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Media Technology

Homegrown Wireless Media Servers? 42

Posted by Cliff from the a-true-set-top-box dept.
blurg64 asks: "I am about to move into a new house and am keen to be able to stream my mp3 collection out to my stereo. With all of the new media servers out there such as the Squeezebox, cd3o wireless network player and even HP's Wireless Digital Receiver offering, I was wondering if any /. readers had any tips or experiences in building a cheap wireless media server?"
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Homegrown Wireless Media Servers? More

Homegrown Wireless Media Servers?

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  • I think the title says it all it plays MP3, AVI and DivX
    • The PS2 here is hardwired.

      But this thing is great. It plays everything that I have and then some. and it is linux and OS X friendly.

      I'm not 100% sure but I've had to use the wired PS2 controller for it not the dvd remote. But the ps2 here has built in IR and did not come with a remote but the sony DVD remote works on it for DVDs...

      If your PS2 is already networked you can find the software for less than 50.
    • OK, this sounds interesting, but can you provide a link or two to some more specific information? The gameshark site's manuals don't seem to go into much detail about using the network at all.

      Thanks,

      - Mike
      • Sure, basically what you get is a CD for your server Linux, OS X or Windows, FreeBSD maybe supported as well [I run mine with Linux] and a DVD for your PS2. The app you install on the server is Java based and if you already have Java installed it is pretty easy you basically point the app via a GUI to a directory (or more) then you start the server. On the PS2 side you put the disc in wait for it to boot and you can now play your mp3s, view your photos and play your divx and mpegs. If you have more quest

  • get an EPIA (Score:4, Informative)

    by DrSkwid ( 118965 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2004 @08:44PM (#8321866) Journal

    one of the MII boards with PCMCIA & CF slots built in

    mini-itx.com [mini-itx.com]

    You'll be paying a whacking premium for something called a "media center"

  • Servers? (Score:5, Informative)

    by woobieman29 ( 593880 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2004 @08:49PM (#8321914)
    Just to clarify, all the devices that you list are CLIENTS - not servers as you stated in your post. All of them depend on your PC to serve the media files. So, what is it you really want to build? A client like the devices listed, or a cheap wireless PC to handle the server duties?
    • squeezbox is most definitely not a client.
      it is a streaming media server, and you dont need the slimp3 devices to use it.
      it streams to WinAmp just fine. runs pretty sweet.
      • slim server = open-source server (what you are talking about)
        slimp3 = ethernet client device
        squeezebox = ethernet or ethernet+wireless client device

      • Re:Servers? (Score:3, Informative)

        by woobieman29 ( 593880 )
        I believe the server you are referring to is actually the "SlimServer5" streaming media server that is provided (for free!) by the same folks that make the Squeezbox CLIENT, which is the newer version of the SliMp3 client device. Yes, it is a very good server. Check here [slimdevices.com] for clarification.
      • The way this one works is you have a computer you dedicate as a file server. It has all the mp3s on its disk. On that machine you run software called SlimServer. [slimdevices.com] That piece of software is the MP3 Server. It's written in Perl and it runs on most OSes (Windows, Linux, Mac).

        It can talk to a number of clients, including a piece of hardware you can buy called Squeezebox. [slimdevices.com]

        The Squeezebox runs some onboard software that acts as a client to the Slim Server. It has jacks so it can plug into your audio system,

  • I attempted it (Score:5, Informative)

    by bulldog2260 ( 649125 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2004 @08:51PM (#8321931) Journal
    I up an old P-75 with FreeBSD, using Slim Server [slimdevices.com] from Slim Devices, using mpg123 and mp3lbaster to play the songs. I had a LCD screen to display the Song Title, Artist, and Album. It worked ok, but it needs to be a bigger machine.
    • Good lord. I'm running the Slim Server on a Celeron300 and it is still sluggish (not to mention that it takes 64megs of RAM for 22k mp3s).

      How does your p75 deal?

      Or are you running the server on another machine, and just using the P75 as your client?

      • The client is a P75, the server is a PII 400. The server runs just fine, doing file, print, internal DNS, internal Database, and sharing the MP3's. But on the client, I get high loads because its just not fast enough.

  • Try TIVO and their Home Media Option (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mastos ( 448544 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2004 @08:52PM (#8321936)

    I'm in the same boat of moving to a new place. Currently, everything, including TV and TiVO, is served by my main computer, and while that works well for a single guy, it doesn't work so well for a married one.

    Since I have a receiver, will buy a new TV, but don't have a CD player, I figured it was cheaper to buy Tivo's Home Media Option [tivo.com], which uses my computer to stream mp3's and images through my Tivo and by extension, stereo. While I'm sure Tivo's media server is fine, I installed the JavaHMO [sourceforge.net] which not only lets me serve up mp3's from my linux box, but also movie listings, weather reports, and even stream mp3's off shoutcast. Since I rip all my CD's to file anyways (usually ogg, but Tivo doesn't support Ogg :/), now I can access my entire music collection plus internet radio stations through the simple Tivo interface. Add a wireless 802.11b USB adapter, and you have a nice wireless media server through your Tivo.

