Twonky Beam - could be useful for some of you?

[Alex_UK]

http://www.twonkymedia.com/beam/

Twonky Media (I use their music server software as it was the only one I could find that worked with all my devices, i.e. XBOX360, PS3, SoundBridge) have just released this neat IE plugin - basically, it allows you to "push" media (audio, video, images) from a website on your PC to any of your networked devices (in my case, most practical use is surfing on laptop which is not connected to my hifi - if I find a track on say Last.fm I can send it to the SoundBridge which IS connected to the hifi. Depending on what you've got connected, you could for example send YouTube videos to a wireless "photo frame".

Might be useful for someone, and its free, so have a play!

[DaveK]

Hi Alex,
Just dowloaded, scanned and installed this plugin but can't figure how to make it work - no desk top icon and clicking on the files when I 'Search' for Twonky achieves nothing - can you help please?
Cheers,

[Alex_UK]

Dave - go to View - then Explorer Bars and there should be a TwonkyMedia option at the bottom?

[DaveK]

Hi Alex,
Thanks for that - got it going now but .....
It appears only to work for mp3 music files - is that so or am I missing something again? .
I have to really turn up the volume on my amp to get a decent sound - have you found the same?
Cheers,
Dave.

[Alex_UK]

Not noticed the volume issue Dave, but only used it with the SoundBridge - not sure what device you are sending to?

According to the FAQ, these are the files supported:

Audio - MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV
Photo - JPEG and most other image formats
Video - MPEG2, WMV, MP4, FLV, M4V, AVI, ASF, MPEG, MPG, F1V, F4V

But I saw a response on the forum from their product manager that they are currently working on FLAC support...

[DaveK]

Thanks again Alex,
Hope they succeed with the FLAC upgrade, then it really will be much more useful I believe.
My modus operandi is; -
On Netbook, download music file from recommended site.
On main PC (coupled to 7520 via USB) download and install TwonkeyBeam Media Manager.
Set everything for playback from PC and then stream (or Beam ) music file from netbook to TB Media Manager and play.
Full route is netbook to PC to 7520 to amp to speakers.
At normal listening volume ( 9 o'clock on amp) nothing is heard but turning it up to around 2 o'clock makes it listenable.
Thanks again,
Cheers,

[rickschwar]

Dave - go to View - then Explorer Bars and there should be a TwonkyMedia option at the bottom?

This works. If you want the Beam icon to always appear, you can also right click in the Internet Explorer command bar and uncheck the Lock the Toolbars option. Then drag the slider to the left of the Home button to expand the number of items in the command bar. And finally, when you’re finished, right click in the Internet Explorer command bar again and check the Lock the Toolbars option.

BTW: I'm the Product Manager for Beam, so if you have any questions or requests, just let me know. As someone else noted, we'll have FLAC support in our next major release. There are other improvements in the new update which is now available on the download page listed above.

- Rick

[DaveK]

This works. If you want the Beam icon to always appear, you can also right click in the Internet Explorer command bar and uncheck the Lock the Toolbars option. Then drag the slider to the left of the Home button to expand the number of items in the command bar. And finally, when you’re finished, right click in the Internet Explorer command bar again and check the Lock the Toolbars option.

- Rick

Hi Rick,
Thanks for that - as posted above I don't think it's going to be of much interest to me until it will play FLAC files, but thanks anyway - filed for future reference.
Cheers,