[slim] Skipping when seeking
A problem I had ever since installing SlimServer (nearly 2 years now I think): I like to listen to audio books. These are sometimes lengthy tracks, and I tend to fall to sleep while listening to them. So the next evening, I try to seek to the position where my concentration did fade away. Problem: when I seek to fast, SlimServer will just skip to the next track. Sometimes I can seek forward with 16x, sometimes just with 2x, but as soon as it gets faster than that, it just stops seeking in the middle of the track and begins to play back the next one, immediately skipping half the file for example. Some nights, I try to seek half a dozen times or more often, each time reducing the seek speed (and using 4x seek for skipping half an hour only to have a jump after 5 minutes and have to start seeking from the beginning again at 2x really sucks!). I'll now try the "Song Scanner" plugin I found mentioned here on the forums, but I thought I should mention this / ask here about the problem as well (the fast forward/rewind keys would surely be more comfortable than switching to a plugin). -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=38137 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Squeezebox with 2Gb on board memory.
Since Slimserver is a ... nuisance when running on a < 300 MHz NAS device, I doubt that a PocketPC would be sufficient ... nor beefing up the CPU under say 800 MHz (which I wouldn't want, too much power consumption, too much heat, ...) would make sense. -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32460 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] lists.slimdevices.com mailing list memberships reminder
Hey nice, now we all know the official password... -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32334 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Apple TV Competition?
Nostromo;171981 Wrote: > Probably won't sound as good as the Squeezebox. Does it even have a > digital out? 'Optical audio out' (http://www.apple.com/appletv/connect.html) Do you know of any indicators why it wouldn't sound as good? -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31559 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Clean up music collection
Both Picard or the classic version have GUIs that are way out of the things user interface design guidelines would suggest, but once you found out to use them, they may be useful. It's not fully automated, thats true, but its not so much more steps. You drag all your files into it, it'll analyze them in background (give it a night for a full collection), and when its finished, you can press the save button, which again might take some time depending on size. Picard is better then through using a newer algorithm than TRM (TRMs often have a dozen matches), but even uglier to use ;) -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31739 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Night terrors caused by SqueezeBox
> mherger: Squeezeboxen are dumb devices. All they do and display is fed > by a server. > If you display the clock, it's the server who tells it to display those > few numbers. If you set brightness to 0, it's the server who tells the > device to display the numbers with brightness 0 - which you usually > don't see. If the Squeezebox is so dumb that the server needs to give it the numbers of the clock, the server knows quite well that the SqueezeBox is in clock (sleep) mode. So he has all that he knows to send a message in the same brightness as he uses to send those clock numbers/letters. Sorry, while I find this reaction to the bright display a bit harsh as well, he's got a point - just should have reported it nicely as a bug or feature request ;) -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31652 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: How do i connect A NAS to a PC ?
RAID allows to combine harddisks (well, some Microsoft does allow that as well, but... :D ) - might be an advantage since slightly smaller drives are cheaper (for the price of one of the mentioned new 1TB drives, you would probably get three 500GB ones ;) ). I agree that its not replacing a real backup though, but its a step, and RAID 5 doesn't take as much space as RAID 1. Regarding the overkill and price factor: check how much power your PC consumes and how much your desired NAS would (since you would probably keep it up 24/7 just for that). In Germany, after about two years (depends on the model of course) what a NAS saved in power consumption will start to be more than you paid for it upfront. -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31522 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: iTunes Library.xml vs. iTunes Music Library.xml
There's been a bunch of names; if I look into my iTunes folder, I see both a "iTunes Library.itl" and a "iTunes Music Library.xml", for example. And the backup folder shows that even the itl files had a "Music" in their name at some point. -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31504 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Apple Iphone= Idiotphone?
