Vista Media Center has no built in music sync function ie you can NOT listen to the same music in sync on several extenders in several rooms (I dont know why Microsoft did not factor this in from the beginning - it seems something rather important to leave out).  On the other hand SqueezeBoxes (hardware music streaming client), SoftSqueeze (software music streaming client) and SqeezeCenter (music streaming server software) handle music sync very nicely with a really nice web UI.  A typical whole house setup may contain Squeezeboxes in some rooms and MediaCenterExtenders in other rooms.  Eg currently I have an extender in the Kitchen (all media) but a squeezebox in the bathroom (music only).  I like being able to sync the bathroom with the lounge room.  I would like to be able to sync music on the extender in the kitchen too with out having to add a Squeezebox on top of the Extender that is already there.

Rory has developed a great MCE pluggin that hosts SoftSqueeze (a software version of a Squeezebox) - this runs on XP and Vista MC and is available at:
http://www.mcesoftsqueeze.co.uk/
It works great on the MC PC but it does not run on an extender.
Both the SqueezeCenter server and the software client (SoftSqueeze) are open source projects by slim devices so the source is available for examination.
So my question (finally):
Would it be possible to develope a MCESoftSqeeze that will run on and extender?  What MCE dev approach would be best for this?  Can some suggest a dev outline.  Any one with SqueezeBoxes and Extenders interested in this?
(Im a developer but have ZERO MCE plugin/extension knoweldge or skills - but willing to invest if someone can tell me this project would be possible).  Cheers.

I am bumping this thread as I am very interested in the same thing.  I would love to use Windows Media Center for everything, but since it can't sync multiple audio zones with multiple extenders I am looking into the Squeezebox Duet.  Using the Squeezebox along with Softsqueeze for MCE gets SO close to the goal...  If Softsqueeze worked on extenders it would be another huge step in the right direction.

-Dan

This would be an ideal feature, hopefully the right people are listening.

Hey I'm glad some other people are seeing the interest in this - keep plugging and someone might take interest!

The thing is that for someone with the right MC pluggin skills I dont think this is very demainding.  You just need to host softsqueeze (a java applet) ala MCESoftsqueeze and manage directing the audio stream to the extender. And the result is instant whole house music sycronisation via vista extenders and logitech squeezeboxes working seemlessly together - Perfect!!  and of course the squeeze box controler would work with real squeezeboxes and MC extender softsqueezes seemslessly out of the box.  I think you get a lot for a little here for people who want whole house music sync and who may or may not have Squeezeboxes as well as MC extenders.

Can a developer with with MC Pluggin skills comment on feasability?

I've been dreaming of a good whole house solution based on (or even available in) MCE or VMC since day one. Unfortunately I don't think it is simple to syncronize devices through the MC network. In fact our friends at M$ may have even intentially left out this feature.

Luckily a number of devices such as Squeezebox, Sonos and the Airtunes (Itunes + Airport Express) support whole house syncronized playback with inexpensive hardware. The only thing missing for me is control in the MC environment.

Squeezeboxes offers great web browser based control through Squeezecenter.  In theory this should work out of the box with a mce browser plugin - I just tried this now with MCEBrowse - it does 'work' (you can view the play list etc) but the remote control navigation of the squeezecenter pages doesn't allow it to be useable.  There are two routes to improving this:
1. Develope a browser like plug in customised for squeezecenter. AND/OR
2. Develope a custom skin for squeeze center that works better with a remote control and that scales properly on the extender screen (squeezecenter comes with several web skins optomised for various uses eg one for Nokia700/800, mobile phones, iPhone etc)..
All the squeezebox soft being open source and extensible really makes that kind of dev very accessable.
The developer of MCESoftsqueeze expressed some interest in developing a SqueezeCenter plug in for MCE ... but I dont think anything came of it though.

speaking of squeezbox Im tring to find the reverse. I need a web remote to control my media center like the squeeze box has. Any ideas?  We use the squeeze boxes in our bar here and I have my POS touchscreen terminals able to open a web browser using the nokia skin to control the music and I like to do the same thing for video from a media center.

