MagicPlay: the Open Source AirPlay

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

MagicPlay: the Open Source AirPlay

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday July 2, 2013 @10:34AM from the does-not-involve-shivan-dragons dept.

New submitter JonLech writes "Ever since Apple launched AirTunes in 2004 (later renamed AirPlay) they have remained unchallenged in the Wi-Fi music streaming market. With various manufacturers releasing AirPlay-only Wi-Fi speakers, Android and other non-Apple device users have been left out in the cold. Today that changes with the release of MagicPlay, an open standard for music streaming (think 'HTTP for music') with a BSD-licensed open source reference implementation that any app developer or hardware manufacturer can integrate into their products. For the Linux fans out there, I've written up some instructions on how to turn your Raspberry Pi into a MagicPlay device."

29 of 177 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

its not news yet by viperidaenz · 2013-07-02 10:38 · Score: 3, Insightful

If there isn't wide spread hardware adoption, its a useless 'standard'
1. Re:its not news yet by buchner.johannes · 2013-07-02 11:12 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  You are implying that you would like hardware manufacturers to make a de-facto standard by selling devices first, and then open it up.
  This is the route AirPlay went so far, and where all vendor lock-in happens.
  A standard allows multiple parties to come together (hardware vendors, software devs, sellers) and have a common ground / interface, so everyone knows what they are talking about. So progress on spreading a open solution should be accelerated by defining a standard first.
  
  --
  NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
2. Re:its not news yet by viperidaenz · 2013-07-02 11:19 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I'm implying that declaring "the new standard in xyz" is not news worthly unless it is actually picked up and implemented by more than a handful of irrelevant people who made a pretty website and metioned the Raspberry Pi.
  The summary goes on to talk about only being able to buy AirPlay speakers. Where can I buy MagicPlay speakers? Nowhere? thought so. Not really a standard then is it? It's not recognised by any standards institutes. It's just someones pet OSS project at the moment. Because its open, they're declaring it a standard.
3. Re:its not news yet by TigerTime · 2013-07-02 11:59 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Slashdot.org is not a newsfeed for Pintrest and Best Buy shoppers. It's for technical people that are interest in geeky stuff that may or may be available at your local retailer yet.
  All standards come out long before actual products. 4K TV? 802.11ac? MiraCast? All these are technologies that are built on standards that have just been introduced in the last couple years. Yet people on here have been talking about them before products are actually introduced? Why? Because this is a fucking website geared toward shit like that.
4. Re:its not news yet by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 12:29 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  But what good is knowledge if it is not wrapped in a consumer product!?
  Unbelievable.
  Does this attitude stem from the fact that "geek" now includes a vast swath of electronic entertainment consumers who have no interest in how things work under the hood? Or is it the impulse to piss on anyone who tries to do something that is not immediately amenable to generating profits?
5. Re:its not news yet by viperidaenz · 2013-07-02 14:52 · Score: 2
  
  Standards become standards when a group decides on it.
  802.11ac? That group was IEEE.
  4K TV? I guess that's covered under the HDMI supported resolutions.
  MiraCast? That would be the Wi-Fi Alliance.
6. Re:its not news yet by zieroh · 2013-07-02 16:02 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The summary goes on to talk about only being able to buy AirPlay speakers. Where can I buy MagicPlay speakers? Nowhere? thought so. Not really a standard then is it?
  Wow. I'm often critical of slashdot users for missing the forest for the trees, but rarely do I find slashdotters who are simultaneously as clueless, willfully ignorant, and aggressively obnoxious in a single post.
  Well done, sir. You're a complete and utter fucktard.
  
  --
  People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
Incompatible with AirPlay? by MrEricSir · 2013-07-02 10:43 · Score: 4, Insightful

If it's not compatible with AirPlay what's the point? My Linux music server already supports AirPlay, so does my MythTV, so does my iPhone. Why do we need yet a different new standard, especially if it doesn't work with existing devices?

--
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
1. Re:Incompatible with AirPlay? by jawtheshark · 2013-07-02 10:46 · Score: 2
  
  Obligatory XKCD.
  
