Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ethernet MP3 Player

Posted by michael on from the ping-your-stereo dept.

Erik Johansson writes: "You can now stream mp3s to your stereo, the guys at slimdevices seems to be building a bonafide ethernet mp3 player. There are some cool pictures of the soldering sweatshop, so perhaps it isn't vaporware?"

49 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Oh sweet! by baptiste · · Score: 3, Interesting
    That is one sweet little device! Nice to see someone go with a flourescent display instead of backlit LCD - they are more expensive, but so easier to read!

    Man - hand soldering SMD board s- not a fun task! More power to these guys! I'm signing up for one for sure - my MP3 server is screaming for something like this!

    The more of us that sign up and buy - the sooner they'll get ne in a nice box :)

    --
    Top Most Bizarre/Disturbing Error Messages
  2. The Rio Receiver by fuchikoma · · Score: 5, Informative

    Found here (http://www.riohome.com/products/receiver.htm), the Rio Receiver does basicaly the same thing, and is already available in stores.

    It also has the advantage of being able to stream over standard phone lines, for those of us who don't have cat5 strung out to the living room.

    1. Re:The Rio Receiver by EvlG · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Problem with the Rio is you have to run a special Win32 app to stream to the thing. its not as flexbile as I would wish.

      That and the display is impossible to read from across the room.

    2. Re:The Rio Receiver by dschuetz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Problem with the Rio is you have to run a special Win32 app to stream to the thing. its not as flexbile as I would wish.

      Actually, that's not necessarily true. Jeff Mock (http://www.mock.com/receiver/) has hacked together a linux server for it. Basically, it's a bunch of mod_perl scripts for apache, along with a real simple perl server to answer the device's initial request.

      That, and it runs linux, too (sort of). Basically, it spits out a DHCP request for an IP address, sends a broadcast request to a particular port to ask for servers (which is answered by the little perl server), and from there it learns of the IP address and TFTP directory of the server. It then NFS mounts a directory from that server, and reboots with the image it pulls from that directory. So, to upgrade it, just change the files in the server's directory. Real cool. Once running, everything (all artist, track lookups, and audio fetching) happens over HTTP on the fly.

      They've even got a cross-compiler for it, so you can write some of your own programs, and a couple kernel hacks already. I'm waiting for someone to improve the UI a little -- it's good, but not quite all there. Maybe 80% perfect.

      I got mine for, like, $150, on E-Bay. Also branded specifically by Rio, though the front panel looks much weirder.

      There's also the AudioTron, which I looked at first, but that scans your net for SMB servers, then builds its own internal database. Lose power, lose the database, and you've got to re-scan all over again.

      That and the display is impossible to read from across the room.

      That I will give you. :(

      I definitely recommend the Rio Receiver, though. I'd love to see more people hacking it, and improving it. I'm really amazed it hasn't been a bigger hit around here so far...

      david.

    3. Re:The Rio Receiver by Spoing · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Since the Rio Receiver's OS can be updated, can Ogg Vorbis support be added? I'm very curious...

      --
      A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
    4. Re:The Rio Receiver by ncc74656 · · Score: 2
      It also has the advantage of being able to stream over standard phone lines, for those of us who don't have cat5 strung out to the living room.
      ...and who on /. doesn't have Cat5 into the living room? That's one of the first things I put in when I moved in where I am now...needed a run from the cable modem to the server closet, which also went back out to a computer that was parked under the TV, serving as a DVD/MP3 player. I yanked the computer out from under the TV when I got my Apex DVD player, but the second run (two RJ45 plugs on each end of one cable, actually) will get put back into action when my TiVoNET arrives next week.
      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    5. Re:The Rio Receiver by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 2

      You don't actually need Cat5 wiring in your home. You can use Cat3. Hope that helps!

    6. Re:The Rio Receiver by Spoing · · Score: 2
      I still doubt, that there will be Vorbis support in any consumer product.

      Not true. The main hold up is that a v.1x reference encoder/decoder hasn't been released yet. While the file format is stable, and has been forward/backward compatable for some time, some final features are still being added. For commercial use, adding the support in too early would cause customers to want to upgrade...too much of a hassle for most companies when v.1.0 is so much more marketable.

