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While I agree that a display and buttons are a good thing, I don't think the additional cost will come out positive in the long run

Many have tried, but none have had commercial success in trying to turn the TV into a computer, or vice versa.

Personally I am much more interested in products that are coming up with new kinds of user interfaces that actually fit the way people want to use media (or course Tivo is the best exmaple for video). If you want to look at a gadget that REALLY does music right, take a look at the SLIMP3. GPL'd server handles all the music catalogue and UI work, with a stateless client that can go in any room (not just with the TV). It's really the only product in this category that actually works as advertised and is not a pain to set up and use (just unloaded my Audiotron on Ebay - got three Slims now and I love 'em!).

I have quite a few books on VHDL and logic design and this one is absolutely the best book for a beginner:

Fundamentals of Digital Logic Design with VHDL

Based on little more than what I found in that book, I was able to implement my first chip, which is currently shipping in the SLIMP3 network music player. Managed to fit the design in a small XC95144XL CPLD, which handles memory buffering, DMA transfer, IR capture, and serializing of data to feed to an audio decoder.

It starts with the most basic building logic building block and boolean algebra, and moves step by step from there to a basic CPU. Very well organized and easy to follow, with excellent examples.

Please DO NOT start with the Xilinx Foundataion kit and the examples therein. It will not make any sense. Actually it'll make even LESS sense to you if you have any software background at all.

This has already been done. Some dude ripped the guts out of an old boombox he had laying around and added a Slimp3 device and a wireless bridge.

Very cool; if only the Slimp3 wasn't $239...

My server has been slashdotted a few times and I can tell you it's pretty simple to not get overloaded.

The first time I learned my lesson. The server was on a T1 line that was 2/3 full already, and slashdot linked to a page full of large photos. That'll kill your link pretty quickly. Low-budget solution: sign up for a burstable web hosting account somewhere and just put all your large images there.

Later when we got some actual office space for the business, I moved the main server up to a colo facility in fremont. All slahdottable content is hosted there on a fast server with a 100mbps ethernet link. Other oddball services that need their own machine are hosted from the other end of a point-to-point T1 line going directly back to the office from the colo.

So depending on your budget it's really not hard to set up your site to survive a slashdotting. If you don't have a lot of dough to spend but you want to run your own server for configurability/security reasons, just host the static stuff somewhere else. Or if you're serving enough to make it economical, get a colo account with a burstable link.

There's a widespread misconception here that slashdotting is caused by server overload. In reality this is almost never the case. It's caused by insufficient bandwith. This in turn may cause server overload because of too many slow clients being connected, but that is purely a secondary effect.

You might be able to cook something up with a Palm and a USB audio converter, but you wouldn't need a serial console to do it. However, here's a better idea:

Get the SliMP3. It connects to your stero system and has an ethernet port on the back. Grab a Linksys WET11 and it's wireless if you can't run ethernet to your stereo for some reason. It works with iTunes and you can keep all your music in one place.

Mirror here, just in case.
What would we do without wget --recursive?

I agree with the other comments regarding the SLIMP3. It is THE way to go for getting MP3 sound on your stereo. The software is open source to boot!

• Ethernut Mp3 Add-On
  
• Slimp3
  

For mp3 jukebox and internet audio I like the Slim Devices audio player. It's cat5 only, but it still is pretty sweet.

Now I'm thinking about getting one of the Via Epia based mini-pcs for fileserver/jukebox usage

Anybody know if SliMP3 will be able to play these AAC files?

www.slimdevices.com

I know it's an "MP3 Player," but that didn't stop them from getting internet radio to work with it. :)

Dude, if you're not planning on sharing the music you buy with the whole world, the restrictions that they *do* put in will NEVER hinder you.

Dude, that's just silly.

I use a SliMP3 as my primary audio interface. It plays MP3s. The server transcodes other formats nicely and transparently... as long as they're not DRM-encumbered. I have no slightest interest in replacing it with a Mac, for many reasons.

By DRM-crippling the tracks it sells, Apple loses me as a customer since I can't use them without jumping through hoops (AAC->burn CD->rip CD to MP3). Whatever, that's their business decision, but to claim that the DRM "will NEVER hinder" me is just dumb.

The above link should point to slimdevices.com rather than slimedevices.com.

