Homegrown Wireless Media Servers?

blurg64 asks: "I am about to move into a new house and am keen to be able to stream my mp3 collection out to my stereo. With all of the new media servers out there such as the Squeezebox, cd3o wireless network player and even HP's Wireless Digital Receiver offering, I was wondering if any /. readers had any tips or experiences in building a cheap wireless media server?"

Comments

get an EPIA

[DrSkwid]

one of the MII boards with PCMCIA & CF slots built in

mini-itx.com

You'll be paying a whacking premium for something called a "media center"

Servers?

[woobieman29]

Just to clarify, all the devices that you list are CLIENTS - not servers as you stated in your post. All of them depend on your PC to serve the media files. So, what is it you really want to build? A client like the devices listed, or a cheap wireless PC to handle the server duties?

I attempted it

[bulldog2260]

I up an old P-75 with FreeBSD, using Slim Server from Slim Devices, using mpg123 and mp3lbaster to play the songs. I had a LCD screen to display the Song Title, Artist, and Album. It worked ok, but it needs to be a bigger machine.

Try TIVO and their Home Media Option

[Mastos]

I'm in the same boat of moving to a new place. Currently, everything, including TV and TiVO, is served by my main computer, and while that works well for a single guy, it doesn't work so well for a married one.

Since I have a receiver, will buy a new TV, but don't have a CD player, I figured it was cheaper to buy Tivo's Home Media Option, which uses my computer to stream mp3's and images through my Tivo and by extension, stereo. While I'm sure Tivo's media server is fine, I installed the JavaHMO which not only lets me serve up mp3's from my linux box, but also movie listings, weather reports, and even stream mp3's off shoutcast. Since I rip all my CD's to file anyways (usually ogg, but Tivo doesn't support Ogg :/), now I can access my entire music collection plus internet radio stations through the simple Tivo interface. Add a wireless 802.11b USB adapter, and you have a nice wireless media server through your Tivo.

Avoid Wireless if you can

[wolf-]

I've recently evaluated wireless audio/video systems. After testing 5 different systems ($150-$600), I came to the realization...run cable.

The microwave kicks on, TV/audio goes nuts. Phone rings, same thing. Even if you unplug everything electrical around you...odds are you still won't be happy with the quality.

Errant crackle and pops just ruin it all.

Re:Avoid Wireless if you can

[pbox]

This is as insightful as it gets. Wireless is overrated, not counting that 2-5% of the time when nothing else would do it. Just invest that $50 into a reel of Cat5 and run it...

Re:Avoid Wireless if you can

[sporktoast]

Definitely, avoid wireless for the media computer, you're better off avoiding the ever-crowding 2.4G bands.

Where you want to go wireless is in the FM band. Something like this.

Plug it into the sound-out of a cabled media computer. Put the computer wherever you have the space (closet, basement, attic) and keep your stereo clutter-free. Serve the jukebox control interface via http on the local wireless network and control it via laptop, pda, whatever. Tune the FM transmitter to a free space low on the dial (89.3 or so), and listen to your streams on any stereo in/around/outside the house. So long as you aren't stepping on any other nearby frequencies, and the reception drops off enough a few houses away, you shouldn't have much worry about complaints.

The other side of the equation

[PurpleFloyd]

The server side is easy - all you need is a vaugely recent box (a PII is almost overkill) with lots of drives and a network connection (802.11x, since you specify wireless). Pick SMB, NFS or FTP to serve files; I use SMB because it works well with both Windows and Linux, but you are free to choose whatever you wish.

The client, though, is a tougher nut to crack. If you only want to stream MP3s, then a product like the Audiotron would be excellent; you don't have to worry about finding a good Linux-compatible character-LCD based control system (which you probably would want to use, in this case), and then programming it. The Audiotron-type products are probably best in an audio-only environment, although you could probably get by with a second PC, especially if you can stand to have a small keyboard, mouse and monitor in your rec room. Wireless might be a problem, but I'd imagine anything that doesn't natively grok 802.11x would work with an AP on the other end of a short network cable.

I would advise you to take your thinking beyond just MP3s, though. If you were to get a Shuttle or similar small form factor PC and put a TV card, Linux and MythTV on it, you would have an excellent PVR system that would also play MP3s and even act as a frontend to emulators like MAME and ZSNES. Even if you don't want a PVR (already have Tivo, don't watch TV, whatever), you can still use the other functions. Also, most of the small form factor PCs I've seen are designed to be small, quiet and non-intrusive - it probably wouldn't be much worse than a system like the Audiotron, from an annoyance standpoint. If I were in your shoes, I'd seriously consider taking the money I was going to spend on an Audiotron or similar product and putting it towards one of these babies.

Re:The other side of the equation

[pbox]

While I agree with your point about the PC being more flexible (and almost same price $300-$400), I have to nit-pick about the noise issues. All of the Shuttle line is kinda loud. I mean compared to overclocked mega-fan main rigs, it is quiter, but I would not want to put them into my living room, or audio listening room.

However spening a little more (it does add up) you can get fanless Mini-ITX solutions (like Hush see logicsupply.com $700-$900). Combined with an acoustic management enabled FDB harddisk like Seagate barracuda, the noise output will be kept at minimum, ie. your CRT TV on mute or the flourescent lights will be louder.

Re:Servers?

[woobieman29]

I believe the server you are referring to is actually the "SlimServer5" streaming media server that is provided (for free!) by the same folks that make the Squeezbox CLIENT, which is the newer version of the SliMp3 client device. Yes, it is a very good server. Check here for clarification.

Old computer + Winamp + Win98

[mmcdouga]

You can read about what I did here. It's a headless Pentium 350 running Winamp on top of Windows 98 (yes, really). Winamp plugins let me control it through a web browser and automatically search the network for mp3s. The files are kept on a separate machine with a big hard drive.

I recently added a next-generation user interface device called a 'three-button mouse', but I haven't updated my web page yet. The 3 buttons are 'stop', 'next' and 'play', which is pretty much all I need. On the rare occaision I want to mess with the playlist I use the web interface.

Not the most elegant or advanced solution, but it was all done with stuff that I had already or could download for free and it fit my existing setup with minimal hassle.

LCD - crap, Monitor - good

[Synonymous Yellowbel]

I use a bog standard old PC to play my MP3s of a file server (no weird streaming going on) and I'd just like to say this: setup winamp or your choice of graphical media player on the player, configure font size to 20pt or so, and use a monitor to view/modify the playlists and other stuff. It's far better than the wanky headless-with-LCD option a lot of people building this sort of thing go for. Also, get a cheap IR remote control unit like the Hollywood Reelmagic one (about AU$60) and configure it well. sy

The server side is easy enough

[metamatic]

I built a mini-ITX system in a cube case with a VIA C3 Nehemiah and a Seagate hard drive. Installed Gentoo, SlimServer, and daapd. Fire up iTunes anywhere on the network, click on the server icon found via Rendezvous, and there's all the music. I avoided the Shuttle systems because their fans are too noisy.

I wrote up the whole process including configuration. I finally got ALSA working this week, but I haven't updated the page with that info yet.

HomePod option

[lukeout]

I'm in the same spot. Building a house, want some sort of whole house audio. While it's a bit pricey, i'm giong to use two HomePods (hard wired - not wireless). http://store.yahoo.com/gloolabs/homepod1.html The device (if it works right) will search all the computers on my home network for music files and let me play them from the HomePod (Which I am hooking up to an amps and then in-cieling speakers.) For the server, I'm just going to use the oldest computer in my house, tucked in a closet in the basement. Luke