FIA On3 Networked Multimedia System Reviewed

Anonymous Howard writes "Designtechnica has reviewed Fia's On3 networked multimedia system. It uses Linux for its OS, supports Samba, audio & video (including Ogg), but the On3 seems to be marred by a lack of some important features. For example, you can't create playlists or autoplaylists (playlists based on rules.) You can only play music sorted in folders, so if your music is sorted by artist and album, you can only listen to each folder at a time. Files are played back in alphanumeric order, so playback order depends on how the tracks are named. The On3 does not handle ID3 tags and track names are simply the name of the file. I'm trying to find a non-microsoft, out-of-the-box solution for a networked media system. Are there any other solutions out there? How do they compare? Are they worth it or does the industry still have a lot of growing to do?"

Comments

Not Quite A Slash-Ad But Close

[mfh]

For example, you can't create playlists or autoplaylists (playlists based on rules.)

While I sympathize, as playlists should be a feature in any player... Because you explained the autoplaylist feature, you should not expect it as a standard feature. The rest of what you're saying makes perfect sense to me and begs the question: why was this posted at Slashdot if the On3 networked multimedia system appears so lacking? Also, calling something The On3 (The One, ie: Neo), certainly appears to be a misnomer if the system is so utterly lacking.

Also, I must take issue with that review because it lacks any definative bottom line summary. They don't come out and say : this rocks, or, this is a bad buy. I think it might have something to do with the fact that the reviewers are selling this product. I won't cry "Slash-ad!" (because of the insight in this /. post) but I will point out that this appears to be a sneaky advertising trick to try and sell units. "Here we'll just publish an ad and call it a review."

So it's more or less useless...

[Skyshadow]

Sorry, but playing back in order of how the files are named? That makes the thing more or less completely useless unless you have a very, very short list of songs you always want to hear in the same order; how the heck do you get to market without the basics that you'd have expected from an MP3 player five years ago?

Plenty of non-MS out-of-box solutions

[Dynedain]

I'm trying to find a non-microsoft, out-of-the-box solution

Check out SLIMP3 and/or various offerings from Apple just to name two sources off the top of my head for audio. For video, just build a custom linux box with MythTV or something and stick it in one of those spiffy home entertainment cases. Or pay lots of money for the commercial equivalent.

Links?

[TheRaven64]

Can you not simply create a directory called `Playlists', a set of subdirectories with the names of playlists, and fill each of these with links you the music files? A very short shell script should be able to create these directories from .m3u files. Smart Playlists would be a bit harder to implement, but since it runs Linux it should be relatively easy to create a cron job that scans the ID3 tags and creates / removes links based on certain criteria - ideally with a UI visible from a remote system.

From TFA:

Video: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, RPM4, MOV, and AVI.

This seems a bit odd, since MPEG-4 is an encoding standard, DivX and XviD are implementations of MPEG-4, MOV and AVI are container file formats. Saying it plays MOV and AVI files presumable means that it can play MPEG-1/2/4 streams inside MOV and AVI containers, but this is highly ambiguous.

Check out TomsHardware.com's review of Soundbridge

[PieEye]

It sounds like the Roku Soundbridge might be what you're looking for. Non-MS, but plays lots of formats (no OGG though).

Tom's Networking just did a review that covers this subject, including how to serve tunage to it over a Linux server (they mention the hacked NSLU2 project, but it sounds like any Linux box could do the job).

Or, heck, skip the network and just use CompactFlash.

Close but the price!

[Dark Paladin]

This device actually comes close to what I want. I have 3 children, 2 of which are old enough to put DVD's into the machine. The problem is they don't always hold them right (hey, they're only 5 and 2 years old, go easy), and because of that, the DVD's are getting scratched up.

I've been thinking about buying a mod-chip for my Xbox for some time (cost: about $70 including shiping/handling for the no-sauter kind) and using the Xbox Media Center, using Handbrake on the DVD's, leaving them on the Powermac, then streaming them to the TV through a SMB share. DVD's stay in the cases, kids get to see movies, and Daddy doesn't kill anybody.

But the idea of using a "real" product (not just a self made hack) is always appealing - but $500 is a lot of money to spend. Then again, my iPod cost $399, so I really can't talk for a similiar device that does video as well as audio.

Still, you'd think they could create an iTunes like system for the video and music files. I mean, is a database of MP3 tags really that hard to come up with?

another alternative : the 1.4 Ghz Xbox

[da5idnetlimit.com]

If you have a wee bit more money, there is the upgraded Xbox...

Celeron 1.4 ghz instead of the 700 Mhz, 128 Mo Ram instead of 64...

Available as a reboxed set @ 399 US $.

For the more adventurous, you can have just the modded xbox mobo for 260 US $...

So you still have a microsoft box (which you don't want), but now with extra juice to run all apps...

No ultra-compressed video stream should pose problem anymore, and you have better perf on all Original Xbox Games (tm)...

+ Having access to just the mobo should give you the opportunity to mod your own media center, if you're into that...

As parent said, no video capture.
But you have everything else now possible 8)

Squeezebox

[Xenna]

Is there anything as good as the Slimserver/Squeezebox combo? If there is, I don't know it yet. Populate your house with a few squeezeboxes connected to a central server and you have all you need...

http://www.slimdevices.com/