I’ve been wanting to ease myself back into piano (adult) and have been exploring some interactive apps in order to stimulate myself into playing more, above what sheet music and instructional booklets alone can provide.
So far I’ve come across Synthesia (and others, more on that below) and in a perfect world would love to setup my under-utilized large screen SmartTV (you know where this is going) but I’ve hit incompatibilities hurdles and gone past my tolerance threshold on self-research and troubleshooting, so coming here for advice.
- I Have a Casio Px160 piano (with midi and usb outputs) and, sadly, a LG Smart TV running WebOS. As far as I researched, I can’t find a workaround to make Synthesia run on WebOS that doesn’t require additional hardware (like a A5X MAX Android tvbox). Have I missed something?
Alternatively, I know I can run Synthesia on an intermediate device (I own an android smartphone) and can simply set the TV as a screen display of my phone, but I’m worried about latency (Wi-Fi connectivity). Am I overthinking this?
- As a second point, I’m also equally interested in other Apps I’ve come upon (mostly combing through this very forum) like PianoMarvel and HomeConcert Xtreme (both of which appear only usable from a windows/Mac tablet, no android). Thankfully, all 3 offer free Trails/Demo/free versions to try out, but I’m also interested in other users’ personal experiences at what distinguishes them in 2019, functionally speaking. I’ve done some research on this very forum, but have become overloaded with sorting trough 5-10 years old post (although most were very informative) and cross-referencing with Synthesia patch notes. Also, trying the free versions of PianoMarvel/Homeconcert would require buying additional hardware.
For someone not too shy (but cautious) about spending a bit of money, are most functionality in between these 3 redundant, or does any bring something fundamentally unique the others don’t have at all?
I put Synthesia first because I’m almost already set-up hardware-speaking. It’s the only Android-compatible option at the moment until I commit to spend cash for a tablet/ipad dedicated solely for running the other apps.
- As a third and final point, to cite Nicholas from 2015 :
I’m opened (and avid) to suggestions as cheap but versatile hardware to fill this role: preferentially that are compatible with all 3 apps. But there also, I’m lost in a sea of options, and don’T know where to begin between a Windows Tablet, ipad or Mac.The right tool for the job is an iPad-sized (or larger) tablet on the keyboard music stand.