Re: [slim] Logitech divesting from some product lines
Sinkdrain wrote: I use my phone to control my squeezebox but would never want to control my whole system with it. The beauty of a remote is keeping your eyes of it and using it by feel. Its great to push one tactile button that immediately starts a sequence of commands for a single activity. No unlocking a screen, finding an app and worse switching between them. The idea of using phones and tablets as remotes is new and fun but not long lasting like a well designed dedicated remote. Squeezebox is different as your dealing with album covers... But I'd never control the volume of my receive with squeezecommander! Totally agree with that. I have used my iPad and iPod Touch as a remote for a while before I bought a Harmony One +. Although the iThinges had nice user interfaces and capabilities, I couldnt get around the tactile feel one gets from a hardware remote. There were plenty of occasions where I pressed the wrong buttons on the iThings. Or even pressed buttons by accident. That was the main reason for me to switch to a hardware remote. Once again Logitech shows that it has absolutely no vision. Sure that UE will have a very short life at Logitech as well. Logitech is only great at killing great products. Pascal Hibon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7969 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97925 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Logitech divesting from some product lines
erland wrote: I guess the situation is going to be different in 5-10 years when we start to get universal remote control apps for smart phone/tablets which can control multiple devices, but before that happens IR remotes like the Harmony line will still have a future. You dont need to wait that long for such apps. I used Red Eye and Beacon (the latter is a piece of crap by the way). Both of these are capable of remote controlling different type and brand of equipment. Both have IR learning capabilities too. They work very much like the Harmony remotes. Yet, the hardware remote works a lot better in my hand for the reasons already mentioned. Pascal Hibon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7969 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97925 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Logitech divesting from some product lines
Why are all fine engineered products dicontinued :-( It happens to me all the time...Squeezebox, Harmony Sakkerju's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=37149 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97925 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
JackOfAll wrote: Yes, but the Pi onboard audio leaves more than a little to be desired from a SQ perspective. And as soon as you connect a UAC2 DAC you find out that the Pi is somewhat less than desirable as a platform in that regard, as well. Yes the Pi has audio has issues and the PI foundation is investing in sorting this out and trying to sort the USB issues you can get stable audio via the right sort of USB DAC/sound card and when the ausio issues are sorted the HMI can feed an AV amp anyway... bear in mind we would have to buy a platform the was already supported by the linux kernel, I think it is easy to underestimate how difficult its all is to get working you can see that from the Pi and the issues there and it has substantial momentum which is important for projects such as this that and it will be around a bit longer than your standard package. If we try and to it all I think we are doomed to failure I suspect what we really want to do is moce forward the software platform that is squeezebox, so we cant take advantage of any suitable hardware. Phill. pssc's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5644 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] HowTo- Install SqueezeSlave as a Windows Service
Is it possible to make squeezeslave work with a squeezebox server that requires authentication? I can see no place to enter username and password of my squeezebox user. Thanks, Stephan stephanvdplas's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=44861 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=62031 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
What's the objective here? Just to provide replacement hardware for existing users or to grow the whole Squeezebox user-ship? If the latter then I think you need to start with a self-contained appliance. I assume that everyone here is either running a server on the likes of an NAS, a commercial server, a self-built server (including me) or a desktop left switched on all the time. That isn't likely to be the profile of potential new users. A device that simply plays streams from a piece of kit the user doesn't have wouldn't make sense. If Logitech couldn't make money out of the product line I think the lack of a ready-made server must have been a factor. What would make sense to a wider potential user-ship would be a box which looks like an existing piece of domestic electronics kit, allows existing CD collections to be ripped and stored, acts as a front end for on-line purchases, doesn't need mouse, keyboard or screen, allows web-management of the collection and plays the collection through existing audio kit. That would be a useful piece of kit in its own right and the potential to stream to other devices would be an add-on. To some extent this sounds like the Vortexbox but in terms of a consumer device I think Fedora is probably the wrong base. Debian stable or a RHEL clone would be better. Or maybe even BSD. Also I'm not sure what tools Vortexbox provides for managing the collection. On my own server, because it runs headless, I use MPD plus an MPD web client that provides tag editing and another web application for file management, neither of which are as slick as I'd like nor are they integrated with each other or with the Squeezebox server. There's scope for extending the LMS or whatever it's called this week (the constant name changes can scarcely have helped sell the product) with such facilities. igoddard's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=52055 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
Just a quick Pi based solution costing (tax / shipping excluded) of a wired SB3 style replacement : - Pi B : 35$ - HiFiDIY Sabre USB DAC : 42 $ - 128 x 64 LCD Screen : 15$ - IR receiver : 3$ - Power : 10$ - few resistors, cables, solder, plugs, etc ... : 10$ TOTAL : 115$ Still miss a decent case, though ... NB : Pi based because of its : - linux / squeezelite support - GPIO/SPI ports available - python / C available libraries to interface screen and IR eLR!C's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=19360 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Net::UDAP - SqueezeBox Receiver configuration tool
in short: thanks so much for this script, it was the only thing that let me salvage my duet... I was /this/ close to buying a netbook to run an emulator instead. In case it's of use to others, here's what happened to me: LMS 7.5.5 was getting horribly laggy both on the controller and the web interface. Streaming was at first intermittent, then failed completely. The duet receiver would sometimes have the blue light, sometimes the white light. Errors in the log indicated difficulty finding the player. I'm pretty sure now that long timeouts on those sorts of errors were what was causing 7.5.5 to behave so slowly. I upgraded to 7.7.2 (including controller firmware), and while the newer version dealt with the no-player problem much better, and had much faster rescan speeds, the underlying problem was still there - duet receiver flaking out. I looked into the net::udap thing and got the Perl rigamarole working (the older compiled version had a lot more error messages it seemed). It turns out there was a garbage value in one of the fields that was totally buggering up the networking. Once I fixed that and saved it, back to normal! Then, I took it a step further, assigned a static IP and set the network to wired, then hung the box off of the Amp SR2g wireless extender/repeater we use to get decent video streaming to the basement. So, now all the music is coming in at N speeds instead of G. The whole system seems a lot more responsive than before, but I'm not sure if that's a function of 7.7.2 or N vs G, or both. pomatomus's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=34040 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=57861 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
So I have squeezeplay setup, using the latest beta that is out at this time. I'm streaming flacs from my house while I'm at work. I have my headphones on and listening to music.. is it me or is the sound quality garbage? It's like whenever there is bass the squeezeplay can't handle it or something? Anyone notice anything? Is this a known issue? It's like it can't handle a lot going on or something. The sound quality is awful... kllngtme's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=30198 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Using an iphone with ios 3.1.3 as a controller?