The absolute best home audio player I've found yet is the slimp3. My wife went over there and picked one up for me for Christmas. I think it was $250. The installation was thoroughly impressive (I plugged it in, started the OS X server on my laptop and it had all of my music available, including the iTunes playlists). I actually run the real server on the Solaris machine that has all of my music, though.

It has no buttons or touch screen, which doesn't so much matter to me because I'm rarely anywhere near it when I want to listen to music.

It does have a pretty kick-ass web UI (on the server) and a useful enough remote, though. My wife and I use to fight on the UNIX system that was hooked up to the stereo...see which one of us could get our song next in the queue (I had a pretty primitive setup where there wasn't exactly a queue, but you could play a list of songs or whatever). Now we just hit the web server, queue stuff up, unqueue stuff, etc...

bah... i'd rahter have a slick slimp3 ontop of my rack...

oh, wait, i already got one!

• a polished user interface
  
• extensive API accessible through both HTTP and a persistent socket interface
  
• a plugin architecture for your own perl add-ons
  
• active hacker community
  
• full protocol docs published and supported by the manufacturer
  
• damn there's too much to list - just go to the site.
  

A rendezvous enabled wireless device that ties into my music collection (yes, iTunes).

Slim Devices probably has what you're looking for. It doesn't use Rendezvous (yet) but does have all the things that Rendezvous has been promising (auto-discovery of server, integration with iTunes). A lot of companies are hawking auto-disocvery like it's some revoultionary technology... ummmmm it's a couple tiny UDP packets in each direction. That's it. We were doing this long before anyone had heard of Rendezvous.

But Rendezvous is evoving into more than that... we recently showed the product at Macworld in San Francisco, and received a very enthusiastic response from the iTunes developers at Apple. They're opening up more of their system to us, so expect to see even better integration with MacOS iApps in our next software updates for the SLIMP3.

BTW, the HomePod is about where we were two years ago. Seriously, they're good guys, and geeks like us, but don't expect them to ship anything for a few more months.

It will read iTunes playlists. The server (open source, written in Perl) can be run on OS X, or on a Windows or *nix machine. No built-in wireless or amplifier, but it's the slickest and smallest component in my stereo setup now, at the cost of running an ethernet cable into the living room.

For me, the big advantage of the SliMP3 is the ability to interact with the large vacuum fluorescent display via a remote control from anywhere in the room. It would be less fun having to get up to read an LCD display (which looks tiny on the HomePod), or having to go to the computer to build a new playlist.

• a high-end fluorescent display
  
• very nice software that runs on all platforms
  
• killer web interface
  
• support for unlimited music
  
• open-source development community
  
• hot chick on their web site.
  

From their website it looks like it only handles MP3s and internet audio. Also no digital out.

For the price, I'd rather buy an AudioTron... and even then it can't directly handle OGG/FLAC (it can through a plugin on Linux, if you have the CPU power).

The comparsion chart they have is misleading as well... AudioTron is supported on any system that can use Windows shares. Rio is as well, but somewhat more hackish. The AT is also customizable, and quite a few 3rd party programs have been written for it through the API.

From their website it looks like it only handles MP3s and internet audio. Also no digital out.

For the price, I'd rather buy an AudioTron... and even then it can't directly handle OGG/FLAC (it can through a plugin on Linux, if you have the CPU power).

The comparsion chart they have is misleading as well... AudioTron is supported on any system that can use Windows shares. Rio is as well, but somewhat more hackish. The AT is also customizable, and quite a few 3rd party programs have been written for it through the API.

I just updated the web site minutes ago: MacWorld show special: $239 with free ground shipping!!

Ah ... that thing I couldn't remember is from slimdevices.

About the same thing.

Remote controlled, streams over Ethernet, GPL'd software (Linux, Win, Mac)

250$ - a bit expensive, but I bet the price will come down...

The VFD in my SliMP3 is dimmable. I was under the impression that VFDs were noticably brighter than regular LCDs. That's the main reason Slim Devices decided to use VFDs according to their info.

I think this is the display that the incredible SliMP3 device uses. Except it uses only a 2-line display.

No offense Sean, but I work for you

A cute troll, and I'm sure that many slashdot readers would believe that you actually do work for "SD". However, it's obvious to me that you don't, because we have only four employees right now and I know their writing styles very well. Nobody has ever referred to the company as SD, it's always SDI. There are other obvious giveaways in your post, which includes only public information that anyone could pull from our web site, but I won't waste my time listing them.

