There were many interesting things that I found with Sonos and some of them affected me on a personal usage basis. I kinda of know of them in advance but still went ahead. It was fun trying to solve them..
One example is the lack of my favourite radio station, Jia 883. Sonos is linked to TuneIn (what a great company) and they provided all the Singapore radio stations on the Sonos except one. Yes, my favourite Jia 883.
For example: I can find this station on TuneIn web site. In fact, on the web site, I can find almost all Singapore stations (http://tunein.com/radio/Singapore-r101293/).
But I cannot find this station in Sonos.
Explanation from TuneIn:
Thank you for contacting us. This station streams in a format, flash, that is not compatible with your Sonos devices. Please contact the broadcaster and ask them to provide us with an mp3, aac, or wma stream. We apologize for this inconvenience.
So problem lies with Jia883. Good luck trying to get them to change 🙂
Anyway, one workaround is to use a software called Jamcast to direct your Windows PC sounds to the Sonos. Notice I used the words, “Windows PC Sounds” as there is no Mac Version ! What ! And it is not a free software (USD 29.99 but comes with free, fully-functional 14-day free trial so that you can test it) and finally you need to be keeping your PC running so as to hear the radio station (or any other PC sounds). I so far only tested this with TuneIn Radio but from what I read in the forums, this might not work really well for things like YouTube and Videos as there is a delay between picture (in PC) and sounds (from Sonos).
Anyway, it worked for me in terms of using Sonos to listen to Jia 883 Radio station.
Installing software and immediately you need an account:
After installing, go to the Jamcast Server Manager, you should see it running:
“Capturing” the sound from my Windows 7 sound drivers and hence Jamcast will “redirect” it to any devices you set up:
It can automatically find my devices, including Sonos, Roku and Zeppelin Air ! 🙂
Take note of the PORT NUMBER of the Jamcast as you need it. You also need the IP address (preferably STATIC IP) of your PC Computer which runs the JamCast Software.
All is good on PC end. Now you need to go to Sonos Controller software (on PC or on Mac) to add the JamCast as a RADIO station. So basically JamCast is acting as a radio station, streaming your PC sounds and Sonos will attempt to play that “radio”…
The URL to your stream is: “http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:58642/Media/audio/mpeg/CaptureStream”, (replace XXX with you computers IP and don’t enter the ” into the settings field). The XXX is your PC IP address and notice the PORT NUMBER of the JamCast at the end. Give your RADIO station a name 🙂
Done ? Go to your iPad or iPhone Sonos Controller and you can see your Radio Station ! 🙂
Play it as you would play any source of music in Sonos and you will start to hear your PC sounds on the Sonos ! For example, I play the Jia883 radio station on the web (using Chrome) and immediately the radio station music plays back on the Sonos ! 🙂
I stress that I did not test with any YouTube or Video playing and I read that there will be a delay. I will test it another day when convenient. Heard it does not work well due to delay.
Nevertheless, this fixes my purpose of hearing Jia 883 on Sonos 🙂 🙂
(1) Tested on a Windows 8 laptop. Worked really well too except that I need to NOT run the Dolby Digital Software (switch it off) that came with my Lenovo.
(2) Tested on a RMVB file (Hong Kong serial). No lag between video on PC and sound on Sonos !
(3) Tested on a Hobbit 1080p MKV movie. No lag also between video on PC and sound on Sonos !
I am buying this software 🙂
Great post but curious how you made it work with windows 8? in the jamcast configuration we have only 2 options for capturing audio: 1) WIndows core engine loopback (Vista/7 ony) and 2) Sound card or other audio interface.
When I try option 1, SOnos error saying “unable to play “xxx.xxx….” (the link as correctly inputed with my private IP adress).
When I try option 2 , I get output audio to Sonos but it is coming muddled through the microphone of my laptop.
Can yo guide me further please?
Hello.
I am using Option 1. It works mine for me. Option 2 did not work for me.
great info, however did not work for me ( after update of the user interface of Jamcast ?? )
BUT after some surfin , another solution using the same way of working :
Easiest (and free!) way for Windows users to get Grooveshark playing on Sonos if you don’t want to root your phone is to use the app from http://www.streamwhatyouhear.com/. Super easy to download and install. Once that app is running you’ll need to open the Sonos app on your computer and add a Radio Station (even though the app will theoretically recognize your components, it won’t stream through them unless you do the following); right click on the SWYH icon in the icons area of your taskbar, go to tools, and go to HTTP live streaming; copy that link and paste it into the URL of the Radio Station set-up in Sonos. Done! You can mute your computer volume and it’ll still play through Sonos. Only downside is that since it’s just treated as a radio station you need to either be at your computer to change your grooveshark or else have a playlist set up. Hope that helps.
I tried the SWYH app but wasn’t able to make it work with Sonos. The SWYH webpage explicitly lists Sonus under the not supported systems.
Jamcast is not working, didn’t even get the screen mentionned. It was also lagging too much.
Tried also SWYH app and unable to get it work. Tried
Sonos one in windows 10 computers works perfect! Wihtout cuts or problems as other software… a pitty doesn’t a free APP.