Simple Backups

Okay, so I forgot that I said I'd give some pointers to simple back-ups yesterday. Hope no computers failed in the meantime!

1. Large local backup

This method keeps your data in more than one place and is suitable for backing up large music & video collections, or if you're 2nd drive is big enough most drive contents. It isn't suitable for really important data as it'll be stored at the same location and so is just as susceptable to fire & theft as your main machine. This is also not suitable for a full restore of your system as it will not save important operating system information.

For this method you just need access to a folder on an external drive or another machine via a network. Personally I use an old SATA harddrive in a cheap USB caddy. Something like this.

1. Create a folder on the backup location for your backed up files to be stored in.
   
2. Download and install SyncToy.
3. Click "Create folder pair".
4. For the Left folder, browse to your local directory / drive / location you want to backup.
5. For the Right folder, browse to the remote folder you created in step 1.
6. Choose "Echo" from the choice of 3 actions.

Now if you want the whole of the directory you chose copied, just hit "Run". If you want more control over what files are copied you can click "Change options" and exclude certain folders, or only include certain types of file. Turning on "Exclude system files" may speed up your backup as well.

The first time you run the "sync" will take quite a while. The next time you want to backup your files instead of creating a new folder pair, select the existing one from the list on the left. This backup will run much faster as it will only copy changed files.

2. Small remote backup

For those files you really can't bear to lose you need to store a copy of the files remotely. I find doing this with things like FTP a real faff not to mention difficult to maintain and a problem when you're on an internet connection with capped bandwidth as you end up repeatedly uploading the same files.

Dropbox to the rescue! Dropbox is a free program that allows you to have folders on your local machine that are automatically uploaded and kept up-to-date remotely. I'm not going to write steps for how to use Dropbox as it is literally as simple as creating folders and copying files into them.

I don't just store stuff directly in my Dropbox though as I find using the built in windows photos & documents folders too convenient for that. Instead I use a SyncToy folder pairing (see above) with only a few important sub folders selected to make sure the essential data is copied into the Dropbox. This helps me stay under the 2 gig limit and means all my photos & documents etc. are still stored in one main folder instead of having to split them by importance.


Hope this helps, and let me know if any of the above doesn't work out for you or have any better ideas!

Listening to Spotify through the Xbox 360 (or Wii, or PS3, or media centres)

I love Spotify, I love the Xbox 360. I love the way you can listen to your own music whilst playing games. I didn't like the way there was no way to listen to Spotify whilst playing games.

So with the digital equivalent of gaffer tape. I found a way. :)

I knew I needed to capture the output of Spotify, and convert it into a form that the Xbox 360 would be able to understand. I also wanted to be able to play the output live, so I could start listening immediately as opposed to recording an hour of Spotify output, then listening to that hour.

In the end my solution was as follows:

• Broadwave - captures audio from any recording device, and serves it up as an "Internet radio station".
• TVersity - reads the "Internet radio station", and acts as a UPnP media centre for the Xbox 360 to connect to.
  

Below are some tips for setting these things up. I've not included a full step-by-step install guide because to be frank this is not amateur stuff. If you need help installing an application you probably aren't going to get all this to work together!

Setting up Broadwave

During this process you may need to accept any firewall requests that come up, depending on your installed firewall software. Make sure to allow incoming and outgoing connections if given the option.

1. Download and install Broadwave.
   
2. Click streams.
3. Click live tab.
4. Click add stream.
5. Change "Sound in" device to the general sound output of your PC (will be something like "Rec. playback", or "Wave out", or "Direct Sound Out"). If you don't have a recording device like this, see "No direct sound recording device" section below.
6. Click OK.
7. Click General tab.
8. Change Minimum speed for broadband to 256kbps (This will keep the sound quality at a reasonable level).
9. Click OK.

WARNING:- At this point you've got your own "Internet radio station" running on your computer. I don't recommend testing it on the same computer, as this would create a feedback loop resulting in some very nasty sounds. ;)

Setting up TVersity

Again, during this process, you may need to accept any firewall requests that come up, depending on your installed firewall software. Make sure to allow incoming and outgoing connections if given the option.

1. Install TVersity as standard.
2. In the library, click "Internet Media", then "Internet Audio".
3. Click "Add Item".
4. Enter http://localhost:88/broadwave.asx?src=1&kbps=256 in Audio URL.
5. Enter a suitable title.
6. Click Submit.

If all goes well there should be no error messages, and you can now serve up the output from your PC to the Xbox 360.

Accessing from the Xbox

Simple go to "My music" and TVersity should show up as a music source. From there you should be able to select your stream within the "Songs" menu.

Connected, but no Sound?

1. Check you haven't muted the PC. The direct sound out recording devices literally record what gets output by the PC.
2. Check you chose a relevant recording device. Again if you haven't got an appropriate recording device, see below.

No direct sound recording device?

The first time I used this solution I didn't have a direct recording device built into the laptop, the only recording options were "line in" and "microphone". I got round this by using a USB sound card I had sitting around: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34128 (other USB sound cards are available but this one definitely works). Plugging this in added the required recording device to the options.

Now I have sound coming out of both my PC and my Xbox!?

If you're like me and don't have a physical volume control on your PC/laptop, just plug in headphones, or preferably any line in cable to the head phone socket. This should shut it up ;). Don't mute it in the volume control.

Finally

Hope this helps some people out there enjoy Spotify a little more! It should work with any device that supports UPnP (Wii, PS3, Media centres etc.). Usual disclaimers apply: the above may not work for you, don't hold me libel if your PC rises up against you and eats your pets or anything.

Comments welcome. Please let me know any improvements you come up with or if this helped you at all!

Credit to http://dempah.com/innehall/18-teknik/340-spotify-till-xbox-360.html for filling in the final blank in my solution. I found their overall solution a little too complex, but the TVersity part of it was what I was missing!