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Linux-based Digital Audio Player with Ogg
asv108 writes "MP3 Newswire has a story about a new Linux based home player that supports OGG vorbis among other features. The MPST Digital Jukebox is currently under beta test, interested parties can aquire a beta version of the product for the cost of the parts. The Hardware breakdown for the device has a host of options including: wireless support, expanded storage, and a larger LCD display."
Will it record my brand new Celine Dion album? I so wanted to hear it in my car.
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
I want an iPod (who doesn't?). The big thing holding me back (besides the $400+) is that it only does mp3. If it were firmware upgradable perhaps, or if Apple were to succumb to the greag Ogg, that would change things. This new devices seems to be the first step in a right direction for scalable audio encoding/playback.
Sure its black .. but why does it have to be the size of a computer??
.. much smaller .. nicer display .. and i can move it around.
Unless it is a computer!
I think i would rather buy a lowend Laptop with a big HD
Of course, this dedicated box may be a little cheaper, but then it also isn't quite as versatile.
I don't think the Nomad Jukebox is linux based, but I could be wrong... The real point is to counter the argument that ogg just needs a software update. At the momement, there is no real free ogg library that uses integer math. Many mp3 products don't have floating point hardware. The product I have the most experience with is the riocar/empeg car player, and this is the main stubling block to implementing ogg support on it.
It's a fabulous machine for what it is, and a fine companion for an iPod. I also have a thing for historical computers, and this certainly qualifies :)
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
But do you get no net benefit if you convert from MP3 to OGG? I would think you would only gain anything from changing formats if you went from the WAV to OGG. After all, MP3 has already removed some things, and if OGG doesn't remove it, and it removes other things then you've got less things!!
(I haven't looked into the exact differences of the formats and I don't know which is better in which situation, I just know that they remove "things" to make music smaller, I'm assuming they remove a lot of the same "things" as well as different "things" and do some other compressions).
--- I used to moderate, then I read the -1 articles and decided having to filter through them was not worth it.
damn its made it a dirty black pc case! not exactly a commerical product.. i thought this would be a component device i could add to my stero system.. guess not..
Oh well.. nice he has links to commerical ones thoe!
Why can't MP3 players work with plug-ins?? Software plug-ins that is. Give it a small hard drive and an operating software (the playing program) that works with plug ins. Set it up with USB so you can hook it up to your computer and install different codecs.
Then the whole WMA, MP3, OGG thing is done with. You want OGG, install the OGG codec, you want MP3, go with the MP3 codec. Want some wild codec that nobody has heard of? Install that one!
It's stupid to hardcode the audio format into the player. That you could also update the codec if a new standard comes out two months after you buy your player.
--- I used to moderate, then I read the -1 articles and decided having to filter through them was not worth it.
Those things are quite real. Go to any market in any decent sized Chinese city and you'll see weird stuff like this. You can also get fabulous things like 30 in 1 game boy cartridges (have a whole library of old games in one cartridge! did I mention that half the games are the same game with different names on the select menu?)
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
The MPST Digital Jukebox reminds me of that unit. Not because it could play MP3s, or didn't play Ogg, or because it ran an embedded OS. No, it reminds of the ARQ1 because I wouldn't buy it for the very same reason: There's no way to get your music off the thing except through an audio cable. I looked through the MPST web site for this unit. I know it's Linux-based. But how can I log into it? I want to be able to get music off of it as easy as I get music onto it. I have a PC upstairs, and a stereo downstairs. If all my music is on the MPST, then how do I listen from my PC? Hell, how do I back my music up? You can't.
Someone needs to make a simple music appliance like the MPST, but it needs that one crucial feature: you need to be able to get your music off of it as easily as you can get it on to it. You have an smbd running which shares the entire /music slice, or export that music partition via NFS. Or even let me stream from it via HTTP (and then I can write LWP scripts to mirror/spider/play my tunes). But just let me get my music off it somehow. It would also be cool if it had a PCMCIA slot so that you could stick in additional drive space/RAM/802.11b. And a way to get custom software on it would be cool. A bash prompt would be really cool
Oh well. But as long as we're in the land makebelieve, with cool music appliances that do everything everyone wants for only like $100, I want one more thing: Can I have a pony?
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Obviously, you shouldn't. This device is made for people who don't have the time, skill, or inclination to build their own box.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
For those running windows:
http://www.dbpoweramp.com - look for the converter and the extra ogg codec.
God, that thing is big and ugly.
One of the cheaper laptops could be modified to do all the same kind of stuff, and you would have a fancy colour screen to display the playlist. Add the Creativelabs external USB soundcard and you've got everykind of output connection you could possibly want.
