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Component MP3/OGG Players?
RJV asks: "I currently have a rather large digital music collection. It is all in mp3 or ogg format and it is all from CDs that I personally own or have borrowed from friends. I have built a rather cheap mp3 server to store all of the music on and I listen to it on my machines rather easily. However, I'm looking for a better solution for accessing and playing from the archive in my living room. I currently have a linux box that uses the TV as a monitor. I can use it fine to play mp3/ogg files through the home theater, but mostly because I know where the buttons are in xmms. (640x480 isn't the best resolution for xmms). I've looked into multiple other projects, such as Aurian Music Manager and Freevo (the computer also has a TV in card) but have not been satisfied with their performance and/or ease of use, especially when trying to use my Universal Remote Control. So, I've decided that perhaps the best course of action for the living room is to purchase a stand-alone component that will integrate with my current system. What are my options and are there any experiences within the community with these products?"
"I'd like to find a product that has the following features (in order of importance).
- Ethernet Connectivity (NFS/SAMBA/something Linux can share out)
- Intuitive/Easy-to-Use Interface
- IR Remote Control (so I can use my Universal Remote)
- Ability to play mp3s and oggs
- TV display capabilities (may fall under Intuitive Interface)
- Digital Out
- CDR capabilities
I'd recommend keeping your current setup, getting a mouse-remote from x10, and using a web-based app (1 file!) called Andromeda which dynamically creates playlists of audio & video files and streams them to your default player. It's awesome! This whole setup will cost you like $30 or so, and you'll be able to control your music with a remote :)
geeks are cats who dig a certain kind of cool
I currently have a linux box that uses the TV as a monitor. I can use it fine to play mp3/ogg files through the home theater, but mostly because I know where the buttons are in xmms. (640x480 isn't the best resolution for xmms).
Double the view
"it is all from CDs that I personally own or have borrowed from friends"
It is legal to borrow music to friends. It is legal to make mix tapes for friends. The only reason why you question its legality (if this wasn't a joke post) after enjoying your freedom for so long is because the RIAA *has* made people everywhere accept the flawed doctrine that digital rights are fundamentally different from analog rights.
I say sharing music with friends is the same, whether you use a tape or a CDR.
Ummm...this is illegal, dude. There's no problem borrowing you're friend's CD to listen to it, but making a COPY is a violation of COPYright. If you want your own copy of the music, buy it. If you have a problem with the law, write to your local congress critter. If you want to commit civil disobedience, do so boldly and publicly and be prepared to go to jail. If you want to besmirch the reputation of slashdot, ask everyone to help you violate copyright law.
Depends... If the guy's in Canada then this is perfectly legal, and I suspect he is since he made the distinction that he 'borrowed from friends'. As long as you're the one making the copy, it doens't matter who owns it, it's only if someone else makes it for you that it's illegal.
Here is a project I found a little while ago that is trying to create a Linux distro (actually just a graphical interface) for home theater multimedia devices to be displayed on the TV.
h tm
here is the homepage:
http://staff.washington.edu/jmgasper/index.htm
check out the screenshots here, pretty cool looking!:
http://staff.washington.edu/jmgasper/screenshots.
--- Brad (http://www.LinuxReview.net)
How much more would it cost to pop an SA1100 running at 125MHz in one of those boxes? Wouldn't an ARM720 reach over 75MHz?
What's the limitation?
I wouldn't give up on the computer unless the audio card delivers unsatisfying sound quality or the system makes too much noise on it's own.
For one, using the gui is not necessarily the best approach anyway. For one there are keyboard shortcuts in most every application. For another, you could get something like xmms-lirc and some other relatively cheap device and use a remote on your system.
The *huge* plus for having an HTPC is that you are not limited to mere music applications. Video is a decent option, and games as well. I know the resolution is not great on most TVs, but can't beat them for size.
But if you *really* want to go over the deepend in price, you could improve your display technology. A projector that does XGA (1024x768) is very awesome. If you like big screens and like Video, that is a life saver, and it can cut down in cords. For example, you would have your screen and probably stereo speakers of front, with one wire for each speaker running, say, behind your couch. You keep all your stereo and video equipment back there, or next to your couch. I'm big on video game systems, so the cords on controllers are more convenient this way. Plus, I don't have to move my butt off the couch to change DVDs when I'm watching a Box Set in a sitting... Of course, a decent projector runs a couple of thousand, and you can't walk in front of it, so it is something you have to carefully consider...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
The moment you say that musical works are somehow worth less than written works or inventions, then you have stripped musicians of their rights.