I thought I could use this old iphone as a squeezebox controller to make it into a nice remote but I can't find any any apps that run on this version of the iphone. Not logitech's Squeezebox or Orange Squeeze. Am I missing something? Thanks! Judy pyewackett's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9172 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97939 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
kllngtme wrote: So I have squeezeplay setup, using the latest beta that is out at this time. I'm streaming flacs from my house while I'm at work. I have my headphones on and listening to music.. is it me or is the sound quality garbage? It's like whenever there is bass the squeezeplay can't handle it or something? Anyone notice anything? Is this a known issue? It's like it can't handle a lot going on or something. The sound quality is awful... Something else must be wrong. I use squeezeplay at work listening to FLAC files on my work computer running LMS (computer feeding better speakers than typical) and sound is good. You say you are streaming FLACs from home. I assume this means that the FLACs are being transcoded to mp3 on the home side before coming to you over the internet. What are you settings in LMS for bitrate limiting. Might be set for -v9 or something (making very low bitrate mp3 files). Change bitrate limiting setting to -V2 or -V3 and should be much better. garym's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17325 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
JohnSwenson wrote: What I am thinking about is one of the TI cortex A8 CPUs, armV7 based with the VFPv3 floating point unit. The ones I'm looking at are in the 600-700MHz range. You can get faster ones but they cost more, and are only available on the bigger chips which are much harder to route, which most likely means a more expensive board. The design I'm thinking of has 256MB memory, it's easy to go to 512MB but the memory chip costs 3 times as much for doubling the capacity. Anything above 512MB means multiple memory chips which again increases the board cost. If you go up to 1GHz models you have to switch memory chip architecture which again costs more. You can go up to 2.7GHz versions, but it's a HUGE chip that is going to take a pretty expensive board. I'm thinking that the 600MHz version is more than enough for just a player. If we start adding a server at the same time we probably want at least the 1GHz version, it will be a bit more expensive though. Anything above 1GHz is going to cost a lot more. With a 1GHz processor and 512MB of memory it's probably in the $200 to $220 range for the board. John S. John, Thank you for researching these items...this is very exciting! I am interested in the DAC and wireless chipset you have found. The ability to create its own network and possibly mesh multiple players is very interesting and really allows the product to be self contained without the need for additional equipment that an everyday user may or may not own. I think this feature alone could appeal to the masses. Allowing for the product to be truly plug and play is something that squeezebox fell very short on and it why I feel it never took off. I would also agree that the additional cost for the 1GHz, 512MB is worth it. This would leave additional room for expansion to incorporate LMS (or some other server), etc. I also think that IR is important if we ever plan on utilizing the HDMI output for the display. The headphone jack, while not a must, maybe nice for some. To Triode's point, we do need to validate it has real ehci usb hardware. As far as a prototype of this board, how many would need to be ordered to start? Would there be an initial build fee, etc? --Dustin dustinsterk's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=19649 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
igoddard wrote: If the latter then I think you need to start with a self-contained appliance. I think I have to disagree. The self-contained appliance has been tried a number of times, starting with the 'Rio Advanced Digital Audio Center' (http://www.iapplianceweb.com/appreview/audio_players_27.htm) in 2001. All have been commercial failures. Ripping CD's isn't going to be the dominating way to get your music into your server any more - downloading and streaming are more important, and in any case, you can't rip without keyboard and screen, as CDDB data isn't 100% perfect. So acquiring content is best done on a PC/Mac/whatever. The server, with it's hard disk(s), is best placed away from your music system. The players should be as small as possible, with no moving parts. And you want several of them. So very conflicting requirements - not easily satisfied by a self-contained box. Julf's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=42050 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
pssc wrote: Yes the Pi has audio has issues and the PI foundation is investing in sorting this out and trying to sort the USB issues On the 1/1/2013, there was a post over on the Pi forum form jamesh, (who is also a Broadcom employee), talking about the Pi's USB implementation. (ie. the Synopsys IP included on the Broadcom SoC.) jamessh wrote: Yes, the Synopsis design is a bit pants. Broadcom didn't know that at the time. It's quite possible this is the first time this design has been used as a host - the client side works fine which is what is usually used in systems that use the design - so its entirely possible no-one has ever encountered the problems before. Now on to the legal stuff. Broadcom are NOT ALLOWED to distribute the RTL or the documentation for this design. It part of the legal contract between Broadcom and Synopsis drawn up when the design was bought. It would be good if they could, because there are indeed some decent engineers out there. But they cannot. This is the COMPLETELY standard approach to this - chip companies buy designs from others, and those designs are built in to chips. But most people never know that the chip they are using uses IP from many sources, because its all handled by the end supplier (in this case Broadcom). On the basis that he is one of the few people that are privy to the IP and any documentation, (by virtue of being a Broadcom employee), and he describes it as being a bit pants, I wont be holding my breath that we'll ever hear perfect audio from a UAC2 device driven from a Pi. Others, can come to their own conclusions. But I personally, wouldn't base any audio project where the requirement is for a decent USB out with which to use an external DAC, on the Pi. JackOfAll's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3069 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
More as a reference to price than anything else. I was going to buy one of these to have a fiddle with but never got around to it. 'A13-OLinuXino' (https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A13/A13-OLinuXino/) A8 1GHz, 512MB RAM, for 45 EURO. Wi-Fi version (via a USB port) for an additional 10 EURO. On-board USB hub is a GL850G JackOfAll's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3069 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Net::UDAP - SqueezeBox Receiver configuration tool
pomatomus wrote: in short: thanks so much for this script, it was the only thing that let me salvage my duet... I was /this/ close to buying a netbook to run an emulator instead. Glad you found it useful. I must throw the code up on github some day... R. robinbowes's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=480 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=57861 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
uhhh.. I dunno, i didn't set anything up to transcode to mp3's. I thought it was literally streaming flacs. Where do I check everything for this on LMS? kllngtme's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=30198 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