    • Currently, everything, including TV and TiVO, is served by my main computer, and while that works well for a single guy, it doesn't work so well for a married one.

      Not to be a troll, but why not? That's exactly what my 2 tivos are doing, one in my living room, and one in the bedroom that my wife loads playlists up on in the morning when getting ready for work...

  • Avoid Wireless if you can (Score:5, Informative)

    by wolf- ( 54587 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2004 @08:54PM (#8321947) Homepage
    I've recently evaluated wireless audio/video systems. After testing 5 different systems ($150-$600), I came to the realization...run cable.

    The microwave kicks on, TV/audio goes nuts. Phone rings, same thing. Even if you unplug everything electrical around you...odds are you still won't be happy with the quality.

    Errant crackle and pops just ruin it all.

    • Just a thought but would using some sort of signal amplifier [cantenna.com] help in reducing interference?
    • This is as insightful as it gets. Wireless is overrated, not counting that 2-5% of the time when nothing else would do it. Just invest that $50 into a reel of Cat5 and run it...

    • Re:Avoid Wireless if you can (Score:5, Informative)

      by sporktoast ( 246027 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2004 @11:59PM (#8323129) Homepage

      Definitely, avoid wireless for the media computer, you're better off avoiding the ever-crowding 2.4G bands.

      Where you want to go wireless is in the FM band. Something [hobbytron.net] like [arstechnica.com] this [ramseyelectronics.com].

      Plug it into the sound-out of a cabled media computer. Put the computer wherever you have the space (closet, basement, attic) and keep your stereo clutter-free. Serve the jukebox control interface via http on the local wireless network and control it via laptop, pda, whatever. Tune the FM transmitter to a free space low on the dial (89.3 or so), and listen to your streams on any stereo in/around/outside the house. So long as you aren't stepping on any other nearby frequencies, and the reception drops off enough a few houses away, you shouldn't have much worry about complaints.

    • wireless proved to be a problem for me, at home due to range/distance and at work due to 41 microwaves in service..

      I went powerline.. I actually get near 14mbs speeds at home using speedstream powerline hub->dlink powerline/ethernet converter at work I bought the same hub, and speedstream 2521 powerline->wifi accesspoints, unplug, move, and replug as necassary..

  • Unless you are a real pro, you are better off getting your stuff from dealers.

  • The other side of the equation (Score:5, Informative)

    by PurpleFloyd ( 149812 ) <zeno20@@@attbi...com> on Wednesday February 18, 2004 @09:15PM (#8322079) Homepage
    The server side is easy - all you need is a vaugely recent box (a PII is almost overkill) with lots of drives and a network connection (802.11x, since you specify wireless). Pick SMB, NFS or FTP to serve files; I use SMB because it works well with both Windows and Linux, but you are free to choose whatever you wish.

    The client, though, is a tougher nut to crack. If you only want to stream MP3s, then a product like the Audiotron would be excellent; you don't have to worry about finding a good Linux-compatible character-LCD based control system (which you probably would want to use, in this case), and then programming it. The Audiotron-type products are probably best in an audio-only environment, although you could probably get by with a second PC, especially if you can stand to have a small keyboard, mouse and monitor in your rec room. Wireless might be a problem, but I'd imagine anything that doesn't natively grok 802.11x would work with an AP on the other end of a short network cable.

    I would advise you to take your thinking beyond just MP3s, though. If you were to get a Shuttle [shuttle.com] or similar small form factor PC and put a TV card, Linux and MythTV [mythtv.org] on it, you would have an excellent PVR system that would also play MP3s and even act as a frontend to emulators like MAME and ZSNES. Even if you don't want a PVR (already have Tivo, don't watch TV, whatever), you can still use the other functions. Also, most of the small form factor PCs I've seen are designed to be small, quiet and non-intrusive - it probably wouldn't be much worse than a system like the Audiotron, from an annoyance standpoint. If I were in your shoes, I'd seriously consider taking the money I was going to spend on an Audiotron or similar product and putting it towards one of these babies.

    • Re:The other side of the equation (Score:4, Informative)

      by pbox ( 146337 ) on Wednesday February 18, 2004 @09:40PM (#8322330) Homepage Journal
      While I agree with your point about the PC being more flexible (and almost same price $300-$400), I have to nit-pick about the noise issues. All of the Shuttle line is kinda loud. I mean compared to overclocked mega-fan main rigs, it is quiter, but I would not want to put them into my living room, or audio listening room.

      However spening a little more (it does add up) you can get fanless Mini-ITX solutions (like Hush see logicsupply.com $700-$900). Combined with an acoustic management enabled FDB harddisk like Seagate barracuda, the noise output will be kept at minimum, ie. your CRT TV on mute or the flourescent lights will be louder.

