Hey, I have a setup in mind at my house, but I'm unsure if it's possible.

I have 2 computers set up, one is my main pc, and the other is purely attached to my tv for playing movies etc that I've downloaded. I've run into some problems with computer #2 as it's kinda slow and I can't stream video from the internet (ie hulu) and it can't play high quality video without laggyness etc. So what I'd like to do is set up a situation where my main computer is playing to the tv / speakers hooked up to computer 2. I can already use the tv as a second screen to my main computer over the internet, so I just need to send the audio to the second computer in real time, which means I can't use an icecast or shoutcast type setup. Has anyone been able to do this? Essentially it'd be like attaching the soundcard on computer #2 as a network device for computer #1. Any ideas would be great.

Thanks!

If the computer #2 has been capable for audio/video streams earlier then, in your situation, I would try to fix that before starting to find "good enough" solution for that what your're asking.

It is possible to send audio stream from PC to anothre PC(s) through network but, your playback software maybe does not support all features needed for this.

Without trying anything, I quess, it would work this (complicated) way (but the delay is maybe too much for you):

PC#1 : MediaPlayer --> VAC --> Reaper + reastream -plug-in (sender) O=======>O PC#2: Reaper + reastream plug-in (receiver) --> speakers.

VAC = virtual audio cable ... media player needs to be set to ouput through VAC on PC#1 - http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html
Reaper - http://www.reaper.fm/ - Reaper needs to be set to take input signal through VAC on PC#1 ... ReaStream plug-in can be inserted into Master channel (FX slot)
ReaStream plug-in - comes with Reaper (there are other VST plug-ins available as well (Wormhole VST, FX teleport?, etc.) ...

Use of ASIO device driver with low latency settings may help with the delay problem.

I hope someone points you some better method.

Juha

ok... sure I can see the audio being done like is suggested but how are you gonna get the video there? Ya you can use the tv as a monitor over the internet or your network but you might have bandwidth issues. If your #2 computer isn't fast enough to decode the video in realtime then the video must be decoded by you main PC and sent over the network fully uncompressed. You're talking a lot more data than just sending the compressed video file its self. At minimum you must have a gigabit network and depending on what type of video you are trying to play that may not be enough. These are just estimates off the top of my head but a dvd would be about 200Mb/s, a 720p size video would be maybe 500 to 600Mb/s and a 1080p video like blu-ray would be around 1200Mb/s. So a 1080p quality video is going to be too much to send over the network. 720p might be possible but just the video is more than half you network bandwidth and since in real world conditions you never see a full 1Gb/s you might have problems with 720p as well. If you are just trying to play something DVD quality or less then it should be possible. I'm assuming though you want to play something of higher quality since your #2 isn't fast enough and I I'd think most computers still in use now should be able to handle a dvd.

Anyhow even assuming it is possible I'm not aware of any software to make it happen. I just thought I'd throw out the points above because even if the software is available it may not even be possible because of network bandwidth.

Buy a used Popcorn Hour or Showcenter off eBay for under $100 and recycle the second (apparently inadequate) PC.
You'll get audio and video streaming from your primary PC, a nice small appliance to replace your outdated second PC, and will likely pay for the new (used) box simply on power savings.

Run analog from one soundcard to the other.