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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.
...until you realize it costs four hundred dollars. I'll stick to iTunes, thanks.
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'!!!!
Reminds me of Tivo for the musically inclined. Consumers do seem to like black boxes, as long as they work right the first time. I'd look at this for myself - it would be nice to have a music only drive and dedicate one machine for that task. Four hundred is a decent price point as well.
"As the intrepid kobold companion continues his journey, he begins to wonder... if priests raises dead, why anybody die?
Only MP3 Beamer I can think of is the iPod for the BMW.
Interesting, none-the-less.
"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
Picturing Dr. Evil, giggling and saying "Unless you give us 150 Million Million dollars!!! Mwahahaha etc. etc."
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.
You too can spend an exorbitant amount of money on software that is already freely available! This software package is only $70! It allows you to rip and share your MP3s all over your house just like everyone else does with Samba or built in Microsoft networking or your typical streaming MP3 server!
You can also buy a $400 2.4 Ghz Celeron with a ridiculously small amount of RAM (256) and HD space (80GB) which includes Linspire which wants you to pay to upgrade software available for other Linux distributions FREE!
Sorry guys, I'm sticking to my current setup that includes free software that's just as easy to use.
A machine you can put on autopirate and it works! A new generation of AI!
My little site.
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.
"CPU Support: Intel Celeron-D 320 2.4Ghz Processor"
Ads for nerds, stuff that doesn't really matter(exept to the advertisers)
I use my roomates machine to stream and store all of my music. He doesn't notice and it cost me no money.
Did I mention that he's not very computer literate?
Heck, with Hymn they could even add support for iTMS files, outside of the US anyways. Not that it matters. If I wanted to change portable players I'd just find one that played unprotected AAC and run my music through Hymn myself. But there don't seem to be any options out there!
I'm from philly originally (sadly now live in VA) and I was very saddened to hear about the loss of Y100. I've been to 4 Feztivals and a Feastival and have 4 of the sonic sessions CDs. I always looked forwarded to hearing the station when I was in the area. Good luck getting them back!
So why can't I do this with my existing machine and maybe an additional hard disk for storage? Oh wait, I already do!
In other words, Slashdot editors want a free one to play with.
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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.
A while back I noticed that iTunes has the ability to automatically rip a CD when it's put in the drive. And when it's done the CD can be automatically ejected. I'm not certain but I suspect that combined with some Applescript and a CD jukebox could be a frightenly effective combination. How much you wanna bet that programmers at Apple have already done it for themselves?
In the product FAQ, they mention an MP3Beamer Sync component that automatically syncs your iTunes collection with your MP3Beamer collection. I'm curious how they pulled this off. Does the iTunes Sharing protocol (DAAP) support file upload? Or are they pushing the music in some other way?
Seriously, I'd prefer to have my music in a format unemcumbered by licensing fees to Thompson...
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Now that's not a fair claim... if nothing else this product has a processor with a turing-complete machine language.
I built a computer that does what the MP3Beamer does, does that mean I can sue?
/. stories involving new technology also include a snippet about how X sued Y over frivilous object Z?
This is OT, but does it seem like a high percentage of
Do any of the moderators actually read the fucking article first?
The CPU is a 2.4Ghz Celeron. It's not an expensive P4.
People are generally impatient. If the box takes 10 minutes to encode one MP3, nobody will want it.
$150 in M&Ms would not be so bad. If only my Ex-wife had only asked for that!
Yeah, we wouldnt want anything to be easy for the music 'consumer'. If only there were a simple solution to music piracy problems.
air and light and time and space
Just pay a kid 10 cents per CD to drop them in the mp3beamer for you. Like Robertson himself did.
As many others here have stated, it looks like this machine is just running a modified version of the SlimServer software. I was shopping for wireless MP3 players last year and I got myself a Linksys WMLS11B. This MP3beamer says that certain media receivers can play the content stored on it, and it shows a picture of the WMLS11B.
