Winamp Remote - How to stream your entire home music library to your Q!!

Winamp Remote - How to stream your entire home music library to your Q!!

This is the coolest thing I've done since I got Sirius on my Q! Winamp launched this beta program called Winamp remote, it lets you access your home music library from anywhere! Including your phone! I just set it up and had it working in a few minutes on my Q!!!!

First install these 2 programs on the PC with your music on it:

Winamp (I think you need Winamp to use this, I'm not sure. I already had it):
http://www.Winamp.com

Winamp Remote (it should ask you to set up an account during this install):
http://download.nullsoft.com/winamp/client/winampremote.exe


Then when that's all done, there should be a new icon (a green circle with a lightening bolt through it) on the bottom right of your taskbar (next to the clock) in Windows. Right click it and hit Configuration, and set up the locations of your music.

You're all set! Just go to http://winamp.orb.com on your Q and log in!!!

If you're behind a router/firewall you'll need to allow the Windows Media port through, which defaults to 80. I'd go in to the Configuration, and under the Advanced tab, and change the WM port to something else, I'm using 880, then allow that through, just because 80 is so frequently used.

Now you can search your entire library from your Q, make playlists, or make playlists on your desktop! Just go to the same webpage from your computer's browser!!! The music streams using Windows Media player, and so far has been flawless!! The quality is awesome, and the Winamp page is pretty fast!!

Enjoy everyone!!

--Jimmy

Wow, nice. I'll give this a try. Sounds great. I have a question, how is the quality of the sound?

Sounds awesome! I just had it streaming at 192kbps, sounds like any other MP3 on the Q! Of course this depends on your service (EvDO, how many bars), but even at the 60kbps i was streaming at before it sounded awesome! I don't know if you've ever heard Sirius on the Q, but it sounds way better than it!

Now I cant wait.

Sirius online streams are lower bitrate, the XM 64k streams are much better. That's *the* reason I chose XM after I trialed both of them.

As for this, I think Orb allows you to stream your PC's collection, etc, including video, and doesn't require port forwarding (well, I didn't have to).

It isn't allowing me to play any of my itunes songs or limewire songs. It only shows the songs I downloaded from CDs on my playlists. I'm guessing it supposed to do this? I know the Q cant play itunes songs anyway but I thought it would be able to play the limewire songs since they are mp3s. Anyway to get them to work?

I can't seem to get mine to pull up anything other than music, is that intended, or just a 'Feature' of the Q?

Edit: Well I got it to show up by adding the .avi extension to the list from a regular computer on winamp.orb.com. Its like a 200 meg file so it pauses to buffer every few 5-30 seconds. Testing it now to see if i can get it to play reliably.

Any DRM protected songs aren't going to play. If your iTunes songs are unprotected, what format are they in?

As for limewire, where are the songs downloaded to? Make sure that directory is set up in the config. Just because something is in your Winamp music library does not mean it's in your Winamp Remote library (something that confused me for a few minutes!).

There is a seperate place to point WR to videos in its config, but when you do that it doesn't seem to show up anywhere! I see up top on their site there is an Audio button, i'd imagine in later releases there will be a Video link and a Pictures link, don't forget this is beta!

You're trick worked for me too.. I added my video directory as a place where there's media on the website, not in the config on the desktop software, and then added AVI, MPEG, and MPG to the list of extensions. It would be nice if there was a way to single out only videos though! Oh well..

I have the same problem with it buffering even on smaller files like TV shows and things... One possibility I'm thinking is to scale down the video, maybe that has something to do with it? I played it at the lowest bitrate and it didn't stop to buffer, but the quality was also horrid!

I'm not sure the network is ready to handle Video just yet, maybe in a few years we'll see the bandwidth we need! For now I'm happy having my music library wherever I go! Plus that leaves my storage card open for the videos!

--jimmy

Does anybody know how to get Zone Alarm (free) to allow this to work?

Edit: Err, maybe Zone Alarm isn't the problem. I've turned off ZA, Windows Firewall, and my router's firewall is off. It still says that port 80 is unreachable.

Does anyone know why it is doing this. Whenever I try to log in to the remote winamp, from either my computer or my Q, it tells me computer is not connected to the server, meaning I can't access any music. Any ideas on what's going on?

Well, I was able to get the Remote program to work on my old PC, which runs Kerio Personal Firewall. However,I was planning on putting Linux on that one soon. Does anybody know if there is a Linux alternative?

Is the server running on your computer? You should see a green circle with a yellow winamp lightening bolt through it in your tray (down by your clock). If it isn't, then go to Start>>Winamp Remote>>Winamp Remote and try it again.

Also make sure that no firewalls or routers are blocking it!

I do not know of a Linux alternative. But your Windows problem sounds like it could be the port that's causing the problem! In my original post I mention how to change the port that winamp remote uses, so try changing it to anything else.. 8000 for example.. or 8080.. or 700.. anything but 80, and see if it works!

THIS IS SO FREAKING COOL!!!! I think I might wind up selling my zune, this is almost too good to be true

I know!! I had some really good experience with videos last night.. I had 2 bars of EvDO and was able to seamlessly stream episodes of south park that looked and sounded great!!

how did you get video to work? I haven't been able to figure that out yet.

how long does it take for your q to bring up songs? i have to wait about 10 to 30 seconds between each song while it connects loads buffers and such. is it supposed to take that long? also when i am playing it on shuffle, the title of song it claims to be playing and the song it actually is playing arent the same. whats wrong? thanks.

Look through this thread, someone posted a way to do it..

The lag time between songs depends on your service and your quality settings I assume... when running a playlist, it takes an acceptable few seconds for me.. switching back to IE and streaming a new song can take longer though.

The song title thing I notice when playing any playlist, not just shuffled ones.. I haven't played with it much.. I'd attribute it to the service being in beta.. I'm sure they'll work the quirks out as it progresses..

I wound up switching to orb, its a lot easier to use and not half as buggy. I would definitly recomend it over the watered down Winamp Beta. Plus i can use orb to stream tv from my tv tuner card, which is a beautiful thing.

sweet setup. works great.

I have been using orb for a week or two now, its awesome. You can view files, pdfs videos, mp3s everything, and when you log in online it allows you to watch youtube videos too! Id say get orb and reap the benefits of the full program not just a winamp version