      See the Ogg Vorbis FAQ for more details on pending hardware support for Ogg Vorbis. On the Rio device front, there are hints at Ogg support in the near future (nothing formal yet ^ ).

      Another reason why Ogg Vorbis support is likely is that MP3 and MP3Pro licencing costs are fairly high. For devices where MP3 support isn't even used -- say small digital players used by joggers -- Ogg is quite interesting.

      ^ - Rio Volt firmware and Ogg Vorbis

      --
      A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
  3. oh man by psychalgia · · Score: 5, Funny

    wtf, i cant pass calculus, but these bastards can do this soldering while drinking beer? I'm going to be workign at McDonald's the rest of my frickin' life...

    --

    ________________________________________________

  4. Re:Insaine! by baptiste · · Score: 5, Informative
    Its actually not impossible. SMD chips come with solder coated pins. The PCBs have a coat of solder on the pads as well. You spary flux on the board and heat the pins to join the pins and pad together. They make special heads for soldering irons to fit various SMD package types so you can heat all the pins at once.

    Its not easy but it can be done. If enough folks order them, however, it'll make economic sense for them to get them made in a fab facility.

    And I'm sure its not a fake. Embedded devices have gotten very powerful. You can fit an entire ethernet capable Java computer with its own embedded JVM, filesystem, etc on a SIMM size card. An MP3 player that just reads a socket stream, decodes the MP3 and outputs audio is not super complex. Its not childs play but its certainly something an embedded system could do. Can't wait to get mine - gonna be fun to finally hook up my stereo to my RAID5 MP3 array :)

    --
    Top Most Bizarre/Disturbing Error Messages
  5. Audiotron by cs668 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Turtle Beach has the Audiotron which does the same thimg works great and can be found at some best buys for $149. I love mine.

  6. Difference?? by tcc · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hmm the site is already slashdotted with only 20 comments here ahaha, stream slashdot hits! :)

    from Google cache:

    If you already have an Ethernet LAN and a machine to use as the server, setting up the SliMP3 will take you just a few minutes, and all you will need is this quick start guide - each step is boldfaced, followed by a brief explanation. If this is your first time setting up Ethernet and IP addresses, then you may wish to visit the additional documentation links, on the left.
    Setting up the player

    Connect the Ethernet port to your hub using a standard RJ45 patch cord

    Connect the player your Ethernet hub or switch using a standard CAT3 or CAT5 patch cord. If you are connecting it directly to the Ethernet card in your server machine, use a crossover cable.

    Connect the players RCA outputs to the inputs on your receiver

    The player has a pair of standard, line level, RCA audio output jacks - connect these to the inputs on your amplifier, receiver, or powered speakers.

    Configure the IR remote: press "S, DVD, 0, 0, 7, ENT"

    A Sony RM-V301 universal remote is supplied with the SliMP3. In addition to controlling the SliMP3, this remote may be used to operate the volume controls on your receiver, or any other equipment you may have.

    The SliMP3 uses the IR codes for a JVC brand DVD player - we chose to use the JVC codes because we wanted to use an off-the-shelf universal remote, and so we chose a brand of DVD player that was standard enough to be supported by the remote, but not so common that it would be likely to conflict with your existing stereo equipment.

    See the instruction manual that comes with the remote for more information on its additional features.

    Connect the power supply

    The SliMP3 comes with a 5V, 1000ma regulated power supply. Please be careful to use ONLY this power supply - connecting a different power supply may damage the player, and such damage is not covered by warranty.

    The player is intended you be left plugged in at all times. When not in use, it enters a "standby" mode, powering down the display and drawing only a few milliamps.

    Enter the IP address information

    When the player is first powered up, it asks you if you want to configure it. Pressing "OK" will take you through a series of four screens - server's IP address, player's IP address, subnet mask, and gateway address. To enter the IP addresses, use the UP/DOWN buttons to edit each digit, and LEFT/RIGHT to go to the next digit, then press OK to complete each entry. Zero out the beginning of each number to make it three digits - eg "10.5.35.164" would be entered as "010.005.035.164"

    Testing your LAN setup

    ping the player from your server

    On your server, type:

    ping your.players.ip.address

    If your IP addresses are set up correctly, the player will respond to the pings, and display a message indicating where it received the ping from.