igoddard wrote: What's the objective here? Just to provide replacement hardware for existing users or to grow the whole Squeezebox user-ship? To be realistic, I think we are talking about a DIY system distributed to a limited number of DIY enthusiasts in the community. It's not something that would have any significant impact of total number of Squeezebox users on short terms. On longer terms the situation could be different, but then we are probably talking about a future revision of the hardware and not the one currently discussed. erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
If you look at the now playing screen on the web page of the server, it will have an inication that the FLAC and been transcoded to mp3. Also, if you look at the properties of the file from the now playing screen on the web page, it will show it is being transcoded. maggior's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9080 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
hmmm.. I really don't see anything that says it's transcoding. I'm on the now playing page of the webpage for LMS, it just has the tracknumber, title, artist and volume and how long the song is playing for. From clicking on the song title it brings me to the song info in which it says.. File Format: FLAC Bitrate: 801kbps VBR Sample Rate: 44.1khz Sample Size: 16bits I mean I guess the bitrate being so much means its transcoded to mp3? It still doesn't make much sense or mean that it's being transcoded, it just means that it's reading it at 801kbps, no? I dunno... kllngtme's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=30198 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Logitech divesting from some product lines
Pascal Hibon wrote: You dont need to wait that long for such apps. I used Red Eye and Beacon (the latter is a piece of crap by the way). Both of these are capable of remote controlling different type and brand of equipment. Both have IR learning capabilities too. They work very much like the Harmony remotes. Yet, the hardware remote works a lot better in my hand for the reasons already mentioned. I'm not talking about a IR blaster system accessible from a smart phone, that's totally useless, I have to look at the touch screen but the feedback is shown on the actual device I'm controlling. For a universal remote control solution for smart phone/tablets to work, it needs to show the feedback of the action directly on the touch screen and that means all devices need to be connected to the network and expose some kind of API which can be used by the app on the smart phone/tablet. Unfortunately we are no where close to a solution like this, there is just too many manufacturers and no standard, so based on this I think we will really have to live with IR based solutions where the Harmony is excellent for another 5-10 years, at least. This is also why a IR based solution really need hard buttons on the remote, which you can feel without looking at the remote, without hard buttons you will end up with the same problem as the IR blaster based solution you describe. erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97925 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Logitech divesting from some product lines
Sakkerju wrote: Why are all fine engineered products dicontinued :-( It happens to me all the time...Squeezebox, Harmony Harmony isn't discontinued, they are just trying to sell it, if they succeed to sell it to the right company that could be great news to Harmony users. erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97925 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
I think the goal needs to be sorted out to provide guidance on this project. Yes, treat this like a project. I see several scenarios: 1) Build a box that relies on the existing Logitech software and mysqueezebox.com a. A box for the tech savvy computer music enthusiast. b. A box for a music enthusiastic, and if they follow very clear instructions with specific equipment and software, they can get it to work c. Plug and play 2) New hardware and user interface (does not rely of Logitechs software or servers) a. A box for the tech savvy computer music enthusiast. b. A box for a music enthusiastic, and if they follow very clear instructions with specific equipment and software, they can get it to work c. Plug and play If you are doing either 1a or 2a, I am not interested. In this thread I did not understand all this linux stuff, so I am not your audience. The instructions I have seen to upgrade/downgrade a UE radio make no sense to me! If you are doing 1b., I am probably not interested as I already have a SB3, Touch, and two Radios. If it fixes the problems with the Touch to be a server, then I could be very interested if I think I could implement it successfully. If you are doing 2b, then I might be more interested to transfer to a platform that has a future. The whole option 1 is puzzling to me because everyone here already has a SB product, so why do we need another self-made product? The answer is because it solves a problem with the existing SB line or it adds a feature that is currently not available. (Ok, some of you just want to tinker with DIY projects and that is the only reason you need.) For me, an enthusiast and not a computer geek, it needs to be implementable (with very clear and specific instructions) and reliable. However, I am concerned about investing more in a product when Logitech might pull the plug. My main use is to connect to my own music server, but I do like internet radio and the Pandora services, so I do want to use those services in the future. If you are doing 1c, my comment is this is probably not a good idea as you might face the lawyers from Logitech and spending the effort to build a product that the manufacturer will no longer supports seems silly. If you are doing 2c, then I could be interested. Especially if it WORKs without the buggy LMS software and other problems I am having with the Touch spontaneously shutting down. The Olive One looks like a promising replacement platform for the SB. If I order an Olive One, I will probably sell my 4 month old Touch to pay for it! I met with the Olive One developer in their San Francisco office and I am intrigued. They are almost done with the hardware design. They are looking to add analog out, but it would require some board reconfigure. The user interface was about 40% done. I like the idea of the box being a server so I dont need to turn the computer on or set another NAS device with is associated problems. They are also going to build a speaker that fits under the box. They are all very well made. P Nelson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58158 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
It's not being transcoded. If it was, you would see something in the bit rate indicating it was transcoded. You might also see something in the file format information. Are you sure you have the bandwidth to support playing FLAC over the internet? You need to have enough bandwidth on both the server and client side. I always transcoded until I upgraded to cable from DSL. OK, I just tried it out myself. When you click on the song title and see the song info on the left hand side, it will say something like this if it is being converted: Bitrate 930kbps VBR (Converted to 320kbps MP3) maggior's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9080 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
Oh yea, I certainly have the bandwidth. I have a 25Mbps connection at my house and a 200Mbps connection at work. I can stream HD video files over the internet from my Plex server with no issues. Come to think of it, I just downloaded a flac from my house, playing it locally does the same thing. Apparently this laptops soundcard sucks ass! Whenever there's bass it makes the sound quality sound like shit. I thought it wasn't transcoding.. I was going to say, I'm gunna get pissed if it's transcoding and i didn't even know it. I'm due for a new laptop anyways, it must be the soundcard that's doing it, I just noticed it once I put on my headphones. damn it.. shitty laptop. kllngtme's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=30198 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Using an iphone with ios 3.1.3 as a controller?
