Streaming audio between two PCs wirelessly

[Blackhawk]

This is an odd one that I'm having a tough time searching for. During tabletop games I run, I use my laptop to play audio. I have a second windows PC that is used for watching TV that is connected to my home audio (no receiver, just the speakers connected to the TV.) Currently I use an audio cable from my laptop's headphone jack to the TV PC to get the sound to the speakers. This leaves a cord running right across the center of the room where a bunch of people are walking and rolling chairs, and that cord is attached to my laptop. It's a recipe for disaster.

What I'd like to be able to do is have the audio from the laptop sent to the other PC (with the speakers) wirelessly. The laptop has bluetooth, and I have a USB dongle that will let me add bluetooth to the other PC. Both PCs are also on the same network. I need relatively low latency, too (so that I can time audio events when needed.)

Any thoughts?

[hitbyambulance]

this _used_ to be doable in Windows. what you're looking for is a Bluetooth A2DP source and sink. the audio sink capability of A2DP (a Bluetooth protocol) was removed in the Windows Bluetooth stack as of Vista or Windows 8 (not sure which). blame Microsoft. you could get an alternate Bluetooth stack, but they cost moneys. alternatively, if you had a piece of capable Bluetooth technology used as the adapter for the receiving end (Broadcom based? a card that can do additional onboard processing? in any case, something more full featured than a $5 dongle), that could work as well.

at a previous job, we had to switch to Linux for Bluetooth audio streaming test environments specifically because of this limitation in Windows. so if you wanted to change your TV PC OS...

[dobberhd]

Couldn't you use remote desktop to the other computer?

[gilraen]

Couldn't you use remote desktop to the other computer?

I agree that it's the easiest option, and probably would give you the lowest latency, too. Either Windows built-in remote desktop app, or something like Splashtop (it's free if you are using it within the same local network).

Alternately, you'd have to mess with software like PulseAudio, which is probably overkill.

[Blackhawk]

I can't actually run it on the other computer. It can't be visible to the players. The software would create all sorts of spoilers if the other players could see it, and I would need to keep it up (not minimized) to manually trigger events.

[coopasonic]

I can't actually run it on the other computer. It can't be visible to the players. The software would create all sorts of spoilers if the other players could see it, and I would need to keep it up (not minimized) to manually trigger events.

If the PC isn't being used for anything else, turn off the monitor.

[Kasey Chang]

There is always Bluetooth adapter. Though not sure what the latency would be.

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Transm ... 07VYYS28K/

That's assuming the other PC has a Bluetooth receiver.

[Blackhawk]

I can't actually run it on the other computer. It can't be visible to the players. The software would create all sorts of spoilers if the other players could see it, and I would need to keep it up (not minimized) to manually trigger events.

If the PC isn't being used for anything else, turn off the monitor.

It is. It displays maps, it displays art, it sometimes displays the Google Earth view of where we're at in-game. With Torg, it displays a webcam feed of the current initiative/drama card during combat (which everybody needs to be able to see.)

[Blackhawk]

There is always Bluetooth adapter. Though not sure what the latency would be.

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Transm ... 07VYYS28K/

That's assuming the other PC has a Bluetooth receiver.

The laptop (where I play the audio) does. The desktop does not.

[hitbyambulance]

so a Bluetooth receiver that routes received audio through a standard 3.5mm minijack cable would work. one end of the cable goes into the BT receiver 'RX' port, then plug the other end of the cable into the TV PC's soundcard 'line-in'. then in Windows audio mixer, pass through the line-in audio to the speakers. you'll want a newer receiver with BT 4.x or 5.x so your wi-fi can assist in the data delivery.


there are many devices that would work for this, this is just one example. you might want to check eBay for even cheaper prices (free shipping from China, etc) - these things are commodity-level now:

[Blackhawk]

so a Bluetooth receiver that routes received audio through a standard 3.5mm minijack cable would work. one end of the cable goes into the BT receiver 'RX' port, then plug the other end of the cable into the TV PC's soundcard 'line-in'. then in Windows audio mixer, pass through the line-in audio to the speakers. you'll want a newer receiver with BT 4.x or 5.x so your wi-fi can assist in the data delivery.


there are many devices that would work for this, this is just one example. you might want to check eBay for even cheaper prices (free shipping from China, etc) - these things are commodity-level now:

Something like that is looking like my best idea, although I had no idea that the 4.x or 5.x would make that much of a difference. Thanks.

[gilraen]

I use this one, to send sound from a TV to speakers across the room. I can definitely say that there's little to no latency - if I'm watching a TV show, it would be pretty noticeable if the sound was out of sync with the video.

[Kasey Chang]

Yeah, you can get a BT RECEIVER then, plug it into the PC that doesn't have one, and pair the sender to the device

On the audio sender, the BT becomes the sound-card. All playback goes through that.

The on the receiving end, it plays the audio.

OTOH, the simplest way may just be get a BT speaker, rather than trying to route it THROUGh the PC, which adds latency.

[Blackhawk]

The speaker idea wouldn't work. I use it for environmental audio (if they're in a forest, they hear a forest. If they're in Trafalgar Square, they hear Trafalgar Square. The table is in the middle of my living room, so by playing through the TV, I'm running it through the surround sound setup. It's a cheap setup (a soundbar, a subwoofer, and two rear speakers), but it beats the hell out of a generic BT speaker.

I use Syrinscape for most of this these days:

[Kasey Chang]

If the sender already has Bluetooth, then you just need a BT receiver.

Something like this should work fine: plug it into the aux in port on the receiver.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008AGQMQC