    Installing the server

    Download and extract the tarball

    Download the latest version of the server here. To extract the tarball, type:

    tar xvfz slimp3_server.tgz
    cd slimp3_server

    Run the server

    You need to tell the server where your mp3files are stored. You can specify this on the command line as:

    ./server.pl /path-to-your-mp3-files &

    Or, you can leave the path blank, and the server will look for your mp3 files in a directory called "mp3files", in the same directory as the server:

    ./server.pl &

    The '&' tells it to run in the background, so that the server continues running after you log out.

    That's it!

    Just use the cursor keys to browse around, and enjoy your music collection

    --
    --- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
  7. Ethernet stereos? by nougatmachine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you already have ethernet cable strung through your house, wouldn't it just make more sense to connect your computer to the network, and then just listen to the mp3 files by connecting a stereo to that computer? Works fine for me, and it only costs $0.

    1. Re:Ethernet stereos? by ksheff · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Given the environment inside your computer, you may get some interference included in your audio signal. Stereo-Link manufactures a USB device that will allow the computer generated audio to be piped into a stereo w/o any of the included noise picked up from a sound card. It is available from this site too for $159. I would like to see how the ethernet device stacks up against this product.

      --
      the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
    2. Re:Ethernet stereos? by K8Fan · · Score: 2
      If you already have ethernet cable strung through your house, wouldn't it just make more sense to connect your computer to the network, and then just listen to the mp3 files by connecting a stereo to that computer?

      Because not all of us have Panasonic Toughbooks and that's pretty much the only sort of computer I'd want in the kitchen or the crapper. I want these sort of little gadgets all over the house in all sorts of places where it makes no sense to try to place a laptop or monitor.

      As Joe Bob Briggs said: I'm surprised I have to explain these things!

      --
      "How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
    3. Re:Ethernet stereos? by dasunt · · Score: 2


      First, I like to admit I know nothing about transmition of sound. Nada. Zip. Nothing.


      However, I do think. I also look at things. Combined, this leads to some interesting conclusions.


      My stereo mini-plugs extension cable (20', Radio Shack special) that connect my VCR to my computer are presumably two signal wires (left and right stereo channel) encased in a ground. The old phono jack cords and stereo mini-jack to Y-phono jack adapter also uses the shield cable. AHA! So shielding is inportant, you think. Even my cheap $10 computer speakers have shielded cords. But not so fast. My connection between my stereo and my speakers are unshielded cable, ya know, the cheap cable with two wires side-by-side that you can find at Walmart. Now I've run this sort of cable 50' without a problem, and I've known of people with farther runs. Now the only difference between the speaker connection and the other connections is that the speaker connection only carries one channel (not 2) and is amplified. So maybe the amplified signal is strong enough to resist interference but the unamplified is not. However, the amplified cable is bundled in a rats-nest behind the stereo, and the amplified signals in each cable seem not to be interfering with each other.


      So, I can only conclude that interference may or may not be a problem. However, if I want to run a Cat5 cable and, say, transmit unamplified stereo signals to the radio, I can deduct several things. Ring voltage in telephone lines seem to be higher then the sound signal voltage, so the data connections that can happily coexist with voice lines without getting interference should coexist with sound. Ethernet is also twisted to limit cross-talk in the wire. Probably not as good as shielded cables, but good ne'er-the-less. So, could I take an old ethernet line I had laying around and transmit the stereo signal on two wires (one for left and one for right channel) and then ground the paired wire without degrading the signal quality? I haven't tried it, but for a reasonable distance, I would guess yes. The wires are not think enough to carry the higher strength speaker out signal, but for just base audio in, I don't see a problem.


      Just my $.02

    4. Re:Ethernet stereos? by ksheff · · Score: 2

      The reason for having the Ethernet mp3 decoder is the same for having the USB device like Stereo-link: let your higher quality stereo system play the music and let the D-A conversion be done in an environment where it won't pick up as much noise as your sound card does inside your computer.

      --
      the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
  8. But where is the Ogg Ethernet player? by burtonator · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sorry... but with the patent restrictions on MP3 I will skip it. Not unless they support Ogg.

