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Maintaining Huge DVD-RW Media Libraries Using Linux?
jdclucidly asks: "I am faced with the problem of storing a huge high quality audio library in a portable format (i.e. I need to be able to be at a party to DJ within an hour's notice). Being the minimalist that I am, I'd also like this solution to also empower me to listen in my own leisure time wherever I go (i.e. car/home). So, it needs to be lower power, low cost, and able to interface with existing stereo equipment where ever I go. With over 6000 CD's in my possession, storing CD audio on 9.6 GB DVD-R in the open FLAC codec with fully searchable META data was the logical conclusion. Problem: The portable DVD-R/W drives exist, but the host hardware isn't portable enough. I have concluded that a laptop is too bulky for car use and too expensive to risk taking to parties. Instead, what I'd like to do is to port FLAC to the ARM architecture on Linux and use the 106 mHz processor on board the Zarus PDA to power my media library. However, there are two problems in this solution: 1) UDF packet writing/reading, which is required for DVD use, is still very much in it's infancy in Linux; 2) I don't know of any PDA that supports the USB 2.0 or Firewire that portable DVD-R/W requires. Does Slashdot have any ideas for accomplishing a portable media library for under USD$1000 or am I getting a little ahead of the technology here?"
You have to be available within an hour to race off to some random party, but you would like to plug into the stereo equipment of the place you're playing. Do you play living rooms or something? And you want to do this with a single DVD, instead of turntables or (ugh) CDs? Yo, yo, yo! Super DJ Cheap in the house! Rockin' the coffee table!
If you somehow actually manage to pull this off, just hope nobody uses your entire music library as a drink coaster.
- 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?"
I've worked in many a big rave. The computing equipment has to be able to suffer from the dual problems of vibration and condensation.
Theft can be insured against but equipment failure in front of a couple of thousand people is hugely embarassing.
We wanted to shift our video mixing equipment from tape to disk but nothing came close to rugged enough for my liking, (PCI cards in a PC with SCSI-UW disks 20 feet away from a 10kw rig, no way). At least with 4 tape units we had some redundancy.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Laptops are too bulky? To DJ with? What are you, one of those 12 year old danny drucker types sitting in your bedroom avoiding taking out the trash for your mom? Is your secret hip hop name "DJ Gotnocash" ?
Is the way to go. Definetly.
If you think $1500 (latest Fujitsu sub-notebook with internal DVD reader, does 10h on max batteries) is too expensive, then youre in the wrong game, honestly. Buy a few 32GB 2.5" HD's if the 20GB included isnt enough, and simply use the audio-out. Buy a Pro-quality type-2 audio card if you want quality, but dont bother using lossy compression in that case.
Unless ofcourse, you needed to burn the DVD-R's when you went out for your gigs. But uh, I thought DJ's were the ones that supplied the music, no?
Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random numbers is, of course, in a state of sin.-John von Neumann
Has the DJ industry changed within the past six hours? Why would a laptop be too bulky? Trying to move from 1000 lbs of gear to just an MP3-enabled PDA overnight? Shucks, I wouldn't hire a DJ that doesn't bring in at least two turntables, two CD players, and gobs of media. I don't see how a single laptop would be that much of a problem for a professional DJ...
WTF do you need a portable DVD-RW? All you should need to do on the road is read what you've burned.
Not to mention that you can't cheap your way out of an audio playback unit. Even using lossless compression, a cheap, noisy sound chip will become noticable on a good PA.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
http://thinkgeek.com/stuff/computing/5868.shtml
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"The Most Fun Possible on 4 wheels" is at SunBuggy in Las Vegas
Flac is lossless.
Ceci n'est pas un post
Maybe most are, but you can't get much more portable than this. It has integrated firewire, in addition to all the other goodies.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
Hilarious, but seriously...
Isn't there some sort of hardware which attempts to recreate a software-based set of turntables? I forget the name, but I've heard they're getting popular.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
If you don't need to buy a current model -- and in
this case, you don't -- then you could buy a couple
of refurb older generation laptops for the price of
one zaurus. Mount one under the front seat of your
car, and tote the other to parties.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Wearables Central is a good place to start. People lookinto wearable computers have been looking for hardware that is both small and low powered. Plus many of them have been interested in sound. Something about needing it for speach recognition and sound output. You don't have a much space constraints so you could go with a dedicated sound board. I'd look into PC-104 based single board computes then add a sound board. For the screen, choose one from those supported by the SBC. For harddisk I'd use two laptop drives used in mirrored mode. That way if one fails, the other can take up the task. Case wise I'd get one of the standard PC-104 extruded AL cases, and add rubber bumpers. Power can come from a wall brick. Check out DigiKey. Personally I'd expect one of them DVD-RAM drives to die from vibration long before a good laptop HD would.
The intention is not to be a profession DJ, but to be a party animal. I party allot and I'd like to be able to take my passion with me whereever I go.
As the posting says, this will also be used in my car. Having my laptop open in the passenger seat in order to play this doesn't sound like a good idea.
Minimalism. If I'm going to buy a drive for both my PC and my portable, why not combine them in to one?
The intention is not to be a DJ. It's to take my passion with me where ever I go.
A laptop would be ideal, yes. But, if I'm going to use this in living room full of drunk people carring alchohol around in hands, the last thing I want is a single unit that cost me $2500 to go up in flames when a drink is spilled.
If by 'popular' you mean that they're fun to play with when you're stoned, if you're too poor to own DJ equipment, then yes, they're popular.
Empeg's are going cheap an Ebay (under $500) pick up a 20 GB one and upgrade the drive to two 60 Gigs .. done! Plus you get many cool visual effects
Sonic Blue, the makers of Rio MP3 systems, have some very good solutions. You can get there car system with a 60 Gig HD for around $500. It is also removable and has standard sound outputs on it and AC power supply so you can play the music any where. Check it out on there site www.sonicblue.com.
Hex Blade
and no freaking slots. How come these cutsey little bastards never come with TV out either? I wanna nice little compact DVD/VCD/any other movie format I Download/MP3/CD/etc. player that I can xfer files to from other machines.
Dont tell me I need a DVD player cos it'll do the same things...I wanna play my Divx movies and reencoding to MPEG or VCD takes 4 ever.
And I want it in custom colors too.
ooo...and 5.1 sound too...
I dont mind paying a G for something that does this and looks good.
"I am a warrior, and information is my weapon..."