My question is, how are they doing that? The server component I need to use currently is MusicMatch, which sucks. I need to run Windows on a seperate computer for it and it's very unreliable. I'd like to switch to a Linux based server but I'm not going to shell out $400 when I've got 100's of gigs of music already. How can I get SlimServer (or any other software) to broadcast to my media player?
While it is actually a Celeron, note this benchmark of CPUs encoding MP3s.
Correction: 20 cents per CD. Oops.
That said, I have a couple of squeezeboxes connected to a slimserver, and it does what it does nicely. No muss, no fuss.
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
in general i agree with you but itunes (which would be the central tool used here) is best of class and of breed when it comes to MP3..
exceptions would be ogg vorbis or other things like that 99% of people do not care about...
Apple already beat them to the punch. Wait, wrong Beamer...
Did you look at the machine specs? And the reason they aren't using a sempron is because Asus don't make a Pundit that uses the sempron proc.
What exactly does this do that I can't do with my Mac already? I've already ripped my CDs and keep my whole music collection in my iTunes library. It already syncs with my iPod. I can stream music to my main stereo system, over the Airport network to my Roku Soundbridge. And. . . I don't have a PDA. So what's the point of buying a whole new $400 box to do all this stuff?
Am I missing something?
Why not just use grip? That's what I do and I am doing the same thing that you are. I figure I have to be at the computer to swap the cd's and an extra click for rip & encode isn't too much work. I do have a script that the encoder calls that does the wav -> mp3 and the wav -> flac.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Am I wrong?
This might be offtopic but its' in honest question regarding the device...
What is the case the system is in? I find it very attractive and small. Can anyone help me out with a link or a name?
The Mac mini is a great $499 computer until you put enough options on it to make it worth while. It's a mere $724 with a Superdrive and 80GB HDD. Want a monitor? Not included in this magic $499 price, want wireless? Keep raising the low low $499. Wow, my $499 Mac Mini is really cheap when it has features added, mine would be over $1000 with a few basic additions (512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, wireless, Monitor, DVD-RW, Airport crap). Dimension 3000 with same config (RAM, HDD, DVD-RW, Monitor) was $669. That Mac mini is sure cute.
This is not a discount or cheap computer, it's just another expensive Mac completely stripped down so it looks cheap. At least it's not an eMac or iMac or whatever cute Volkswagon Bug-type crap Mac will try to overprice and get people who buy "cute" things to jump all over. At least they offer loans.
Am I missing something?
Dude, it's Linux... Don't you get it?
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Ok, this is great. We now have at least three appliance-like devices that can take ripped cds and make them available over a network (comments about how the mac mini already does this aside). But where are the clients? This is the missing link. Sure, you can buy some crappy mp3 players that will let you browse a gigantic list of mp3s on a tiny lcd display, and won't support multiple formats or playlists or have high quality audio outputs for your stereo system...c'mon, we need a good client.
What I want:
1) A miniature box with networking capabilities that can take multiple input formats, and generate high quality audio output (something I can put in every room where I have an amp and a set of speakers). By high quality audio output, I mean support for 5.1 or 7.1 surround in addition to just plain stereo. Doesn't need to be powered, I can plug in my own amps.
2) Ability to configure and play music from the display. So, if I'm sitting in the room and want to listen to some Bach, I can just walk over, press a few buttons, and adjust the volume.
3) Ability to push music/playlists to the client from a networked computer or the server. So if I am sitting in the computer room, and I want Ben Folds playing in the kitchen and Beastie Boys playing in the living room, I can just click a few buttons and have it happen.
Seriously, the server is there and has been there for a while. Now we need some quality clients to get your house really wired up. And yes, I'm aware I can set up a computer in every room, and fiddle with software settings and audio outputs...maybe write some custom software. The idea is to make this an appliance. Out of the box, easy to setup and just use.
