea instead of making a video player, why doesn't airfoil fix the sync problem. They say it in the wifi issue with airport express, but if there was a sync issue wouldn't it happen while playing itunes?

songs are always in sync.

hmmmm!

The audio buffers in the express before it plays, which is why there is about a 2 second delay from the time the audio is played on the computer till it comes out of the port on the express.

iTunes takes this into consideration, and delays the interface, and local audio if necessary, to match what's coming out of the speakers.

If you have access to an express, try this: when in the middle of playing a song, skip to the next song.
If you do it when just listening through the computer, it jumps immediately.
If you are listening through air tunes, it takes a bit for the new song to start

Airfoil video player does much the same thing, in that it will delay the video playback to match the audio.
or in Plex, you can slide the audio in relation to the video, so by moving the audio 2 seconds back, it matches pretty close.