[pulseaudio-discuss] Local and remote sink

[Jeremy Visser]

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On 31/01/10 04:57, samuel wrote:
> When I put "default-server = tarzanito" into my client.conf, I can play
> using the sound server connected to my stereo, if I leave it out, the
> sound plays locally.

This is the wrong approach — the best solution is to always talk to your
local PulseAudio server (so no changing server), and then have your
local server use a remote server's speakers as one of your local sinks.

> My question: Do I have to add sinks for tarzanito and my local alsa,
> and if yes, how exactly do I do that? I tried messing with the
> default.pa script, but everytime I change something, it gets messed
> up...

I'm not familiar at all with configuring this via command-line, but what
you want are module-zeroconf-* to be able to detect when the remote sink
is available, and then add it as an output device in your PulseAudio config.

Then, you can use either pavucontrol or pacmd to live switch your audio
stream between the two sinks.

The way I do this from the GUI is very easy: install paprefs on both
machines, and in paprefs, tick the "Enable network access to local sound
devices" checkbox (and both sub-checkboxes) on the machine you want to
play TO.

Then, on the machine you want to play from, in paprefs, check the "Make
discoverable PulseAudio network sound devices available locally" option.

Then, the remote sink will appear, and you will be able to switch the
stream back and forth.

If one of the machines are headless, then it may be a little more
involved, but the principle is the same: enable zeroconf sink publishing
and discovery.

Jeremy.
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