Airfoil vs. Remote Speakers plugin?

[antigoon]

I'd like to use MediaMonkey on Windows computer to stream music to an Apple Airport Express. From my research, the options are

• Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil, and
• Eric Mille's Remote Speakers plugin

From the website, Eric wrote his plugin because Airfoil was not available on Windows. Now Airfoil is, and I don't know Eric's plugin has any advantages over Airfoil. I have not found any posts on the MM forums or elsewhere on the internet of anybody who's compared them.

Has anybody tried and compared them?

Any input would be appreciated.
Steve

[fuzzynavel]

I second this request. Based strictly on the website I was going to order airfoil for the PC. Hope it works!

[tinana]

Hi to both of you. I'm not at my home computer at the moment and so can't do a side-by-side comparison, But I have both of these programs. I don't dislike Eric Mille's plugin, but if I recall correctly, Remote Speakers is only capable of sending audio from your player to the Airport Express, while Airfoil doesn't have this limitation. Also, it seems as though RSP is updated infrequently while improvements to Airfoil happen much more often...looking at the Rogue Amoeba website there were ~10 releases in '07, ~5 in '08. Both of these programs work well for me, though.

[fuzzynavel]

Thanks Tinana -

I've read some internet reviews saying there were sound drop outs with the airfoil product - do you experience those (often)? Any sync problems with either of them - one more than the other?

Thanks again....

[cmx]

I use both.

I have not noticed any difference in sound quality/dropout/noise between the two programs (my system is NOT "audiophile" level quality).

1) Remote Speakers is transparent to the user once setup....just start MM and it plays through whatever you have previously setup. Remote is not a seperate running program. It is an alternative output plugin for MM. Changes are made in MM. Remote Speakers only works with MM.

2) Airfoil is a seperate program. It is configured and used outside of MM. It has more flexibility as far as source and output selection. It is a bit more complicated and not as transparent to the user. Once setup, you can simply start Airfoil and it will open MM automatically no further setup needed.
It does allow switching from MM to Pandora as output for example...

*****(Note- The Remote Speakers plugin does not have the crossfade and gapless playback funtionality the standard MM output plugin provides...Airfoil uses the MM output so it provides the MM capabilities.)


I have MM and Airfoil setup on several laptops and computers....

> I Have found I simply leave Remote Speakers setup in all the MM's (gapless playback/crossfade is not an issue for me). If we are using MM it is generally playing thru the main system of the house so there is no need for any changes. Just start MM and the music plays through the house (there is a seperate hardware speaker selection controller to select zones on/off)- the simplest solution for all the users in the house. I would like easier user access in MM...utilizing the new menuing functionality if possible...to allow the user to easily toggle off the Remote Speakers output and play only locally on the computer. I really feel this output functionality to Airport should simply be part of MM as it is in iTunes.

> If I want to use the internet such as Pandora or other streaming media that MM can't handle I use Airfoil. Once setup its pretty simple...but it does add another layer of complexity. No way around it though.

[swsl]

I was just testing both recently and came to similar conclusions. Airfoil is great in theory and the flexibility for many differnet programs is a valuable feature. Whereas RSO is less flexible, dedicated to work with a few music players only.

BUT in use I had two major issues with Airfoil;
1) As I change songs through my list, I start get a buffer problem of some kind and the songs don't start clean. They skip, burp, start late into the song. No good at all.
2) To control volume, I have to click away from MM and go to a volume control window, either for my system or for Airfoil, as it has a helpful option to use system control. A minor issue, but annoying. I want MM volume control to work for quick adjustments within the window and with Airfoil it doesn't.

Rogue Ameoba is very helpful and tried to work with me on the first issue, but I quickly ran out of time/patience when I saw that RSO works.

RSO, in use, has been seamless. It's the one that gives MM the AEX output like iTunes. Volume control works, pause, play, changing songs works. RSO is the one I paid for.

I have found a minor problem in use, which is high CPU usage while in pause (not in play!). But it's not a deal breaker and I suspect it's a plug-in, script or version conflict or something like that. It seems like it'll get worked out.

So, RSO won for me. I'll try airfoil again down the line and maybe get it anyway for playing videos.


Steve

[richiefinger]

HI, I've been having the same problems with Airfoil. Drops out and loses sync within a couple of minutes. I've tried changing channels on the router and using a different version that Rogue Amoeba sent me, but still no joy.
I have now asked for a refund.
Does anybody have any better experiences with Airfoil?
Once my refund comes back I shall go look at RSO.
I'm only interested in using it for MM so no probs with that.
It's a shame because iTunes and the AEX work faultlessly so it's not a network/wifi problem.

Better integration for wireless setups in future versions please Ventis.

[Kevfirst]

Here's a trick from Windows users of AirFoil

To remotely (via iPhone) send something like Spotify to different speakers, start AirFoil, have it start Spotify (or whatever).

Load the AirFoil Remote Speakers app on your iPhone.
Send the sound to the iPhone (by selecting it on the AirFoil Window)
Then double click the HOME button on the iPhone and scroll left to get volume and AirPlay
Use AirPlay to send the sound to your chosen AirPort Express speakers.

You can then use the Spotify Remote on the same iPhone to control the music.

It gets around the lack of Re(e)mote for AirFoil on Windows.

Also I'm using UKiVPN to get UK content via Spotify/Rhapsody/iPlayer etc.

Ain't technology wonderful... if a bit contrived