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Squeezebox MP3 Player Hacked to Play Video

Xenna writes "The Squeezebox MP3 Player has found a new application: With the Videobox software and some cabling it becomes a networked Video Player. This is the latest development to come out of the active community Slim Devices have managed to attract around their very hackable MP3 players. Only last week the SoftSqueeze software player was announced on the Slim users mailing list. The Squeezebox was reviewed on Slashdot last December."

20 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. know what you're talking about by Neophytus · · Score: 2, Informative

    THIS IS NOT A PORTABLE MP3 PLAYER

    this is a networked (wired or wifi) device to plug into your home hifi to stream music from your pc

    product overview

  2. Re:Ogg support please... by LordK3nn3th · · Score: 2, Informative

    The MP3 player software itself is Windows Media Player. Ickles!

    --

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    Never criticize religion on Slashdot. You will be modded down for "Troll" no matter how factual it is.
  3. Re:Ogg support please... by jas79 · · Score: 3, Informative

    RTFA's.
    It supports ogg according to the review from december.

  4. don't feed the troll by Neophytus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Audio formats:

    * PCM (AIFF, WAV)
    o Supports raw pass-through of uncompressed audio
    o Sample rates: 32, 44.1 (CD), and 48Khz (DAT)
    o Configurable sample rate, byte order, channels
    * MP3, MP2:
    o Built-in decoding for all MP3/MP2 formats
    o Supports all MP3 data rates, including VBR
    o Supports all MP3 sample rates
    * AAC, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis:
    o Supported through server-side decoding
    o May be streamed in PCM (raw) or MP3 (transcoded) format

    1. Re:don't feed the troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, but have you actually TRIED the ogg support? It sounds awful (being based on an early beta of the decoder) and will not handle some newer oggs. I have also had it lock up on me a couple of times. For all intents and purposes, the device doesn't have ogg support. It's a nice machine otherwise, though.

    2. Re:don't feed the troll by 87C751 · · Score: 3, Informative
      I do have the thing myself. :) (one of each, actually)

      Ogg support currently uses oggdec by default, though you can easily use any decoder that can write to stdout.

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  5. Story has got it all wrong by BKDotCom · · Score: 5, Informative

    Uh... I may be completely stupid but they are not playing video over the Squeeze. They're just using it as the IR receiver to control "Media Player" on a PC with "TV Out" Woo

  6. What Squeezebox is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    People are comparing it to an iPod, and asking how much storage it has.

    Basically it is:

    A networked MP3 player

    Uses your computer to store MP3s - should have enough space for movies

    $249

    Looks about the size of an access point

    Plays ogg and flac

  7. Re:Ogg support please... by Mattwolf7 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Pulled from http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_specs.html

    Audio formats:
    * PCM (AIFF, WAV)
    o Supports raw pass-through of uncompressed audio
    o Sample rates: 32, 44.1 (CD), and 48Khz (DAT)
    o Configurable sample rate, byte order, channels
    * MP3, MP2:
    o Built-in decoding for all MP3/MP2 formats
    o Supports all MP3 data rates, including VBR
    o Supports all MP3 sample rates
    * AAC, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis
    o Supported through server-side decoding
    o May be streamed in PCM (raw) or MP3 (transcoded) format

  8. Missing the point by platypussrex · · Score: 4, Informative

    Seems like people don't get it. Squeezebox sits in the room with your stereo and lets you remote control a stream of music from your computer (possibly in another room) to your stereo. The idea is that your HD can hold a lot of stuff but you might not want to walk into the other room to change programs.

    This hack lets you do the same with video stored on your computer. You sit in your home theatre room (or whatever) Squeezebox is already installed to do remote control on streamed audio, now you can do remote control on streamed video too.

    Usefull? Beats me, but at least understand what the product does.

    1. Re:Missing the point by mikewren420 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, but with this hack, it requires the PC video be in the same room as the TV, or you have a really really long cable run... making this kind of a ho-hum addon.

