Re: [slim] SB2: nothing on display. Dead?
New power supply arrived this morning. After plugging it in, there followed a few seconds of disappointment while nothing happened, followed in turn by the Logitech logo and everything being hunky-dory. Thanks again everybody! I have a working SB2 again, and for less than a tenner too. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=86920 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] SB2: nothing on display. Dead?
Right, I've bought it. I have my fingers crossed that it will bring my precious SB2 back to life! It's had a good run if not. Thanks again. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=86920 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] SB2: nothing on display. Dead?
I'm in the UK. There's one here on an ebay store for about £9 delivered: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5V-Logitech-Squeezebox-2-replacement-power-supply-/190521235834?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_PowerAdaptors_SM&hash=item2c5bf3597a That's comparable to the $15 in your link. Thankyou for the advice though -- I had no idea how much I'd be spending on a power supply, so you've given me a ball park I can work with! -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=86920 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] SB2: nothing on display. Dead?
Wifi board removed, the unit still pines for the fjords. I can see no illumination anywhere, so it's not looking good. Since I can't find another power supply in the house that's 5V (let alone fitting the other requirements aubuti was kind enough to give) my next step is ebay for a new plug. Thanks everybody for your help. I shall post back if I'm able to get it going without buying an entire replacement! -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=86920 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] SB2: nothing on display. Dead?
I will remove the wifi board tonight. Cheers. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=86920 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] SB2: nothing on display. Dead?
Okay, thanks, good suggestions! Would a faulty wifi board make the box appear invisible to the server too? (It's connected by ethernet.) -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=86920 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] SB2: nothing on display. Dead?
w3wilkes;624294 Wrote: > How dead is the SB2? If you bring up the webUI to your SBS can you see > the player? Good question! Nothing through the web, so pretty dead I guess. My plan is now this: 1. Try to find another 5V power supply in the house (will any 5V power supply do, or are there other factors I must take into account?). 2. If I can't find one, or if I do find one and it works, buy a replacement power supply -- I've seen them on ebay for not much. 3. Buy a replacement SB2 (or SB3 if I must). Again, ebay I think. (4. Sell my own power supply if it turns out to still be okay!) I was celebrating the arrival of a battery for my SB Radio yesterday, in time for barbecue season, and carried the Radio around the house only to encounter the dead SB2! From a high to a low, just like that. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=86920 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[slim] SB2: nothing on display. Dead?
My venerable Squeezebox 2 is starting to die on me, and may have already done so. I see nothing on the screen (and have tried changing the brightness). Is there an easy way to tell if it's the screen at fault or if the whole box is dead? I recall when I bought the SB2 some years ago that I had a screen problem and was instructed to fiddle with the VFD to bring it back to life. I wonder if that could work again. Any ideas of things to try (I see there are buttons to hold on boot which might do something) will be gratefully received. I can't really afford an upgrade to the newer models; I love the SB Radio in my kitchen but can't justify buying something new with digital out. (Heck, I've just realised: no SB2 means no listening to my 5.1 rips! I'll have to start digging out DVDs...) Cheers, Steve -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=86920 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Is third party plugins/applets important for your Squeezebox purchases ?
A poll associated with this post was created, to vote and see the results, please visit http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=73698 Question: Is third party plugins/applets important for your Squeezebox purchases ? - I won't buy any more Squeezebox products unless support for third party development is prioritized - I won't buy any more Squeezebox products unless the third party plugins I rely on is supported - I use third party plugins but I would still consider buying more Squeezebox products without them - I don't use third party plugins so they aren't important to my Squeezebox purchases The open nature of the server software, and the availability of 3rd-party plugins to extend the server's functionality, was what attracted me to the Squeezebox over the competition. I knew that if the official developers were too busy to add bells and whistles, 3rd-party devs would add all sorts of interesting things that the community would embrace. For example, Stuart Hickinbottom's Lazy Search plugin is an essential for me; for a numeric remote like the (old) Squeezebox's, it's a surprise that it's not been rolled in to the core product. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=73698 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Information
Thanks for the replies. I've unsubscribed and re-subscribed so will look out for more newsletters. I've checked my deleted emails (whence all my junk mail ends up after a brief review) and there's nothing with a From address including "slim" that looks like a newsletter; forum notifications and bugzilla emails are there though. I've recently noticed another email newsletter has stopped coming, so I wonder if my ISP or my email forwarding provider are stopping them (despite me asking them to apply no junk filtering). -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=48828 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Information
mherger;311479 Wrote: > > http://www.slimdevices.com/subscribe/?p=subscribe > I subscribed to that newsletter in September 2007 (and then again in January 2008, it seems) and have never received anything beyond the initial confirmations. Has there been no news in the last 9 months? -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=48828 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Why is SlimServer so slow?
DanielTheGreat;279099 Wrote: > Incidentally (smst), how do you create the little box around your code > fragment? [You can see I'm a complete novice to this forum stuff.] Like so: *[**code]insert code here[/**code]* Code: insert code here As a general tip, if you click the "Quote" button under any reply you can see the exact content of somebody's post, including tags. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=44457 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Why is SlimServer so slow?