And it would probably be smaller that than box. And look nicer too.
I can't believe that there aren't better products than this one about.
Are you in a hurry? Write up a conversion script, run it in the background, leave your computer running, and go about your life for a couple of days.... no sweat.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
and
All that in a box almost half the price?!
-adnans
P.S. the pictures are very old, should take some new ones
"In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd people." --Linus Torvalds
Its sitting right next to my tivo and dvd player... well its not the same one as mentioned above but it has:
ogg support, with mp3 and cd
110 gig of storage space
burns cds
internet connectivity (p2p) and usb support
linux
a java compatible browser
a beautiful ui running through a huge screen
2 processors and a whole hell of alot of memory
if you haven't guessed its called a "computer" and is availabe from parts at pricewatch.com
for about 600 dollars, i really suggest you get one (they're great). It also plays dvds flawlessly (in linux), plays divx (again in linux, hell thats all i have on it), and acts as a tivo using simple bash scripting and some good old fashion c/c++. We won't even get into the fact that its dream console, capable of playing all your favorite games from nintendo and sega
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
If the programs that run this thing are open source isn't he supposed to provide a copy? I'm curious what this thing is running and why I couldn't download a copy from his site.
This is a petition which has just reached over 1000 signatures, and will be sent to portable audio player companies asking them to support Ogg Vorbis in their upcoming players. Please support the petition and sign. Thanks. http://www.petitiononline.com/vorb123/petition.htm l
I'm in the same boat with the PJB100, which was one of the first decent portable MP3 players with a hardrive, designed by Compaq R&D.
...
Can't get MP3's off it. Can't play Ogg Vorbis.
It's really stupid, I think, that media players are still being produced that are *closed* and proprietary, but that's the way it goes.
IF the PJB100 had a decent SDK for it, which allowed additional codecs to be uploaded, and allowed access to the drive through USB, it'd be soooo good.
But as it is, it's just a paperweight whose time for replacing with an iPod is almost come
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Okay, I don't see who would want it, other than to have something that plays OGGs. This thing looks like an old PC (and probably is), only supports MP3 and OGG (where's FLAC or WAV or anything else?), requires an internet connection, and the thing is huge (there's no excuse for it being anywhere near that size). The display is a 20 char by 4 line LED backlit LCD display. While this is easy to implement, they could have used a graphical display and had different font sizes, cool graphics, and maybe a better user interface. I also have to wonder how noisy it is, considering that most PCs have at least two fans. This thing really looks like a hack: if someone built one of these for himself it might be impressive, paying $1000 for it is simply a ripoff.
I don't see what the market for this thing is: the real geeks would simply build their own that's both cheaper and has more features, while the average users would simply shrug it off for being ugly and for lack of features. Worse, it probably won't play any copy protected CDs^H^H^Hshiny plastic discs with music encoded on them.
I won't buy a portable MP3 player until one turns up with integrated FM/AM radio.
Linux based and supported under linux are different things. None of the top google results imply that the player itself runs any version of linux.
They don't even list them on ebay. I keep checking like once a week to see if anyone is selling one so maybe I could offload mine too...
You know ebay can save your searches, and email you when it matches an item, right? Just look for "Save this search" after you do a search.
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Because that's all it is. This is just one geek who's put together the hardware and software himself, made from old PC bits + a small LCD screen.
He isn't some big company selling at a profit. in fact he says
"...testers can purchase the Digital Jukebox from me at cost (+shipping) or I'm happy to help anyone build one themselves. The software is free. See the Hardware page for cost breakdown information."
Ogg Vorbis is superior, save it's not as wide-spread as MP3. And it's free in both of the cliche senses. I'd recommend reading the FAQ.
Would you say Linux and BSD geeks just think that they are nonconformist when they don't use Windows?
they used standard pc parts. for around $350.00 they could have used a DCT/Allwell box that looks like a dvd player, has the cd drive,room for the HD, sound,video,etc... all on the board with 2 nic cards and had a nifty place to mount a VF display instead of a lame lcd to make it look super professional.
Please please people.... if you are prototyping something... buy a public display type of system to make it pretty so you dont look like a couple of college students slapping S.A.N.E. in a box with an lcd and a remote and calling it an innovative product.
mpg123 the backend to SANE play's ogg's so everyone that has a SANE player has this.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Perhaps my memory is a little bit blank right now but does OpenBSD even support SMP like uh, at all at this point? THe answer is no. This means that your a A.)Troll or B.)an idiot to be paying for a 60k machine for an os that can only run off of one processor or C.) A combination of both.