There's no way to guarantee that the song you just wrote isn't also the song that somebody else just wrote. Such coincidences are exceedingly likely to happen, and defending oneself in court against an allegation of plagiarism is prohibitively expensive for a novice songwriter. Thus, songwriters are already stripped of their rights.
Will I retire or break 10K?
You actually can decode ogg on something smaller than a 75mhz arm, it just depends on what else you are doing. The integer version they released runs in
Someone else suggests streaming wav files, but i'm guessing you dont have enough ram to buffer that and on networks with mild congestion you'd get dropouts. Transcoding is really not good for audio quality, for those who consider the above to be a viable option.
As a side note, you mention that it's not possible for manufacturers of inexpensive playback devices to support the format, but that's not correct - iRiver will likely add ogg to their devices (which are mostly cirrus based). Also you dont really have an inexpensive device ($250 is a lot, since you aren't handing out 30% margins to retailers on this).
-- Patience is a virtue, but impatience is an art.
I'd setup your existing PC as a file server and use a playstation2, with a network adapter, and sony remote as the client. Use this software: http://www.qcast.com/qcast2.html Added bonus: Grand Theft Auto
Just use xmms-remote and xosd for display. In combination with a good tv card, xawtv, lirc, and mplayer, you can have a full media center running from your linux box. It took me 2 hours to set up, and my roomates love it.
Grab a 2-U case and build what you have under . . .
*GASP*
WinXP. I hate to say it, but for this application, Windows running UIce for a remote interpolation prog seems to work best for me. I played with several different things, but the best performance/usability I've gotten is with XP and UIce using an AverTV card. Here's why:
1) The AverTV Studio card works best under Windows and has limited TIVO-like functionality and has a remote control that most IR remote apps will recognize. It's also suprising quality, and quite cheap.
2) UIce will direct keystrokes to any running prog, and any key on a remote can be designated to pracicaly any function, including mouse movement.
3) WinAmp has a nifty double-size function that makes it quite usable on the TV. I don't know if XMMS or any of it's ilk have this, though.
4) A 2-U case with stereo feet screwed to the bottom looks like a stereo componant, mayhaps an amp.
5) Guests can use the machine intuitively. They already understand how everything works for the most part, they just have to get used to using an IR remote for the computer.
Reasons why Windows isn't a good choice for this:
1) Security. Unless your machine is behind a firewall, I wouldn't recomend it.
2) Umm . . . you want to run Linux.
I've built the box, and am quite impressed with the results. I'll be putting up a page for what to use and blah and blah in about a month, once I've got the faceplate cut and installed.
-Dirk R.
Sure, nobody asked me, but I knew they eventually would.
It sounds like you're looking for something that will allow you more control at the point where you're listening, but...
I've been using the Jensen Matrix audio transmitter to transmit from my computer to a receiver attached to my stereo over 900mhz. It's convenient because I mostly listen to random mixes, but I'm a little disappointed in the sound quality and my cordless phone tends to interfere with it.
I would think that a Shuttle mini-barebones system would make a great platform for this. Unfortunately, they can't seem to get all of the features in one box. The SV24/25 and SS40/G/50/G have the TV Out and the SS51G has the the SPDIF In/Out. The SS51G goes for around $300. I have a Hauppauge WinCast/dbx that I am pretty happy with which should fit in the SS51G just fine. I am not positive, but I believe that it has an Irda header on the mobo or you can build a receiver as shown on the lirc webpage. Throw a DVD (or even a DVD/CDR/CDRW so you can make CDs for your friends on the fly) and you have a quite impressive box. I have a Linksys wireless network in the house, so would probably opt for a WET11 to connect wirelessly. If an 800Mhz processor would get the job done, use the Cyrix as it runs cool enough that you don't need a fan. I own a couple of SV24s and have been very happy with them, but Shuttle keeps cranking out new versions so quickly that all I can do is salivate. This has been a great discussion. Thanks.
BTW - yes I am even using the HomeTheater Master MX-500 universal remote..