CardinalFang;168971 Wrote: > Time magazine, engadget, gizmodo I watched the updates on engadget yesterday getting updated and updated and updated... I assume we speak about this here? http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-apple-iphone Where exactly does it tell about batteries or memory extensions? Except in dozens of contradicting user comments? CardinalFang;168971 Wrote: > Cellular networks do not allow downloading of any content, only > operator-approved content that they get a cut of. Interesting... am I doing something illegal then? We've developed a cellphone application that downloads updated from the Internet (for both Symbian and Windows CE/Mobile). I'm pretty sure Vodafone (the one I use for testing) hasn't approved, and I'm even more sure I don't pay them a cut of it. And this application has been tested with dozens of other providers by our users. Granted, its not "media" content, but then, every advanced smartphone browser can view any media available through http (the Keynote was very clear on the topic that Safari would NOT be crippled in any way compared to the desktop version). I could easily write applications that do download any file through http as well - OS like Symbian and Windows Mobile support standard Internet access routines. So, where do networks currently have to approve? Do they filter contents through a proxy? Doubt so, you can use browsers to access a lot they don't get a share for. Detecting the accessing software? Doubt so as well, Opera might have made a secret deal about that, but the Mozilla foundation couldn't possible hide such tricks in their software, since its open source - and the Minimo can browse a lot of media content where Vodafone doesn't get a cut. So, sorry to tell you ;) but the cellphone world has evolved quite a lot since iMode and WAP, and the big networks around here even advertise fully-featured flatrates as primary home Internet access, so I seriously doubt networks are still limiting content (except maybe for old, outdated WAP, can't say a thing about that)... Granted, it might be difficult to bring the downloaded content to work in the shipped applications, but that is another topic, and I'm kind of thinking that stuff like VLC could be ported to the iPhone quite soon. CardinalFang;168971 Wrote: > It's a walled garden to a large extent for apps. The clostest attempt to walling a smartphone off are Windows smartphones that allow only code-signed applications. Still, you could always insert your own root certificate or turn that off, or just by a certificate at VeriSign, no big strings attached. And contrary to Windows, the kernel of MacOSX (Darwin) is - imho - still under the BSD license, which puts some limits on the way of implementing the limitations. I only have to think about MacOSX for Intel... how long did it actually took them to get to run on ANY (well, those with specific hardware) Intel PC? Or it might be that I - as a software developer developing for mobile platforms as well - have watched so many ups and downs of different mobile Operating Systems and found that 3rd party apps where what made some of them strong (Palm lived on just that for years, the more "modern" Windows Mobile did only pass it with .Net that allowed more "standard" developers to code for it, Symbian lives only thanks to good public documentation on interfaces, and the GNU compiler), that I just can't believe they would make a device for geeks that could not be extended by those same geeks, making it only half as geeky :D -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31507 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Apple Iphone= Idiotphone?
CardinalFang;168945 Wrote: > It does, but it's not possible to download media except by a connection > to a Mac/PC. The WiFi seems to be solely for web browsing, although the > problem with WiFi outside the home is the lack of roaming agreements > between WiFi providers. Widgets (as shown) obviously need the ability to communicate online, how else could the Weather app show its data? And the Google Maps app... would you call that web browsing? Looked like a dedicated app. And then, it's MacOSX. CardinalFang;168945 Wrote: > Plus you can't use it without the cell phone part, so even after the two > years is up, you have to have a cellular agreement. I've read a bunch of sites quoting the Keynote, and watched it myself. Didn't hear or read that anyway. CardinalFang;168945 Wrote: > No replaceable batteries, Who said that? Can't really tell from the Keynote & pictures imho. CardinalFang;168945 Wrote: > no memory expansion, Who said that? Can't really tell from the Keynote & pictures imho. CardinalFang;168945 Wrote: > no games or 3rd party applications, So the widgets shown during the keynote are not third-party, and you think that they'll contrary to widgets on the other MacOSX, they'll limit the number of widgets that can be run? Just take a look on how well Apple supported software developers over the past 20+ years. CardinalFang;168945 Wrote: > it's a closed system for Apple and friends only so far, And I always thought that MacOSX is based on BSD... that you could even download the Darwin part... might be the GUI is closed source, but since its MacOSX, widgets are already well documented and for the rest... do you expect Apple to change MacOSX radically to make all the existing documentation void, just after they announced they took MacOSX to NOT develop something new? I'm still sceptical whether typing text on the device would be fast enough for me, but there's one thing that's great: they actually cared about use the PHONE. Take a look at all those smartphones out there, and using it to call someone seems to be the most neglected part of the whole device. -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31507 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: FLAC album art weirdness (stupid noob tricks)
Creating a whole new image reminds me of something I experienced in tagging as well: sometimes you download a jpg cover, but it's actually just a bmp with the jpg file extension. Windows will give a fine preview, most graphic apps will load it correctly, but a few taggers had problems with those. Was the case for only 2 out of a few hundred albums here, so I was hunting for the reason quite some time as well ;) -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31022 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Sonos - Support for M$ DRM
Why would that be? OpenSSL is a very good open implementation of secure stuff as well. DRM just means that a private key (which is not open of course, doesn't need to be) is used to unlock a file... and if the DRM algorithm is any good, publishing it (the algo) openly won't do it any harm. But a reason for having it on the firmware would probably be because it otherwise would be a method to circumvent the DRM (by capturing the unlocked stream). I don't need or want it either btw, experience showed that any real CD (or open format) lives much longer for me than closed stuff. -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31440 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: PDA remote for SB3 rather than Slim Server?
