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Media Music Wireless Networking Hardware

Wireless Music/Media Player Roundup? 47

Posted by Cliff from the which-one-would-you-recommend? dept.
robmueller asks: "Like most of you here on Slashdot, I've got my entire music collection on my PC, and would like to share it around the house to at least my lounge room stereo. While the AirPort Express is still a month away (mid July), and the lack of a remote control seems like a problem for a stereo away from the computer, there's a number of other devices out there already; D-Link DSM-320, Squeeze Box, Actiontec, Virtuoso MC-500 (uh... looks like the Actiontec), and a standard 'we hooked it up for 5 minutes' review of several more devices here. However, I want to hear from people who have actually used one, and what they liked, didn't like, ease of use, audio only, is audio & video useful? etc. So who's using one of these things?"
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Wireless Music/Media Player Roundup? More

Wireless Music/Media Player Roundup?

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  • Why spend the extra money (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sporktoast ( 246027 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:46PM (#9514545) Homepage

    With a streaming setup, you need a much more expensive computer device to receive anything. FM radios are a dime a dozen. You are unlikely to listen to more than one stream at once.

    What you want is something [hobbytron.net] like [arstechnica.com] this [ramseyelectronics.com] . Plug it into the sound-out of a cabled media computer (or, heck, a Wireless Music/Media Player, if you feel the need to comply with the latest buzzwords). Put the computer wherever you have the space (closet, basement, attic) and keep your stereo clutter-free. 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 significantly enough before you get more than a few houses away, you shouldn't have much worry about complaints.

    Or you can drag your Wireless Music/Media Player out into the backyard the next time you want to host a barbecue. Of course, "wireless" doesn't usually apply to power cables and wall warts.

    • Because the quality of those FM transmitters isnt the best.

      And I'm sure as you know all Slashdot readers have $100K stereo equipment which is too high end for crappy MP3, AAC or FM transmitters.

      So I'm sorry .. if its not streaming OGG it just ain't cutting the mustard.
    • ...unless you're doing it via a wifi laptop, which is overkill. the slimp3 devices et al add the option of hifi-like controls, something that's glaringly absent in apple's new offering. i don't want to have to leave my laptop on or at home when i'm out so the missus can stream audio - i want a small device with a "PLAY" button on it and an LED display of track names.
    • Another option is this [myfmstation.com], which looks like a set of USB speakers to your PC, and sends the audio stream on FM. Cheap and straightforward. Yes, I know it's a cheap FM transmitter, but it'll handle streaming audio just fine, and save me messing around with YA device at the A/V cabinet.
    • free space low on the dial (89.3 or so)

      damnit, i already have trouble hearing 89.3 [knon.org] that station as it is. :)
    • I will implement a FM trasmitter, its too cheap and utilitarian not to. But, I also want a high quality connection as well.

  • The fact still remains .. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by naden ( 206984 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:48PM (#9514554)
    Songs bought from iTMS can only be played on your stereo using Airport Express.

    So I'm happy to wait the three weeks until it arrives, as iTMS + Airport Express + Bluetooth Phone + Sailing Clicker + Powerbook is just ubercool.

    Or in other words: "It really whips the llama's ass"

  • HP DMR EW-5000 (Score:4, Informative)

    by prostoalex ( 308614 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:52PM (#9514583) Homepage Journal
    Bought an HP Digital Media Receiver [amazon.com] from Buy.com on their special sale for $100. Wireless connectivity, composite audio, S-Video, what more can one want?

    Well, turns out, a lot. For one, the data was not exactly streamed through the unit, which I properly connected to my stereo system and TV. The local MP3 files and local JPEG pictures was the only thing that HP Receiver played, so if you wanted to broadcast a Shoutcast stream or Real Video stream, you were out of luck.

    None of the DRMed files worked either, so two WMAs that I have purchased from Napster would have to be ripped to CDs, re-ripped into MP3s and then loaded onto a local PC with wireless connection for that HP Media Receiver to pick up.

