Slashdot Mirror
MP3beamer Released
An anonymous reader writes "MP3tunes, Michael Robertson's new music venture, has released a snazzy linux music appliance called MP3beamer. The $399 box auto-rips CDs and imports MP3s and then connects to iTunes, Java devices, media receivers, web devices even WinCE units with handy feature to "sync" songs from server to remote machine for offline playback not just streaming - see screenshots. Last time Robertson launched something with "Beam" in the name it led to avalanche of lawsuits and more then $150MM in legal payments with BeamIt from the old MP3.com." It'd be excellent to get a review of one of these machines; looks like a good one.
EVEN BETTER! It appears they are selling just the software for $70 to let you use your own machine as the "beamer" hardware. OS included!!
Don't mod me, bro'!!!!
All I need is one of these that can convert on-the-fly from a native store of FLAC to MP3 or Vorbis depending on the using application. Oh, and, currenntly, an 800 GiB hard disc. *sigh* Yeah, I know, "not the target market" and all that jazz, and I'll probably get one regardless of the lack of FLAC/Vorbis, but...
James F.
Still, looks like a nice box.
--
Does MSN censor search results?
...you can get a Mac Mini to do just about all that and more. I have mine hooked up to my TV doing most of what this does, as well as playing games, showing slideshows, and ripping and playing DVDs.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Also a software only version for $69.95. I already use a crappy old PC as a media server, I might upgrade it. I guess for you average consumer it depends how easy/difficult the setup for it is.
This product borrows heavily from the OSS Slimserver product, which is primarily developed for the Squeezebox and SliMP3 by http://www.slimdevices.com/Slim Devices.
If you check out the site, they're offering the software only for around $70 which makes it a more viable solution for many of us unwilling to buy a box for $400.
The only box that has to be running Linux is the main beamer, so you could easily work this right into an existing home M$ network.
It even looks like you can beam your collection remotely to work.
Also, different users can play different tunes at the same time.
It seems pretty cool and useful at first glance.
Sure the software is available, but it doesn't set itself up. If a non-/.'er wanted to set this up they'd either have to spend a large amount of time learning linux and such, or pay a geek quite a bit of cash to make it work.
As the other poster indicated, it does run a P4-derived Celeron [as a sidenote, isn't it about time to retire the product name Celeron? It has caused confusion since the days of the Celeron 300a]. Personally I'd rather it ran a low-power processor, such as a Pentium M or Powerstep processor, or even the via processors (formerly Cyrix). A 2.4Ghz Celeron is a ridiculous power hog for something that plays MP3s. Hell I put together a fully capable full-video media player machine with a 2.4Ghz Celeron.
Do any of the moderators actually read the fucking article first?
The CPU is a 2.4Ghz Celeron. It's not an expensive P4.
Not that I don't agree with you, but you do realize that the specs for a power supply list how much power it _can_ supply, not how much it _does_ supply at any given point?
For example, the server that I use for development, storage, MP3, SMTP, IMAP, HTTP, SMB, etc is an AMD 2600 with two (2) 200GB 7200 RPM drives and 1 GB RAM.
Even though it has a 400W power supply, I've measured that it uses 140W.
Regardless, your point still stands as the server costs about $15 / mo to run.
While it is actually a Celeron, note this benchmark of CPUs encoding MP3s.
MP3tunes purchase and loading MP3s to MP3beamer - 10:18 mins
Mpeg Low-Res - 43.5MB
Mpeg High-Res - 60 MB
iTunes streaming, Home Stereo use - 10:39 mins
Mpeg Low-Res - 40MB
Mpeg High-Res - 55MB
iTunes syncing, iPod loading, PDA playback - 11:30 mins
Mpeg Low-Res- 39MB
Mpeg High-Res - 49MB
its not a beamer! a bmw car is a bimmer, a beamer is a motorcycle... i'd also like to check one of these things out, i wonder if it would work well in the trunk of a car...
If you are worried about the electric bill, build a mini-itx based system. They can be ran off of a 60 watt power supply (some require 90) and would make a great dedicated music server. They are not powerfull enough to worry about your electric bill.....and some can be nearly silent (no fans) except for hd and cd noise.
Stop signs are only Suggestions
It doesn't sync your iTunes collection, you stream from the server using iTunes' built-in sharing.
WMLS11B is a standard UPnP client. The TwonkyVision Media Server works just great to serve MP3s to my WMLS11B from linux.
In finance terms, MM is more like "M times M," or 1000 times 1000.
By the way, I'm a little scared that my "Roman emperor Maximus who was known for having thousands" explanation was called "Insightful." I must be new here.
For more information, click here.
It kinda sucks that it doesn't at least include unprotected AAC support. It seems like, outside of Apple, AAC is turning into a flop (although I know the Roku Soundbridge supports it).
I currently run SlimServer on an old Dell Optiplex, and it supports AAC -- via re-encoding on the fly with faad2. I don't know if the Roku Soundbridge uses this method (it also uses SlimServer) or if the hardware natively supports it, but it makes sense that the MP3Beamer ALSO supports AAC via re-encoding on the fly, given that their software is based on SlimServer.
However, setting up to re-encode on the fly is likely outside the scope of the MP3Beamer's target audience (plug in, turn on, forget about it) -- as is explaining why they can play their own AACs, but not those they download from iTunes.
Oh, and for those considering the SlimServer/old boxen approach, I had SlimServer originally running on an old Pentium II 450 with 384mb of memory, which was also running web/mail/ssh/samba/NAT services. It could even do the re-encoding on the fly, unless someone hit a web site, at which point there'd be a slight hiccup in playback. I moved to a Pentium III 800 with 512 of memory, and now everything's peachy.
Note: I do my listening with a Slim Devices Squeezebox, which I love. YMMV with Soundbridge, et al.
Easy answer: check out Slim Devices Squeezebox. Here's how it addresses your needs:
1. The box is barely wider or taller than the display, and it's not very deep, either.
2. The output is analog or digital stereo, not 5.1 or 7.1, but it doesn't funnel video anyway so there's no need for surround sound support (unless there's 5.1 and 7.1 non-movie audio out there?)
3. You can use the remote and the surprisingly large and bright screen to configure your player, search through your music, build playlists, adjust the volume, change the screensaver, pull up internet radio streams, play pacman and tetris...okay, those last two might be gratuitous.
4. You can use any computer on your network to change the playlist on and control all aspects of every player you have. Not only can you start Ben Folds and Beastie Boys playing on two different players from a computer in another room (or over the internet), you can also sync them so that they both play the same music AT THE SAME TIME in both rooms.
I highly recommend the wired version, because it's cheap, in stock, and reliable as hell.