At any rate, I'm flattered that you're so interested in the SliMP3 to have researched it in such depth. Why don't you try one, no-risk, and then maybe you'll change your mind about whether it's a worthwhile product? If you still think it sucks, I'll give you your money back, and then you can go bashing my company on slashdot with a little more credibility. Until then, it's no sweat off my bean bag as long as we have thousands of satisfied customers.

No offense Sean, but I work for you

A cute troll, and I'm sure that many slashdot readers would believe that you actually do work for "SD". However, it's obvious to me that you don't, because we have only four employees right now and I know their writing styles very well. Nobody has ever referred to the company as SD, it's always SDI. There are other obvious giveaways in your post, which includes only public information that anyone could pull from our web site, but I won't waste my time listing them.

At any rate, I'm flattered that you're so interested in the SliMP3 to have researched it in such depth. Why don't you try one, no-risk, and then maybe you'll change your mind about whether it's a worthwhile product? If you still think it sucks, I'll give you your money back, and then you can go bashing my company on slashdot with a little more credibility. Until then, it's no sweat off my bean bag as long as we have thousands of satisfied customers.

Dude (or dudette), get out of there. If you're working for a company whose only product is that slimp3 thing, they publish all the components and specs on their web site, and expect people to pay that much for it? Give me a weekend, a Radio Shack, and a soldering iron and I'll make one for ya, that plays more than mp3, and looks cooler. Might want to polish up the ol' resume...

"Home control" systems have been marketed for 20 years, and have never caught on. The system administration takes more time than the thing saves. How many people even use the time clocks on ovens?

If they're on the Net, they can just use NTP ;) One unanticipated benefit of my SliMP3 is that the time is always right (it syncs to a box that gets time from the UIUC NTP servers). I don't bother setting my VCR clock after a power outage any more.

All I know is that the SliMP3 player, which is a living room plug-in component, doesn't have the processing power to decode OGGs. And it's not like Slim don't want to decode OGGs--they've even made on-the-fly transcoding utilities that you can run on your PC, which basically decode an OGG using your PC CPU and re-encode it into a 320 kbps MP3 temp file which the player can read. This is a pretty big hassle, and Slim wouldn't do it if they could get the PIC16F877 microcontroller to just decode OGG. Now, I don't expect a portable player to have anything as fancy as a PIC16F877 microcontroller, and if that thing can't play OGGs, it stands to reason that a portable decoder can't either.

The guy's got a half finished Sam Adams on the assembly counter!
beer

Ya gotta love these guys!

The other one that has received quite a bit of press around here is the Slimp3 player. The slimp3 is a nice player, especially if you want something that you can hack, since the source code and architecture is all open.

If you want to make any wired network player wireless, there are products available.

u know u will use this
lol
http://www.slimdevices.com

Your web page doesnt say anything about OGG support, so I'm guessing its NOT what he's looking for.

Actually, the web site *does* mention ogg, right in the FAQ. We get a lot of requests for this, and we would love to support the format. Here's the full story:

The ogg vorbis codec (even with the new integer implementation) is so CPU intensive that it does not fit into anything smaller than a 75MHZ ARM processor, and even then it's a squeeze. This means that despite all the merits of this format, it is not currently possible for manufacturers of inexpensive playback devices to support the format.

However, what we DO support is transcoding from ogg to high-bit-rate MP3, if your server is fast enough to support it. Yes, we all know that transcoding from one lossy format to another is bad, but 320Kbps MP3 is not going to introduce any significant new artificacts on top of an ogg stream.

That's the best we can do, until somebody comes up with an inepensive way to decode ogg. The feature works on Unix systems that have lame and ogg123 installed, but we don't list it as a supported feature because it doesn't work on Windows (yet).

I really like the SliMP3, a simple mp3-decoding terminal. One perl server on any machine in your LAN can serve multiple SliMP3s, either in concert or independently. Any machine in the LAN can command or browse the server, or the standard remote control can command or browse through the unit.

But... they don't do OGG. Hopefully someday.

• Very easy to set up and use
  
• Open source.
  
• Excellent software - handles collections of any size (some guys are using this with 400+GB disk arrays).
  