  --
  Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
2. Re:Incompatible with AirPlay? by Qwavel · 2013-07-02 10:56 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Um, because AirPlay is proprietary.
  There are people who's media world doesn't revolve around an iPhone. And while there are various stop gap measure for those users - including using AirPlay in unauthorized ways - it is still a proprietary protocol, and this is Apple so we know they will release the lawyers when the time comes.
  I actually find it remarkable that I should have to argue that an open standard that does something like AirPlay would be a good thing if it were done right and caught on.
3. Re:Incompatible with AirPlay? by bonehead · 2013-07-02 11:16 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Um, because AirPlay is proprietary.
  There are people who's media world doesn't revolve around an iPhone. And while there are various stop gap measure for those users - including using AirPlay in unauthorized ways - it is still a proprietary protocol, and this is Apple so we know they will release the lawyers when the time comes.
  I actually find it remarkable that I should have to argue that an open standard that does something like AirPlay would be a good thing if it were done right and caught on.
  You are 100% correct in everything you say. But he still has a point.
  Being Apple compatible is the "sexy" thing to do in the manufacturing world these days, and this is all rather useless if you can't go to Best Buy and pick up a device that supports it.
  Add to that the fact that there is an existing standard that can already do this stuff (UPnP/DLNA), and do it better. And those standards actually have some device support, although the implementations all seem like they were a quickly hacked together afterthought.
  That said, being outside of the Apple world, I have found that Plex media server + Roku + Plex Android app handles all of my media streaming needs just fine.
4. Re:Incompatible with AirPlay? by aXis100 · 2013-07-02 11:47 · Score: 2
  
  A DLNA device can be both a client and a server, and you can instruct servers to play content you have chosen. I'm pretty sure I've done this XBMC's DNLA implementation, controlled from my PC.
Re:What about UPnP? by DaHat · 2013-07-02 10:53 · Score: 3, Informative

Bingo! urn:upnp-org:serviceId:AVTransport & urn:upnp-org:serviceId:ContentDirectory already provide this... and have been implemented in quite a few devices & OSes.

--
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Re:What about UPnP? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 11:00 · Score: 4, Insightful

UPnP AV is one of the most awful standards ever developed. I don't know about the AVTransport spec, but the rest of it is just horrible crap.
Never Ever Bloody Refer To UPnP AV As A Good Thing.
Wish idiots would understand how to quote by tuppe666 · 2013-07-02 11:02 · Score: 2

Obligatory XKCD.
The joke is about creating a standard to replace multiple incompatible standards...simply adds to the standard. This is about pragmatism; its about creating an open version of Apple Inc proprietary protocol stack/suite.
Re:Lots of protocols for music over the network by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-02 11:11 · Score: 2, Insightful

It's already dead, unless Google themselves back it and get device manufacturers on board. I have a Yamaha audio receiver that already does DLNA and airplay, what niche does this fill? There's no way that AV receiver is going to get a bios update to support this, and there's no way I'm re-buying $1000 of equipment that already supports 4k resolution so I can have maybe 1 more format be supported. Linux already supports Airplay, this is typical ideological chest beating over open standards. Reinventing something that already works on Linux and Android is stupid and why Open code is having such trouble gaining adoption. You have to lead in innovation not play catch-up to the big boys. Don't try to get airplay remade, rather try to make 3d content stream,or something else that hasn't been done by the competitors.
Already dead on arrival. by DMJC · 2013-07-02 11:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's already dead, unless Google themselves back it and get device manufacturers on board. I have a Yamaha audio receiver that already does DLNA and airplay, what niche does this fill? There's no way that AV receiver is going to get a bios update to support this, and there's no way I'm re-buying $1000 of equipment that already supports 4k resolution so I can have maybe 1 more format be supported. Linux already supports Airplay, this is typical ideological chest beating over open standards. Reinventing something that already works on Linux and Android is stupid and why Open code is having such trouble gaining adoption. You have to lead in innovation not play catch-up to the big boys. Don't try to get airplay remade, rather try to make 3d content stream,or something else that hasn't been done by the competitors.
No specs? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · 2013-07-02 11:56 · Score: 3, Insightful

The docs directory on github is essentially empty. If they can't even provide a formal specification they are no better than reverse engineered versions of airplay. What a fucking joke.

