Question

Sonos media player for pc?

  • 2 September 2016
  • 8 replies
  • 940 views

Hi there. I'm new to sonos and bought my first speaker this past week. It's truly fantastic and I will be buying more in the not so distant future.

I realize that this seems to be a very touchy issue (by my quick search of the support and community threads), but I couldn't find an answer to my particular question: Does anyone know if Sonos might be planning on developing a media player for pc? To be clear, I understand that the sonos app for pc is a remote control, not a media player. I am not looking for a "free" or "cheap" option. I am wondering if Sonos might be developing a media player that I could purchase and download.

I'm also aware of the "connect and line-in" option, but if I can avoid an extra piece of hardware by purchasing some software I will do it. Real estate around my HTPC is at a real premium.

Thanks in advance!

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8 replies

It seems very very unlikely and Sonos will never comment on plans so I'm afraid you won't get an answer. What exactly would you want this piece of software to do that you can't do now?
Thanks for the quick reply John.

I'm looking for a "one stop" solution to playing music around the house. I could just keep using iTunes/groove/media player on my pc, but I really do like the sonos interface, so being able to use it to play music on my pc would be a big bonus.

As I said in my original post, I'm not looking for a freebie. I'm looking for a good, robust piece of software that I can purchase and download (think Sonos Pro?) for my pc.
But isn't Sonos that "one-stop solution" already? You can play the music that is stored in iTunes on your PC - you just need a Sonos speaker sitting on the desk!
Yes, I know. But I already have the speakers (it's set up as a home theatre pc) and I'm very short on extra space. To have a piece of software that would allow me to take advantage of my current setup would be what I am interested in. It's not necessary, more of a nice to have. I think I would connect a Connect to my pc before I went and bought another speaker.

A pc/mac media player would be the only hole in the solid line-up of products from sonos. I would gladly pay for this, but maybe it's just me.
I'm sure it's not just you, but I wouldn't hold your breath on this one. FWIW if you want a line-in you might as well get a P:5 (possibly a gen1 second hand) because then you do get a speaker. The Connect was fundamentally designed to turn a hifi into a Sonos streamer, and is a very pricey way just to get a line-in.
Squeezebox had this - and it was open source. Gone thanks to Logitech. Wish Sonos would do this, but we will never see it because Sonos can't monetize it. They should at least allow it if you own at least one connect. It's a real shame because it would make the Sonos ownership experience truly amazing.
Gone also due to the fact that they allowed this, and it was open source. Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that it now lives on because of the ability to use a cheap Raspberry Pi in lieue of the actual purchase of Squeezebox hardware?
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Sonos said some time ago that it is not possible to implement the synchronization reliably in software on a general purpose computer like a Mac or PC. They claim some specialized hardware is needed to prevent drift.

Is that true? I don't know. Is it possible that it's true? Absolutely. Your PC and Mac are not running real-time operating systems which means a program can be pre-empted by the OS or another application for an indeterminate length of time.