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Embedded Linux In Onkyo's Home Music Server
IrateSurf writes "ExtremeTech has a story about a new use of embedded Linux from Onkyo, which runs a home music server. Their NAS-2.3 has a CD-player as well as an 80GB hard drive for storing music and streaming it to other players on the an Ethernet network. Also check out the web site for the NAS-2.3."
If only they would make it record radio, too ...
"If only they would make it record radio, too ..."
See archos for devices that record raido directly into mp3. They have a hard drive and a smart media device that does that i beleive. Plus they keep the last 30 seconds of audio in memory in case the song you want has already started you can still get the begining.
-Foxxz
Onkyo (www.onkyousa.com) is one of the better-known Japanese manufacturers of home theater gear. Recently, the company has begun building audio and home theater equipment with built-in Ethernet ports, rather than some proprietary connectivity scheme. PC Magazine wrote about one of Onkyo's product, the NC500 Net-Tune Receiver. However, the Net-Tune receiver is perhaps the least interesting of the products, offering the now-familiar paradigm -- the digital receiver that can route music from your PC to your home audio system. The NC500 does have a stereo amplifier, but is otherwise similar to products from Turtle Beach, Sonic Blue and others. However, Onkyo is bringing Ethernet capability to a full-fledged, Dolby Digital/DTS 7.1 receiver in it's TX-NR900, THX-Select certified home theater receiver. The TX-NR900 offers 110 watts RMS into 7 channels, supports all the major surround sound standards and can act as a Net-Tune client, allowing you to pipe the digital music from your PC directly to your home theater rack. In addition to the usual array of input and output ports is a standard, 10 megabit Ethernet port.
That's pretty cool, but that's not all. Onkyo also sells a line of high-end gear targeted towards custom installations under its Integra brand. Onkyo offers products similar to the NC500 and TX-NR900, but with additional capabilities. What's most interesting, though, is the Integra NAS-2.3 Net-Tune Server.
At first blush, the NAS-2.3 seems like a CD player, but it also has an embedded 80GB hard drive. So now it appears to be like any number of digital music players on the scene. But the NAS-2.3 also has a 10/100 Ethernet port, and is capable of acting as a music server to a network of Net-Tune devices. Running on the Integra product is an embedded Linux operating system, which acts as the server software.
The NAS-2.3 can support up to 12 simultaneous streams to Net-Tune receivers or other clients. You can have different tracks playing in multiple rooms, move music to a PC, display a playlist on most types of displays (the NAS-2.3 has VGA, S-Video and composite video outputs) and can even connect up to CDDB to download track information on various CDs.
One other interesting aspect of the NAS-2.3 is the availability of an empty drive sled inside the box, allowing users or installers to add additional hard drive space. You can't use a standard, PC-formatted hard drive, according to Eric Harper, Integra's Custom Installation and Product Manager. The formatting is somewhat different, but a knowledgeable user or installer should be able to add another drive to the server.
So if you don't want the headache of building your own music server from a PC, then the NAS-2.3 can integrate into your home Ethernet network, co-existing quite well with your PC systems. It's an intriguing idea that embraces the PC network, rather than trying to remain isolated.
NNY News with a twist of lime.
you should be able to use one of these for wireless. It's an adapter that plugs into ethernet ports and turns them into wireless.
A rendezvous enabled wireless device that ties into my music collection (yes, iTunes).
Slim Devices probably has what you're looking for. It doesn't use Rendezvous (yet) but does have all the things that Rendezvous has been promising (auto-discovery of server, integration with iTunes). A lot of companies are hawking auto-disocvery like it's some revoultionary technology... ummmmm it's a couple tiny UDP packets in each direction. That's it. We were doing this long before anyone had heard of Rendezvous.
But Rendezvous is evoving into more than that... we recently showed the product at Macworld in San Francisco, and received a very enthusiastic response from the iTunes developers at Apple. They're opening up more of their system to us, so expect to see even better integration with MacOS iApps in our next software updates for the SLIMP3.
BTW, the HomePod is about where we were two years ago. Seriously, they're good guys, and geeks like us, but don't expect them to ship anything for a few more months.
Your specs seem to refer to the TX-NR900 reciever. This does not run Linux, it merely plays music from a network connection. I don't think Linux is required for such basic functionality.
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http://www.imerge.co.uk/products/improductsimag
The Integra NAS-2.3 Net-Tune Server is the Linux based product. It's actually a rebranded Imerge product, from the UK. You can control the server via a TV, Monitor, PC, Palm, IR Pronto etc... Check out the LCD, it's just a bog standard LCD display used by many case modders - not a custom built VFD display as found on most hifi components.