DanielTheGreat;278616 Wrote: > SMST's suggestion to kill the gain tags is even better. I eventually > found a version of foobar2k that supposedly works under Win2k, and will > try to install/test it over the next few days. You can use metaflac to remove RG tags from FLAC files. (I don't know if metaflac is distributed with SlimServer or not; it's available from the FLAC website though.) Code: metaflac.exe --remove-replay-gain "My DTS File.flac" > SMST, you've made some great suggestions about special tags for surround > tracks - I heartily agree. Indeed, I'd like to see it go one step > further and include a new gain tag (perhaps call it 'SurrGain'?) that > is NOT used by replay gain players, but is broadcast (when it's > present) along with the file header at the start of each track. [I > know nothing about how SC 'broadcasts' the music stream via Wi-Fi, but > I'm assuming there's some sort of 'header' sent at the start of each > track, with the tag info etc). With such a SurrGain tag, I could (when > I learn how to program network-aware DOS applications) reprogram my > DOS6.22 touch PC that controls most functions of my (overly complex) > surround system. It could then adjust my system's 'pre-volume' so that > the DTS tracks sounded the same loudness as the replay-gain-adjusted > stereo tracks. Of course I would need to empirically determine the > values and tag the SurrGain for each album, but with only a few dozen > DTS CDs, that wouldn't be arduous. Interesting idea. You'd need a server plugin to read that tag and pass it on to your other PC, and to send a "revert to normal" tag if the tag wasn't present on the next track. Calculating the value might be tricky, but ultimately I guess you could use some utility (BeSweet might do it; I don't know if it has a DTS plugin) to downmix the DTS file to a stereo WAV, and calculate the gain values using that. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=44457 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Why is SlimServer so slow?
DanielTheGreat;277787 Wrote: > There was some discussion last year about SS being made smarter by > recognising DTS bit-streams and disabling gain adjustments for those > tracks. I forgot to mention earlier: I've previously requested that some tag (perhaps the community could decide upon one) could be recognised by SlimServer as meaning "the contents are for SPDIF output only". One could tag the relevant files without requiring that SlimServer recognise the various bitstreams (two types of DTS, AC3, etc). The tag's meaning would be "do not apply RG, do not adjust volume, do not limit bitrate, and do not use analogue outputs". I'd find a variation on the latter helpful. I intend to buy a new SB for my kitchen and won't be using digital outputs. I'd like it if the SB would refuse to play tracks marked as SPDIF-only, especially to avoid a nasty white-noise surprise during random mix. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=44457 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Why is SlimServer so slow?
DanielTheGreat;277787 Wrote: > Phil, with all due respect, I have to disagree with your first sentence, > while agreeing with your second. When 'Track gain' is selected for > volume adjustment, SlimServer/SqueezeCenter DOES 'scale' the audio > samples, thereby destroying the integrity of the DTS code stream. > There was some discussion last year about SS being made smarter by > recognising DTS bit-streams and disabling gain adjustments for those > tracks. It was suggested that the developers would aim for this in > Rev. 7, but this clearly hasn't happened (I installed SqueezeCenter 7 > yesterday and tested it today, and I still get white noise when volume > adjustment is enabled for a DTS track. Disabling volume adjustment > ['none'] allows DTS FLAC files to play perfectly through the > Squeezebox's Toslink o/p). I'm running SlimServer 6.5.4, so things might be different for me, but I have no problem playing back DTS files with ReplayGain enabled (with the "smart" setting, which I believe uses "track" or "album" based on the current track's relation to the rest of the playlist). None of my DTS files have ReplayGain information embedded in them, so there's nothing for SlimServer to do -- I would have thought that it wouldn't adjust the audio at all if there were no RG tags. Some simple things to check (which you may have already tried): 1. Check that there are no ReplayGain values set for your DTS files. I use foobar2000: I can ask for a track's properties and, on the "Properties" tab (as opposed to "Metadata") I can see RG values. fb2k can clear RG values too. 2. Check that the Digital Volume Control setting is "fixed" (or similar; I don't remember the exact setting name and it may have changed for SC). 3. Check that there's no bitrate limiting enabled. If you can play DTS back with RG disabled, I imagine the last two are okay, but check anyway. Perhaps things have changed between SS 6.5.4 and SS 7, but I can't see why the server would apply RG with no RG tags set. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=44457 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] First Surround 5.1 Webradio !
kkitts;214740 Wrote: > I created a 5.1 wav file through a painful laborious process - and > played it back through the squeezebox. I'm certain that it picked up > 5.1 channels because I can verify that on my yamaha receiver. So > squeezebox *can* play back 5.1 files of some varieties - is that right? > BTW, I am using the optical out to the from the SB to the yamaha > receiver. The SB2 and SB3 can play back WAV files, and (if you've got a fixed digital output level and no MP3 transcoding) will pass the exact contents of the WAV file over S/PDIF to your receiver. The SB2/3 itself knows nothing about surround sound formats (and it's only got stereo analogue output, so it couldn't do anything with the extra channels anyway). What sort of WAV did you create? Both Dolby Digital (AC3) and DTS can be wrapped in a WAV format, and the SB2/3 will pass them straight through to your receiver: if it understands AC3 or DTS, it will play them back. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=36771 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Announce: DirectPlaybookPDF - turn your music collection into a book
bephillips;202792 Wrote: > "The more I look at prices for barcode scanners (and even before I work > out the cost of printing pages or cards), the more I think I won't be > using this soon" > > I think there are programs that allow any webcam to be used to read bar > codes. Thanks for the suggestion. I was hoping to avoid having a PC in the living room, however. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29630 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Quality of Slimserver
That sounds like this bug: http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=4882 ...which has affected me too (searching by artist was where I noticed it). Do you set ALBUMARTIST, COMPOSER or BAND for most of your albums? I think the bug affects non-compilation albums when those tags are set as well as ARTIST. Comments #25 and #26 there describe a workaround which should allow you to get the database back into a state where browsing by artist will work again. (I'm only helping with that problem you're having; I'm not commenting on the question of stability or quality of SlimServer one way or the other.) -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35492 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Announce: DirectPlaybookPDF - turn your music collection into a book
The more I look at prices for barcode scanners (and even before I work out the cost of printing pages or cards), the more I think I won't be using this soon. :-) So please don't start any work on my account -- hopefully the bump to this thread will interest more people though! You mention ISBN; do you mean the UPC? ISBN is for books afaik. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number I hadn't thought of looking the barcode up online! That's smart: use the tags I've already entered to work out the UPC. Certainly saves scanning them all! Although if there were a lot of cases where an album may have more than one UPC, a compromise could be made where the user scans each of his barcodes and the software looks up the album, and tries to match it to something in the existing collection. If you don't mind me asking: is it very expensive to print off that many pages? RFID would be interesting, but I suspect they'd be much more expensive than barcodes (which are, after all, just ink on paper). Barcodes are no more expensive than the print costs of the library; RFID is an additional cost per page. (I always fancied using RFID with my actual CDs, but soon found out that the cost was silly.) I do like the idea of using Gumstix. It's at times like this that I wish I had more electronics knowledge: it would be fun to put something together. Perhaps this will give me cause to look into that some more. :-) Very kind of you to offer the CueCat -- I'm in the UK however so probably won't be in the area very soon. If I do get a scanner some time, I'll be sure to check back in. Maybe I'll even rifle through the code myself. (BTW, I fully understand the motivations behind writing something while there's a need, then letting it be when it's satisfactory.) Cheers, Steve -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29630 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Announce: DirectPlaybookPDF - turn your music collection into a book
I was thinking about a barcode-reading feature some time ago (mentioned
it 'in this forum thread'
(http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20138)), and today I
remembered it. And I see that an implementation exists! Excellent. I
particularly like the use of a few special barcodes to control modes and
other functions. Thanks for putting the work in; it looks very cool.