    Kevin

    1. Re:But where is the Ogg Ethernet player? by seanadams.com · · Score: 5, Informative

      It would have supported OGG, had there been a low-cost chip for Ogg decoding (like the STA013 and MAS3507D for MP3).

    2. Re:But where is the Ogg Ethernet player? by Spoing · · Score: 3, Informative

      Exactly. When v.1.0 ogg vorbis hits, I'm going to run my whole CD collection through it. Some stereo component that can handle Ogg and it's updates would be sweet.

      --
      A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
  9. Slashdotted! by seanadams.com · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So I'm sitting here looking at my MRTG graphs and saying WTF - my server's trying to push out 2.5MBps onto my T1. Oops.

    Thanks everyone for you interest in the SliMP3. Yes, we *are* building these by hand, at least the first 100, and we plan to ship in about two weeks. No we're not planning to build our next batch this way.

    I'll do my best to answer everyone's questions. Again, thanks for the traffic, and sorry my server can't keep up!

    Sean Adams
    Slim Devices, Inc.

    1. Re:Slashdotted! by clark625 · · Score: 2

      Hey--since I can't seem to get to your site, just how much do these bad boys run for consumers? The Rio Receiver runs about $300, although it would clash with my black components, and that's just uncool in my rack. ;)


      --
      Long, cute, or funny Sigs are just another form of over compensation, used by geeks, nerdz, etc.
    2. Re:Slashdotted! by seanadams.com · · Score: 3, Informative

      Our first 100 hand-made units are going to sell for $275.

  10. More similar devices... by jgrumbles · · Score: 2, Informative

    The idea isn't very new or radical as it use to be. If you go here, then you can see some stuff that is already capable of doing what was mentioned in the article.

  11. Don't worry... by kypper · · Score: 4, Funny
    Drink beer and you too can solder.


    Just don't do it on your hand; drops of molten silver do NOT look cool, no matter what your drunken buddies say.

  12. Re:Insaine! by seanadams.com · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is certainly possible, but it's not easy. The SliMP3 firmware is, AFAIK, the only modern IP stack to have been entirely hand-coded in assembler. The hardware we're using is a PIC microcontroller, along with a custom chip (prototyped in a Xilinx CPLD) for doing DMA transfer through an SRAM to the MPEG decoder. It's a rather different design than other embedded Internet platforms - we're cranking 10Mbps through system built around a 20Mhz, 8-bit microcontroller. Of course you don't need this kind of throughput for an MPEG *audio* stream...

  13. Buy a $2 cable from Radio Shack by NineNine · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's what I do. I've been listening to MP3's through my stereo for years. No need to buy anything fancy.

  14. Re:It's gonna be awile by seanadams.com · · Score: 4, Informative

    We'll start shipping in about two weeks. I expect our first batch to sell out rather quickly (thanks, Slashdot!) and we'll start taking pre-orders as soon as that happens.

  15. so what? by Wakko+Warner · · Score: 3, Informative

    Dell and Gateway have both sold ethernet-enabled MP3 players for about a year now. They're component-based, designed to plug right into your stereo.

    Search around on their sites for them.

    - A.P.

    --
    "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
  16. here's Dell's: by Wakko+Warner · · Score: 2

    let's hope slashdot doesn't cut off this URL...

    If you've got a Samba server in your house (and who doesn'?) this thing looks like a really kickass box.

    --
    "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
  17. Re:Insaine! by baptiste · · Score: 2
    I thought your prototype chips looked like they had Microchip logos on them. Very sweet. I wasn't saying it was a walk in the park, but my point was it was doable and many have done it, even with PICs - though an assmebler stack - now that's impressive. It was by no means fake :)

    Keep up the great work - can't wait till you guys are ready to ship - I'm into embedded design myself (and have also spent many hours in the sldering sweatshop station :) ) and would love to get my hands on one of these babies :)

    --
    Top Most Bizarre/Disturbing Error Messages
  18. SMD kit? by Randy+Rathbun · · Score: 2

    Any plans on doing this as a kit? (yes, I know - it is surface mount blah blah blah, but some of us like soldering this stuff!)