Does it have safari? You could just try one of the mobile skins, if they are included with your version of LMS. I don't have the latest, but I used to use the Skin for Nokia770, or alternatively the Touch Screen. IIRC -- http://IP of LMS:9000/N770, or something like that alZmtbr's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8773 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97939 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Logitech divesting from some product lines
erland wrote: I'm not talking about a IR blaster system accessible from a smart phone, that's totally useless, I have to look at the touch screen but the feedback is shown on the actual device I'm controlling. For a universal remote control solution for smart phone/tablets to work, it needs to show the feedback of the action directly on the touch screen and that means all devices need to be connected to the network and expose some kind of API which can be used by the app on the smart phone/tablet. Unfortunately we are no where close to a solution like this, there is just too many manufacturers and no standard, so based on this I think we will really have to live with IR based solutions where the Harmony is excellent for another 5-10 years, at least. This is also why a IR based solution really need hard buttons on the remote, which you can feel without looking at the remote, without hard buttons you will end up with the same problem as the IR blaster based solution you describe. iRule can use feedback if the device are providing it , i have not tried myself yet . iRule with iTach (global cache devices) is what i use I like it because it removes the clutter of remotes and used on a iPad it's visible enough i just keep it in front of and see both the tv and the pad and it can use the hard buttons for volume . iRule can use ip and http control to for some devices I use serial and ir . I supose serial or ip devices can give feedback . As the iTach devices are network i can controll my main hifi from any room (or the internet) . They also have a relay box , but i never tried that one but I would if I owned a house . Turn on sauna open garage and similar stuff . But imho i dont think normal devices need that much feedback . Squeezeboxes are another thing with the whole context changing and browsing and stuff thats a lot of information . Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97925 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
Julf wrote: I think I have to disagree. The self-contained appliance has been tried a number of times, starting with the 'Rio Advanced Digital Audio Center' (http://www.iapplianceweb.com/appreview/audio_players_27.htm) in 2001. All have been commercial failures. Ripping CD's isn't going to be the dominating way to get your music into your server any more - downloading and streaming are more important, and in any case, you can't rip without keyboard and screen, as CDDB data isn't 100% perfect. So acquiring content is best done on a PC/Mac/whatever. The server, with it's hard disk(s), is best placed away from your music system. The players should be as small as possible, with no moving parts. And you want several of them. So very conflicting requirements - not easily satisfied by a self-contained box. I agree with this point of view. The players should be kept somewhat simple. If someone is planning on a local music collection, surely they already have a PC which can perform the ripping. tcutting's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17402 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
Crummy laptop soundcards are hardly surprising. The new one may not be better unless you specifically look for one with a good soundcard. Either way, if you're going to be listening a lot through good headphones you may want to consider bypassing the soundcard entirely with a USB DAC. There are tons of them around now, many quite reasonably priced, such as this one: http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Audioengine-D1#.UQLCuGGFy6M aubuti's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2074 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
kllngtme wrote: Oh yea, I certainly have the bandwidth. I have a 25Mbps connection at my house and a 200Mbps connection at work. I can stream HD video files over the internet from my Plex server with no issues. Come to think of it, I just downloaded a flac from my house, playing it locally does the same thing. Apparently this laptops soundcard sucks ass! Whenever there's bass it makes the sound quality sound like shit. I thought it wasn't transcoding.. I was going to say, I'm gunna get pissed if it's transcoding and i didn't even know it. I'm due for a new laptop anyways, it must be the soundcard that's doing it, I just noticed it once I put on my headphones. damn it.. shitty laptop. What an exquisitely articulate way to describe poor sound quality ... castalla's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=15624 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
P Nelson wrote: I think the goal needs to be sorted out to provide guidance on this project. Yes, treat this like a project. I see several scenarios: 1) Build a box that relies on the existing Logitech software and mysqueezebox.com a. A box for the tech savvy computer music enthusiast. b. A box for a music enthusiastic, and if they follow very clear instructions with specific equipment and software, they can get it to work c. Plug and play 2) New hardware and user interface (does not rely of Logitechs software or servers) a. A box for the tech savvy computer music enthusiast. b. A box for a music enthusiastic, and if they follow very clear instructions with specific equipment and software, they can get it to work c. Plug and play ... If you are doing 1c, my comment is this is probably not a good idea as you might face the lawyers from Logitech and spending the effort to build a product that the manufacturer will no longer supports seems silly. To be realistic: - Nobody targeting 1c or 2c would say so in public at this early stage, it would just create unnecessary high expectations among community members. - Short term, 1a and maybe also 1b, is realistic. - On longer terms things can change a lot, at the moment we are really just discussing the design of the circuit board, that board could on longer terms be put in a nice case, with or without built-in speakers, produced in big volumes and sold to the masses in normal stores. So on longer terms something based on the current discussion could very well turn out to be 2c, but getting there is going to be a lot of work and its not just engineering work, so I suspect first 1a (and possibly 1b) and later 2a and 2b would have to be passed before trying reach 2c. However, depending on how the initial experiments turns out, the solution could very well also stay at 1a or 1b until the market comes up with something better. Also as you say, targeting 1c is going to be way too risky, at least if someone would want to sell it to the masses. As I've said in other threads, I'm fairly sure some company on the market is going to reach 2c (with similar features as Squeezebox) and it's going to be interesting to see who gets there first. Unless someone have an urgent need to make a decision already now, I would suggest it's better to wait and see what happens during the next 6-12 months and then evaluate the situation again. We can always enjoy our Squeezeboxes and experiement with DIY solutions like the one discussed in this thread while we wait. I suspect we are going to see some interesting things happening during the next 6-12 months, maybe something in line with 2c (with similar features as Squeezebox) isn't as far away as some people think it is. If someone is targeting 2c and want to provide similar features as Squeezebox, we are probably going to see the feature set start with a bit less features and be enhanced over time to eventually support all important features available on Squeezebox. I would personally keep my eyes open for solutions which seems to be open both on hardware and software side, that kind of solutions have the biggest chance to be enhanced over time, kind of similar to how Squeezeboxes have been enhanced through different kind of third party solutions, for example like the one discussed in this thread, Vortexbox, SqueezePlug and all the third party plugins/applets/apps available. erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
