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Review: SliMP3
So what is it? Its a small MP3 player with no internal storage of its own. It has an ethernet port, RCA audio outputs (you'll need an external amp!), and a power plug. It has a really bright little screen for displaying song information and a remote. It's about the size of a car stereo faceplate, but a little thicker.
It doesn't have a fancy plastic box. The backside is simply an exposed circuit board. But thats sorta the idea: this is a toy that can work for users, but is also hugely designed to be a hacker toy.
Configuring the device is easy. The latest version has DHCP, but I tested it on a network that lacked the protocol. I put the IP in of my 'Server' and gave the unit its own IP and I was off and running. The server is a perl program you download from the Slim Devices web site. It supposedly will run on on Linux, Windows, MacOS, FreeBSD, BeOS, and MacOSX. It worked great on my linux box. Trivially easy. This unit was the easiest to set up of any MP3 player I have ever used. Of course, I was already running Linux and had Perl ;)
You can control the SliMP3 with a remote control, but the server optionally can just serve up HTML on a high port number and set your playlists up via an acceptable web interface. And since its perl, its all ready for you to hack yourself. The code itself is fairly legible... there's a mailing list, and it is actively being developed.
The closest competitor to the SliMP3 is the Audiotron. The audiotron is almost the same price, has an optical output, a more developed HTML interface, and is physically a nice stereo component. It is a far more mature product. But the audiotron uses SMB file sharing and controls everything within itself. The SliMP3 uses an open source server program to stream the audio to the player. So the smarts are mostly on the PC. Which of course lends itself to easy hacking.
The interface currently is pretty sparse. Some places display filenames where ID3 tags would be preferred. I was unable to get it to load a 20,000 track playlist. But the server software is under active development, and these things should both be resolved in a not-so-distant release.
There are a variety of cool projects that could conceivably be hacked into this thing. A GTK-Perl interface would be super smooth. Cross-fade functions. Intelligent playlist creation. Tivo style thumbs up-thumbs down track rating for music playback. And this is the first MP3 player I've seen that things like this are possible because the code is right there and ready to rip apart. It's even legible!
If you need a pretty box, or demand optical connections to your reciever, go with the audiotron. If you want something tiny, or just want to hack at your MP3 player stereo component, this is a great way to go.
For $10 you can get PalmAmp software to operate WinAmp/XMMS remotely. Add some extra-long speaker cables, and you've got a more functional version of this for a whole lot less. But this is still pretty cool.
The Apple iPod is:
- Height: 4.02 inches (102 mm)
- Width: 2.43 inches (61.8 mm)
- Depth: 0.78 inches (19.9 mm)
- Weight: 6.5 ounces (185 g)
Has 5 gigs of storage (4.66 formated). Thats alot of memory plus it has 20 minute skip protection. The case is also pretty strong, I just dropped mine on to a NYC street from 3 feet with only minor cosmetic damage and major heart skippping.Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
The web feature allows you to control the device from _any_ computer (it's a web server), to easily build playlists and similar, and to provide functionality comparable to similar devices. You don't have to use it. It's just a nicety.
The SliMP3 will also play audio streams (Live365, Shout/Icecast, etc.) as well as locally-stored MP3s.
Does it do something more than my computer? You bet. It lets me listen to all my MP3s, playlists, and streams in my living room on my $5,000 stereo, rather than in my home office on my $200 speakers. I even use it via 802.11b, so there's really no problem with wiring.
.@.
wouldn't it be cheaper to just run audio cable
1. Audio cable runs can only be so long with out degradation of signal. Cat5 has longer run length.
Why not use WinAmp
2. Web interface. Is there client control for WinAmp?
3. The device has an IR remote. Much better than running upstairs (or downstairs) to switch tracks on a server in another room.
4.It is designed as an audio component. It can sit with the rest of your stereo. And can be operated as such by people that don't need to be messing around on your computer.
5. It can serve mulitple devices. You can serve your 80GB audio collection throughout the house to multiple locations. It is much more difficult to split line level audio output across 4 locations.
______
Once: you're a philosopher. Twice: a pervert.
$250+ for an MP3 player that doesn't have it's own storage with a display that doesn't exactly look as professional as other MP3 players on the market...
Umm... not storing the files on the player is the whole point! The idea is that you can have two or three of these in different rooms of your home, and they can all be controlled idependently, with your music all stored in one place. So the amount of music you can access is not limited by the player, and you don't have to replicate your collection between several hard disks.
The display is vacuum fluorescent, as opposed to LCD. They're much more expensive than LCDs, and much more readable. I had trouble taking a good photo of it though - you really need to see it in person.
I chose to go with the VFD because even though it's expensive, the $30 price difference vs. the LCD is not a huge percentage of our cost right now. Some day, we'll might make a cheaper version with a backlit LCD. Right now it doesn't make much sense cost-wise, and people generally feel that the VFD is worth the $$.
And it's not even availiable yet! I wonder how CmdrTaco got his. A "free" review copy perhaps?
Yep, I sent him a prototype so he could write the review. The product will be available for sale in 1-2 weeks.
Sean