I've still not printed a catalogue of my collection (the expense of the
trading card storage and a new printer doesn't fit well with the
relatively low priority of the printout!) but wanted to make a
suggestion anyway, in case it's useful for others. It concerns the ID
used to identify a given album: where does it come from? Is it a
SlimServer db internal ID? Is it prone to change on a rescan?
I propose this: have the basic play-this-album barcode be exactly the
barcode printed on the original CD's packaging. For those albums which
don't have that metadata stored, use a number based on the db ID (or
whatever is used currently) but adjusted to be in a range illegal for
the CD barcode. (I'm pretty sure there are rules and checksums for
those barcodes... least elegantly, they're not longer than 14 digits so
an adjusted ID above 1,000 million million would be sure not to clash!)
Personally, I have a PRODUCTNUMBER tag on every file (where the CD had
a barcode!) containing the relevant digits. I imagine that one could
extend the SlimServer db to include a custom album ID based on a
user-defined tag, or generated automatically in the absence of such a
tag. (I don't know if that's easy to do or not; it's just an idea
meant to trigger discussion.)
The obvious upshot of this is that the barcode scanner will now work in
the absence of a printed catalogue: I just scan the barcode on the disc,
which is on the shelf next to me (as I still find a use for all those
bits of plastic; haven't got SBs everywhere yet!).
Everything else ("Play all by this artist", changing mode, random mix,
etc) can be triggered by IDs outside of the album ID range. "Play all
by this artist" could be implemented automatically, without recourse to
another ID: if the scanned number is in some special range outside of
the album range, chop off all but the last 14 digits to identify the
album then dereference it to the artist. One could imagine other such
special ranges (eg 3x10^15, or '3' plus a 14 digit album ID, could mean
"take me to the album so I can pick a track").
Since I don't have a barcode scanner yet, and may be the only person
who would benefit from this, I'm not asking for any of it to be
implemented! I'm merely thinking aloud.
And on that note: would I be right in thinking that cheap barcode
scanners plug into a PC? I'd like to buy one, but I won't have a PC in
the living room, or even a laptop or PDA (and if I had the latter, there
are some good SlimServer skins to use instead). Does anyone know of
anything wireless (IR, bluetooth, wifi)? Although presumably that
won't be cheap.
Thanks again for DirectPlaybookPDF -- even though I haven't bought any
hardware to use it yet, I appreciate the fact that the software exists
and you've taken the time to make it work.
--
smst
smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29630
___
discuss mailing list
discuss@lists.slimdevices.com
http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Forum Cleanup
I've asked for this before, and perhaps this is a good point to mention it again: I'd really like an announcement forum. The general discussion list is very high volume, and I really only subscribe to it so I'll be notified of new SlimServer releases (and new hardware plans, hopefully). I've requested this as 'bug#3259' (http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=3259), and included a few suggestions to make it work smoothly (essentially, an announcement would be cross-posted to the dedicated forum and have a note appended directing follow-ups to a thread in the general (or 3rd party, etc) forum). Thanks for cleaning up the forums! -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34982 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Announce: Official SlimServer v6.5.1 Release
I didn't get a message about this through the announcements list, so I'd like to take this opportunity to again ask for it to be revived. The main discussion list is high volume; too high for me. I stay subscribed to keep abreast of announcements. I asked about this 'before' (http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22737), and some interest was expressed in an announcements-only list. It was pointed out that one already exists but is seldom used; this announcement seems to support that. In 'bug#3259' (http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=3259) I suggested that the announcements list be revived. I proposed that an announcement made elsewhere should, if some checkbox was ticked on submission, be copied to the announcements list along with a link to the _original_ message. Thus, a copy of the 6.5.1 release announcement would be emailed to all who were interested, and would refer to this very thread for follow-up discussion (keeping the announcements list free of follow-ups). This seems like a good time to raise the suggestion again. Thanks, Steve -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31826 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: DTS rip from DVD
Eric Seaberg;162018 Wrote: > I did DL Python for OSX and got spdifconvert to open and even read the > help file. I have a DVD ripper that does rip the DTS files > individually so now it's just a matter of figuring out the syntax your > script wants.Quick update for you Eric -- jsnell has replied to the main > AC3/DTS thread with some more information on using spdifconvert in a terminal on a Mac. It might be helpful to you. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30461 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Will there ever be a video squeezebox ?
thepainter;162691 Wrote: > I too am blown away by XBMC but am interested in controlling it > remotely. I have a Logitech Harmony 880 and have heard of controlling > it with it but can't seem to get it working. Currently I'm using a > wireless game controller which does all kinds of great ajustments etc. > My favorite is the fast forward which when done on my laptop (G4 > powerbook) I sometimes get a voice sync problem which I have to pause > for a couple of seconds to catch up but with the XBOX I never have a > problem. Anyone with the Hormony setup? I think the one I downloaded > controlled the DVD drive but not XBMC. I recommend it highly by the > way. If you don't already have it, you may need to buy the DVD playback kit, which is essentially a remote and a IR receiver. The receiver plugs in to a controller port and enables the remote to be used. (You won't really need the remote except to learn commands on the Harmony, and maybe not even that as the official Microsoft remote/dongle is based on the same signals as RCA DVD players use.) -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30637 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Will there ever be a video squeezebox ?
