Is this possible?

[Broken Friday]

I have my iMac connected to my PC (10 feet away) over a ethernet connection. THe PC doesn't have speakers. Is there a way I could somehow get the PC's audio to be "sent" over the ethernet into my iMac, and to be heard on the iMac's speakers?

If not, I guess that needs to be invented.

 

[AviationFan]

While I don't know of an existing solution, I can think of only one real technical concern: latency. This would have to be compensated for somehow, or else the audio won't match the video.

(Since you are posting in the Digital Video forum, I assume your question is in the context of audio output for video work.)

- Martin

 

[foshizzle]

just setup remote desktop

I dont know what you will be doing on your PC that you need sound for so this may or may not be the solution you are looking for.

If your PC is able to be setup for remote desktop (win xp PRO, not sure which versions of vista) you can download remote desktop connection for mac from microsoft's website. Then in the program's preferences on your mac there is a tab for sound, where you can choose where to play the sound from the remote computer (your PC), and one of the options is to play it on your mac. The sound should be okay, since you are on ethernet connection, but you will have to control your PC from remote desktop on your mac, as it will not let you control from both (as with a VNC connection that your mac has, and is included in 10.5).

Another option is to install a VNC server on your PC, then you would not be forced to only use the remote desktop program to control your pc.

 

[Oryan]

I am personally a fan of TightVNC, but I'm not sure if it can transfer sound.

 

[KingofAwesome]

You'd be better off using an audio cable connecting the "line out" or "speaker out" from the PC to the "Mic/Line In" on the Mac. Just a 1/8" - 1/8" stereo cable would do it.

You just need the iMac to be playing the audio from that input at all times. I have a dedicated firewire audio device so I can't test it out to see how to set that, but it would be the best quality in this setup (no real lag and no compression/decompression issues) for just the cost of a 10'-12' cord that could be tied to the existing ethernet cable.