    1. Re:SMD kit? by seanadams.com · · Score: 2, Informative

      I considered selling them as kits. The main problems for me would be
      shipping and packaging all the individual components, and providing
      documentation and support. For the customer, the problem would be the need
      for a number of tools (microcontroller programmer, JTAG programmer,
      oscilloscope, in-circuit emulator for testing, rework station, etc). The other issue is
      that with some of the surface mount components, you only get one shot at
      installing it correctly. If you make a mistake, the whole board might be
      hosed! So I don't think it would be feasible to sell bare boards.

      I probably will sell just assembled boards, without the display, power
      supply, and remote, for people who want to build their own case or use a
      different kind of display (eg if you were doing a car installation or
      something exotic...)

    2. Re:SMD kit? by pjrc · · Score: 2
      I can say from experience that providing mp3 player kits can turn into some frustrating tech support. Most of the people we've sold kits to never emailed or called for support. I suppose no news is good news and they got them to work. But for those who did have trouble, it was rare that I could figure out what was wrong. That's frustrating. When the board was assembled and tested before shipping, there's a much smaller set of things that tend to go wrong.


      When we ran out of kits, we didn't make any more. It takes a similar amount of time to sort the parts into nicely labeled bags as it does to stuff parts into a bare board. We've had several people who _really_ want kits to assemble, so we're going to do one more round of kits.


      Also, our little player was designed to be mostly easy-to-solder through hole components. The MP3 decoder and DAC are surface mount, but they're the 1.27 mm low density pitch that's reasonable to solder by hand. I've played with the Cirrus 8900 ethernet chip a bit, and it is a 0.5 mm pitch high density surface mount part. Very few people can solder this by hand, and I am in that group, despite 15 years of occasional soldering. You certainly wouldn't want a kit with such fine pitch surface mount parts. Saddly, there don't seem to be any ethernet controller chips (that aren't obsolete) in lower density packages.


      I think Sean's going to sell some pretty cool players. I know I've had a number of people ask me for ethernet streaming added to my little project... but that just isn't very feasible. The VFD also looks damn nice.


      I noticed the were some links to blank pages that may someday be open-source firmware? Is this just wishful thinking?

      --
      PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
  19. Other Ethernet Based MP3 players by Rambo · · Score: 2

    One that has been tested and works is the MP3Elf, based on the cool Java-based TINI board from Dallas Semi. Another TINI-based MP3 player is here,
    although it's still in the planning stages. The nifty thing about the MP3Elf is that it's open source _and_ hardware so you can build your own. They've sold some bare boards so you can assemble your own, although I'm not sure what they're planning for the future.

    1. Re:Other Ethernet Based MP3 players by sde1000 · · Score: 2
      Another TINI-based MP3 player is here [greenend.org.uk], although it's still in the planning stages.
      I'm unlikely to have enough time to finish this until at least June 2002. Anyone else is welcome to finish the design off - it just needs the PCB layout to be finished. (Most of the data lines are routed already, it just needs power connecting and decoupling capacitors adding.)
  20. Too Neat for a Real Workshop - Photos by BigBlockMopar · · Score: 2

    That's a nice workshop, but I don't think they do much prototyping there - it looks great for small assembly runs.

    Wanna see what a real radar prototyping and development workshop looks like? Check this out.

    That looks insanely hard to solder. Wow. I'd not believe it, but look at all those chips. A good fake if it is fake.

    Without a hot air rework station, it's pretty hard to do SMT by hand... it's possible, though. I did several video buffer circuits by hand, then I contracted out the rest because it was cheaper than my time.

    I once knew a guy who could solder a surface-mount 486 into place with an ordinary soldering iron. It was terrifying to behold.

    --
    Fire and Meat. Yummy.
    1. Re:Too Neat for a Real Workshop - Photos by starman97 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hmmm. I see no static control at all, no wrist straps, no static mats, no ionizers, I hope the air conditioning is off when they build boards...

      Thus the term 'sweatshop' Although the ionic contamination of the solder pads from sweat and skin oils wont help either...

      Good luck to them...

      --
      Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
    2. Re:Too Neat for a Real Workshop - Photos by BigBlockMopar · · Score: 2

      Hmmm. I see no static control at all, no wrist straps, no static mats, no ionizers, I hope the air conditioning is off when they build boards...