  • Old computer + Winamp + Win98 (Score:4, Informative)

    by mmcdouga ( 459816 ) <mmcdouga@@@saul...cis...upenn...edu> on Wednesday February 18, 2004 @11:08PM (#8322752) Homepage

    You can read about what I did here [upenn.edu]. It's a headless Pentium 350 running Winamp on top of Windows 98 (yes, really). Winamp plugins let me control it through a web browser and automatically search the network for mp3s. The files are kept on a separate machine with a big hard drive.

    I recently added a next-generation user interface device called a 'three-button mouse', but I haven't updated my web page yet. The 3 buttons are 'stop', 'next' and 'play', which is pretty much all I need. On the rare occaision I want to mess with the playlist I use the web interface.

    Not the most elegant or advanced solution, but it was all done with stuff that I had already or could download for free and it fit my existing setup with minimal hassle.

  • Here's my setup,
    amd athalon 1ghx with 256 megs of ram.
    via kt133+ chipset
    40gig hd to boot from, 120 for media, adding more disks beceause this is full.
    (shame) windows xp pro,
    all hooked together by a linksys wireless router.
    no sound card
    no video card
    crappy generic network card

    all you need to do is mount your network share as a disk, and there you go, just a big slow drive, plenty fast for mp3, I'm listening to them right now. I can watch most of my divx movies over the wireless, svcd playback is choppy.

    goin
  • I use a bog standard old PC to play my MP3s of a file server (no weird streaming going on) and I'd just like to say this: setup winamp or your choice of graphical media player on the player, configure font size to 20pt or so, and use a monitor to view/modify the playlists and other stuff. It's far better than the wanky headless-with-LCD option a lot of people building this sort of thing go for. Also, get a cheap IR remote control unit like the Hollywood Reelmagic one (about AU$60) and configure it well.
  • I've got an old Dell Celeron 400 running Win2k. I bought it for 50 bucks from a dot-bomb who was liquidating their assets.

    I have a 40 GB HD in there and utilize a Creative Labs Extigy (USB 'puter to extigy, optical extigy to stereo).

    I have no monitor or keyboard attached, so I use VNC (http://www.realvnc.com) on my 802.11b enabled laptop to control the sound from anywhere in the house.

    It is great at parties, because I can just load up a playlist with hours of music, and let it play. Also I leave
  • First, I screwed together a P166 with Win98, a TV-out card, and sound...hooked it up to the TV and stereo (using one free input, an RCA cable, one RCA to 3.5mm stereo and a 3.5mm extension) and used it as the TV computer...this lasted about 2 months before my wife got irked and made me clean-up the living room.

    Iteration II is the notebook hooked into the stereo...as I replaced my Toshiba Protege 1110CT PII with a 12" iBook, it works pretty well for this...or I just plug the iBook in and let iTunes do the w

  • The server side is easy enough (Score:4, Informative)

    by metamatic ( 202216 ) on Thursday February 19, 2004 @12:31PM (#8327479) Homepage Journal
    I built a mini-ITX system in a cube case with a VIA C3 Nehemiah and a Seagate hard drive. Installed Gentoo, SlimServer, and daapd. Fire up iTunes anywhere on the network, click on the server icon found via Rendezvous, and there's all the music. I avoided the Shuttle systems because their fans are too noisy.

    I wrote up the whole process [ath0.com] including configuration. I finally got ALSA working this week, but I haven't updated the page with that info yet.

  • Use mini-itx for the server (Score:4, Insightful)

    by herrvinny ( 698679 ) on Thursday February 19, 2004 @01:18PM (#8328091)
    Small, fast, efficient music server. Just plop in a massive hard drive, decent motherboard, etc, and you're good to go. [mini-itx.com] For software, just run an old version of Windows, pop a good streaming music server on (Icecast maybe? Heard good things about it).

  • HomePod option (Score:2, Informative)

    by lukeout ( 754511 )
    I'm in the same spot. Building a house, want some sort of whole house audio. While it's a bit pricey, i'm giong to use two HomePods (hard wired - not wireless). http://store.yahoo.com/gloolabs/homepod1.html The device (if it works right) will search all the computers on my home network for music files and let me play them from the HomePod (Which I am hooking up to an amps and then in-cieling speakers.) For the server, I'm just going to use the oldest computer in my house, tucked in a closet in the baseme

  • pentium 133 laptop (Score:2, Interesting)

    by loopyfx ( 304870 )
    I set up a p133 laptop with 32mb ram and it runs windows 98 + winamp2 + aac plugin [softpedia.com] (I think it was this one) + browseamp [browseamp.com]. It plays 192kbps AAC files, and all MP3 great. Files get to the machine over mounted network drives, phsyically located on my file server.

    I can then log in using my laptop (wifi, also a source of some files) over http and control all aspecs of winamp, including browsing the network shares. I can also VNC in =] Just a note, my network is 11g, and I have not tested it on 11b.

    It works won

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