    I returned the item for a refund after a few days. Waste of money. Until full-blown audio streaming and any kind of video playback is supported together with multiple formats (OGG including), there's little incentive in getting a Media Receiver when a WiFi-enabled laptop plugged into stereo and TV will do the job even better.

  • Hauppage MediaMVP or wait a while (Score:5, Informative)

    by tieke ( 678074 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @11:05PM (#9514674)

    I looked at all those options as well, and decided that with the way the market is going, there will be a more kick-arse version of anything I buy within 6 months. (I'm not just talking standard technology advances better, I'm talking everyone getting into the field better)

    I know that you specified wireless, (which I considered, as I already have an 802.11g AP plugged into my network) but for now I have ended up getting a Hauppage MediaMVP [hauppauge.com]and putting in a run of cat5 to it.

    The MediaMVP is basically just a small remote-control driven, network-connected set-top box which plays content from a server on a win2000/xp machine. Linux drivers have been made though, and the built in mpeg decoder makes it a good combo for the standard Hauppage PVR cards.

    On the positive side, the sound quality is good, and the price is hard to beat ($99 retail, can be found for less).

    Unfortunately the interface is shit. Very basic mp3 browsing - can move through the directories and playlists on your shared computer and select songs/playlists/directories. Unfortunately, there is no real skipping while playing several songs - the default setup if you choose a song is to play that one song and then stop. You can choose to play all songs in a directory, (shuffled if you wish), but it deosn't let you skip songs - if you choose another song, it just plays that one. The "skip" button just moves to the next page on the directory listing - an even worse interface on this first generation device than on my other first generation devices from preceding years.

    The gui should however get better with firmware releases - already the latest firmware lets you add streaming radio stations (although not realaudio) and play divx files (although these have to be transcoded by your server). The MVP internals run on linux as well, so there are good possibility of future improvements.

    As I said - there's quite a few similar devices coming out at the moment (eg this buffalo one [techjapan.com]), and in six or seven months there will undoubtedly be something much better - but if I really want one of those I can buy it then, and I consider $99 a good price for 6-7 months of music.

    • Parent is absolutely right, this sector of the market is nowhere near enough mature. We're still, IMO, in the iPod "phase" of things. I reckon we're stilla t least a year away from a decent (ie stabel and feature-rich) sub-$100 device that streams everything one could desire.

      To my mind, the slimp3 devices seem to fit this bill, but the price will have to come down some before they can start cornering the market.

      The FM transmitter idea is a good one, but even if it performs flawlessly, it's still a sto

    • I just bought the Hauppage MediaMVP yesterday and tested it on my 802.11b network. It works fine that way for music and pictures, but, of course, that isn't quite enough bandwidth for video, so my MPEG-2 video recorded by my TV card stutters.

      I *might* be able to get it to work decently if I upgrade to 802.11g (which I'm planning to do anyway, soon), but instead I'm going to run cat5 from my computer room to living room which I thought I would never have to do since I went wireless.

      I used the out-of-the-b
      • Just a followup on my own post -- don't know if anyone cares or not...

        I decided to not run the cat5 and instead upgraded to 802.11g and rearranged my setup. Video streaming is working great so far, even when someone is watching TV or browsing on the server computer. The MediaMVP UI still sucks, but it does what it needs to do and the picture quality on my 42" rear projection HDTV is acceptible (not archive quality, but definitely watchable quality). Any problems with quality are purely due to the source

  • What would be really awesome (Score:4, Interesting)

    by foidulus ( 743482 ) * on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @11:19PM (#9514768)
    Would be something that not only streams music, but can also stream karaoke! Think about it, it would be so awesome if you could go to the iTunes music store from your laptop, d/l a song(normal version, plus karoake file with lyrics and timing, and even music video if appropriate, or you could do like the karaoke bars do in Japan and just put generic videos of people on the screen), then send it up on your bigscreen tv(and nice speakers) using an airport express kind of device. The sales of songs to drunk people on the iTunes music store would go through the roof! I mean, if you really want a song, what are you going to do, go to a p2p network to try to find a legit karaoke version or just go to the iTMS(since you will probably already have iTunes open) and buy the song.
    Come on Steve, lead the pack!