I bought an XBox two weeks ago for XBMC, and it's fantastic. SadGamerGeek;162668 Wrote: > I just have one remote (Pronto) that controls it as well as my TV, Amp, > TiVo, DVD player, Squeezebox and lights (via X10). This level of > convenience scores very highly on the WAF (GAF) scale. The only small > niggle is that there is no easy way to turn an Xbox on via the remote, > and I haven't yet trained either of our dogs to push the power button > with their noses...Depending on your definition of "easy"... for about > UK£15 one can buy an additional IR receiver which draws a small amount of standby power and will turn the XBox on when it receives a particular remote command. It requires that the lid be removed and some wires be soldered under the motherboard (or, in my case, shoved into the main power connector and taped in place), which is not massively hard to do. (Having said that, the model I bought integrates with a particular brand of modchip, and may not work with "softmod" XBoxes... I don't know enough about it to say for sure!) So the problem can be solved. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30637 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: DTS rip from DVD
Eric Seaberg;162132 Wrote: > The Porcupine Tree DVD is VIDEO, not audio. I think the copy I saw was > converted from PAL to NTSC, which didn't really look too bad.That explains > the absence of a CD then! But Burning Shed seemed to have MP3s, which is what threw me. Good luck with your attempts at the weekend! -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30461 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: DTS rip from DVD
Eric Seaberg;162018 Wrote: > I did DL Python for OSX and got spdifconvert to open and even read the > help file. I have a DVD ripper that does rip the DTS files > individually so now it's just a matter of figuring out the syntax your > script wants. > > I've got too much on my plate right now to think about it. Don't want > my head to explode before Christmas. Nobody wants an exploding head; I'd agree with that. The syntax isn't tough: in your terminal, change to the directory containing the DTS files (likely with the 'cd' command; OSX has a linux-like shell, right?), copy spdifconvert.py into that directory (using the Mac's GUI for file browsing if that's easier) and run spdifconvert.py with no arguments to check it's available. Then just run it several times, each time with a DTS file as argument (ie you type 'spdifconvert.py', or whatever works for you, then a space, then the name of a DTS file). If you decide to take a look at it, do ask for any help you need in the other thread. > BTW, smst, have you seen the DVD of Porcupine Tree at Rockpalast? It's > pretty incredible, if you can find it. I think it was shot for German > television and is tough to find in the States. I haven't; sounds good. Burning Shed seem to have it for download but I don't see a CD there... I'm in the UK so hopefully it'll be a touch easier to find. :) -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30461 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: DTS rip from DVD
Eric Seaberg;161628 Wrote: > I spent the time yesterday reading smst's LONG thread on doing this. > I'm thinkin' I'll pull out the ol' Dell Laptop to use for this as it > seems SO MUCH EASIER than trying to re-compile for the Mac.I don't think > it'll be very hard to use a Mac for this, but as I've never used one I don't know for sure! Python is available for the Mac, and spdifconvert.py shouldn't rely on anything Windows-specific (and if it does, I can change it). Current Mac OSs allow the opening of a terminal, I think. There must exist DVD ripping tools and a FLAC encoder. Which is just to say: if getting that Dell out is more than a few hours' work in itself, you might want to try the Mac anyway. Depends how deeply you've hidden it. :-) (Don't forget you'll need to transfer your new FLACs from the Dell to the box running SlimServer, so the Dell will need a network card or a CD/DVD writer...) Good luck with it. If you have any problems, please post back to the AC3/DTS thread (where problems are collected). -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30461 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: DTS rip from DVD
Eric Seaberg;161124 Wrote: > I have a lot of DVD-A discs that also have a DTS stream available to > play on non DVD-A players. Since the format of the disc is the same as > a standard DVD, i.e. Video and Audio TS folders, it's not as easy to rip > as a DTS-CD is, which looks just like an audio CD but the files are > encoded.As Andy says, your best bet is to rip the DTS stream directly from the DVD-Video layer and convert it. > I then opened BarbaBatch, which is a file format conversion program to > SRC from 48K to 44.1. The resultant file was then converted using FLAC > (like I had done with my DTS-CDs) and put onto my SlimServer Music > drive.It's not necessary to force a 44.1kHz sample rate -- the SB2/3 will be happy with the 48kHz DTS stream from the DVD-Video. DTS-CDs are 44.1kHz but the DTS data is a different format; even if BarbaBatch knows there are two different formats, I don't think it's easy to transform them (I tried it once but the resultant streams were never useful). But since you don't need to sample-rate convert anyway, it doesn't matter. :-) -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30461 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Surround MP3 supported?
I haven't had a lot of time for this, but I had a quick look around and came to the conclusion that some very useful information is in IEC 61937 (the standard which basically defines how you wrap this stuff up for S/PDIF, before sending it using IEC 60958). Those standards aren't cheap to buy, so I was wondering if anyone knew of any legitimate ways to view them for free. Do they tend to be available in public libraries? (I'm in the UK.) University libraries maybe? -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28112 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Surround MP3 supported?