Ripping chews cycles. The speed is mostly so it doesn't take 20 minutes to import a new CD.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
But, does he own the schematics or did he find them somewhere and assume they were free?
Too expensive... but a cool idea would be to hack the software so it shares your collection with all of your friends. Perhaps only let it serve 2 tracks at any given time, then make a network of these so you can play music from anyone connected to the network. You wouldn't store the stuff locally, of course, but the collective would have a huge library of music.
I was looking at those setup tv devices that let you play stored mpeg1/2/4 content from a server. Neat but they rely on a host computer to do processing, which isn't a glamerous as a housewide media network of setop boxes accessing a fileserver.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
Incredibly funny phrase. Maybe I'm just in a mood. Haven't RTA yet but the post made my day. Good jorb.
All the money that goes into technology research and the best we can do is yet another toy for listening to music?
All the money that goes into drug research and the best we can do is yet another ED pill or something to stop heartburn or keep your nose from running.
Sometimes consumerism gets me so depressed that I go out on a shopping binge.
Read any good sonnets lately?
I used to work for MP3.com back in the day, and this sounds a lot like "Da Bomb", the internal code name for the mechanism we had set up for mass ripping of CDs. Granted, this is a single linux box, and we had a cluster of a few hundred devoted to this purpose, but the concept is the same. We hired hourlies to insert new CDs into trays as they popped out, and the ripped data got automatically indexed and shipped off to its appropriate place in the disk farm. This isn't the first time MR has been interested in appliances. MP3.com sold music appliances to businesses to replace Muzak installations. The boxes needed to be plugged into a phone line, and would download playlists and new MP3s as needed. The store would log into a web interface at MP3.com and set up play lists and schedules. All it was was a cheap PC with a customized Linux distro and mpg123 playing files using cron. A *very* cool setup with a much lower monthly fee than Muzak. At one time all Rubio's restaurants had them.
Seeing how it has a DVD/Combo Drive, it is probably was designed to rip DVD's but legal realized to many problems.
Plus at those speeds, it will rip in minutes as opposed say half an hour for a slower machine.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
They probably are using Grip or something like it.
Grip can be configured to auto rip and then eject.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
Yeah, and us BMW drivers may be snobs about the whole thing, but... We're BMW drivers.
I've been thinking lately about a similar device for an in-car player/media station which would combine an in-dash slot-loading drive (Pioneer makes them, such as the DVD-106s or similar) with a small PC with a local hard drive and 802.11.
You could pop a new CD into the drive on the way home/to work/wherever, and the system would recognize it as a new device, automatically ripping it. With multi-session, it shouldn't be a problem to rip while playing. When you return home (or anywhere with an 802.11 connection) the system would automatically pull down CDDB data, and assuming your access point's range included your garage the ripped album could be sent automatically to a process running on a local machine.
I hadn't thought about using iPods, et. al to push the music to, but it's a neat application. Problems to be solved include needing a simple daemon to notify of media change (think famd for removable media). There's an ioctl for it, and I have a clip of reference code for those interested, but I haven't determined whether polling for change will force a drive close (or with a slot-loading drive, simply pulling the disc back in) any time the software polls for change.
Aside from that, a process to control ripping and encoding gracefully in the event of system shutdown or the user removing the disc would be needed. Also on the wish list would be a process which would wait for an available Internet connection to poll CDDB data when possible. Bonus points would be given if the process would realize when you're on a home LAN and push the music to your "main" PC.
Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
BeamIT was such a great idea, I was really upset when the legal types killed it, which didn't take too long, and I've been searching ever since for a solution that is as good.
All you had to do was put in a CD which you legally purchased, mp3.com would make a note that you owned this CD, then would let you download any songs off that CD on any other computer from anywhere in the world. I had all my music, at my fingertips from anywhere, for free, without having to manage my own server.
If anyone, knows a solution anything like this in the world today, please let me know.
The Mac Mini is a computer. This is an appliance.