castalla wrote: What an exquisitely articulate way to describe poor sound quality ... Come on, this is a forum, I'm not writing a college thesis here. For the most part, to describe what's happening, it's almost as if the soundcard can't handle the bass. Whenever there's a bassy part to a song the other parts diminish, the volume, the treble, everything to the song gets drowned out. That's really the only want to describe it, it has horrible quality during that time. Adjusting the volume doesn't really seem to matter, it's like the sound card can't handle certain frequencies. Oh well, atleast I found the culprit. I'm not gunna buy a usb dac just for work. I already spent money on one for my house, I'll wait to see how the new laptop is with the sound quality before I make that decision. Thanks for the suggestion though, I love audioengine's stuff! kllngtme's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=30198 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
JackOfAll wrote: On the basis that he is one of the few people that are privy to the IP and any documentation, (by virtue of being a Broadcom employee), and he describes it as being a bit pants, I wont be holding my breath that we'll ever hear perfect audio from a UAC2 device driven from a Pi. Others, can come to their own conclusions. But I personally, wouldn't base any audio project where the requirement is for a decent USB out with which to use an external DAC, on the Pi. I tend to agree, but I was being generous to what they may achieve - I think implementing the missing ehci hardware scheduler in the graphics processor was being talked about at one point!! Having seen that usb support on devices is limited and even Touch and most arm chips don't have full transaction translators (hence need external hubs to support 1.1 devices), my belief is that we need to make sure whatever we target has full usb support in hardware and no closed source drivers! Triode's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
JohnSwenson wrote: What I am thinking about is one of the TI cortex A8 CPUs, armV7 based with the VFPv3 floating point unit. The ones I'm looking at are in the 600-700MHz range. You can get faster ones but they cost more, and are only available on the bigger chips which are much harder to route, which most likely means a more expensive board. The design I'm thinking of has 256MB memory, it's easy to go to 512MB but the memory chip costs 3 times as much for doubling the capacity. Anything above 512MB means multiple memory chips which again increases the board cost. If you go up to 1GHz models you have to switch memory chip architecture which again costs more. You can go up to 2.7GHz versions, but it's a HUGE chip that is going to take a pretty expensive board. I'm thinking that the 600MHz version is more than enough for just a player. If we start adding a server at the same time we probably want at least the 1GHz version, it will be a bit more expensive though. Anything above 1GHz is going to cost a lot more. With a 1GHz processor and 512MB of memory it's probably in the $200 to $220 range for the board. John S. This sounds good - can we validate the usb support. Must have ehci, most soc implementations I've tested need external TTs though for 1.1 support. If we had 256M of memory then I think some form of custom UI for us is the way to go, rather than trying to run something bigger and use its scripting engine (I was looking at XBMC). I'm assuming you need to dedicate a portion of this to the graphics and I think we want enough for a 1080p display, but not for fancy rendering etc? Triode's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
I'd be curious to know... Of all the people posting here with their gung ho enthusiasm for such a piece of equipment, how many will actually buy one or more at the expected price of (what are we up to now?) $300-$400? Personally, I have more Squeezeboxes than I know what to do with. I would have to think that nearly everyone else here does also. If I were to buy one, it would mostly be to play around with. For this to be doable, even to have a run of, say, 100 units, it needs to be viable as a Squeezebox replacement that is usable by someone completely new to the Squeezebox ecosystem. Someone, who if they said I've always wanted to try a Squeezebox, but I can't buy one, you could recommend without reservation that they purchase one of these devices rather than telling them to watch for a used Touch on ebay or Craigslist. JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Using an iphone with ios 3.1.3 as a controller?
pyewackett wrote: I thought I could use this old iphone as a squeezebox controller to make it into a nice remote but I can't find any any apps that run on this version of the iphone. Not logitech's Squeezebox or Orange Squeeze. Am I missing something? Thanks! Judy Judy, the problem is that Apple made it almost impossible for App developers to still supply Apps for old (1st and 2nd generation) devices. They removed all support for them for the current generation of their development tools. And you need to use these tools if you want to be compatible to iPhone 5 (if you want to support the screen size). That's the reason why almost no Apps are available for the old devices anymore. At the same time, the App Store doesn't keep old versions around, only the latest one is still available for download. pippin's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13777 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97939 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
JJZolx wrote: I'd be curious to know... Of all the people posting here with their gung ho enthusiasm for such a piece of equipment, how many will actually buy one or more at the expected price of (what are we up to now?) $300-$400? Personally, I have more Squeezeboxes than I know what to do with. I would have to think that nearly everyone else here does also. If I were to buy one, it would mostly be to play around with. For this to be doable, even to have a run of, say, 100 units, it needs to be viable as a Squeezebox replacement that is usable by someone completely new to the Squeezebox ecosystem. Someone, who if they said I've always wanted to try a Squeezebox, but I can't buy one, you could recommend without reservation that they purchase one of these devices rather than telling them to watch for a used Touch on ebay or Craigslist. I'm fairly sure there are 100 people on these forums who would be interested just because it's fun to do a DIY solution, there are a lot of geeks around here, some posting but also a lot who isn't active posters. Selling it for $300-$400 to someone who is not a DIY geek and doesn't own a Squeezebox already is going to be hard. I suspect you will be able to build it for less than $300, as I've understood it's just the case and power supply that's missing, but it will still be hard to sell it to someone who isn't owning a Squeezebox and isn't a DIY geek. They would prefer to get a used Squeezebox from eBay or just get a Sonos or one of the other alternatives available in their local store for similar price. However, are we really targeting users who don't have a Squeezebox already ? To me it feels like the initial target would be DIY geeks on these forums and possibly also some enthusiasts who aren't scared to try something new, all owning at least one Squeezebox already and loving the Squeezebox system and interested to try something new. erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