Mark Lanctot;142004 Wrote: > Interesting! > > Well that would be the way. You'd need a firmware change so that the > SB could pass surround MP3 without decoding it over S/PDIF, then a > receiver capable of decoding surround MP3. > > ...As a first pass, we could encode it to FLAC as we can for AC3/DTS, and then without firmware changes it'll pass right through. But that supposes that I can work out how to convert it; I'll probably have a look in the next few days. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28112 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Surround MP3 supported?
Mark Lanctot;141978 Wrote: > I believe 6-channel PCM can't be transmitted over S/PDIF due to > insufficient bandwidth. I had a feeling that might be the case; I think I remember reading that S/PDIF had insufficient bandwidth for DVD-Audio also. > Unfortunately that leaves this sort of multichannel support for the > Squeezebox high and dry. It can't transmit anything other than > 2-channel PCM over S/PDIF and since surround MP3 isn't contained in a > specially-encoded 2-channel PCM stream like DD and DTS, it can't be > passed to a receiver, even if the receiver could decode such a stream. But might it not be possible to encode streams other than AC3/DTS in the same way? For example, this S/PDIF information mentions MPEG audio as one possible thing to put into the stream (although it might be speculative): http://www.epanorama.net/documents/audio/spdif.html And indeed it seems that Harmon Kardon produce an amp capable of receiving MP3s over S/PDIF: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=23822 Of course, the existing players will only be able to produce stereo from the new MP3 Surround files, but if we could wrap up an MP3 in the same way we can wrap an AC3 or DTS file, we might still be able to transmit it to a suitable receiver. (I wonder if anybody other than HK make such a thing?) And if we can transmit a stereo MP3 to a receiver, I'd imagine that adding support for MP3 Surround would be fairly easy, should a receiver come to exist which can support it. Transformed MP3s would almost certainly be as big as their decompressed stereo-WAV equivalents, but would compress well to FLAC due to all the padding (going by the way AC3/DTS behaves). Unfortunately my receiver can't take MP3 files, but it would certainly be interesting to get this going. And if it could be made to work, the SB2/3 firmware could probably do it for us. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28112 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Surround MP3 supported?
SlimPvC;141950 Wrote: > Don't know what you mean exactly here, but I'm playing DTS WAVS (= 6 > channel wavs) perfectly through the SB2. These are the wavs that play > extreme white noise when played undecoded. So I guess the SB2 is > capable of decoding these wav files on the fly and sending a digital > signal to the receiver? It's not -- I wasn't clear. I was referring to WAV files containing 6 channels of uncompressed PCM audio. Your DTS WAVs actually contain specially encoded DTS data which is masquerading as PCM data. That's why they sound like white noise when played normally: most players think they're reading 2 channels of uncompressed PCM audio (it's all just bytes, after all) and the sound is horrible. That happens when the player is trying to convert the PCM data to an analog format to be sent to speakers (say, you have your PC hooked up to a pair of stereo speakers, and playing the WAV back through WinAmp or fb2k results in white noise). But if you have the player hooked up to a DTS-aware receiver using a digital connection, the playing software doesn't try to interpret the data and the receiver does the work instead -- and the receiver is clever enough to spot the DTS data and decode appropriately. You can connect a PC soundcard's S/PDIF output to a DTS-aware receiver and play DTS WAVs successfully (but you'll need to be careful that your OS and music playback software leave the volume alone -- for fb2k that means an attenuation of 0.00, and with Windows the volume slider needs to be at max IIRC (if you try this, turn your receiver's volume down very low at first in case I'm wrong!)). So anyway, the SB2 doesn't actually know anything about DTS WAVs. It does know that if it receives a WAV file and has been told to play it back at full volume over its digital output, it should shunt the data right out over the S/PDIF connection to the receiver, untouched. It's just a simple conduit for getting the DTS data from your PC to your DTS-aware receiver. (It's the same with Dolby Digital files from DVD, after they've been suitably wrapped in WAV format; DTS files from DVD too. DTS WAVs ripped direct from special DTS CDs can be passed through with no work at all.) So passing DTS and AC3 (Dolby Digital) data straight through to the receiver is what the SB2 can do now. Those are formats that the receiver can understand, and the SB2 need do no special work to pass them on. I'm wondering if there's another format (maybe an MPEG format?) that can carry 6 uncompressed channels and which is understood by many receivers. If there is such a format, perhaps it would be possible to decode MP3 Surround files on the SB2 and pump the 6 channels out over S/PDIF. Of course, in theory the SB2 could create an AC3 or DTS stream to get that data to the receiver, but I'd be surprised if the box had the horsepower to do so, and there may be licensing issues. (Plus it's a lossy-to-lossy conversion which isn't usually a great idea.) If receivers start to support MP3 Surround, it might be possible to just wrap such a file in a WAV container (as we can do for AC3/DTS files sourced from DVD) and pass it straight through. Would be nicer if the SB2 could support it though. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28112 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Surround MP3 supported?
