Streaming WMA files on a LAN?

[ddundas]

I'm trying to play audio files on my Pocket PC off my LAN-based shared media library, which is almost entirely in WMA format. It works fine on my desktops with Windows Media Player, but the media file browse/play capability on the Pocket PC version makes it extremely difficult to use (it works, but it searches/sorts the entire 4800-song library every time I access it ... and you can't play multiple files directly from the file browser in the Pocket PC OS -- or at least I can't figure out how).

Unfortunately, I can't find anything that seems to do this. PocketMusic looks good, but it doesn't say it works on a LAN. Any advice on either what software will allow me to do this or on how I can tweak the Pocket PC OS/Windows Media Player to work?

Thanks for any advice ...

[ddundas]

I'm trying to play audio files on my Pocket PC off my LAN-based shared media library, which is almost entirely in WMA format. It works fine on my desktops with Windows Media Player, but the media file browse/play capability on the Pocket PC version makes it extremely difficult to use (it works, but it searches/sorts the entire 4800-song library every time I access it ... and you can't play multiple files directly from the file browser in the Pocket PC OS -- or at least I can't figure out how).

Unfortunately, I can't find anything that seems to do this. PocketMusic looks good, but it doesn't say it works on a LAN. Any advice on either what software will allow me to do this or on how I can tweak the Pocket PC OS/Windows Media Player to work?

Thanks for any advice ...

[cam87513]

What you need to do is get a program for your ppc that will allow you to mount a network shared folder. One thing if you're streaming over WiFi though, I've noticed that if the bitrate is higher than 128k and if you're running at lower than 11mbps, you're going to be watching the buffering icon more than you're going to be listening to your music.

[ddundas]

Any suggestions on what such a program would be?

Also, this is a hard-wired Ethernet (tried -- and hated -- WiFi for just the reason you mention), so throughput isn't an issue ...

THanks.

[cam87513]

There's actually a free program that I picked up somewhere called BizzDev Net Use. It seems to work pretty well, and I'm sure a google search would bring up a place to download it.

[ddundas]

Done -- Installed BizzDev and PocketMusic (w/the WMA feature pack), and it works great! Thanks!!