Audio Streaming

[AirMouze]

Hi,

I'm sure many of you out there watch videos late at night. Cranking up the volume can easily result in extreme domestic dispute :D
It would be absolutely wonderful if we were able to use AirMouse not only as a remote control but as a wireless headset receiver.

There are apps available that do that but not very well I must say...they all suffer from latency issues.

I'd happily pay extra for AirMouse Pro+ if that feature becomes available.

Cheers.

[luiscongdon]

Me too! That would be AWESOME!

Listening to something on television, or just want to tune in extra careful or just don't want to disturb others--plug your headphones into air mouse and the computer is muted, but not the phone!

I just did their promotional writing too!

Nice idea!

[juddadredd]

Guys I don't speak for the devs but come on I don't buy a car and expect it to fly do I... Your asking for functionality that other stand alone apps can't even get right, ask yourself if you really want to screw up a great program by offering functionality that just sucks up bandwidth and will make mouse control sucky at best...

Go use one of the stand alone programs as thats what they are written for, and as you have written above that they dont stream well its because your Computers BUS or your ROUTER cant handle the overhead... get a packet sniffer and look how much bandwidth you have left over...

[AirMouze]

juddadredd, there should be plenty of bandwidth available to stream both audio and AirMouse's normal remote control data on a standard 802.11g network, as long as the network is stable, signal potent and no other bandwidth consuming tasks running simultaneously.
Fact of the matter is I do that all the time!

Currently I use Airfoil to stream audio and AirMouse backgrounded while watching videos. AirMouse performs exactly the same as when it runs by itself, no noticeable lag what so ever.

Airfoil does introduce some latency. To counter that I had to fine tune the audio offset in Media Player Classic. That solution works OK for 10-15mins, after that audio loses sync and I need to reset Airfoil to re-establish the connection.

I'm sure that can be improved with some clever, auto-offsetting buffer that calculates the amount of milliseconds to compensate.

As previously mentioned I'd happily pay extra for a Pro+ version. I don't expect my car to fly for nothing :)
Having said that, there are now plenty of other remote control apps for iOS. Integrating a function such as audio streaming could provide AirMouse with that extra competitive edge...


Cheers.

[juddadredd]

Hi im not being funny but please Go back and reread what I wrote... Then read the first two lines of you wrote and well f*ck me you ignored exactly what I said, I have NO extra bandwidth available to me... The extra competitive edge that mouse needs is mouse/keyboard/number pad solutions not sound waves from the desktop eating in to my downloads, or VNC style output to the iPhone/iPad or flash player compatibility... Now I live in the uk and As I'm a programmer by trade I have some good kit, but I really don't have any spare bandwidth to even help with the beta of this type of thing...

The problems with audio stream are purely buffer oriented ones, if you have a large enough buffer and enough time to fill it then there's no problems... But interrupt the data stream or not have a big enough buffer and bang the entire thing goes to shit and if it's shit it doesn't get used the dev doesn't get paid and we loose ongoing support... Now if your stream is getting messed up then you to are having the same problem with bandwidth but you just dont know it yet...

Like I said above use a sniffer to see what your router and iPhone are using then get back to me with the numbers... And I will try to trouble shoot your problems... If you can use programs like air video and stream to me ok then it's the audio program that's crap, if stream and video both don't work then it's your network... Try them out as they have the best streaming routines out there and if you can get them to run fine then use them for your audio...

But like I said I need more information to help me see exactly what you want vs what the devs can give you... Also it's up to you guys to ask yourself if you want the program tricked out to be a little bit good at everything or great at being a mouse/keyboard app... Imagine actually being a developer and then balancing your time on updates vs requests then decide what you want...

[juddadredd]

Sorry forgot to say at the moment I'm running on my wireless network 1 full sized pc, 2 laptops, 1 MacBook,2 iPhones and an iPad... The reason for all the kit is firstly im a programmer, and secondly for helping out all of the other people that post questions in this forum so that i can take some of the housekeeping away from the devs so that they can spend their timing writing code... That's why I've got no bandwidth...

[AirMouze]

Huh :confused:

Mate, you got some serious anger issues there...

If you have no bandwidth left on your network that's your problem, not most people's. If you don't need audio streaming fine, don't use it and leave your precious bandwidth intact. Others on the other hand may find it very useful.

Anyway, have a look at the following product:

http://audio.mbpowertools.net/


Features:

Playback 44.1KHz 16 bits stereo CD quality loseless audio.

Adjustable streaming buffer - You can adjust the size of streaming buffer to suit your network environment.

Touchpad - Includes all typical touch pad functions plus multi-touch support. You can use a two finger tap on the screen to perform right click and a two finger slide on the screen to perform vertical scrolling.

Custom configurable keys - Includes 18 user configurable keys. Allows you to define your own shortcut keys for your favorite media player and applications.

It combines both remote control features and audio streaming capabilities.

These 2 features can compliment each other very nicely when delivered in a fine, polished product such as we have come to expect from AirMouse devs. The above product unfortunately is not.