Disclaimer: I'm speculating on much of this, and would love it if somebody with more knowledge of the various specs could show me I was wrong. funkstar;141448 Wrote: > the reason DTS or AC3 wrapped up in a WAV or FLAC works is that the SB > doesn't need to do any surround processing, it just thinks it is > regular audio and passes it as is to the AV reciever. I'm guessing that > surround MP3 would need to be decoded and then sent to the digital outs. > So it is completely different process than what will currently work. I think that sending to the receiver will be the hard part. I wonder if it's possible to send a 6-channel WAV directly to a receiver... if not, the problem is (as you say) that the MP3 will have to be decoded and then re-encoded to some format the receiver understands (AC3 or DTS? Possibly not practical; I don't know what the licensing or processor power issues are). Decoding: according to Fraunhofer, "decoding the six channels needs around three times the processing power of decoding stereo MP3". I have no idea if the SB2/3 could support that. Fraunhofer also claim that an MP3 Surround stream can be sent over S/PDIF just like MP3. I presume that implies the receiver will be decoding it, and that a compliant receiver would be required for the surround effect (but I'm just guessing). ... Just checked the specs for my receiver, which can handle AC3 and DTS -- there's no mention of multichannel PCM support (and indeed it seems to be that PCM data is forced to be stereo). That's just one receiver out of many, so maybe 6-channel PCM is still viable. I suspect that the best way to get this to work would be if a receiver supported MP3 Surround files natively, and could be passed the data over S/PDIF. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28112 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Problem with FFWD/REW of Ogg Vorbis
It's fast-forward/rewind only; normal playback is fine. I hadn't actually considered the possibility that the files wouldn't be supported at all! The native support is still very welcome -- I'm pleased not to be transcoding on the server now (since the overwhelming majority of my music is Ogg Vorbis). Thanks, Steve -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27862 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Problem with FFWD/REW of Ogg Vorbis
I see; thanks for pointing that out. I can do without it, as I have done until now -- just wanted to be sure there wasn't something broken at my end. Cheers. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27862 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Problem with FFWD/REW of Ogg Vorbis
Hi all, I upgraded to 6.5 last week (_love_ the new gallery view!) but have so far been unsuccessful with native support of Ogg Vorbis. When I hit the FFWD button, the SB2 shows "PROBLEM: CAN'T OPEN FILE FOR:" (I believe that's the wording I saw). My SlimServer build is: 6.5.0 - 9916 - Windows 2000 - EN - cp1252 The player firmware version is 64. My Ogg Vorbis files are all q6, and can all be played back at normal speed. They're on an NTFS volume, and the only permissions wrinkle is that I've disabled deletion for all users (although I'm sure that's not relevant!). The "File Types" settings are: [Y] Ogg Vorbis AIFFsox [Y] Ogg Vorbis FLACsox/flac [ ] Ogg Vorbis MP3 sox/lame [Y] Ogg Vorbis Ogg Vorbis (built-in) ...in that order. I've tried unticking all but the last one (and submitting the form) but I get the same error. (And presumably the built-in version would have been used by default, right?) Is this a known problem? Can anyone suggest something I've overlooked? Which debugging flags should I enable to help diagnose the error? Thanks, Steve -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27862 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Squeezebox wav frequency limitations
I've just noticed btw that although that bug specifically isn't marked as being resolved, the 6.5.0 changelog: http://www.slimdevices.com/Changelog6.html ...says "Fixed WAV playback for various bitrates and sample sizes" for SB2/3. Still doesn't help for your SB1, but I thought I'd mention it. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27593 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Squeezebox wav frequency limitations
Sounds like Bug#128: http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=128 -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27593 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Mediamax
According to this page: http://www.axonix.com/howToBuy/basePricing.php ...the AudioDeck starts at $600 (US dollars I suppose) for a wired version. That's quite a lot more than the SB3 price, isn't it? -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27391 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Let's here some suggestions for SlimServer 7
Steve;133412 Wrote: > As a work around I've tagged albums and tracks I know are dodgy with > "NotForKids" so if I want to play random music I just exclude this > genre. Dirty but works, but means I lose the genre tag.I'm not sure you > should have to lose the GENRE tag, although I guess it depends on the audio format. Do you use a format which supports multiple genres? (And does SlimServer support that?) You might be able to just add that NotForKids genre to the existing genre. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=26874 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: TRACKNUMBER tag in MP3s not recognised
I found the relevant settings in fb2k, and tested a few files: it is indeed the case that if ID3v1 is present at all, the tracknumber is ignored. I set all my MP3s to have purely ID3v2 tags (I don't think I need the backwards-compatibility) and re-scanned, and everything looks good. Thanks for your help guys. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25312 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: TRACKNUMBER tag in MP3s not recognised
Aha, an excellent point. Foobar2000 apparently has the ID3v2 plugin installed, but it doesn't tell me what sort of tags I have... okay another utility seems to thing I've got ID3v1 and APEv2 tags in place. I'll try to work out how to get fb2k to really write ID3v2 tags, and report back. Thanks for the suggestion. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25312 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] TRACKNUMBER tag in MP3s not recognised
My music collection contains Ogg Vorbis files, FLACs and MP3s. For every file I use a TRACKNUMBER tag. I've just noticed that the TRACKNUMBER tag is ignored in all my MP3s. The other files are fine. By "ignored", I mean that if I go to New Music and choose an MP3 album, the files are listed in title order; if I click on a single track, there's no "Track:" entry in the metadata list. I've never noticed this before, but I don't have a lot of MP3s so perhaps the behaviour is not new. I've just upgraded to SlimServer 6.3 and done a full re-scan. Should I be using a different tag name in MP3s for the track number? Thanks, Steve -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25312 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: DTS problem
I've not noticed this problem myself, but I may not have encountered the situation in the first place. The auto-detect mode of a receiver will work by looking for magic numbers in the data stream which tell it what sort of data is being sent. If those magic numbers disappear, the receiver has to decide what to do -- in your case, I guess it thinks it's having difficulty re-syncing with a DTS stream and elects not to just push that digital data out to the speakers (where it would sound awful). I presume that the SB3 could interrupt its output stream to force the receiver to reconsider what it was receiving, but I suppose that could ruin gapless playback between ordinary PCM tracks. I've proposed in 'Bug 3047' (http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=3047) that it would be useful if the SB2/3 could provide certain special behaviour if it knows it's handling a non-PCM digital stream (such as disabling analogue outputs). It seems to me that another useful effect might be to force a stream interruption of some sort if a DTS track is followed by a PCM track. I've added that idea to the bug. (Identification of such tracks in the above scenario is another matter, but might be through a custom tag or the presence of certain values (DTS, Dolby Digital, etc) in a genre list.) -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23590 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Is there an announcements-only mailing list?
Given the low volume of, and lack of publicity for, the existing announce-list, I've added my request to the bug database: http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=3259 Please vote for it if this is something you think you'd benefit from. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22737 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Is there an announcements-only mailing list?
http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/announce Perfect! Just what I was looking for. Is that referenced anywhere? I couldn't find it when I was looking for such a thing earlier. Thanks! -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22737 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Is there an announcements-only mailing list?