Is it still a computer if you use it like it's an appliance?
My other first post is car post.
Apparently, the above replies don't get the humor in the joke. Maybe it's because they drive, Bimmers? Beemers? BMWs. Whatever.
"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
lots of emulators for Mac.
My other first post is car post.
The first time you insert an audio CD you'll be asked if you want your Mac mini to launch iTunes. You can set iTunes to automatically rip and eject CDs (and pick the format).
I imagine you can probably get a cheap PC to do the same trick using WMP (although you'll have to fight the defaults harder to avoid locked up file formats).
Oh, but a Mac mini is *slightly* more expensive than this $400 one-trick-pony.
Download SlimServer and do most of that for free.
Is it just me, or dose the 'beamer' box look exactly like an ASUS pundit case?
Asus Pundit
-Millions of Monkeys, Millions of typewriters, 6 hours of sorting through faeces encrusted pages to find: This post
and it was rejected then -- not sure why.
/. thing... ;)
If anyone cares of another quick read, feel free to check out my original coverage of the MP3beamer announcement. It's not much, just my read on the unit.
BTW, I figured it being a linux box, and the iTunes/iPod connectivity, it'd be sure to get picked up immediately! Again, not sure why my original submission would have been rejected (would love to know!), but then I'm still new to this
-d
--- David Chait, Editor [CHAITGEAR]
Actually, at some level I disagree. The Celeron gives the box some 'headroom' to expand it. With the DVI/vid outs, you can use this as quite an extensive media player if you want to. And at the pricepoint, using one of the low-power chips and chipsets would have made the unit much more expensive. This way it's pretty much 'standard components'. On another level, I'm working on an article building a VIA EPIA-M 10000 media player box using Linux, booting via inexpensive (and silent) USB devices, and pulling media off of network storage. So I agree, silence is nice. ;) But, that's meant to be hooked up to a HDTV and stereo DIRECTLY, whereas the beamer could be seen as designed to sit tucked away somewhere...
-d
--- David Chait, Editor [CHAITGEAR]
Sure, it sounds like a wonderful idea until you realize that it's a very ordinary celeron box with fairly ordinary software you can replicate with readily available open source software. This box is going to be expensive to keep running 24/7, too. As already mentioned a microITX box would be cheaper, at the cost of reduced performance. I'd go for a Mac mini myself. It's $100 more than Robertson's solution, but it's tiny and quiet, and you'll probably make up the price difference in a year with your utility bill. I went a much cheaper route: I bought a Linksys NSLU2 ($80), attached a 250GB USB drive ($130), hacked it using the instructions at http://www.nslu2-linux.org/, installed Samba 3 (for Unicode support) and NFS to share music files with my computers (mounting this network volume on a Mac or PC you can easily maintain the collection with iTunes), mt-daapd to serve the music to iTunes and the Roku SoundBridge, and recently jamvm to run the GlooLabs java server so the HomePod can see it too. Not bad for half the price Robertson wants for his lame device. FWIW, the SoundBridge is absolutely wonderful. Don't buy a competing device until you've had a chance to play with one.
Well even if it doesn't have a built in TV out (not sure if it does) You could always use a scan converter.
Go away, or I will replace you with a very small shell script.
There's an S-Video/composite video adapter available on apple's site. It outputs from dvi to svideo and composite.
Apple sells a $19 adapter that connects to the DVI jack and has composite (RCA) and S-Video out. Use S-Video if your TV supports it.
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http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.a sp
--- widget evolution: enhanced, plus, super, ultra, extreme, exxxtreme, ultra-extreme,
I also own a HomePod and I just bought a NLSU2. It runs mt-daapd to serve my music library to all workstations in the home. I plan to run the Gloo Java server on it. What JVM dis you install ? How did it go ? What are the performances when mt-daapd and the Gloo server over Java run at the same time ? Thanks a lot in advance for your response.