FreePascal+Lazarus allows - with the same code - to compile for Windows 32/64 native, Windows CE (aka Mobile), Linux Gtk1, Gtk2, and imho there are even Qt-for-Win+Linux+Mac widgets. Have already started a CLI class in FPC, but haven't implemented and tested more than a dozen calls (didn't have much time and adding them all was kind of... stupid typing only, so I put that aside for other more important work ;) ). When it's ready, I'll GPL it and upload somewhere :) -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31428 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: PDA remote for SB3 rather than Slim Server?
Tried anyway and got quite persuaded against it I'm afraid ;) 2.5 MB for the runtime - ok, so I installed it to the memory card. What's that? It doesn't use the main start menu, but creates a folder structure for the windows folder and start menu on the memory card. And not only that, it puts the executable, libraries and config files all into that start menu. Will obviously never appear in the start menu that way. So then I started the ewe.exe file from the start menu, and could add a menu item for SlimRemote. Clicking that just killed Ewe without any message. Could finally start SlimRemote directly from TotalCommander - it actually looks nice :) Still reacting a bit slow though (are the lists virtual? the hourglass on every scroll action was a bit annoying), but that's probably due to Slimserver running on a NAS. Too bad the runtime behind it doesn't behave nice ;) -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31428 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: PDA remote for SB3 rather than Slim Server?
@Countryman: I know only about the default skin, but there, the right half of the browser window is dedicated to the player, and it has a pulldown list to select the player you want to control. Couldn't be simpler :) Did a Google images search and found a screenshot: http://www.rpsys.net/openzaurus/temp/slimserver.png See the box showing "Lounge" in the upper right corner showing which one it would control. @mherger: I'm a user, but I'm also a developer ;) And as that, I've used nearly a dozen languages now, and Java is still one of the worst. May be coming from the slow speed in its early days or whatever - when I first played around with VB, I thought there could be nothing more slow - and then came Java ;) And even if its just "runtime"... well then its interpreted code, not native code, and that means its slower than necessary ;) Still, on a small device, it imho matters to users as well. A language that knows no destructors is an absolute NO for me on a device that doesn't have a lot of memory. And why I think Java would be involved is that I found a Java and an "Ewe" version of your page(I was looking for a version to run on my PocketPC), and even for Ewe, you wrote "Ewe is a programming system that allows you to write applications, using Java". Did I misunderstand that? If so, I'll gladly give it another try :=) -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31428 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: PDA remote for SB3 rather than Slim Server?
I couldn't get the TelCanto software to run on my PDA (Windows Mobile 2005) and don't like Java, but I'm interested in other possible solutions as well. About your question: interacting with Slimserver can control the output of every Squeezebox attached. You could install Slimserver and use Softsqueeze (a software player that acts as if it would be a real Squeezebox) to test how the web interface controls a player. -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31428 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Introducing..... me!