I'm finding the volume of messages in the General Discussion forum a little high, and was about to unsubscribe when I realised it's the vector by which I receive announcements (new SlimServer releases, new hardware, new/upgraded plugins etc). Is there a forum or mailing list which exists just for announcements? If not, could such a thing be created? I know that a lot of announcements already occur in General Discussion, and others are made in the 3rd Party forum; I think that's good as follow-up discussion belongs in those places. Would it be possible to (essentially) allow announcements to be cross-posted to a dedicated announcements forum which doesn't allow replies? I'm thinking, roughly, that when somebody starts a new thread to announce something, a check-box could be ticked which creates a copy of the post in the new forum and appends a link to the real thread. Then the subscribers to the announcements forum would see the announcement notices only, and anybody who wanted to follow up could do so in the real location. I guess the announcements forum might need to be moderated to prevent abuse (and in case the forum software couldn't be modified as suggested above). What does everyone think? Should this be filed in the bugs DB? Is it feasible? -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22737 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: 48KHz playback?
chrisal Wrote: > Well I've actually tried ripping a 5.1 mix to seperate ac3 files then > converting it to wav using your your utility (thanks btw) then encoding > the files to flac and tagging them.You're welcome! Anyway, I've tried it out and I also get the gap between FLACs. I updated to the latest nightly for that new firmware and I still get a gap between AC3.FLAC files; I haven't tried stereo files since the update. (And that new firmware appears to solve my full-bitrate DTS issues too, which is extremely pleasing!) -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=6405 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: 48KHz playback?
chrisal Wrote: > smts - have you experienced the lack of gapless on your 48khz dvd rips > too? I'm trying to find out if it's just me but I got no responses from > a previous thread eitherI haven't tried it actually -- the only DVD rips > I have as FLAC are discrete songs anyway. I'll try it out with concert footage if I can find the time; you're just grabbing the stereo, not the 5.1 mix, right? -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=6405 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: 48KHz playback?
dean Wrote: > Indeed, SlimServer is assuming that the sample rate for uncompressed > (and converted) format is at 44.1k. This is a known bug and we'll be > addressing it. I see that this message is getting on for two years old. The bug in question is 'Bug#128' (http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=128), right? Is this still slated to be fixed? -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=6405 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: The only downside I've noticed
Jon Wrote: > What I have not yet figured out is how to keep this book up to date when > I get new CDs, without having to reprint the entire thing (or at least > the entire genre) ... I am thinking about leaving some blank space on > every page, so I can just reprint single pages (for a while, anyway) > ... or, alternately, printing supplimental pages as I acquire new CDs, > then once a year or so reprinting the entire book. > > Again, suggestions for better tools to use, or better ways to keep this > book up-to-date are welcome!How about using trading card polyethylene > pockets? Here's what I mean: http://tinyurl.com/ctwly Figure out the dimensions of a card, and make templates accordingly (if your software allows it). You'd probably have to print several items per page and then use a guillotine or scissors to slice them up, but then you've got movable entries which you can rearrange without re-printing. Sturdy paper would be a good idea, but not too thick if you want to place two back-to-back. One of those cards could show a cover image in the top half (not quite up to the side margins), with artist/title/year in the bottom and room still for that all-important barcode. Consider also having small icons along one edge to convey certain simple information; for example, a small box which is usually empty but displays "VA" for compilations, or five outlines of stars, some of which are filled in according to some rating. (I imagine that trading cards, particularly from CCGs like Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh etc, will be able to inspire other useful layouts.) Tracks could be listed individually on the rear of each card if desired (but of course you'll then be halving your capacity). Consider leaving one empty slot on each page to make incremental updates easier; as time goes on the amount of padding space will decrease and you'll need to do the occasional full re-arrange (with new padding). You could print multiple copies of each card, for inclusion in different sections or binders which are ordered differently (by artist, title, genre, year...). An alternative to the 9-card pocket above is this 10-card pocket intended for business cards (so the cards would be a different shape): http://tinyurl.com/cxqpx I think that something which could hold index cards would be nicer (probably only 4 or 6 per page, but more real estate per card). Or follow the example earlier in the thread and buy sheets which will hold CDs and inlays -- say, a 2x2 sheet with two discs in the left column and two 5" cards in the right to list metadata. (Depends whether you want all your discs in this book as well!) Finally, bear in mind that the database ID is subject to change on a full rescan, which is why I originally suggested using a disc's own barcode (and creating your own for those without one). I've typed all my CDs' barcodes in as metadata already, but the prospect of getting all that information may seem a little daunting... -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20138 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: DTS files
Pale Blue Ego Wrote: > Would it be possible to consider .dts as a separate filetype, then have > an option to enable or disable DTS playback for each player? That > would seem to be the most elegant solution. I've thought about this before; an alternative solution might be to standardise on a FLAC tag indicating the presence of digital (not just DTS) data, which could be used to disable analogue outputs (and perhaps have other effects). This would require support in the firmware, however. And the harder bit: deciding on the name of the tag! Currently I use SPDIF_ONLY with a value of, say "DTS" (with the intention that any non-null value means "this is digital"). But I don't actually do anything with that tag. :-) -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20923 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Zaireeka
JohnQuirk Wrote: > I like the suggestion that downmixing them all to mono and re-encoding > is the "lazy" way. Sounds far too much like hard work to me. Was it > worth it?It's hard the first time, then lazy every time thereafter. :-) Worth it? Well, it achieved what I was aiming for, which was each disc being played from a different point in space, so I do get to listen to the whole thing. OTOH it completely sidesteps the requirement which was arguably the original intention of the piece: having a group of friends around for a bizarre listening party. I feel like I've turned to the last page of a novel to read the ending without experiencing the journey... And TBH it's not an album I tend to listen to very often -- it's certainly not as accessible as their "proper" albums. Still, it's nice to get these things working. -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21067 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Zaireeka
When I tried this with CD players, I "just" employed multiple hands to unpause each player at the same time. Could you do the same with the SqueezeBoxen? If they were all in one place you could even use just one remote signal. I went the lazy route in the end: I ripped the CDs, downmixed each to mono and used a Dolby Digital encoder to put each disc on a separate channel. Not quite as organic as doing it the "proper" way. :-) -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21067 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: The only downside I've noticed
cliveb Wrote:
>
> Back in the days when I used a CD player, there was a wall full of CDs
> in a rack. When I fancied listening to some music, I'd walk up to the
> rack and start browsing, often scanning almost at random. I'd spot a CD
> that took my fancy and put it on.