  • OSS homebrew... (Score:2, Informative)

    by emphatic ( 671123 )
    i'm in the same boat. i have a huge collection of digital music (ripped all my CD's) that i want to play in different rooms. bonus points for my backyard patio for BBQ's.

    here is what i'm going to use:

    1) cheap laptops
    2) cheap wifi cards
    3) XMMS
    4) netjuke (for the main 'streaming' app)
    5) LIRC (linux infrared remote control)
    6) XMMS-LIRC plugin

    this way, i'll have a remote to control xmms from, i have access to all my tunes in one place (not in a separate database for each remote device) AND the laptops can
    • I was headed down that road until I realized that the sound quality from those laptop soundchips wasn't going to get any better by hooking up to better and better speakers/amps. An external device with a good DSP is worth it.

  • Slimdevices' Squeezebox (Score:4, Informative)

    by FreeForm Response ( 218015 ) <comptonaNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday June 24, 2004 @05:35AM (#9516193) Journal
    As I've mentioned before [slashdot.org], I purchased one of these recently and I can't recommend it more highly. It plays every music format I can think of, using the server computer to resample obscure ones into a format it understands, on the fly. It can read and save Winamp playlist files, for convenience, and it can play streamed content off of the Internet. There are even plugins written that allow you to browse the Shoutcast.com streams and Internet Music Archive, and play those streams, all from the player's interface. And yes, the server software can interface with iTunes, and I imagine can play iTunes-purchased songs.

    My only gripe is that the software seems less stable than it could be under all circumstances, but I run the nightly builds, so I can't really complain. =)

    I think the thing that sets the Squeezebox apart from many of the other devices out there is its interface. Although a computer is required for the backend, you need never actually deal with the SlimServer program if you don't want to; almost every bit of configuration and management can be done from the player, with the remote. This is a big selling point for me, as it completely eliminates the need for me to have any electronics around aside from the Squeezebox itself and the stereo.

    I should also mention that the software supports synchronization between different players, and that there's a GUI Java player (SoftSqueeze) that can run on any computer so that you can synchronize that computer with any number of hardware players. I know this is functional because I did it myself, just this week while I was doing chores around the house.

    Anyway, that's my reasoning. I love the thing, and would gladly buy it again in a heartbeat. There are going to be many networked media players, but for me, the interface and the server software definitely tip the scales in favor of the Squeezebox.

  • I have the SliMP3, the wired precursor to the Squeezebox and reviewed it on mywebsite [zx81.org.uk].

    In summary, I think it's great. My main complaint when I got it was the price, but the Squeezebox now costs less than the SliMP3.

  • To TV or not to TV (Score:2, Insightful)

    by grefft ( 235168 )
    The problem that I've found with most of the remote streaming devices is that they need to have a television nearby to control them. As a person who finds television mindnumbing and don't even own one, is there a good streaming product that doesn't need a TV at all? Perhaps one with it's own graphics display to show cover art when browsing?

  • Squeezebox (Score:3, Informative)

    by real gumby ( 11516 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @09:14AM (#9517108)

    I have several of the predecessor device to the squeezebox, the SliMP3. It's great. Even has a high WAF -- my wife asked me to put one in her office too.

    Oh yea, it can read your iTunes DB so it knows your songlists and shoutcast radio stations and the like. The server software is all GPLed so you can tweak it (the guys at slimdevices integrate lots of user-contributed changes). It can't play your iTMS songs though unless you know how to use google. For that, your only alternative is the Apple device.

    They're easy to use, quite reliable, and plug straight into the stereo. What more is there to say about it?

    All in all, a real winner.

