Multi Room Music and TV

[harrisi]

I'm currently looking into setting up a new multi-media setup where I want to store all my music, photos, recorded TV programs etc in one place and access these via "Room Link's" through out the house.

My intention is to wire the room links back to the switch sitting next to my office.

I've read a few posts on this site, as I currently have a VGC-V2M which is great as a stand alone, but doesn't give me the functionality I was looking for.

Can anyone let me know if they have done this, or reasons why I shouldn't go down the Room Link option.

Also how many Room Links can I connect to my central server, and how do I get additional units from the one supplied ?

Also - SONY please setup a SEARCH feature on this forum, I'm sure it would only take a developer half a day, but would save so much time for forum users, and prevent duplicate posts.

Many thanks for any help, as the Sony Centre were not much use.

Iain

[scotty]

Hi Iain


I have A RZ504 and a V2s, i have both easy on my network long with my two sony laptops all using vaio media to share music etc. The room link that i got with my RZ504 i use with the TV downstairs and the roomlink i kept from my RZ424 i use for the LCD TV in the bedroom. , i have a squeeze box on my stereo system in the kitchen and the bathroom with waterproof speakers (odd i know) and all this is wireless using vaio wireless and linksys. I think you should go for the roomlink option because i find it great when having people over, partys etc because you just stream the same music to everyroom in the house and the same time. Great Fun!!

If you need any more help just get in contact

Scott

[harrisi]

Thanks Scott,

Have you ever managed to buy additional roomlink units ? I guess if I set this up correct the first time I would want to have everything the same in each of the rooms. That way I could stream all 3 services to anywhere in the house.

Spoke with Sony Centre in Edinburgh, and the response was very poor. To the point they advised staying away from Sony until the roomlink becomes widely available, which is worrying !!

On a recent post I suggested buying one from the States, but no-one had done this, so I'm not sure about power compatibility etc.

Thanks for advice though

Iain

[ognils]

I've just taken delivery of an RA-204. The PC itself is lovely but the Roomlink is messy and cumbersome and frankly not something that I'll be using.
The roomlink has to have a cabled connection to the TV, plus a cabled connection to the Wireless receiver that plugs into the back of it, plus a power cable. A MESS to say the least and not as depicted by Sony's MPEG video demonstration elsewhere on this site. In fact the video demo shows the roomlink streaming wireless data to both a TV and a Hi-Fi from a single unit, but I don't think this is possible as both would need to be directly cabled.
Again, the PC is excellent but unless I've really missed something, the Roomlink is not worth having.
Sorry to be a kill joy, but there must be a neat and tidy way of doing the same that the Roomlink does but better.
G.

[kee-lo_]

I was very disapointed with RoomLink myself, I don't use it at all either. Might do when I get my own place.

Otherwise it's a gimmick people paid a lot for!

[harrisi]

Thanks for the responses.

By the sounds of it, Sony have jumped into the multi-room market without thinking long and hard what features would make the roomlink stand out from the competitors.

While some of their products host - leading design, reliability, it's the basic features that make the difference between a good product and a market leader.

I like the viao media software, it's a neat and clean place to store all my media files, yet there are some basic fucntions which you would expect from a company with a decent design team . eg. being able to queue songs up when browsing the albums, rather than having to stop and start playing a whole album !!

Maybe I was hoping that Sony had cracked the problem of centralising photos, music, and TV recordings allowing me to access everything in any room.

Because I want to record TV and play it back, I don't think the Linksys offers this, and I haven't seen other products that cope with all types of media.

Again it seems to be the states leading the way in this, even Sony are selling the Roomlink as a unit out there, hopefully picking one up in Jan.

As an aside, Sony are now selling DVD recorders with a function called "Roomlink" has this anything to do with the Roomlink function we're talking about ?

Thanks again

Iain

[kee-lo_]

I have heard of some boxes which record while you watch a different channel.

[scotty]

Hi

I have just read some of the post and i agree with you all the way, the back of my tv is a mess so many cables coming from the roomlink to the tv and power sockets. And you are right about the stereo and tv bit, thats why i brought the squeeze box which in my eyes is really good for music to the stereo for the pc, i have two roomlinks running on my network and them seem ok. but once you get them running together with the squeeze boxes all hell breaks lose, massive problems all over the place, but i do think that sony really need to improve on the box, all-in-one (i.e. roomlink and wireless in one box) save space and only the one plug.

Scott

[harrisi]

Kee-Lo, the only box I've come across which acheives this is SKY+, and I really want to stay away from having a separate box for TV, and another for Music etc.

If there is another box which does all, I'm open to suggestion !

I'm not waiting around for Sony to catch up.

With regards to a One Box Solution, this would be way forward, even if they installed a PCMCIA port on the back to take a wireless card it would allow it to be upgraded to higher speeds when available, then Sony could stream quality DVD etc.

I bought a pinnacle show centre a few months ago, which is wireless, but the software is very limited.

Iain

[scotty]

Thanks Scott, 

Have you ever managed to buy additional roomlink units ? I guess if I set this up correct the first time I would want to have everything the same in each of the rooms. That way I could stream all 3 services to anywhere in the house.

Spoke with Sony Centre in Edinburgh, and the response was very poor. To the point they advised staying away from Sony until the roomlink becomes widely available, which is worrying !!

On a recent post I suggested buying one from the States, but no-one had done this, so I'm not sure about power compatibility etc. 

Thanks for advice though

Iain

Hi Iain

I have put one of my roomlinks on ebay, if you want to take alook i have put the link below eBay

Scott