Odd question

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 9:33 pm

Because nobody has yet been smart enough to harness the power of the PDA as a remote control for a digital media server, I'm forced to improvise. I typically have my laptop sitting on top of my desktop tower case, which is about 6' from the receiver. So I bought a 7' Monster cable that goes from minijack to L/R RCA jack, and connected it to the headphone out on the laptop. While it serves the purpose of playing media stored on my desktop (soon to be stored on a separate server), I get some pretty nasty low-frequency hum in the speakers.

At first, I thought it was because the cable was passing in front of speakers and a TV set. Tonight, the hum was louder than usual. I tried repositioning the cable, no luck. As I was going to move the laptop, I unplugged the power and....silence! The hum being transmitted appears to come from the power supply.

Running it on battery is fine for a few hours at a time, but obviously, this is not an ideal solution. The power brick is plugged into a UPS. Does anyone have an idea as to what is causing the hum, and if there is anything that can be done to mitigate it? Thanks!

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 9:38 pm

Ground loop. You're not going to like my answer.

Plug your laptop into the same outlet as your play-back devide. Be amazed as the hum goes away.

Ground loops come from separate connected devices having unequal groundings. Ground them together (by using the same outlet) and they go away.

I've dealt with some NASTY ground loops in my day. Speakers are great detectors of the beasts, unfortunately.

Keep searching for the proper improvisation.

~Neal

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:11 pm

I knew there had to be one genius around here.

Thanks Neal!

All the devices do eventually channel into the same block of outlets (a 6-outlet wall plate). However, the laptop was going through a UPS while the stereo is plugged into a cheesy brown extension chord that goes directly to one of the outlets.

There must be something in this UPS causing the problem. I also get a hum in my PC speakers and usually keep them unplugged. They too were going to the UPS. Maybe I'll try running them into a surge protector instead.

Now I can get back to thinking how to solve my initial dilemma. The gizmos on the market now for connecting a stereo to a computer network (wired or wireless doesn't matter AFAIC) all have propriety remote controls and crappy software. I'm only 2/3 done with converting my music collection and it's already pretty damn huge - it won't ever get smaller. Scrolling through all this on a limited remote sounds like a moderinzed level of Dante's Inferno. A PDA woud be a far better solution, but so far, the best idea anyone could come up with was using a terminal services client to control the PC actually doing the work.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:53 am

No, you're NOT the first to think of using PDA to remote control stuff.

May I present...

PocketPC version, or Nevo PocketPC

There were Handspring modules that turns any Visor into a universal remote, but that's kinda passe.

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:30 am

my Sony Clie (PEG-NX60) came with a universal remote program from Sony that works surprising well. they even put in a higher-powered IR port so that it works over long distances...i've gotten mine to work at a distance of 15' before, and it may go farther. you can program several presets and it's set up to work with my magnavox TV, sony VCR, and sony DVD player right now...only component it won't work with is my kenwood receiver. the compatibility is pretty impressive and i've used it away from home on several occassions. i can walk into a room and have it programmed to control just about any major brand of TV, VCR, or DVD in just a couple minutes...works great 8)

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 9:22 am

disarm wrote:my Sony Clie (PEG-NX60) came with a universal remote program from Sony that works surprising well. they even put in a higher-powered IR port so that it works over long distances...i've gotten mine to work at a distance of 15' before, and it may go farther. you can program several presets and it's set up to work with my magnavox TV, sony VCR, and sony DVD player right now...only component it won't work with is my kenwood receiver. the compatibility is pretty impressive and i've used it away from home on several occassions. i can walk into a room and have it programmed to control just about any major brand of TV, VCR, or DVD in just a couple minutes...works great 8)

But can it access media files on a PC and play them from a stereo? I don't need it to do mundane remote control features - I want to be able to browse my server, put together play lists and play them. The remotes that come with the networking hardware for this have worthless displays that page through the index line-by-line.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:37 pm

Sounds like it's a question of whether

1) The catalog navigation can be mapped to key

2) That key can be mapped to a remote

In that case, the answer would be... It depends on the remote!

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:48 pm

Jeff V wrote:But can it access media files on a PC and play them from a stereo? I don't need it to do mundane remote control features.

no it can't...my post was in response to KC's comments about universal remotes on a PocketPC. just wanted to point out that the same thing has been done on PalmOS for free.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:13 pm

I guess "remote control" was a poor choice of terms. "Remote management device" might be better. The idea is, all items are network devices (the PDA, the server storing the media, and the device that interfaces with the stereo system). The PDA should be able to provide the same functionality as a console that the server or PC does when playing things directly.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:30 pm

It can be done. Only it takes work.

I have a friend who set up his own media server and it uses a web browser as his front end. While he uses a small tablet PC (Fujitsu) , a PDA with a browser should work fine (I have a few Clies with Netfront and they handle pretty much anything thrown at them).

I don't know the details but I did see it in action. Quite nice. He could pick songs and even video to play over the network. Create playlists, etc. Very rudimentary in appearance but fully functional. We were talking about a way to market it, but decided the support would be a deal killer. Plus it's all hobbled together with open source softare.

I believe the front end is PHP based. No idea about the guts of his media server software though.