morberg;167788 Wrote: > You made some excellent points in your post, but missed one that made > the choice easier for me: 802.11g rather than 11b. You got a point there as well... but: 11b devices may slow down a 11g network a tiny bit, but who many normal consumers know or care? 11b is sufficient enough even for uncompressed data I guess (will use not even 2 of the 11 available MBit/s). So it's more or less again just a point for a quite small group of users. Dave Dewey;167803 Wrote: > But how many of those people are serious music listeners? In my > opinion, the Squeezebox is not a product for people that are content > listening to FM radio in their cars or are content with the storage > capacity of their Nano. In my opinion, Logitech is a name that stands for quality products, but also for making affordable quality products for the masses. Selling more units means more turnover means more return. It also means less production costs which means even more return. On the other hand, making things easier to set up for the masses wouldn't even raise the per-unit production costs. Might be nice to feel like an elite who knows how to handle the setup, but won't pay Logitechs employees and shareholders - and, no doubt about that: they're in for profit (like any commercial operation, nothing bad about that), not for pleasing a few elite audiophiles, who wouldn't even lose their quality, just their elite I-know-how-to-setup-these-things felling ;) > Most people in my experience that are serious enough music fans to > accumulate large collections are technologically savvy enough to deal > with a Squeezebox. That may be true of the people who found their way here - but lets be honest, most people with really huge music collections in general are not these audiophiles, but people who know how to use P2P. Malor;167860 Wrote: > 6. Softsqueeze. Both a useful player and a great sales tool. Compare it to the competition - Firefly and iTunes as a PC client - and it's just an awkward player. Granted it's really nice to test the feeling of using the unit beforehand. But then, it gives users the chance to try to setup the software beforehand. Might be fair, but may spoil a few sales because people who thought they would be able to set up things and be content with it may actually experience they aren't. -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31324 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Introducing..... me!
I bought two Squeezeboxes a year ago, and now a Roku Soundbridge, which probably is "the" competition. And to be honest, when I show both around to friends, the Roku clearly wins - hope I am allowed to say this here - I'll try to explain what people like more about it, and why two of those I showed bbought a Roku as well. Soundbridge wins over Squeezebox: * Setup: plug in the Soundbridge, and it'll show your PC (see next topic), every dummy can do that. Plug in the Squeezebox, you've got to enter your IP (DHCP didn't work well back then, and home users often don't have DHCP), enter the server IP (otherwise I had problems as well)... the first, I can give to my mother, the second I can only recommend to friends who know their network, which is about 5% of them. * Connecitivity: plug in the Soundbridge, and you'll see iTunes, Windows Media Player or a dedicated Firefly installation. Plug in the Squeezebox, and you have to install its special server software. Having it connect to something existing, I can again give even to my mother, telling people they need to install this special software, I hear "oh well, nice idea, but with my luck, I'll spend days getting it to run"... * Speed: having the PC running all the time? Few people I know would want that. The alternative: an old PC in a corner where the noise won't harm, or for people who also think about energy consumption (a 24/7 PC can use up a few hundred Euros here in Germany), a NAS. But while using a 200 Mhz NAS with Firefly and a Soundbridge is lightning fast, a Squeezebox connecting to Slimserver on that machine is s slow. And Firefly is a good proof that platform independent code is possible even in C and doesn't need that slow Perl stuff. Squeezebox wins over Soundbridge: * Display: visualisation and progess bar are advantages; sadly no t ones that weight a lot imho, since the size allows to choose songs from about the same distance. * Plugins: quite nice to have the weather on it in standby mode, for example. But to be honest, Plugins are geek features for a small percentage of possible users. * Web interface: Slimserver has a nice web interface. I like the ability to browse (even though on the NAS its quite slow) and create playlists that way. But then... the point of a stand-alone player is to NOT switch the PC on to manage. A dedicated remote with display like the earlier mentioned one could be a very nice advantage, but the web interface in itself, while being quite nice, is something for people who sit too much in front of their PC, not for casual PC users. Neutral: * Sound: lets be honest, this is still mostly about MP3s. Audiophiles may gain something from the Transporter etc., but the big consumer market won't hear any difference. * Security: WPA for the Soundsbridge took a long time - and that SD was caring about WPA security is in my personal eyes a very important thing... but then, I'm more thinking about security than most people. To me and my recommendations to others, that weighted more than all the Soundbridges advantages... until now that Roku has WPA. Summary: Within a year of having Squeezeboxes, people looked at them, liked them, but found them too complicated once I explained the additional work. Within a week of having a Soundbridge, I had someone buying himself one as well (and that guy knew the Squeezeboxes). So if you want to hear my opinion what could be made better: have a server thats available as native bytecode (can still be OS and multiplatform), and make those boxes able to connect to iTunes and WMP at least (in the worst case with some kind of really easy to one-click-install proxy software) to give users instant success. Or in shorter words: improvements that would allow you to give one to your mother with the confidence that you won't need to help her. Competition has proven that it's possible ;) -- CCRDude CCRDude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8478 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31324 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