>
I've idly wondered about solutions to this in the past, but have
ultimately not had the motivation to look more deeply into them. What
I'd like to see is a setup involving some form of lightweight portable
hardware (or something attached to my CD rack) and a server plugin --
the hardware to be applied to a chosen CD in some way and the plugin to
start playing the associated files.
This would restore the tactile component to browsing and choosing a
disc to play -- with potential benefits including the ability to queue
up several discs. What follows is all speculative, and I've neither
implemented nor entirely thought through any of it.
Many (indeed, most commercial) CDs have barcodes printed on the
outside. A cheap barcode reader could be used to scan the barcode and
trigger playback (or playlist addition). Disadvantage: no good if
there's no barcode on the disc!
Most CDs will have unique cover art. Perhaps some sort of optical
device (a handheld scanner) could take a picture and use image
recognition routines to try matching against known CD covers? This
would be complicated, of course (not to mention the fact that the
software would have to orientate the image to be square with the x & y
axes, and repeat its checks for the 4 possible rotations). Efficient
matching might look for rough commonality at first then increase the
accuracy to whittle down the choices -- if there's a match at the
quick-and-dirty stage, it wouldn't necessarily have to make the harder
checks if the disc was assumed to be in the database. I know little
enough about image processing that the preceding suggestion may be
utterly fanciful. :-) Disadvantage: CDs with no (official) packaging
can't be recognised (but this could be mitigated by the use of custom
covers which utilise some base design and, say, a large-print 5-digit
serial number).
(Dealing with ambiguous results in the above suggestion would be easier
if user feedback were possible: perhaps a PDA or phone with built-in
camera could take the snapshot and also allow user interaction, such as
disambiguation within a shortlist, play/add choice, choice of individual
tracks...)
RFID: if one could get hold of a number of small RFID tags, one could
somehow attach a tag to each CD's packaging. To make this unobtrusive,
the tag would need to be small; it may fit nicely between the two layers
of the back of a standard jewel case. With hundreds of RFID tags in one
place, the reading hardware would need some sort of shielded area in
which to wave/swipe/place the desired CD... I think. I don't know much
about RFID technology! Disadvantage: cost of tags (barcodes and cover
art are inherent in the packaging and require no purchases).
(Another possible use for RFID tags, assuming a reasonable range and
ability to determine direction, might be to set up readers at three
points in the house and triangulate in 3D the position of a misplaced
CD...)
Any other ideas? Any comments on the viability of these suggestions
("it'll never work" is fine, but I'd appreciate an explanation in that
case)? The core idea is to read and store some physical attribute of
each CD, so that files (or directories, or some other entity
representing a CD) may be associated with it. (Aside: a multi-disc set
which lives in a single jewel case would likely have all discs
associated with a single attribute. A set which had individual discs
in their own jewel case, all stored within a larger box, could have
individual disc associations as well as the association of the box with
the whole set... because the association is not with a disc, but with
the box, essentially.)
Cheers,
Steve
--
smst
smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20138
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com
http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: SB3/6.1.1 and DTS issues
machinehead Wrote: > I did try one of my DTS CD's, ripped to FLAC, but can't get it working > on my Squeezebox 1. Not entirely sure why, there shouldn't be any > bit-mangling, but I can't find any reference to DTS working on anything > less than a SB2. SB1 doesn't pass the bits through quite correctly -- I asked the other day and was told, IIRC, that the sign of each 16-bit word is inverted (or something along those lines). In theory one could modify the underlying WAV to compensate for this... -- smst smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18438 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Telling SlimServer about new music (XML? CLI?)
radish Wrote: > My solution to this is to upload new music to the server in a batch, and > then trigger a rescan. This thread: > http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=14211 includes my script > for doing that. It might be useful. Thanks for the suggestion. I've considered a rescan as a possibility, and while I finish ripping my CD collection I might stick with it, but when The Big Rip is done I'll be performing individual rips every so often (as I buy new CDs). At that point a rescan seems excessive; but if I've bought five new CDs I have to bother browsing to five different directories (which also seems like hard work! ). Thanks again, though. -- smst ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Telling SlimServer about new music (XML? CLI?)
Hi all, A while ago I asked how to tell SlimServer that I had some new music for it to look at, and was told I could use "Browse Music Folder". An excellent and accurate suggestion. I'd like to add this step to my ripping scripts. I could probably parse the HTML of the various pages to drill down to the right folder, but there must be a better way. I'd like to use the CLI (I wondered if, if I asked for song info on a new file, would SlimServer then see it?), or the XML-based RPC stuff. I can't seem to get the CLI to work as I expect it to, even for existing songs. I tried several variants on this: songinfo 0 6 url:file:///f:/Music/Ripped/A/Abba%20-%20%5B1992%5D%20Gold/01%20-%20Dancing%20Queen.ogg ...but I always got a 'count%A30' result. I'd be happy to take the XML route, but I don't know where to start -- are there any docs for it? Or can someone give me a couple of local URLs to try so I can play with it myself? Thanks in advance for any suggestions. -- smst ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