It is a good alpha/beta test of the production line :) can the community design build sell and distribute a product handle warranty provide documentation and help ? that in itself needs to be tested too . So I would probably get a community squeezebox mk1 just for the heck of it and test the thing . Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
erland wrote: Selling it for $300-$400 to someone who is not a DIY geek and doesn't own a Squeezebox already is going to be hard. I suspect you will be able to build it for less than $300, as I've understood it's just the case and power supply that's missing, but it will still be hard to sell it to someone who isn't owning a Squeezebox and isn't a DIY geek. They would prefer to get a used Squeezebox from eBay or just get a Sonos or one of the other alternatives available in their local store for similar price. Recommending someone buy something isn't quite the same thing as selling it. From the discussion, we're not talking what I'd call DIY any more. If it relies on the existing LMS and its infrastructure, that part of the setup is no different than Squeezebox, and while installation and setup have never really been perfected, plenty of neophytes have gotten LMS up and running with little instruction. The device itself would be comparable to a Receiver, and with a web interface for network configuration, it could arguably be even easier to set up. However, are we really targeting users who don't have a Squeezebox already ? You keep using words like targeting and sell. Do you have commercial aspirations for this project? JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Logitech divesting from some product lines
Try skipping commercials or pausing a DVR with a smartphone remote. It is too slow to find the right spot to touch and too slow to react. This is a problem even with the new Harmony Touch, which doesn't have hard buttons for skip, FF, and RW. I can't envision a non-button technological solution for that short of a motion controller. Wave arm, skip commercial. Leap controller, maybe? Wii? dougc's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=52695 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97925 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
kllngtme wrote: Oh well, atleast I found the culprit. I'm not gunna buy a usb dac just for work. There are some pretty inexpensive USB DACs available that should improve on your laptop's sound quality. If it sounds even half as bad as you've described, it would be well worth it. JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezeplay: Bad Audio Quality?
Could also be compression that is going on in the data path. Is there a control panel app for your soundcard? Some of them will do horrible things to enhance the sound by default that do nothing but muddy up the sound. I seem to recall creative doing this at one point with their sound cards. Good news is you've narrowed the problem down. Otherwise, yes, an outboard USB dac with a build in headphone amp would serve you well. maggior's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9080 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97938 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
JJZolx wrote: From the discussion, we're not talking what I'd call DIY any more. If it relies on the existing LMS and its infrastructure, that part of the setup is no different than Squeezebox, and while installation and setup have never really been perfected, plenty of neophytes have gotten LMS up and running with little instruction. The device itself would be comparable to a Receiver, and with a web interface for network configuration, it could arguably be even easier to set up. With DIY I meant that each user would have to buy the parts and assemble it themselves and download and install the software, even if the software part would just be a matter of downloading an image and loading it to a SDHC card (or similar). This is all a big step compared to getting a Squeezebox Receiver in the store. If someone would decide to sell it per-assembled and pre-installed they would end up with patent/licensing issues regarding MP3, WMA, AAC codecs as far as I've understood, since it would then be considered to be a end consumer device where these patents/licenses applies. Getting the necessary licenses would increase the price a bit more and would in worst case make it too expensive even for enthusiasts, especially if you can only sell it to 100 people where the MP3 license would add $150 to each device. Not sure if it would be possible to solve by letting the user install the codecs themselves, but that would make it even more complex to set it up and make it kind of a DIY device again. JJZolx wrote: You keep using words like targeting and sell. Do you have commercial aspirations for this project? No, not at this time, but someone designing a new hardware needs to decide what type of users they will be able to recommend/convince to buy it. If you don't do this, you can easily end up in a scenario where you add a lot of features which the users buying it won't need or a scenario where it misses features which would be needed for people to buy it. erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
erland wrote: With DIY I meant that each user would have to buy the parts and assemble it themselves and download and install the software, even if the software part would just be a matter of downloading an image and loading it to a SDHC card (or similar). This is all a big step compared to getting a Squeezebox Receiver in the store. We're talking about some kind of kit? Didn't sound like that to me from John's posts. If you're just talking about installing a board in a case, I'm game, but all that saves anyone packaging these things is a couple of minutes work. If you're talking about soldering RCA jacks and antenna leads, fuggedaboutit. If someone would decide to sell it per-assembled and pre-installed they would end up with patent/licensing issues regarding MP3, WMA, AAC codecs as far as I've understood, since it would then be considered to be a end consumer device where these patents/licenses applies. Getting the necessary licenses would increase the price a bit more and would in worst case make it too expensive even for enthusiasts, especially if you can only sell it to 100 people where the MP3 license would add $150 to each device. Not sure if it would be possible to solve by letting the user install the codecs themselves, but that would make it even more complex to set it up and make it kind of a DIY device again. I'd be interested in hearing other opinions about whether your concerns over pre-installing the necessary software are valid. I can see what you're saying about codecs, but the OS image itself? Wouldn't it be possible to automate the installation of the software necessary for the codecs from the planned web interface, possibly even making it part of the installation process itself? Scripts that would download and install the software, much like the extension downloader of LMS. JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Using an iphone with ios 3.1.3 as a controller?
pippin wrote: Judy, the problem is that Apple made it almost impossible for App developers to still supply Apps for old (1st and 2nd generation) devices. They removed all support for them for the current generation of their development tools. And you need to use these tools if you want to be compatible to iPhone 5 (if you want to support the screen size). That's the reason why almost no Apps are available for the old devices anymore. At the same time, the App Store doesn't keep old versions around, only the latest one is still available for download. Thanks for the explanation, makes sense. My daughters 3G needed a restore, and the iPeng on my PC/iTunes was from a later device. I assume using an old backup ipa could still be used to drop in iTunes temporarily? And then drop it into the 3G? wliptrot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9842 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97939 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Using an iphone with ios 3.1.3 as a controller?