  • I have been using a laptop around the house with a wi-fi (802.11b) connection to a PC upstairs.As the PC was located in the backroom I could get a great signal down to the bottom of my garden (about 25 meters). All my tunes available, great. Then, broadband became available in my area (north west UK) so the two PC set-up evolved into a wf-fi network complete with access-point and ADSL modem. The downside is that the phoneline comes into the front of the house so that's where the modem and access point live.

  • Prismiq (Score:3, Informative)

    by stinkwinkerton ( 609110 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @12:36PM (#9519464)
    I use the prismiq and like it a lot. Unfortunately, you have to have a television hooked up to it, and the media interface isn't the best in the world. However, they run linux on it, it is wired or wireless (your wireless card), they publish the source, it can play internet radio, rhapsody, mp3, slideshows, divx, vobs, and other .avi, you can program your own plugins for decoding, and is, in general, pretty cool. And surf the web. From what I understand, the PC does most of the transcoding then sends it to the media player. Bunch of good reviews from various magazine sources. Check out www.prismiq.com and www. prismiq.org. And, no, I don't work for the company.
  • And just tune your stereo to a quiet FM slot... (you do have an integrated receiver, don't you? :) )

    You have the iPod in your hand or by your sofa, and can do much more with it than with most remotes (set up playlists, choose the next album, see what song's currently playing, etc). You don't need the TV on to listen to music, which is a plus.
    You can even leave the iPod in a dock charging, or pass it around people at a party to 'add a few songs to the playlist' - much neater than most solutions.

    Otherwise -
  • My remote media player of choice is an xbox running Xbox Media Centre [xboxmediacenter.de].

    Get a cheap 2nd hand xbox & DVD remote and away you go. Stream music & videos from your server elsewhere (yes, it even supports ogg!). Also supports streaming media for the occasional radio station. Very impressive indeed - I can't praise it enough.
  • Dlink appears to have several products that may be of interest here, has anyone used these?

    Specifically, they have two "wireless audio adapters":
    http://www.dlink.com/products/category .asp?cid=7#c id_70 ...as well as a product that looks like the bee's knees - the "Wireless Media Player" supporting wired & wireless, and video formats including xvid! And, it looks like it's only $200.
    http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=318

    • D-Link is to be avoided by linux guys. The ACX driver guys said so. (look it up if you don't belive me) Thats reason enough in my book to avoid everything they do. (Not just the products that don't work, but even the ones that do)

      • Well, I'm unlikely to avoid a mfr just "because the ACX driver guys said so". I'm not 100% certain what sort of sin they are accused of, but it appears to be a small squabble over a specific TI chip in one of their wireless cards that Dlink is unable/unwilling to provide driver authors with details on. I sympathize, but given that it's a localized issue with a viable reverse-engineering effort, it seems a bit petty to boycott the rest of Dlink's perfectly adequate products.

        If I've overlooked something mo
  • My desktop is in my bedroom, and houses my entire media collection. But I wanted music throughout the house.

    So down in the family room, I set up an old computer, with a set of good speakers and a PCI TV-out card (thank you Froogle!). I then slapped a 802.11b card into the old box and viola-- I can play music streamed off my computer and watch videos on my TV (occasional lag on large videos-- I should upgrade to 802.11g).

    As for a remote control? Froogle and eBay came to the rescue. I now have an old
    • In my case, I've been weighing Airport Express+iTunes 4.6 vs. a Squeezebox, and I wanted to know whether the boatload of various 128, 192, and 256 kbs mpeg files I've got were going to sound good enough to bother streaming to my mid-range stereo. In addition, if I didn't get a Squeezebox, I wanted a cheap and moderately non-butt ugly way of remote controlling iTunes.

      Fortunately I'd already picked up a Powerbook 3400 on eBay ($65) and an Oronoco Wavelan card from a garage sale ($5) as a Debian/PPC plaything.

