Control PC to Xbox music streaming using WP8?

[ssterb1]

My wife just gave me the green light to setup outdoor speakers in the backyard for music (the tv will have to wait until the new house). I want to connect the new outdoor speakers to the zone 2 speaker ports on my bedroom’s stereo receiver. My xbox in the bedroom, which is primarily used as an extender, will stream the music stored on my media center pc to the receiver. However, I want to control the music playback on the xbox using my windows phone 8 (Nokia 920). The preferable controls are as follows:

- Play / Pause, next / repeat
- Song , album, and playlist browsing and selection to play
- Now playing song info and album art
- View, add to, and delete from now playing playlist
- Shuffle and repeat toggles

I like the My Media Center app from Ceton Corp., but it doesn’t handle music, just tv and movies. Xbox smart glass with the Xbox Music app on the 360 looked promising, but I can’t figure out how to get my music to show up and play in the app on the 360 (it does in the windows 8 music app on my media center pc). Only thing I can figure is I have to have an Xbox Music Pass for it to work, and I don’t see why I have to shell out another ongoing payment to play music I already own the way I want to. The music shows up and plays fine in the dashboard music player, but the way smart glass on my phone interacts with the dashboard player doesn’t let me see anything on my phone.

Aside from splitting the video and installing a monitor or tv outside, does anyone have any suggestion for an app for my phone for this or an alternate low cost setup suggestion?

…Or maybe help me troubleshoot the Xbox music app?

Thanks

[milli260876]

can you use an app like connect me or such like to remote into the pc and use play to>xbox???

[ssterb1]

I have PC Remote Pro on my phone that I use to control the HTPC in the livingroom when I need a mouse or keyboard. It will also show me the desktop (minus WMC) on my phone and let me interact with it via single mouse clicks and keyboard intry when I'm not in veiw of the tv. I thought about using it in this case, but I didn't know if I could do the play-to option without interupting anyone who's watching tv via the HTPC at the time I need to send a command. A common occurance is our friends come over, and we're visiting outside while our kids are watching tv or a movie in the livingroom. I might give it a try and see.

Some additional research after my initial posting turned up a WP7 app, Media Center Remote. It looks like it'll do most, if not all, of what I want for music in WMC via the Xbox. Does anyone have any experience with it and can comment on whether it would serve my putpose before I purchase it? Granted I've waisted more than $1.99 on other things that didn't work or I decided not to use.

[EZEd]

If you've got a phone, why not just use a DLNA client on the phone to play the music remotely? Plug the phone into an amplified device like a dock station outside? Would seem to be easier than trying to get 3 different devices to behave the way want in a remote location. Just get a dock that you take outside, use the phone to reachback to your media in the house? Or if your phone will control your AV receiver just use it as the remote for playing your media through the receiver. I don't really see a need for an Xbox in this situation. It's possible that a phone remote app could control the Xbox in extender mode but it sounds awfully complicated and roundabout.

[MC7forum]

You may not want to hear this, but the easiest thing to do is to buy a network-enabled AV receiver. I have zone 2 of my Yamaha AVR connected to my outdoor speakers. Yamaha has a free app to control the receiver from an Android or iPhone. I can control playback from my phone from anywhere that gets a WiFi signal from my wireless router with the Yamaha app. The Yamaha app does not allow you to control the AVR over the WAN though. However, there is a guy out there who wrote a simple app that will control a Yamaha AVR from the WAN or LAN. I think it cost $5.00. I have that app too. It works fine when I'm out of range of my WiFi.

The receiver can play Pandora and many other internet streaming services, as well as any content on any DLNA server in the house. Windows Media Player can be setup to serve music via DLNA, and it runs as a service on my HTPC. My AVR can play any music files on my HTPC, plus all the Internet content you can imagine.