Pirk
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 posted on 11-2-2006 at 11:26 PM
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You can redirect the eJukebox SKINNED Interface and your whole Powerful Windows XP/VISTA system on a totally SILENT PC!
If you have Windows XP Pro (or 2000 I think?) on your current PC, then you can advantageously redirect eJukebox - the main fully skinned interface! -
on any other old but SILENT PC. You just need to allow the "Remote Desktop Connections". Then you install the Remote Desktop client (using your
Windows XP CD) on the old PC. That's all!
The client can works on any system version, since Windows 95! That can even works from Linux! Of course you will need a network connection..
I currently run the client on Windows Millenium: eJukebox and Windows XP works perfectly on my old PC!
In fact eJ and the system still run on the main PC, it's "just" the display, the sound, mouse and keyboard which are redirected to the old PC
through the network..
I even managed to get a 32 bit display (it's essential for eJukebox skins) in 1280x1024. So it's exactly like if I was in front of my Pentium 4!
The advantage of this is I get a totally SILENT but POWERFUL PC: no fan, the local hard drive is never solicited, it is just needed at the boot! I'm
really surprised by the quality that I get. The sound and display are perfect, no difference, except the background noise in less! 
Next step: I plan to boot on a Compact Flash card.. 
PS: I can even turn ON/OFF the POWER on the main PC from the client screen!  You can so easily forget that there is still another machine...
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Pirk
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 posted on 11-4-2006 at 01:37 PM
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Silence your PC
You can read this site as reference: Alternatives for a quiet PC
I use the "Remote Desktop" alternative...
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Pirk
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posted on 11-4-2006 at 03:08 PM
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The Windows Me client Desktop just after the boot
The only progam I added to Windows Me is the Remote Desktop Connection.
Well, I've also added a "Wake on lan" tool, in case I need to switch ON the main PC!
Otherwise I've tried to turn off any Windows option that causes the local hard drive to scratch: No system restauration or "bitmaps caching"..
The only problem is that if I set the HD to "Stop after 3 minutes of inactivity", it stops effectively but only during 2 minutes then it turns again
3 mins.. If someone know why? Luckily the rotation is very silent, but I would prefer it stops once for all!
Pirk has attached this image:
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Pirk
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posted on 11-4-2006 at 03:09 PM
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The login on Windows XP...
You can remove this stage, if you want..
Pirk has attached this image:
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Pirk
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posted on 11-4-2006 at 03:11 PM
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Remote eJukebox and folks!
It's intoxicating, you'll never hear your hard drive scratching and the tower blowing!! No matter what you are doing... The music come first!
Pirk has attached this image:
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Audiosoft
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posted on 11-5-2006 at 01:25 AM
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Very nice! Have some questions: How is the frame rate and audio quality? Does it stream the audio to the remote pc? Do you have to disable the
transparency effects in eJukebox for the menus to show up? Does the song change popup show up on the remote screen?
Audiosoft |
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Pirk
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posted on 11-5-2006 at 11:56 PM
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Thanks Audiosoft. I don't know where I could see the frame rate, but the audio quality is very good, there is no difference that I can hear. The
sound is automatically redirected to the remote PC (just a option to check). I've selected the RDP output in Winamp, but that also works using the
direct sound or wave output.
The only disadvantage is that sometimes the sound stops very briefly, when the popup retracts for example, or also when the carousel turns fast.
Concerning the display quality, I managed to get it in 32 bit so now there is no difference. Because in 24 bit, the apparent maximum setting, eJukebox
was unusable to my taste! (dreadful shadings in skins..)
The carousel is a bit less responsive than normally and the albumlist autoscrolling is also a bit slower, but it's not really penalizing except when
the sound stops sporadically.
The transparency works good and the popup show up normally.
I've not tried with games, but I think that would be very jerky, like it is with videos.. In fact as soon as there are a lot of animations the
connection show its limits.. even if my LAN is never saturated: 25% max are used on 100 Mbps. So I dont know what causes these display and sound
limits?? Maybe there is another parameter that I would need to change somewhere?
In any case the remote desktop connection is usable, with eJukebox, and with any other program that is not to much animated.. That is 95% of my use!
For games I can still play in front of the main PC. But as for the rest I appreciate a lot a quiet machine!
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Pirk
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posted on 11-11-2006 at 01:36 PM
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There is another disadvantage: ClearType is not supported in a Remote Desktop session. So as I use a LCD monitor, the fonts I used in my skin are a
bit less good-looking.. what a shame! The default skin is not affected, the Arctic skin either! I would need to produce a "non-clearType" version of
my skin..
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Pirk
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posted on 11-11-2006 at 02:22 PM
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Some good news:
"One of the many new features Vista brings to Remote Desktop is ClearType support"! 
I think Vista will be perfect for Remote Desktop, but I will need to upgrade my client machine to XP..
I'm left for some new "upgrade" tests.. 
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Pirk
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posted on 11-11-2006 at 09:24 PM
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Remote Desktop on Vista.. test results:
The ClearType feature is fantastically improved in Vista, even on the client screen with XP that's perfect. So eJukebox looks really better on my LCD
monitor! But it appears some new disadvantages on the client display:
- It seems better is the display, worse is the sound: a lot of microcuts.. this time the carousel is quite unusable!
- Aero seems not available on the Vista client screen..  But eJukebox is not
affected by that: the popup is still perfectly transparent!
Conclusion: Should I install Vista and eJukebox on my old P3-500Mhz?
I think I'll wait a laptop with Vista on it: Silent, powerful and perfect display!
Although.. if you read this: http://www.tweakvista.com/Article38996.aspx
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Pirk
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posted on 11-12-2006 at 08:45 PM
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Well after my last tests I know the reason of the audio microcuts: When there are many display changes (carousel or album list scrolling) the CPU
usage on the client system rises enormously! And each time the local processor rizes 100% of use, it appears a lot of sound microcuts.. It's a shame
because with this remote setup the local HD stops for good!!
Currently I'm returned to a more standard configuration: eJukebox is installed locally on the old PC over XP (the mp3s are still stored on the
powerful/noisy machine). I've just added 256Mb of ram in the old PC in order it accepts to run XP with the cache disk totally disabled! That would be
perfect if eJukebox (or Winamp??) wouldn't wake up the HD on each song change.. I've set the option "Run in RAM" in eJ but that seems not sufficient??
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