Yes, that works. You need to delete the new version in iTunes, drag the old one into iTunes and then sync the device. I'm looking into a solution to provide existing customers with legacy versions but will have to investigate some more things with Apple. pippin's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13777 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97939 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Using an iphone with ios 3.1.3 as a controller?
pippin wrote: Yes, that works. You need to delete the new version in iTunes, drag the old one into iTunes and then sync the device. I'm looking into a solution to provide existing customers with legacy versions but will have to investigate some more things with Apple. I knew those backups would come in handy one day, thanks. wliptrot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9842 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97939 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
JJZolx wrote: We're talking about some kind of kit? Didn't sound like that to me from John's posts. If you're just talking about installing a board in a case, I'm game, but all that saves anyone packaging these things is a couple of minutes work. If you're talking about soldering RCA jacks and antenna leads, fuggedaboutit. My guess is that it would be similar to a Raspberry Pi, basically you would just have to install the board in a case, no soldering should be needed unless I'm missing something. JJZolx wrote: I'd be interested in hearing other opinions about whether your concerns over pre-installing the necessary software are valid. I can see what you're saying about codecs, but the OS image itself? Wouldn't it be possible to automate the installation of the software necessary for the codecs from the planned web interface, possibly even making it part of the installation process itself? Scripts that would download and install the software, much like the extension downloader of LMS. Agreed, would be good to get some information from someone who knows this stuff, I just read a bit yesterday and found the license prices here: http://mp3licensing.com/royalty/hardware.html (It's the minimum $15 000/year fee which is the issue) I suspect you can't have it pre-installed on an image, I'm not sure if a way around it would to download and install it automatically during installation. Most application I've seen seem to instruct users to download and install mp3 decoders manually completely separate from the application, so that would definitely be an option, but it would make the installation process a bit more complex. erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Using an iphone with ios 3.1.3 as a controller?
That's what I figured. And now I am even more disgusted by there being no real backup for Android phones. I came from Windows Mobile and I had REAL backups from which I could restore the entire phone or individual pieces. At least with Android phones you can install otherwise than through the playstore, so this confirms that I do need to actually do the app backup. App backups are not real backups (what about my data), but now I know why I need app backups. wliptrot wrote: Thanks for the explanation, makes sense. My daughters 3G needed a restore, and the iPeng on my PC/iTunes was from a later device. I assume using an old backup ipa could still be used to drop in iTunes temporarily? And then drop it into the 3G? pyewackett's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9172 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97939 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
erland wrote: My guess is that it would be similar to a Raspberry Pi, basically you would just have to install the board in a case, no soldering should be needed unless I'm missing something. Agreed, would be good to get some information from someone who knows this stuff, I just read a bit yesterday and found the license prices here: http://mp3licensing.com/royalty/hardware.html (It's the minimum $15 000/year fee which is the issue) I suspect you can't have it pre-installed on an image, I'm not sure if a way around it would to download and install it automatically during installation. Most application I've seen seem to instruct users to download and install mp3 decoders manually completely separate from the application, so that would definitely be an option, but it would make the installation process a bit more complex. Cant it just be a run once script that installs LAME or MAD or (insert decoder ) at the first convenient possibility . The it is at least technically the end user who is doing it . Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
Another point.. Going back to what John was saying about including a DAC chip with built-in OS/DF turned off and using FPGA (software) for OS/DF.. If that is part of the design, while using an external DAC would always be option, I suspect we're talking about Transporter (or better) analogue out SQ by default, not that of a $20 PCM270* eBay USB DAC. While that might not interest the mass market that is only interested in the best price possible, even if priced at $400, my feeling is that it will be cheap for what you are will be getting. JackOfAll's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3069 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Using an iphone with ios 3.1.3 as a controller?
The Android Play store allows to provide more than one version of an App, on the other hand. But you are right, it's good to be able to have real backups of App (for iOS, you can drag the App from iTunes to any other place, for example, to do that). Regarding data: I think it's really the job of the App to provide backup capabilities. And I have to admit that iPeng isn't perfect in this respect. Although it's data is mainly settings there is one thing you can actually lose and that's bookmarks. Happens to my quite frequently since I do so many uninstalls and reinstalls. pippin's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13777 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97939 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
Triode wrote: This sounds good - can we validate the usb support. Must have ehci, most soc implementations I've tested need external TTs though for 1.1 support. If we had 256M of memory then I think some form of custom UI for us is the way to go, rather than trying to run something bigger and use its scripting engine (I was looking at XBMC). I'm assuming you need to dedicate a portion of this to the graphics and I think we want enough for a 1080p display, but not for fancy rendering etc? I don't the answer, people are using EHCI and UAC (I don't know what flavor) without problems. The BeagleBone uses a processor from the same series and would probably be the easiest way to actually test the USB. John S. JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
A couple thoughts: why would anybody want this board? It has audio specific stuff on it you won't find on other general purpose computer boards, specifically an analog DAC output that is significantly better than what is on the Touch, you would have to get at least a $1000 USB DAC to get in this quality range. Very low jitter clocks (much lower than the ones in the Touch, but not as good as some of the best external DACs), a highly optimized S/PDIF coax output that is better than almost anything else out there no matter what the price. The beauty of this concept is that these extra audiophile options are easy and inexpensive to add when you are building them in from the ground up. It's when you take an existing general purpose system and try and add this as outboard add-ons that it gets quite expensive. I really want to do this with those extra options because that is what differentiates this from say a CuBox. There ARE large initial setup fees for doing this, that is why I mentioned 25 units, at that price the amortization of the setup charge starts getting lower than the cost of the actual parts. Below that you can still do it, but the cost per board skyrockets. What I am envisioning is a fairly simple first board, primarily designed to be a black box player, I would like to leave off the HDMI for the first board, it adds a significant amount of complexity. Designing this board will be fairly straight forward so something can be done and out there to a few developers quite quickly. I did some more