DIY Ethernet Audio Receiver

geo writes "I created this site to describe my latest toy: a digital audio multicast receiver. LANPipe receives 16-bit, 44.1 kHz audio multicast from a PC based server. The server uses a Winamp plug-in, so LANPipe can play almost any source format (mp3, ogg, uncompressed). It even has a digital audio output. The receiver uses a custom CPU written in VHDL and implemented on a Xilinx FPGA. This was a fun project that is best appreciated by fellow hardware geeks."

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Re:I love you guys

[Peter Simpson]

How can you say it's of no interest to potential employers? This guy has demonstrated his expertise with Xilinx design, and, last time I looked, that was a marketable skill.

Very slick..

[Garion911]

I like this.. This would solve many of the problems I have with putting a computer near my stereo.. I don't have any space near it... SOmething small like this would be very very cool..

One feature I would like to see is the possiblilty of "multiple channels", so that I could stream several channels at once.. So my GF, who likes country, can listen in the livingroom, and I can listen to my stuff in the basement, without having a computer at each location...

--John

Pretty cool

[URSpider]

This is a pretty elegant solution for how to get your MP3 collection from your computer to your stereo(s). Think about it -- you can have your own radio station at your house. Add a wireless uplink, and you can carry it around with you. All for only $100! Made into a commercial product with an ASIC instead of an FPGA, you could probably put it on the commercial market for well under $200.

Slashdotters, before you slam this thing, please consider the following facts:

• not everyone has a spare PC or two lying around the house
• some people DON'T have their PC sitting in the middle of their family room, right next to the stereo.
• people value elegance

Re:Pretty cool

[lfourrier]

Add a wireless uplink, and you can carry it around with you

If the geek value is not the main point, you can hook a small FM transmitter to your sound card and use standard FM receiver all around the house.
I'm quite sure that with sufficiently low power, it can be used unlicenced all over the world(check your local legislation).

It is not high-tech, but it could do the job for cheap, reusing existing infrastructure (the stereo). And if your Os can manage many souncards, you can transmit using different frequencies, for different music programs.

Re:I love you guys

[kevin42]

I hate to respond to such an obvious troll....but...

A project like this is very valuable. For one thing, it makes a great hobby. How much time does the average moron spend watching NFL? Take that time over a year and you can create some pretty cool (and valuable in many ways) technology. Even if nobody other than yourself ever uses it, it has value.

What is the value? Although you claim that employers don't care, it is projects like this that have made my career. I'm currently employed, making a decent living as an engineer, even though I have no degree (working on it still at age 29.95). I got a job offer from one of those top 100 employers who was looking for an engineer with a masters degree because they were so impressed with my portfolio of hardware/software projects I had 'hacked' together on my own. I actually didn't take the job because I was interested in pursuing a different job offer I got because of some software I had written and published online as a hobby. It got me attention, and the offers literally came pouring in.

If you are unemployed, by all means spend most of your time looking for a job....but there is a lot of value in showing that you are smart enough and motivated enough (even more rare) to complete a project like this on your own.

So you can go back to watching NFL while the rest of us do something useful.

Re:I love you guys

[TonyMillion]

Please go buy a suit, print out your resumes, and start smiling at people. You need jobs folks, and they don't grow on trees.

I'm an apple picker, my job does grow on trees you insensitive bastard.

Re:Cool but not....

[nehril]

totally dude. I mean... why spend $100 for networked audio when you could buy a $300 audiotron that does the same thing?

and you're right on about it not being open source. Until I can download the actual hardware for free, I'm sticking with my trusty Audiotron distro.

Re:Slashdotted

[zerocool^]

Sorry about the being slashdotted. We're working on getting that fixed.

I'm a server administrator at the webhosting company that hosts that page. Today (at 1AM) two of our five T-1's went down (Qwest appearantly had a cable cut - bah, force majure). Of all days for our network capacity to be decreased by 40%...

At any rate, we just turned up MaxClients, MinSpareServers, and MaxSpareServers in the apache config. We're going to start really hounding Qwest. We'll get it back up as soon as possible. It is accessable right now, but slow.

Again, apologies.

~Will
Server Administrator,
Netmar inc

Heard of SLIMP3?

[infolib]

About the same thing.

Remote controlled, streams over Ethernet, GPL'd software (Linux, Win, Mac)

250$ - a bit expensive, but I bet the price will come down...