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DannoNZ

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Transfer sounds playing to different computer

WHAT I WANT TO DO:
I have two computers in one room, one is a laptop with crusty speakers and crusty soundcard.  I want any sounds that would be played on the laptop to be instead played on a different computer, with a nice ForteMedia soundcard, internal amp, and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound speakers.

WHAT I HAVE:
The computer has a free 'line in' plug on the sound card.
The laptop has a speakers, line in, and microphone plug.

or

There is a network connection between the two computers.  The laptop is running Windows XP Home, and the desktop is running Windows XP Professional.

HOW I'D LIKE IT DONE:
My preferred solutoin would be that all the sounds are transferred over the network...  (I don't see that the delay would be unsuitable for this, would it?)  Is there some sort of software available that will transfer all sounds to the other computer?  I know Remote Access built into Windows XP does it, but it has to take over the entire laptop to do it...

An acceptible solution would also be to connect some sort of wiring to the line in slot (I need to know what wire!) of the computer and have those sounds supplied played directly to the speakers...

Another solution would be some sort of adapter where I can plug from the speakers out to the Dolby Digital in on the amp, preferably with some sort of merger so the existing soundcard can still play sounds without having to switch wires depending on what I want to hear sounds from...

HELPFUL RESOURCES:
I will be purchasing any required wires from www.dse.co.nz at their retail shop so if you can't explain the wire required to me perfectly, maybe you can find it on there and give me a catalogue number/URL.
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frache

Only one way :

Connect speaker ( or line) output( laptop)  to aux or line input on your desktop sound card.
Use mixer program to adjust sound level.

Cable : jack 3.5 stereo / jack 3.5 stereo
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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frache

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I send sounds from my soundcard directly to a AIWA ministereo AUX jack.  Works beautifully, and I can use the minisystems amp and equilizer as well.
All the above are valid.  Another solution would be to install a PC card audio card, and disable the one integrated on the laptop and connect some GOOD speakers.  This eliminates the network being up and contention from the other PC's sound production.
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ASKER

*is going shopping in 5 hours time - will report back...*

It sounds pretty easy - easier than I expected...
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Just FYI...I don't believe there is any way you could possibly force the sound output to be transmitted over a network cable without some custom designed client/server type of software.  The line-out/line-in suggestion should work nicely though, as long as there is an option in the Audio properties to play all sound out via the line out from the laptop, which I don't think you can do.  The output from the laptop may need to come from the speaker output, but who knows...

-dog*
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ASKER

OK I do have it working but not as nicely as expected...  I suspect I picked up some bad cable because using line out of my stereo gives the same bad quality...

Will take it back tomorrow hopefully (shops are closed now) and try again...

Dog*, That's why I asked - I was wondering whether any custom software already exists somewhere, that's all...

Test quality :
- Make a try with a short cable ...
- Make a test with a music CD ...
- Adjust level in output ( if speaker output used ) and adjust level in input ... Try with a "medium" (fifty/fifty)level ...

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Good quality cable : you can use CINCH (RCA) cable and adapter cinch to jack ...

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Some new laptops (multimedia PC) have a digital sound output. Do you have this output ?
( if you sound card has an digital input ... it's ok ...)

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No software to redirect sound to network ...
 
"bad quality" please describe.  Might be a software conflict.
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ASKER

It was the crusty cable - replacement works a lot better :-)

Thanks for your help guys!