I would chose C.) because your obviously offtopic. Not to mention their is no server version of XP yet. You are obviously B or C.
http://saveie6.com/
Why is it that even though ogg is totally free, there is not one single portable or car music player produced by a major manufacturer that supports it? What is the big deal? I mean, how much space in firmware could adding in support for the ogg codec take up?
My little brain just can't understand why ogg is so univerally ignored. Almost every other kind of software suffers from feature bloat with features that *no one* wants, yet its like pulling teeth to get *any* manufacturer to add ogg support that a large number of people would use and want.
Some users may complain about not having CD audio/mp3 audio/OGG audio/DVD audio playback on their PC's but a lot more users are complaing about not having the same support in appliances. Let's face it. Consumers won't pay for music but they'll give up their next 5 years salaries to have a convient way to play it.
Actually, the Creative Nomad JukeBox allows you to do this as long as the tracks you send over aren't "protected". I don't know how you get protected tracks onto the thing, but all the music you send over can come right off it to, to back up in case of the eventual HD failure. People have even rigged up HTTP servers for the thing (running on a PC with the JB tethered via USB) so you can control or monitor it over a network. Pretty nifty, although it has its own set of problems (chiefly battery life) like most products.
You can also upgrade the HD to 30G if you don't mind voiding your warranty. Fry's has the 6G version refurbished for $150, which is where I got mine.
Until my portable audio device supports Vorbis, whats the point? Making a codec succesful requires deep industry support, and this has always been an area where open-source has not been very strong. At this point its an MP3/MP4 vs WMA issue, and really nothing more.
Why not get an iMac? They cost around $1000 (the CRT-based one), have a slot-loading CD drive, and come with a nice color screen. I think the Graphite one looks pretty good--nicer than a big, black box. And iTunes is very convenient for both capturing and playing back MP3s.
... since I wouldn't own one of the ugly buggers (though I do lust after a high end G4 laptop with DVD-RW support, if they ever make such a beast) I don't know. But your post does seem to kind of miss the entire point of the story and the article it links to.
The whole point is that the hardware and software hack presented in this story supports Ogg Vorbis format. Many of us have our entire CD collections, several gigabytes worth of music, encoded in the Patent Free Ogg Vorbis format because (a) it sounds better that MP3 at similar bitrates and variable-bit-rates and (b) no one can go pull a Unisys on us and start demanding back royalties down the road or effectively make every free(dom) player/encoder illegal at the date and time of their choosing.
Now perhaps Itunes and Imac supports Ogg Vorbis playback as well
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I'm looking for a feature that's not easily found. You would think that somebody designing a Car-audio system would realize this, but it's amazing how many MP3/ogg/CD players are missing this one simple feature.
I want a jukebox that will automatically start playing when the power comes on. I don't want to have to turn the ignition key, wait 2 minutes for the kernel to boot, then push "Play" and then start driving. I want to just turn the key and have the music start automatically where it left off without any action on my part. In other words, if I'm going to replace my car CD-player or tape deck with something else, it needs to be as convienient to use as what I've currently got, if not more so. Otherwise, they need to start selling these things as home-audio.
I thought I'd chime in that the LCD looks a lot like the CrystalFontz 634 with PC Mounting Bracket, which sells for $92.20.
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
From what I can tell this is still in early production stages. A lot of people are complaining about the case while the head of the project is still working on software and things like power supply.
In the spirit of the Open Source community I though this would be welcomed with open arms. The device is open in every way and yes they offer software downloads.
Do you think that fancy HP device was pretty when they started working on it? I'm sure the early testing was done on parts wired together on a safe table.
Packaging is last. I would say get the machine and fiddle with it [if you can afford it] and try to make it better.
Get your Unix fortune now!
Did you read the article? It's just a PC running Linux. As it says on the website, you can build one yourself. The software is all open source. If you wanted, you could put Samba AND nfs for all it matters. Want to make it have a webserver, too? Just add Apache. Want it to have ftp capability? Add proftpd. The machine as built uses VNC, so you can remote control this thing from any PC that can run VNC (that includes Windows and a whole sling of 'Nix platforms, including Linux).
Give the guy a break, he's just put together some hardware and software and hacked it together with a LCD to make an appliance.
My journal has hot
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Why you would want to use Ogg isn't clear to me. Obviously, the iMac comes with an MP3 license. At the bitrates where you would want to encode home audio, I don't think there is a big difference between the two. And the MP3 patents are going to expire sooner or later--what matters is that the MP3 format is open and well-documented, and has numerous open source implementations.