  • On my IPAQ, it's just a matter of creating a shortcut to the shared folder behind the firewall on my 802.11b setup. The IPAQ has a headphone out, and I use Windows Media Player to manage the playlists and serve the content to whatever stereo I want.
  • Ok...I love my IPOD....in the car and at the gym! What I don't love is my IPOD at home. I too have all my music on my PC and can play it just fine when I am on my pc. But I want it everywhere in my house. Having it stream off my computer is ok with me, having to GO TO MY PC to change the music is not ok.

    The airport express seems like a steping stone to something greater. I always do a ton of research before I buy any technology. I waited a year for the IPOD, and it has proven to be the best! Those other
    • I'll pitch the Squeezebox some more..

      What exactly do you mean by controlling your music easily from anywhere in the house? The Squeezebox player can be completely controlled with only a remote control (no TV necessary), and it even has a mini-stereo (i.e. headphone) jack if you don't want to deal with a big stereo system. Perfect for sitting outside by the pool or something.

      If you mean having multiple players working together, the Squeezebox does that too. You can have two or more players linked in any co
      • Ok..so the scenario I want to address is the one where, like you, I have all my music on my computer.

        I have speakers and some sort of box (squeezbox or sonos or TBD) in a bunch of rooms. I am sitting on my couch, and want to play some music. What I want to be able to do is, from my couch, pick up some sort of remote and browse through all my music (basically an ipod in the hand). From that remote, I want to be able to play music throughout my house, and if I decide to, also play different music in differ
        • The key is really not the Squeezebox, but the SlimServer software that it connects to. It keeps track of all the players connected to it, and allows you to manage playlists individually or for a synchronized group from a central location.

          To answer your question, I'd like to describe how I use my setup. The Squeezebox has an LED display (2x40, I believe) that is easily readable from across the room. I can sit down and pick up the remote, turn on the Squeezebox, and then either load a saved playlist, brows
          • The Squeezebox has an LED display (2x40, I believe)

            The Squeezebox does not have an LED. It's a VFD - Vacuum Flourescent Display - which is way, way brighter and more readable than an LED or backlit LCD.

            Of course, it's way more expensive as well; the one in the Squeezebox costs almost $100 in single quantity. Well worth it, though.
          • ok...so I understand that the important thing is the software in being able to control the different devices. Once again though, you keep mentioning emulators and installing on a couple of computers. That does not seem to be an out-of-the-box solution. My mom, who has problems with VCRs sometimes, would not be able to use this. And you mention the squeezebox can be read across the room. I have a 30 foot living room. Even with 20/15 vision, I cannot see the displays on my other components.

            I decided to ca
            • It sounds like the Sonos setup is what you're looking for, then. I like the Squeezebox very much, but I don't want to persuade you to buy something you don't need.

              Out of the box, you get the Squeezebox player and a remote. Once you've installed the server software, you can listen to any music files you've made available on the Squeezebox. This is all made very simple by the instructions and interfaces. For a more extensive system like Sonos sells, you would need either multiple Squeezeboxes (at $200-250 a
              • Thanks...I will have to do some more research. I guess different needs call for different solutions.

                I will post a review on whatever I decide on getting.

                I think one thing we have in common though is the vision to see that this is the next big thing. Digital Music in your entire house is the next big arena for companies to tackle. It is evident by what some of the companies are starting to come out with, that they are testing the waters (like Apple Airport Express). Seems like Sonos decided not to test
  • I've been looking at the Roku HD1000 [rokulabs.com] and the Play@TV NMP-4000 [playattv.com].

    Basically, I'm looking at archiving my 1,800+ cd on to hard drive and storing them in a box (well, lots of boxes) some where and not having to go fetch the one I want to play. Pictures on the TV would be nice, but I want the TV to display the artist/album list. Playing video would be nice, but not necessary.

    I'm also not interested in wireless, just wired (I ran cat5e to every room in the house :-).

    The HD1000 actually supports HiDef TV at 72
  • Onkyo amplifiers have the ability to plug directly into your computer network. You then have full control And full Audiophile sound from your system. It is awesome and thats from experience, not hearsay. All the way from South Africa

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