• Platform-independent
  
• Big, bright, vacuum fluorescent display, instead of a crappy LCD
  
• No fans or any moving parts - totally quiet
  

• Very easy to set up and use
  
• Open source.
  
• Excellent software - handles collections of any size (some guys are using this with 400+GB disk arrays).
  
• Platform-independent
  
• Big, bright, vacuum fluorescent display, instead of a crappy LCD
  
• No fans or any moving parts - totally quiet
  

I didn't go back to the xmms site, I just used the Red Hat xmms RPMs which were included in the final beta called (null). These are xmms-1.2.7-14.mp3 and xmms-skins-1.2.7-14.mp3. I figure I don't need a lot of updates to a basic file player, and I prefer Red Hat authored RPMs for a Red Hat system.

Yanking MP3 support is unfortunate but not worth crying about. If you like MP3s, you probably can handle the hunt for the appropriate files to get your fix. I only use MP3s because so few hardware solutions support OGG or other formats yet. I'd love it if my SliMP3 supported OGG too, but for now it does a great job of making a household jukebox. If I adopt a similar OGG solution, I'll just re-rip the CDs.

• Do you relish the fact that you can't hit fast forward to skip the advertisements and copyright warnings on DVDs which you've rightfully purchased?
  
• Do you think that the RIAA has the right to impose the cumbersome, fragile CD format on everyone, by attempting to restrict more advanced, convenient means of media storage and playback?
  
• Do you enjoy being forced to watch commercials on your $50/mo cable TV service?
  
• Would you prefer that your computer be artificially restricted in what it can and can't do, as opposed to being a general-purpose device whose capability is limited only by the imagination of software engineers?
  
• Would you like the federal govermnment to pass laws which restrict you from loaning your favorite book to a friend?
  

My company makes *half* as much per-unit when we ship in qty to a reseller vs direct to a customer. We want out resellers to be happy so they'll promote the product, but at the same time we miss the margins for direct sales. You can't be greedy though. Sometimes a smaller piece of a bigger pie is better. Good luck Dell!

Doesn't everyone already know that this is how business works?

My company makes *half* as much per-unit when we ship in qty to a dealer vs direct to a customer. We want out dealers to be happy so we don't have to do all the pushing, but at the same time we miss the margins for direct sales. You can't be greedy though. Sometimes a smaller piece of a bigger pie is better.

As an OEM, it's hard to turn down retailers who are asking to resell your product. Basically what it boils down to is whether or not the retailers are cannibalizing your own direct sales.

Dell has made an enormous investment in proving themselves to be a good online/catalog source for PCs. Direct sales are nice - you get fatter margins (my guess is 20 to 35% for Dell) and all you have to do is stick the labels on the boxes. Compared to the cost of manufacturing a PC, the cost of sticking labels on 100 invidual boxes vs shipping one big box of 100 pcs is negligible. The sales work is completely automated now.

What Dell needs to ensure is that their retailers are reaching *new* markets - people who would not have otherwise bought a Dell. The worst case scenario is that people browse their web site to get the technical specs and pricing, and then head down to their local retailer to actually buy it. Dell still sells the same number of units, but they make $200 apiece instead of $400.

My company makes *half* as much per-unit when we ship in qty to a reseller vs direct to a customer. We want out resellers to be happy so they'll promote the product, but at the same time we miss the margins for direct sales. You can't be greedy though. Sometimes a smaller piece of a bigger pie is better. Good luck Dell!

I have to agree that it's a nice looking device. Not suitable to my current living situation (since the Computer and Stereo are in the same room anyway) but something that might appeal to me should I ever decide to get a place of my own instead of sharing. The following quote from this page surprised me a little bit:

Welcome to the future of music! The SliMP3 (Slim-'pE-'thrE) is a revolutionary approach to music playback, which frees you from the hassles of fragile, expensive Compact Discs. (emphasis is mine)

I was still under the impression that you were supposed to buy the music you store in a compressed format. At least thats what vendors of such devices usually claim. Converting my CDs to mp3s has not made them cheaper for me - after all I have to spend the time and harddisk space in adition to the purchase price.

There are 3 network players that I know of, one which has been highly publicized on /. is the SliMP3. The other device, which has been around for quite some time is the Turtle Beach Audiotron. There is also one made by RIO.

