Jamcast

Installed on Windows Home Server without issue - very easy to get up and running.
Limited testing so far with my Pinnacle branded Soundbridge (M400) and Revo Pico WiFi radio hasn't shown any problems - it delivers the goods without fuss.
I like the podcasts functionality, and I can see the Virtual PC stream getting the occasional use.

Up till now I've been using WMP11 as the server for the Revo Pico, and firefly as the server for the Soundbridge.
Jamcast will certainly be used now instead of WMP because of the better browsing facilities (assuming the file ordering within folder modifications I've read about in other threads are done).
I'll probably keep firefly going for the moment since that provides different protocols and has other useful add-on software.

All in all it's looking pretty good!

In nitpicking mode I'd like to see additional options for controlling scans of the shared files (my files change infrequently):
a) inhibit startup scan
b) perform scans periodically (customisable period)
c) initiate scan manually

Firefly doesn't use UPnP, it handles DAAP and Roku's own protocol RSP.
For the Soundbridge, RSP performs slightly better than UPnP - for example with two tracks that segue together, they play seamlessly under RSP but I get a very slight (but noticable) "blip" under UPnP.
I'm not blaming Jamcast for this - for example the Pico is much worse in that it seems to connect to the server and buffers each track individually, resulting in a gap of 3-4 seconds.

It supports "smart" playlists (not that I use them myself). Basically these can perform a query against the database to provide the list.

There is also quite a bit of 3rd party software available, e.g. software clients and web browser based streaming.

Anyway, I'm sure you can find out more yourself - I don't wish to promote firefly on this forum.

Hi esahn,

Sorry for your troubles. Your import log will possibly tell us why Jamcast didn't import all of your tracks. It's called "importlog.txt" and it's located in the Jamcast program directory. Feel free to email it to me directly (or start a thread in the Technical Support forum and paste it there) if you are unable to pinpoint the issue from the logfile.

Regarding playlists, Jamcast currently supports M3U, PLS, and WPL playlist formats. As there have been other requests for this, there are plans to import playlists from your iTunes library for a future release.

Regarding controlling the Roku from the computer, check out the Virtual Soundcard feature (read the FAQ in the Technical Support forum). It's essentially an infinite, continuous stream of audio playing on your PC, so you can fire up iTunes or whatever and Jamcast will stream that to the Roku.

Please let me know if I can answer any other questions for you.

Thanks!

Yeah, you guys can feel free to talk about whatever. Firefly performance using RSP to the Soundbridge is excellent, there's no doubt about that.

Regarding gapless playback, you should get this with Jamcast. Now I know with the Soundbridge when it switches from 16 to 24-bit audio (or vice-versa), you get a little click or pop from that. But otherwise, I checked out a live show from one track to the next and it seemed seamless, but perhaps there is some really subtle noise I'm not hearing?

Keith, what is codec with which you receive this "blip"?

Hey, that's OK.

So have you tried it with any other media that was not sourced from vinyl?

Good deal!

Hi Scott

I stumbled across Jamcast on the Roku forum when I was trying to find a way to stream internet files from Nokia Music to my Soundbridge. Frankly, it's brilliant. It does everything I need it to do! Once I set up my soundcard it worked a treat. About to buy a Philips NP1100 player for another room. I can only aassume it will work as well with that if not better. Thanks for solving my problem.

Alan

Hi Dan,

If you fainted and hurt your head, could I be sued? That worries me...

To answer your question about transcoding quality, you do have some control but you may not need to do anything at all. Jamcast will never upsample nor downsample during transcoding unless completely necessary according to the known capabilities of the device. These capabilities, most importantly of which are the minimum and maximum sample rates, can be adjust via the device properties editor. To get to this, right-click on your Denon in the Devices tab of the Jamcast Server Manager and choose Properties.

If it's important to you, iTunes playlists are not yet supported -- they were slated for the last release but I got into some hot water and had to drop it in the interest of time. BUT, I did make some good progress on it, so it shouldn't be too far around the corner.

Thanks for the kind words, and do stop by if you have any more questions.

Thanks!

Why was I not aware of this until now?!?! I agree with ikjadoon you guys really need to advertise this.

You should contact Microsoft and work out something with them that would allow more 360 members to know about this. It would send a tremendous amount of users your way.

Yea listening to pandora on my stereo is pretty much amazing thank you soooo much, and its simple too took me probably 4 mins total to set up.

I agree the only thing that I would change about it so far is the slight delay in the stereo compared to the comp. speakers, but other then that no problems.

Amazing!! Thank you

Hi John,

Thanks for stopping by to provide this valuable feedback, I really appreciate it!

Regarding customization of how the browsing works, this is something that has been requested enough times that I would expect to see it as a new feature in a future release of the software.

Regarding the sort order of the track in the Browse Filesystem area, this was actually changed back in March from sorting by track # to filename at the request of some members of the community. The original thread is here, and I'd encourage you to add your 2 cents on this there as I can certainly make this configurable so everyone will be happy: http://www.sdstechnologi...t.aspx?g=posts&t=52

Finally, regarding the memory usage, Jamcast will appear to consume quite a bit more memory than it actually needs. The number in task manager actually represents what is known as the "working set" which Windows will trim as (if) necessary. The true memory usage can be checked on the Server tab in the Jamcast Server Manager; the "Total memory usage" diagnostic typically never exceeds 10MB.

Again, thanks for the feedback and do let me know if I can be of further assistance to you.

Thanks!

P.S. What device(s) are you using with Jamcast?