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Hardware Streaming MP3 Components?
woogie asks: "I have finally broken down and ripped all my CDs, and I have a mod_mp3 server with a bunch of different streams based on genres that can deliver those mp3s to anywhere in my house. Anywhere, that is, except my stereo system. Anyone know of decent audio hardware that will read a Shoutcast stream? Sure, I can plug my laptop line out into my tuner's inputs, but I'd really like a device I can just stack on top of my tuner that will accept Shoutcast streams. The only device I've seen that allows this is the Audiotron which appears to want to read your mp3s from an SMB share, but can be configured to read Shoutcast streams if you use special Windows based software to configure it. It would work, but seems a bit pricey given that it targets my needs as an afterthought. There is some promising hacking going on with the Rio Receiver here and here, but getting one to read a Shoutcast stream might be beyond my abilities. Am I missing anything else out there? A simple device that I could just cycle through different preconfigured streams with a remote would suffice."
seems to be what you want....
http://www.slimdevices.com/
Maybe you could take an old Pentium system and use it with Linux/FreeBSD/etc... You'd only need network and sound cards (well along with a motherbord, memory and a floppy/CDROM drive to boot from). Create a root/boot image that automaticly connects to your MP3 server and plays the music.
I think madplay or mpg123 will do that. The only problem may be if they are compiled with libc, you'll need that too--it'll be hard to fit Glibc and the kernel all on one floppy. :)
You may have to put in a keyboard and video card just so the BIOS won't complain...
This just in... leaves me with the impression that you may shoutcast to your Rio Receiver now.
I think an old PC is a great suggestion. As long as you're using DMA to a good sound card and have enough RAM, most anything should work fine.
;-)
However, there's no need to limit yourself to floppies for diskless, dedicated function machines anymore. Sure they cost less than a buck, but there's lots of affordable ways around having to cram everything in a 1.4/2.8 MB compressed image.
1) Use a CompactFlash card (8 MB $10, constantly getting cheaper) and a CF-ATA adapter ($25-$40). They act exactly like a hard-drive in every way, except less heat, power drain, and noise. Mediocre speed, but a seek time of ZERO (i.e. the transfer rate from CF is flat, unlike the bursts of data you get from a hard disk). No software required. They slowly wear out from writes, but as long you don't use them for swap they should last ~10 years. Or just mount read-only, or upgrade every so often to whatever size costs $10 this year (and buy spares). You can master the CF card on a laptop with PCMCIA slots or with a USB CF reader.
2) Use a motherboard with Disk-On-Chip or a DoC ISA/PCI card. Almost like a hard-drive, but you need a utility floppy to set it up the first time. M-Sys has docs on these (www.m-sys.com). Drivers are optional, depending how you want the OS to use the DoC. GNU drivers for linux are available. An "old" PC may not have the DoC socket, but most $100 motherboards have them now.
3) Use a motherboard with PEX or ethernet boot support to boot the machine off the LAN. If your building a network appliance, it needs a network anyway. For secure boxes, use two NICs and boot off the one not connected accessible to the internet. Most Intel motherboard with a NIC on-board support several network boot methods. You can add a boot ROM to a PCI/ISA ethernet card, but it's just easier to use a motherboard with support built in.
4) Use a spare CD-ROM drive to boot from a CD-R or -RW burned on your workstation. 700 MB of space, better access time and transfer rate than floppies for about the same price. One problem would be if the CD-ROM can't read CD-R or CD-RW discs, and some older drives cannot.
5) Solid-state ATA disks are available now, and the price isn't nearly as bad as the solid-state SCSI disks that used to cost a little more than a car for under 100 megs. Still pretty expensive, but it mounts inside like a regular hard disk, only quieter and with no seek time.
Not that floppies aren't that bad, but there's no need to settle for their restrictions and liabilities anymore. You can craft a silent, low-power solution with no (or fewer) moving parts to wear out and over 8 megs of space for under $50. And you can still use a compressed disk image on top of that for even more space. A bootable CD gives you the most space for your buck, while CF is probably is easiest to implement and upgrade, while booting over the network offers the best of both, if you can figure out how to set it up and have a suitable boot server to use. If you've got small kids or dumb/mean friends, ejectable boot floppies and CDs are just asking for trouble.
Sure you can buy something off the shelf. But it's more than likely the company will go out of business or cease all support for the product, leaving you SOL if it has unresolved issues. Why pay when you can't create all your own problems for free?
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