checking and found out that the 1GHz processor is actually easier to layout than the 600MHz one, they did a much better job of optimizing the ball layout. The interesting thing is that the price in small quantities is almost identical. So I'll just go with the 1GHz processor. We have a choice of 256MB or 512MB and keep it with a single chip. The 512MB one costs $20 more and is significantly more work in the layout. (the board won't cost more, but it will take longer to get layed out) Because of the more layout effort I'm thinking it might be a good idea to go with the 256MB for the first board. Once these boards are out the software types can get a working linux distribution with Squeezelite handling the SB part. The idea is that the firmware is one file that gets written to an SD card which when booted by the board has it up and running as a black box receiver. Until that point it WILL be a geek fest to get it working, but because the mission is simple (black box receiver) it hopefully will not take too long to get a firmware file up and running. This process gives a working board that does not need a full blown geek to get working (plug in the SD-card, turn it on), at that point we have something that might appeal to more people and we can start looking at industrial design and options for a more flexible board (display outputs, running server etc), but I think its a good idea to start with a very simple one first to get bugs ironed out and find out what it is capable of doing. John S. JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
JohnSwenson wrote: I really want to do this with those extra options because that is what differentiates this from say a CuBox. COAX, USB and a decent DAC onboard. Would you still do the OS/DF in FPGA? I guess this is really pushing my luck, but any chance of an I2S output? JohnSwenson wrote: There ARE large initial setup fees for doing this, that is why I mentioned 25 units, at that price the amortization of the setup charge starts getting lower than the cost of the actual parts. Below that you can still do it, but the cost per board skyrockets. I don't think you would have any problem getting up-front commitments for 25 units. JohnSwenson wrote: The 512MB one costs $20 more and is significantly more work in the layout. (the board won't cost more, but it will take longer to get layed out) Because of the more layout effort I'm thinking it might be a good idea to go with the 256MB for the first board. I really do think you should shoot for 512MB from the off, even if add adds time to delivery because of the increased layout complexity. JohnSwenson wrote: Once these boards are out the software types can get a working linux distribution with Squeezelite handling the SB part. The idea is that the firmware is one file that gets written to an SD card which when booted by the board has it up and running as a black box receiver. Until that point it WILL be a geek fest to get it working, but because the mission is simple (black box receiver) it hopefully will not take too long to get a firmware file up and running. A days work! ;) JackOfAll's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3069 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
JohnSwenson wrote: What I am envisioning is a fairly simple first board, primarily designed to be a black box player, I would like to leave off the HDMI for the first board, it adds a significant amount of complexity. Designing this board will be fairly straight forward so something can be done and out there to a few developers quite quickly. ... This process gives a working board that does not need a full blown geek to get working (plug in the SD-card, turn it on), at that point we have something that might appeal to more people and we can start looking at industrial design and options for a more flexible board (display outputs, running server etc), but I think its a good idea to start with a very simple one first to get bugs ironed out and find out what it is capable of doing. So, if I understand you correctly, what you are basically saying is: 1. Iteration 1: Create a batch of 25 boards to the most interesting people around here, preferably the group would be a mix of audiophiles, software developers and DIY enthusiasts. 2. Let them experiment a bit and implement/package the software for it. 3. Iteration 2: Review the experimentation, re-design what's needed to make it future proof and design a new board that could be produced for a bit more people, possibly even pre-packaged in a case with pre-installed software. In this scenario, my priorities would be to make something as fast as possible in iteration 1, as long as you are reasonably sure that: - The changes in iteration 2 will still work with the software written for iteration 1 - The changes in iteration 2 will result in similar or better audio characteristics compared to iteration 1 In my mind, it's important that we can use the experimentation of iteration 1 board to improve the board in iteration 2. Top notch audio quality and making it future proof is not important in iteration 1, it will be a temporary solution and you just need something that's good enough to allow the experimentation needed to evolve it to the iteration 2 board. CPU and memory isn't important in iteration 1 as long as you feel that you are prepared to improve both of them in iteration 1. You are not going to want to improve it because of the experimentation on iteration 1 board, you are going to want to improve it to make room for future software improvements which will happen after iteration 2 board has been released. For iteration 1 board, you could safely go with a 600MHz CPU and 128MB memory if you like, as long as you are prepared to change it to 1GHz+ and 512MB+ in iteration 2 to make it more future proof when you add the HDMI output. For iteration 1 (without HDMI output), 600MHz and 128MB will be plenty, nobody is going to do something that requires more than that during experimentation on iteration 1 board. The faster CPU and more memory is needed for things that might happen months after the iteration 2 board has been released. The people signing up for iteration 1 board will likely have no problem to also sign up for iteration 2 board, but the people who only sign up for iteration 2 board is going to expect something that works on longer terms, they don't want to hear that an improved iteration 3 board revision is available 3 months after they purchased the iteration 2 board, at least not unless you explicitly also say that iteration 2 is a temporary board for further experimentation. For iteration 1 board, I'm not sure you even need the built-in DAC if that delays iteration 1 or makes it more expensive, because from a software perspective iteration 1 will focus on developers who try to experiment how to get the software to work properly with USB DAC's and S/PDIF connected amplifiers. If you feel the DAC part needs some experimentation by the 25 developers/audiophiles, and you put it on a separate board, you can maybe even first design and release the main board and then a bit later design and release the DAC sub board. You can even choose to skip the S/PDIF in the iteration 1 board, but doing that might result in that you might get a harder time to find 25 people with development experience to participate, some people who are developers and would be willing to test iteration 1 probably don't own a good USB DAC today and isn't prepared to buy a good USB DAC as a temporary solution just to try iteration 1 board. As I look at it, the parts that can result in significant more memory needed in the future is: - HDMI output: People are going to want to show a lot of cool things on the TV and this will require more CPU and memory, since the HDMI output isn't part of iteration 1, you won't see the needs during experimentation, so you have to guess a bit what's needed. Obvious use cases that people are going to request to be able to show through HDMI output are hires album art, VU meters/visualization and maybe even video. I know video is to ask a bit much, but you are definitely going to get requests for that if you add a HDMI output
Re: [slim] Community Funded Squeezebox Replacement - Would you be interested?
As the design and the board progresses, would it eventually have onboard flash memory, or is it always envisioned as loading from an SD card? JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
