iTunes, servers, and terminals - make them play nice!

February 9, 2005 6:00 PM

I am trying to play music from my remote computer on my terminal server. Here is my setup. I have iTunes installed on my TS as well as a USB device that transmits the music to my stereo. What I would like to be able to do is login from my laptop via terminal server and start iTunes, getting the sound to come out on the terminal server which in turn will play on my stereo, all without having to go to my main computer. However, when I hit play on iTunes via the terminal server client nothing begins to play.Does this need clarification? Any ideas?
posted by tirebouchon to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Not entirely certain of your setup, but I'll take a crack at it... If you are using Remote Desktop Connection as your TS client, here's what you could do. Open RDC, click the Options button, then change to the "Local Resources" tab. In the "Remote Computer Sound" drop box, change it to "Leave at remote computer" and give that a shot.
posted by kuperman at 6:19 PM on February 9, 2005

What OS are you using as the TS server?

If it's anything before WinXP (like Windows 2000 or NT 4.0 Terminal Services Edition), remote audio isn't supported. It'd have to be a variant of WinXP.

Other than that, I have no idea.
posted by spinifex23 at 6:31 PM on February 9, 2005

Response by poster: That did not work, but thanks for trying. I think the problem is that when I go to accessories > volume control it will not open. It says there are no active mixer devices available. I am using windows 2000 server as the TS
posted by tirebouchon at 6:34 PM on February 9, 2005

Are you really using Windows 2000 Server? It's probably disabling the audio driver (or in some other way making it unavailable) when you're logged in remotely. Solution would be to use an XP workstation or get an Airport Express (unless you get a deal on an OEM copy of XP Pro, the Airport'd be cheaper I think).
posted by mrg at 8:16 PM on February 9, 2005

For whatever it's worth, I do exactly this using a pair of XP machines and Remote Desktop Connection.
posted by coelecanth at 8:48 PM on February 9, 2005

Terminal services is hardly the most efficient way of narrowcasting audio. Couldn't you install a shoutcast server on the machine with the music and use Winamp or something to play the stream locally?
posted by krisjohn at 9:13 PM on February 9, 2005

Somewhat of a tangent, but to achieve a similar goal, I've recently been using RemoteAmp on my PocketPC to run WinAmp on my desktop PC via 802.11g. It works for iTunes too. It's a very slick app, and the PocketPC can travel with you around the house easier than the laptop.
posted by Tubes at 10:20 PM on February 9, 2005