Speaking for myself, I only use AirMouse's touchpad and media interfaces. All the other bells and whistles I never use as I find them to be an overkill for a remote control app. If you need to do some proper work on your computer sit in front of the screen and use a keyboard and mouse...

[juddadredd]

Wasnt being funny as per first sentence of my reply, you read TONE into a POST that just isn't there... See now heres the thing I'm sitting here trying to help out and take most of the forum duties off the devs shoulders as I've got 6 breaks in my leg due to having a motorbike accident, so now you know why I use my iPad all the time as my keyboard and mouse... Anger no just total boredom at dealing with crazy requests like oh this app does this do it as well and then mouse will be great... Audioin looses it's place nafter about 2 minutes even when just running my laptop and like I said lthat makes their company look crap and I won't be downloading any of their programs again... I tried it ages ago that's why I know that only good implementations of streaming are like I said air video and stream to me... Now I loved you way you didn't answer me questions on if they worked on your machine and thus rebutted my offer of help! Got some issues of your own there I see...

"All the other bells and whistles I never use", sound on a mouse IS bells and whistles matey now from my point of view there are NO bells and whistles in mobile mouse just pure functionality... Again no tone intended... See I'd like mobile mouse to do so much more like tell me when I have mail, or things like the drum pad style input that I was pimping to the devs last month, lots of nice big buttons with macros behind them, a full sized number pad including operators or even a programmers keyboard with all the key shifts where you need them would be great... And a means of fast switching between them would be great...

You see the difference of what your asking vs enhancing the capabilities of the EXISTING MOUSE AND KEYBOARD... The current aim is to get them looking and working great, add mouse and keyboard functionality then once all that is mocked up, coded, tested debugged and out the door for app store approval then start work on a Redesign of the server as I think that they both need a little work with stability and connection issues... Oh and don't forget the devs have two versions 1 mac 2 windows to support...

So how much time should they put aside to code a media streamer to include in a mouse? Not much I should think because if they had the time to do that don't you think that it would go in to a separate package for sale in the app store????...

[AirMouze]

juddadredd, I'm very sorry to hear about your health condition.

We obviously see things differently. You'd like to see AirMouse expand and perfect it's functionality as a remote control and I'd like to see it go slightly outside of it's box. Fair enough...let's agree to disagree...

In the meantime I've gone and purchased Headset:

http://www.mobiola.com/mobiola-headset

It is superior to Airfoil in many ways (as a wireless headset solution). Latency has dramatically improved and now video is watchable even without offsetting my player. Don't get me wrong, they haven't completely eliminated it but a -100ms offset now syncs perfectly compared to -2,400ms in Airfoil.
I'm still getting an occasional stutter here and there but hoping these are nothing but teething issues as Headset is a very young app.

Naturally I'd love to see AirMouse do both, but for now, thanks to Backgrounder I can accomplish both.

Given this huge latency improvement with Headset I can safely say that that my experience with Airfoil had nothing to do with my WiFi network or bandwidth as I suspected. I use an Asus RT-N16 (802.11n 300mbps) AP running Tomato firmware. It is very fast and stable. My HTPC is also fitted with a 802.11n 300mbps PCI Atheros Chipset WLAN card running latest drivers.

Headset is simply better optimised and therefore performs better.

[MobileMouseAdmin]

Thanks for your feedback guys. We absolutely LOVE to implement user's requests, many of our best features were a result of user feedback. But with every request we have to decide if it's something that has synergy with our product and will benefit the majority of our users, otherwise we have to put it on the back burner while working on higher priority features. This feature has been requested before, and on one hand we do see the use for someone who's laying in bed watching TV using our app and wants to listen to the audio on their headphones, but on the other hand there are plenty of apps that do this very well and don't know if having it built into our app really offers a huge benefit over running it as a separate app (now that there is multitasking). So most likely this will be put on the back burner for now while we are working on new features that provide functionality that you can't get in other apps and that will really enhance core features of the app. However, we do make note of all request as well as the volume of requests, so you may find this feature make it's way into the app in the not too distant future.

[juddadredd]

Lmao it's not a health condition I'm just laid up as they have just taken 5 huge screws and a six inch metal plate out of my tibia platue, which means I have another great big 6 inch scar and 6 holes in my upper tibia which will heal in like a week or two and then I can start running about again...

Righty oh devs sorted their reply out, cool... But and I'm trying my best to get you to try something for me... Install air video there's a free version on the app store and it's server... Now I want you to go watch a movie on it and please come back and tell me if it's working well... Because if youre getting the sync problem with that then your network is having problems and we can fix that... So bare with me please and try it, if on the other hand it works great then you will see exactly what makes air video the BEST streaming app out there, it has no bells whistles or little fluffy bits its just just the best damn encoder/streamer on the planet...

And as soon as the devs get things sorted with updates and fixes and hopefully new/or improved functionality then I will remind them that some people use their pads are at night next to their partners in bed and could they reexamine the situation...

And guys remember it's only a MOUSE rotflmao