The are a few solutions to do this:
1.  Webguide (a general purpose web front end to media center) includes a remote control.  Ive used this from my NokiaN800 but its a bit clunky. http://www.asciiexpress.com/webguide/download.aspx
2.  There is MCE Virtual Remote http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/183091.aspx (I havent tried).
3.  If you want to spend some money and want a really top solution then try Autonomic Controls media center remote software.  You can trial it free. It uses the ip control api of mediacenter.
4. Develope your own remote control software using the ip control api of mediacenter.

Hi all - I saw this post about a month ago and thought it was a great idea.  I've made a VMC plugin that "almost" does what you all are looking at.  It's called SqueezeVmc, and it's in a very Alpha stage - but I wanted to upload it and get some reactions to help determine its future.

Currently you have the ability to control play, pause, volume on any SqueezeBox in your network. It loads only 20 albums (by design - I've tested it up to 500), and only allows you to play the whole album.  It also supports streaming to VMC via SqueezeCenters MP3 stream (you can control all but volume right now - normal VMC volume works just fine for the moment). Changes in SqueezeCenter / player status are not updated in SqueezeVmc at the moment.  This should work just fine on an extender  - I still need to test it...

The album covers will stream in 1 at a time - so be patient.  They will be cached on the local machine that VMC in on - so the next time you run it they'll be there right away.  The albums are stored by SqueezeCenters assigned album IDs (so if you re-scan your music you may have to clear the cache). Click on an album to play it.

Some install note:

• After install you can find SqueezeVmc in the Online Media > Program Libary. 
• The config file for it is in the users AppData folder \squeezevmc (generally c:\users\<user>\AppData\<profile>\squeezevmc\qvmc.xml  - you'll need to change the info for your network and configuration in qvmc.xml
• Make sure that the CLI is turned on on your SqueezeCenter. 
• Leave ThumbnailCachePath empty unless you want to move where the cache is stored.

Please let me know your thoughts - good or bad - and what you need it to do.  Also let me know issues installing/running it.  This is my first VMC app (totally new to MCML) - and will need feedback!  Thanks!

Get it at: http://www.deware.us/squeezevmcsetup.msi (guess I can't post an attachment here)

-Matt

Sweet!  I will try it out today and post my thoughts later...  Thanks! I can't wait!

-Dan

I added in a couple more things:

• Fast Foward, Rewind, Next Track, Previous Track
• Better animations for players and controls
• Internal cleanup

Working on

• Now Playing
• Album Detail Information.. track list, selection, etc...

Thank you for any feedback.  I'll get a site up for it soon!

Impressive, works well.  I'll try the 360 extender.

Any chance of increasing the Album number to 500 (perhaps a simple option in your qvmc.xml file? trying to test out Now Christmas 2007 to the Squeezebox Classic.

Good work young sir!

Flannell

Thank you for the feedback!  I'm still trying to work out performace issues with a large album count - currently 500 albums results in a 30-60 second lag when you start up the app (once loaded it's just fine).  I could give an option of what index number to start at and increase the count to 30-40 or so (about 80 and the program starts to lag at startup).  I think SqueezeCenter is optimized for album ids and titles - once you and in artist it seems to slow down quite a bit.

Here are some new updates:

• Updated the user application data folder to the common app folder.  The extenders use there own profile, so the thumbs and config went missing.
• Tested on an extender - it works, but the SqueezeCenter adds the extender into the players list when playing form an extender.  You are not able to play using the "extender" player - you need to use the original VMC "player".  The SqueezeCenter tries to stream to the extender directly, rather than through VMC when selecting the "extender" player.  Don't know what I'm going to do about it yet :)

More later tonight!

This sounds really good, I've been looking for a way to sync a squeezebox boom with media centre, I will be trying this out over the next couple of days!

Cheers

okay, had a go.

My Linux Squeezecenter is on the NAS

My VMC HTPC has the Squeezemce (SQMCE) installed.

The Xbox 360 has the Squeeze icon in the programs list.

So, Squeezecenter lists the VMC as a player and my laptop running the web based Squeeze frontend

The XBox can see the SQMCE and my laptop as players.

If I tell the Xbox and the VMC to play they start but are not synchronised, I thought they'd be playing back from the same stream? or does the Xbox play back the buffer causing it to be out of step?

Great Software, certainly looks the part and I can see this being popular!

My wife opens her Squeezebox Classic on Xmas day so will have that to test as well.

Good stuff...

Flannell