      Yeah. It's like speaking to the head tech at a sucky little computer store somewhere. "Nah, you don't really need to worry about that." Course, he can't figure out why most of his systems come back with intermittant crashes and similar silly problems.

      I didn't notice that right away, actually. Most of my design and development has always been with analog parts, and there's little CMOS there. :)

      Thus the term 'sweatshop' Although the ionic contamination of the solder pads from sweat and skin oils wont help either...

      I wonder what the yield-rate on hand-soldered SMT ICs is, in a production environment. Even with an artist at work, I can't imagine it being all that high.

      --
      Fire and Meat. Yummy.
  21. Re:Ok, now just add toslink output... by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 2

    I'll second that. I have a lot of time, money, and effort invested in DACs, and I don't let other people's crappy DACs anywhere near my audio gear. This would be a great little device with coax or optical digital output, and it shouldn't be overly hard to hack in. There must be a serial digital input on that Crystal SAC somewhere.

  22. How about an 802.11b version? by tswinzig · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd love to get one of these, but I have no way (or desire) to string ethernet from my room to the living room. How about a version that accepts an 802.11b PC card? Pretty please?

    --

    "And like that ... he's gone."
    1. Re:How about an 802.11b version? by tswinzig · · Score: 2

      Awesome! I've been looking for something just like this for my TiVo! Now I just need two. :-(

      --

      "And like that ... he's gone."
  23. I Like it, but.. by jcr · · Score: 2

    I think I'd like it a bit more if it was USB or 802.11.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  24. Re:802.11 streaming by seanw · · Score: 2

    ok, so I read through your post and thought is was kinda interesting.

    then I got to the last paragraph, about people hacking the server, and I just had to stop in wonder and think: it's a mighty strange world where "yahoos" can remotely freak out your dog via http. strange, man.

    sean

  25. Re:Insaine! by stripes · · Score: 2
    The SliMP3 firmware is, AFAIK, the only modern IP stack to have been entirely hand-coded in assembler.

    Modern in what way?

    You are right, the other microcontroler IP stack I know of is quite old (late 80s, or at least pre-1992). Steve Holmgrin's (may be misspelled) IP stack for some random microcontroler that had 8K of OTP ROM and 4K of RAM, and I think a 6502 like instruction set. He wrote a small FORTH like language, and then a IP stack including TCP, and some of the small servers (chargen, quote). It didn't drive an ethernet, it did SLIP (I'm pretty sure it predated PPP).

    As I recall one of his proof of concepts was to replace the serial part on an ADM3A terminal, once done you could hook it up to a terminal server with SLIP, and when you turned on the terminal you got a TELNET> prompt. Too bad he didn't have enough RAM to let you switch between multiple telnet sessions.

    As I recall Hariss Semiconductor bought the implementation, and as far as I know never did anything with it.

  26. Re:It's gonna be awile by mindstrm · · Score: 2

    Actually, it's entirely possible to do SMD soldering by hand, and at a decent rate (same or better as that of thru-hole stuff. All you need are the right tools.

    I was a bit shocked to see the primitive irons they were using... but other than that, this looks 100% legit. (as in, it reminds me of the production lab at my last job, where we definately did lots of SMD by hand)

    The pads on those capacitors, for instance, are already solder coated, and so are the pads on the PCB. You just place the component, and tap both pins with a hot iron, and it's done.. it's not as hard as you think.

  27. A hint for success by Dwonis · · Score: 2

    I think I'd buy one of these things if they supported IPv6 with anycast.
    This is exactly the kind of thing IPv6 was designed for, and since I'm going
    to start converting my home network to primarily use IPv6, this would be a
    perfect addition to my setup.

  28. Re:Ok, now just add toslink output... by pjrc · · Score: 2

    The data says they're using a CS4334, which is 4-wire I2S input. There are chips from Cirrus that convert I2S into SPDIF.

    --
    PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
  29. Price? by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 2

    Okay, so several people have pointed out that several such products have existed for a while. But they're obviously shooting for a low price point. The question is whether they can beat the price of a monochrome iPAQ 3150 ($150 at ebay with CF sleeve included plus $25 for CF Ethernet). Run Linux on it, install madplay and a user interface, and you can play off an NFS *or* Samba server.

    Isn't open source fun?
    -russ

    --
    Don't piss off The Angry Economist