Airport Express/AirTunes Plug-in

[Dster]

I think the big difference between Airtunes and all the other wireless solutions here is that data is being transmitted digitally.

I have the U.S. Robotics gadget which transmits over 900 MHz, like the Lyra. That or an FM solution will give you much lower sound quality at the other end.

I want a device which will allow me to send arbitrary sound output over 802.11 - which is why I WON'T buy this apple crap. I expect someone to make an 802.11 version of the USR/RCA type thing soon.

[guidogabriele]

i would like to see a plugin that utilizes the airport in the same way as itunes. because:

i'm thinking of using it in my car. i currently connect my laptop to an aux input in my head unit. i also use the laptop to play movies in the car for car trips.

if i could do this wirelessly, it would be great.

the only problem is -- even if i got the airport -- when i play video, i couldn't get the audio to play through.

since winamp plays video now, an Airport plugin could fix this problem.

[MeStinkBAD]

My parents have a house-wide audio system that allows audio to be played thru out the entire house from a single source. They also have had an AirPort wireless base station since it was originally introduced.

One day years ago, I was playing with iTunes on a Mac when I came up with an idea on how to use a single Mac, running iTunes and OS X, connected thru an audio deck, and be controllable using any device capable of displaying HTML.

Basically, using AppleScript (and a little Unix shell scripting), I could dynamically build web pages based on the current tune being played as well as a way of controlling what song or songs to be played. This would include WiFi enabled PDAs such as PocketPCs or Palm Pilots or such. Fundementally, this was a quite possible without a huge amount of effort being put in setting it up.

Of course, I never went a head with this plan. It was just an idea, and I doubt my parents would agree. Most of all I was too lazy to actually work on such a project. Never the less, I have often wondered if anyone else has come up with something simular. I'm sure someone has...

In many ways, Apple's Airport Express is a step in this dirrection (and you know it'll be copied for the PC market). I just thought I point this out.

In all reality - the new Airport/itunes thing is really just old tech, with a shiny new wrapper, and a diferent frequency carrier.

So are HDTV broadcasts...

The problem here is that most of you haven't got a Mac, or ever estup an Airport base station, or even use iTunes. I really need to read more on this to say anything more... but please... give it a chance.

[cortana]

Well, now that Jon "DVD Jon" Johannsen has cracked the AirTunes encryption, somebody should be able to get to work on a Winamp plugin, right?

[Russ]

Noted, however I don't believe the Apple Lossless (ALAC) format has been reverse-engineered yet - any audio sent via AirTunes must be encoded using ALAC.

[latitude]

DVD Jon has indeed released some code to stream Apple Lossless files to the Airport Express without going through iTunes. For those of us who dislike iTunes, this a promising development.

"Justeport" is a command-line tool. I've compiled it and it works as promised. You give it a filename and the IP address of the Express and voila! The file is played.

I am not a Winamp plug-in developer but I would love to see someone take the code and create an Express plug-in. The code seems pretty straightforward. To configure the plug-in, you'd have to enter the IP address of the Express.

DVD Jon published the key needed to encrypt the music stream. In his words, "The stream is encrypted with AES and the AES key is encrypted with RSA." I would give you the link but his website is currently down!

If anyone wants the code, let me know. I can email it to you. I'm pretty sure someone can do something with it much faster than I can!

[Russ]

There is currently no way to encode Apple Lossless files, so a winamp plugin would be fairly useless until such a thing exists.

[kaatinthehaat]

I just bought the Airport Express wireless module and it is AWESOME. I can control the music in the entire house with my laptop and be anywhere with my laptop (WiFi). One problem.... I HATE iTunes compared to Winamp. I will gladly donate some money to whoever can successfully create a plugin for Winamp to utilize this amazing gadget.

[ferndale]

Airport Express IS a good Idea

Just want to say that I have been looking for a way to utilize the built-in wireless in my laptop to send music to my speakers for a couple months now. Yes, there are other products on the market, but for its size and ease of use, Airport Express seems to be not only really cool, but really usefull and functional.

Sure it's Apple, and sure it's proprietary, but it seems to be a great product and that's the bottom line.

I'm with Kaatinthehaat. If someone can configure a pluggin for Winamp, I would gladly donate some $ for a download: 'Cause damn, does iTunes certainly suck!

[kaatinthehaat]

[Bizzeh]

i wonder who has thought of a jack to phono lead... jab that into your sound card, and your stereo.... and BAM!! same effect for about 50p, and if you want it to be a longer cable, about £2... i dont see the point in paying $120 for something you could do alot easier for 50p - £2

[kaatinthehaat]

That's fine if your computer and stereo are near enough to each other. Also, what if you have multi-rooms? Anyway it's a cool gadget and isn't it the most improtant thing to own the cool gadgets?

[mpr90]

Originally posted by Russ
Noted, however I don't believe the Apple Lossless (ALAC) format has been reverse-engineered yet - any audio sent via AirTunes must be encoded using ALAC.

Can't Quicktime encode the ALAC format? Given that a user has quicktime, couldn't a Winamp plugin make use of this and DVD Jon's crack together to stream to the AirPort?

[Seraph321]

I recently purchased an aiport express because I'm constantly traveling, and it is the easiest and smallest wireless router around. I can carry it in my bag and plug it into any hotel room (that offers broadband) to get instant wireless access that's already configured with my laptop's profile.

But beyond that, the lack of imagination some people in this thread have is amazing. Look at it from an average consumer's viewpoint:

Have a laptop and a broadband connection and want wireless? Yes.
Well you need a wireless router.
Which one to get?
Well, do you have a stereo, or computer speakers you would like to use with your laptop's (iTunes) music library? Yes.
Well if you get the airport express you not only get wireless internet, but wireless audio that's controllable from anywhere in the house!

Have a printer? Sure.
Well you can print to that wirelessly with the airport express too! What's that you say? You have more than one stereo or your printer and stereo aren't in the same place?
Well, buy ANOTHER airport express! It's that easy!

And seriously, that's all people need to hear. I paid $129 for mine, and I consider that a steal for what it does.

Have you seen how it interfaces with iTunes? You just choos the "speakers" you would want to currently use. So it's very easy to imagine someone sitting in the office, listening to music and using the internet through their wireless laptop. Then maybe they want to move out to the porch and relax. They just have to carry their laptop out there and switch the speaker output on iTunes as they go, and they remain in full control of the same music they were already listening to. I mean, that rules.
I'm not saying I like iTunes, cause I don't, but that's why a winamp plugin would be really nice.

[peaceofcake]

Seraph321, Apple really does come up with great ideas, I'm glad someone else sees that. They imagine something, and engineer a solution that's the best logical way to get the tast done. They take the frustration out of computing, and for most people, the loss of some features winamp has is nothing compared to the opportunity to use an eas to use player like iTunes.
My only gripe with them is that they don't give users many options, but in the OSX arena there area lots of plugins for iTunes already, most of them are better than the winamp counterparts.