Comments on: Network attached MP3 streamer

By: joelanders

joelanders — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 07:24:03 +0000

i didn’t think of that ch424… that would be pretty slick.

saw this thing below on del.icio.us and thought it was kinda related. it’s an easy to make, cheap, standalone mp3 player.
kinda… related…

http://butterflymp3.sourceforge.net/index.html

By: Chris mcdonald

Chris mcdonald — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 22:26:43 +0000

When using cat5 as speaker cables you should only run one speaker per cable and tie the 2 pairs together for each conductor. Your going to loose alot of power in the cable and you risk starting a fire if your pushing it hard enough on a single pair.

Cat5 is like 24 gauge wire, I wouldn’t use anything smaller than 16 on mid/hi speakers, 12 on subwolfers.

A better way to use CAT5 for audio is use transformers or OPAMPs to ballance line level signals and then run into a power amp in the room with the speakers. Run RS485 on 2 pair for control and run left and right audio on the other two pairs. The common mode rejection should take care of the crosstalk.

By: ch424

ch424 — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 21:56:11 +0000

joelanders, using ethernet as speaker cable only uses four wires. Therefore you have four left: two for a serial connection back to the computer and two for power. Then just plug in an LCD and some buttons to a microcontroller and you’ve got a UI. Just need to interface it with wmp/itunes/winamp and you’re sorted. LCDSmartie can do that for free.

ch424

PS: Why don’t capital letters work?

By: joelanders

joelanders — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 19:59:38 +0000

@#8

This lets the user control the music remotely.
Shoot, and see what song is playing too.
It’s awesome.
Your friends will be impressed.
And your mother will be proud of you.

By: ex-parrot

ex-parrot — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 13:03:41 +0000

if you’ve already got ethernet running to the room… why not just use it as speaker cable? it sounds fine even over quite long runs….

By: TJ

TJ — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 09:57:03 +0000

While I think all custom hardware is cool, I just think this is one of those things that just doesn’t make sense in the real world.

If you go to their FAQ, one of their goals with this device is to be low cost, so you could have one in every room.

Well, that is cool and all, but for $140 for the complete kit, and $210 for the prebuilt, you could go out and buy an XBox and install XBMC to end up with an infinitely more capable device for less money.

I understand the size of the thing is also a drawing point, but as others said, there are other devices available to come close to the required form factor.

By: jared

jared — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 05:35:59 +0000

RSS feed isn’t updating again

By: digitalmaddog

digitalmaddog — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 01:33:16 +0000

hell i just forgot you can use the slim devices free software to do the same thing i think there is a developers option to write your own script ( here is the link http://slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html) you just nee to write some script to auto load and auto play and use the come or printer port to have some buttons to activate play pause ff rw and volume!!!

i still might try this

By: digitalmaddog

digitalmaddog — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 01:29:23 +0000

this has been out a long time i was looking at this a while back to do a stream mp3 player like this its pretty cool but like the 1 post i think you can do almost the same thing with the slim device — or even maby a used via 500 or via 800 from ebay or other sources (since its a small form computer ) do all the programming with kebaord mouse and monitor and have some script work on scanning your main box with all the mp3 on it and out put to your home theater come powered speakers or headphones small power supply to run the via unit i think you can doo all the same things with a little less money

hell i might just try this

By: Crash

Crash — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 23:50:30 +0000

Would it be able to with Pandora?

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 21:00:11 +0000

Way too expensive for a mp3 streamer. I would rather buy a spare Ipod and hook it up directly to the stereo. Or i could connect up a 20-50 foot audio cable from the computer to the stereo for much cheaper. The streamer is a cool idea, but have to be realistic with the cost. Too expensive.

By: don

don — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 20:18:20 +0000

Very cool- I’ve been looking for a small mp3 player (a la the slimp3) but without the damned display. I don’t use it so why should I pay for it? That said $110 for the kit plus LCD plus TINI modules puts you in the ballpark of a slimp3 player so why not just get one to begin with? Would have been nice to do away with the TINI module and just get ethernet up and running on a small ARM core.