dave_in_gva
February 27th, 2007, 09:03 AM
Hi all,
I've read through the Girder and NetRemote manuals and some of these posts but I still need someone to steer me straight on something.
My application is probably quite simple. I plan to have an XP-based audio server system in the basement. It will consist of the PC, a DAC, and an integrated amp. The amp (a Nuforce) comes with an IR-based remote control for volume control. Speaker wires come up through the floor into the listening room, where the only visible part of the system is the loudspeakers.
I have in the listening room a Ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) that I can use to wake the basement PC and access the audio player interface (possibly Foobar or JRiver or iTunes) of the basement PC via Remote Desktop Connection.
My concern is volume control. I want to control volume through the integrated amplifier in the basement responding to IR inputs, and not through any Windows based audio manipulation. So what I need the basement PC to do is fire an IR blast at the integrated amplifier (which will be sitting just next to it on the rack), and I want to control the firing of this blast from the UMPC that I will be holding upstairs.
So I can get my head around some of this but not all of it.
I know I need an IR transceiver, and the USB-UIRT sounds like a good out of the box solution. So step 1 should be getting the USB-UIRT and installing it on the basement PC. My questions are:
1. Do I need Girder or NetRemote? It seems to me either one might work. I can imagine if I use Girder I could install that on the basement PC and I then have access to that via the Remote Desktop Connection. Alternatively, the literature says NetRemote can be installed on the UMPC (which would also run XP Pro) although a potential snag is UMPCs do not typically have IR emitters so I'm a bit unclear on how NetRemote would work for me.
2. Assuming I go the Girder route I'm still fuzzy though on how this 'looks' and I really missed screenshots of showing the program in action in the users manual. So assume I get it to learn the remote codes for my integrated amp remote for the volume up, down and mute keystrokes. Now I want to ask the basement PC through Girder to control volume by sending the appropriate IR blast through the USB-UIRT. I am still not clear on how I pass that instruction to Girder on the basement PC....is it a keystroke (which is somewhat problematic since UMPCs are much more stylus and touch screen driven), or alternatively is it clicking on a part of the GUI (e.g. a set of volume up/down/mute icons etc.)? If so, how are these GUI elements designed....is there a CFF capability like for NetRemote?
3. Finally, irrespective of whether I need Girder or NetRemote (or could use both), is there much of a risk that the USB-UIRT cannot learn the remote codes from the integrated amplifier I am planning on? This is not absolute top end audiophile gear but it is pretty high end and certainly not mainstream. Are the remotes getting created these days using codes that pretty much can be learned by the Girder/NetRemote and USB-UIRT ensemble?
Sorry for the length.....just been reading too much and getting messed up by not actually having the experience of working with the software/hardware to know what's going to work.
Happy to be steered straight........ :)
Dave M
I've read through the Girder and NetRemote manuals and some of these posts but I still need someone to steer me straight on something.
My application is probably quite simple. I plan to have an XP-based audio server system in the basement. It will consist of the PC, a DAC, and an integrated amp. The amp (a Nuforce) comes with an IR-based remote control for volume control. Speaker wires come up through the floor into the listening room, where the only visible part of the system is the loudspeakers.
I have in the listening room a Ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) that I can use to wake the basement PC and access the audio player interface (possibly Foobar or JRiver or iTunes) of the basement PC via Remote Desktop Connection.
My concern is volume control. I want to control volume through the integrated amplifier in the basement responding to IR inputs, and not through any Windows based audio manipulation. So what I need the basement PC to do is fire an IR blast at the integrated amplifier (which will be sitting just next to it on the rack), and I want to control the firing of this blast from the UMPC that I will be holding upstairs.
So I can get my head around some of this but not all of it.
I know I need an IR transceiver, and the USB-UIRT sounds like a good out of the box solution. So step 1 should be getting the USB-UIRT and installing it on the basement PC. My questions are:
1. Do I need Girder or NetRemote? It seems to me either one might work. I can imagine if I use Girder I could install that on the basement PC and I then have access to that via the Remote Desktop Connection. Alternatively, the literature says NetRemote can be installed on the UMPC (which would also run XP Pro) although a potential snag is UMPCs do not typically have IR emitters so I'm a bit unclear on how NetRemote would work for me.
2. Assuming I go the Girder route I'm still fuzzy though on how this 'looks' and I really missed screenshots of showing the program in action in the users manual. So assume I get it to learn the remote codes for my integrated amp remote for the volume up, down and mute keystrokes. Now I want to ask the basement PC through Girder to control volume by sending the appropriate IR blast through the USB-UIRT. I am still not clear on how I pass that instruction to Girder on the basement PC....is it a keystroke (which is somewhat problematic since UMPCs are much more stylus and touch screen driven), or alternatively is it clicking on a part of the GUI (e.g. a set of volume up/down/mute icons etc.)? If so, how are these GUI elements designed....is there a CFF capability like for NetRemote?
3. Finally, irrespective of whether I need Girder or NetRemote (or could use both), is there much of a risk that the USB-UIRT cannot learn the remote codes from the integrated amplifier I am planning on? This is not absolute top end audiophile gear but it is pretty high end and certainly not mainstream. Are the remotes getting created these days using codes that pretty much can be learned by the Girder/NetRemote and USB-UIRT ensemble?
Sorry for the length.....just been reading too much and getting messed up by not actually having the experience of working with the software/hardware to know what's going to work.
Happy to be steered straight........ :)
Dave M