I recently bought a network player after a few weeks of wrangling I decided to go with the Audiotron since I already had samba set up and I wanted and SPDIF connection which the Slimp3 does not offer. Anyway, you can check out my review.

Here's what they've gotten right: average folks are starting to embrace the put-all-my-CDs-on-a-hard-drive and listen-to-them-from-there model. And $399 is a much better price -- not just cheaper, but better: it's more in line with what other stereo components cost.

But for me, there is one big thing missing from this setup: if you want music in the living room, and in the study, and in the bedroom, you have to buy three of these things, and rip your CDs three times each. If one of these boxes could feed a Rio Receiver or a SliMPEG over ethernet (wireless perferred, of course), I'd be much more interested. Central storage, distributed independent playback.

-Mark

Why not use the much cooler (geekier) SliMP3?

And get cool stuff and an even cooler open source project to participate in / benefit from.

And, no, I am not affiliated with Slim Devices in any way.
I just think it's neat.
Guess I just can't resist the bright, bright VFD...

So are you a giver or a taker? Speak up you homo!

Awfully inquisitive about activities within the privacy of my own home, aren't you? Such rude and indignant questioning! Maybe it was meant as a (distastful) jest?

It's pretty easy to see at our website that Robin and I live together, as Sean Adams (of the cool Slim Devices MP3 Player) pointed out. She's not a lesbian, and I'm not gay, and what we do in the privacy of our own home is, well, private. We're not actually married yet.

I know some gay men, some lesbians, and some folks who are bi, and they're mostly pretty nice people. Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with being gay. I unfortunately have met a bunch of folks who are homophobes, and in every case they were assholes. I do think there's something fundamentally wrong about being so concerned about the consentual sexual activities of other people, conducted in the privacy of their own homes.

How often do you ask people you believe to be straight about the intimate details of their sexual activity? And in such a rude and indignant manner?? Do you ask men questions like "did you bang your wife last night?" or women questions like "do you suck and swallow?"

What's really interesting is the moderation totals, which probably aren't viewable for most people. Here's what it says right now:

Moderation Totals: Offtopic=3, Interesting=4, Informative=2, Overrated=2, Total=11.

Definately the most moderated comment I've ever posted... and honestly the only part I agree with is the -3 for Offtopic.

All the cool MP3 related devices (eg Voyetra's AudioTron, the SliMP3, etc) are unavailable here for various reasons...

The SliMP3 is available in Australia, you just have to order it from us directly. Why? Because network MP3 players are not a mainstream product (in Australia or the USA for that matter) so it's hard to get them onto the shelves in retail outlets. Also we're a small company with "slim" margins, so we need to sell direct.

We have found some reatilers in Europe who now carry our product, but as yet we do not have an Australian reseller yet.

Just get together with a few of your friends to save on the shipping costs. We've sold a lot of players in Australia, you just have to import it yourself. It's actually cheaper than it would be to pick it up from a local store (by the time the reseller pays import tax and adds their markup).

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about bringing the product in to Australia. Also, if you know anyone who might be interested in promoting the SliMP3 in Australia, please let me know!

Unfortunately none of the displays that I've seen online have included anything in the way of input on the same serial connection, which would increase the usefulness of these status displays immensely.

How about a little box with an Ethernet interface, 40x2 VFD, IR control, and audio output to boot?

The SliMP3 has an open control protocol which makes it easy to put things up on the display, capture IR key presses, and stream audio to the device. There is also an HTTP API if you don't want to roll everything yourself, and just want automated mail notifications etc.

Unfortunately none of the displays that I've seen online have included anything in the way of input on the same serial connection, which would increase the usefulness of these status displays immensely.

How about a little box with an Ethernet interface, 40x2 VFD, IR control, and audio output to boot?

The SliMP3 has an open control protocol which makes it easy to put things up on the display, capture IR key presses, and stream audio to the device. There is also an HTTP API if you don't want to roll everything yourself, and just want automated mail notifications etc.

This isn't a chip fab - they're just stuffing boards... still, nice photos of the whole process. I had a chance to see a shop like this in person, and took a bunch of photos and even some video (536K MPEG) of the process. The machines are quite mesmerizing (sp?) to watch, and it's amazing the amount of human and automated quality control that goes into manufacturing this stuff.