  9. What's The Point??? by ferrellcat · · Score: 0, Informative

    Streaming MP3s wirelessly is cool. Using this device as a remote control for a video player that still requires a seperate link to move the video to your TV is just lame! For about the same price, I can mod an XBOX with Xbox Media Center that WILL do what this hack attempts to do. (and a WHOLE lot more)

  10. Not a video player by frostman · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sorry, no. It does not become a video player.

    It seems it becomes a remote control with a nice LED display.

    You still have to "add a way to get your PC's Video & Audio signals to your living room
    TV set." ( that's from the link )

    It's a cool use of the box, but since the box itself is not actually playing the video or outputting the video (or even the audio) signal, they shouldn't call it a video player.

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    This Like That - fun with words!

  11. Re:Sounds better than the iPod by blackeye · · Score: 2, Informative
  12. Read and Decide: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    "Squeeze Box" - The Who

    Mama's got a squeeze box
    She wears on her chest
    And when Daddy comes home
    He never gets no rest

    Aside from the 'wears it on her chest' line, this makes sense. Note 'squeeze' box.

    'Cause she's playing all night
    And the music's all right
    Mama's got a squeeze box
    Daddy never sleeps at night

    She's having sex all night, and 'the music' is the bedsprings and/or her moaning

    Well the kids don't eat
    And the dog can't sleep
    There's no escape from the music
    In the whole damn street

    Obviously the family is disturbed by this constant sex, and either it is so loud they hear it on the street, or it haunts them and they can never escape it.

    'Cause she's playing all night
    And the music's all right
    Mama's got a squeeze box
    Daddy never sleeps at night

    Already talked about this one...

    She goes in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out

    Uhhhhhh.....

    She's playing all night
    And the music's all tight
    Mama's got a squeeze box
    Daddy never sleeps at night

    Seen it before...

    She goes, squeeze me, come on and squeeze me
    Come on and tease me like you do
    I'm so in love with you
    Mama's got a squeeze box
    Daddy never sleeps at night

    Sounds like mama's beggin' for sex.

    She goes in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out

    Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

    'Cause she's playing all night
    And the music's all right
    Mama's got a squeeze box
    Daddy never sleeps at night


    Netcraft confirms: 'Mama's Got a Squeezebox' is about a horny woman and her vagina.

  13. Re:Sounds better than the iPod by dave420 · · Score: 2, Informative
    It's AC powered, numbnuts. I mean, it's fine to be first up slamming a device, but please get your facts right first. It's a network device, not a portable audio player. It has no storage. It's designed to be put in one place and left to it. Sheesh.

    I know this is slashdot, but please...

  14. It actually does look cool by grahamsz · · Score: 3, Informative

    I wasn't too impressed with the pictures online, but in reality it looks very cool.

    It's very well made, with a soft-touch rubberized finish - and it's tiny. It easily sits on top of the wave radio that we usually use it with.

  15. I love my Squeezeboxen! by Brackney · · Score: 4, Informative

    I ordered a Squeezebox after reading the /. story posted back in December, and I'm glad I did. I've since added a second box in my house and my Dad bought one too. It's a terrific interface that makes my music collection available anywhere in the house. Slimdevices along with the development community has been great at fixing bugs and enhancing the functionality of the server software and unit firmware. Check 'em out!

  16. Re:Interesting but still too expensive... by l0rd · · Score: 3, Informative

    While this is a nice hack, for the same price you can get a kiss dvd player which can already play divxs/mp3s/mp3 streams/mpgs etc. over your network.

    Also an added disadvatage is that you use a video card's tv out. This means that you don't get a full widescreen output to your TV.

    While I still think the slimp3 thins is really cool for what it does (play mp3s), it's still WAY to expensive. Maybe if the thing was $50 cheaper and properly supperted video the price would be worth it.

  17. thats a cute hack ... by torpor · · Score: 1, Informative

    ... but by christmas, cheap ($200) video-playing 'ipod killers' are gonna hit the market.

    the majority of these -already- run linux.

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