--
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
1. Re:No specs? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · 2013-07-02 13:07 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  You are obviously interested in documentation of this project.
  Yes, I wanted to know how many channels, what resolutions, what formats and what sorts of latencies "maigcplay" could handle. So I went looking for documentation and found no answers.
  
  Go fucking write the fucking specification then!
  
  If the developers don't care enough to document their own protocols, I sure as fuck ain't going to do for them. Chances are its full of holes anyways, anyone who codes without a plan ends up with crap.
  
  --
  When information is power, privacy is freedom.
2. Re:No specs? by smash · 2013-07-02 14:11 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Writing the code before the spec (i.e., what you are intending to have the code do) means that whatever buggy-ass shit the coder writes as his version 0.1 ends up being the "spec". Which means that when the bugs are fixed (if they are ever fixed, as they're part of the spec now!), it breaks the spec.
  
  --
  I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
UPNP AV by AceJohnny · 2013-07-02 12:06 · Score: 3, Interesting

There's already a competing open standard.
It's what I use with my android devices (via BubbleUPNP), XBMC and my Squeezebox.

--
Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
Re:accessory manufacturers are desperate by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2013-07-02 12:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

It is quite funny how some people, such as the guy you're responding to, honestly seem to believe if they just wish something hard enough it'll become the truth. There also seems to be a Wikiality component involved.

--
#DeleteChrome
Poor Analogy by tuppe666 · 2013-07-02 12:10 · Score: 4, Insightful

HDMI is proprietary too, but I'd have a hard time arguing that a competing open standard would improve the current landscape.
The HDMI Founders are Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic/National/Quasar), Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, RCA and Toshiba.[15] Digital Content Protection, LLC provides HDCP (which was developed by Intel) for HDMI.[16] HDMI has the support of motion picture producers Fox, Universal, Warner Bros. and Disney, along with system operators DirecTV, EchoStar (Dish Network) and CableLabs unlike AirPlay (previously called AirTunes when it was for audio only is a proprietary protocol stack/suite developed by Apple Inc.
Did you spot the chasm of difference between the two.
1. Re:Poor Analogy by BLKMGK · 2013-07-02 14:57 · Score: 2
  
  http://www.knowyourmobile.com/android-apps/18049/best-airplay-apps-android
  That was the top hit, I'm sure if you can figure out Google you will find more. Once Apple's Airplay keys leaked a bunch of apps were built for Linux and obviously Android too. the XBMC community talked about this awhile ago when XBMC implemented Airplay but having an IOS device I've never had to worry about it except when Apple has stupidly tried to interfere with the compatibility - that never lasts long :-)
  
  --
  Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
2. Re:Poor Analogy by TranquilVoid · 2013-07-02 15:40 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The difference is that you'd be struggling to buy a TV in Best Buy/Walmart that didn't support HDMI. The proportion of network-connected media players that support AirPlay is not even close to universal.
Re:SMB alternative by bonehead · 2013-07-02 12:23 · Score: 3, Funny

TuxRacer, of course!
Not an AirPlay competitor... by maccodemonkey · 2013-07-02 12:37 · Score: 2

Oh good! An AirPlay competitor! I wonder what video codec they used... Lemme just look through the code and...
Oh. It seems it doesn't support video at all. Not really an AirPlay competitor then...
Re:Incompatible with Upnp by smash · 2013-07-02 13:37 · Score: 2, Insightful

Because Airplay does so much more than UPnP or DLNA. Whether you like apple or not, i can start playback on one device, move it to another mid-steam and not skip a beat. It does video. I can use it to do desktop mirroring.
Whilst nerds on slashdot bitch about "proprietary garbage", real people are actually using and enjoying technology like this that has compatible hardware on the shelf (not just from apple) and actually works.

--
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Re:The article is misleading.. by BLKMGK · 2013-07-02 15:24 · Score: 2

No, sorry it's not open. It uses encryption and the only reason why some of the features work on Linux or elsewhere is because the crypto key was found in a firmware update. That is why when some IOS updates have come out Shairport etc. has gotten broken on Linux, Apple changed the keys. Once the new keys are figured out support resumes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPlay

--
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org