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Music Media

Linux Based MP3 Stereo 90

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-we're-getting-somewhere dept.
An anonymous reader noted a story running at LinuxDevices about a vaporous device called Hi-Muse. It's got its problems (not being available, ugly design) but it's got a lot of potential (a 15 gig hard drive in such a small form factor, built in FM tuner, ethernet port). Personally I'd rather see a standard stereo component sized box, a UI that operates through your television and normal remote, and 30+ gigs, but this one is looking like a great start.
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Linux Based MP3 Stereo More

Linux Based MP3 Stereo

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  • You mean like the ones <a href=http://www.necxdirect.com/hai/prod_page.html? key=0000160322&nonce=guest_gate>Gateway< /a> and <a href=http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdet ail.asp?Sku=313%2D8561&spagenum=1&category _id=994&keyword=&mnf=&prst=0&prend =0&mnfsku=&orderby=manufacturer%2Cname&amp ;SearchType=&customer_id=19&Pageb4Search=& amp;page=search%2Easp>Dell</a> sell?
    <P>
    - A.P.

    --
    Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?

  • You mean like the ones Gateway [necxdirect.com] and Dell [dell.com] sell?

    - A.P.

    --
    Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?

  • This looks like a neat-o gadget and all, but my attention is drawn to this part of the write-up:

    online shops where users can purchase concert tickets, music subscriptions, and merchandise; etc.

    Come on! Is anyone ever going to use a device like this to purchase music or tickets, or better yet, Brittney Spears' tshirts on the web? Surfing on my wireless phone is horrible enough that I'll never do it, but somehow I'm going to want to purchase things with a Walkman tied to an ethernet network? Blah. Why must all gadgets include this sort of semi-useless Internet Service hoo-hah?

  • If you check out www.beoplayer.com you will see that B&O is creating an MP3 player that will work with it's new PC Link product (in the 3rd quarter of this year) to allow you to play MP3s and Net Radio thru a beolink system. You will have to get an upgrade to your beo4 remote (you can upgrade the pc board) so you can control the N.MUSIC and N.RADIO options. This means that you can play your MP3s and any streaming audio content on a beolink connected system.

    Band & Olufsen isn't for the budget minded but you get what you pay for.

    Unfortunately this is a Win32 only solution. The Beoplayer is free and is a neat MP3 player. It takes full advantage of the internal tags in MP3 files to allow you to organize your music.
  • NFS. Put the music archive in a different box and either boot diskless or load what you need into a ramdisk and spin the boot drive down.

  • Re:semi-useless internet services (Score:3)

    by gehrehmee ( 16338 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @07:54AM (#203613) Homepage
    I can certainly see myself doing this. Imagine, sitting back, listening to random streams being fed to you from mp3.com (assuming that's still possible in the coming months after their recent aquisition), and you hear somebody you've never heard of playing a song you love instantly. (For myself, I've experienced this with Paul Bellows [mp3s.com], who's got his entire first album, and more, on his mp3.com section). Not only can you now grab the music you liked so much for later listening, but you instantly have a reference of where they're going to be playing in the next few days. Perhaps you'd like to support the band by buying tickets to a show, buying a CD, or just a healthy tip.


    The ability to more directly connect the average music consumer to the people producing the music is always a good thing. The consumer gets music from a wider variety of sources then they would otherwise, and the artist doesn't need to give up as much money to a label or distributor. I don't know about you, but I'd rather buy CD's under those terms then at any outlet at the local mall.

  • Try an AudioRequest (Score:3)

    by Wee ( 17189 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @08:24AM (#203614)
    Personally I'd rather see a standard stereo component sized box, a UI that operates through your television and normal remote, and 30+ gigs, but this one is looking like a great start.

    You might want to look at an AudioRequest [request.com]. It has ethernet, a TV- or front panel-based UI, 30 GB of disk, plus ethernet, etc. etc. The remote works just fine as well. It also does things like automatic freecddb lookups, automatic encoding and catagorizing, plays CD-Rs burned full of MP3s, and lots more.

    It's a QNX-based device. But it's all about the right tool for the job, right? I could personally care less whether my AudioRequest runs Linux or not as long as it actually runs. Worth mentioning, I guess.

    -B

  • Here is a quote from the the last page [linuxdevices.com] of the article:

    "One really exciting possibility is that, since all the system logs are stored, this information can also be provided to music labels and other companies involved in the music business," adds Grison. "Imagine a bar with 200 people able to rate music in real time or the information provided by a million home users -- that's pure gold for the music industry!" (emphasis added)

    Am I the only one who thinks that something may be wrong if some "companies involved in the music business" can see at any time what I am currently listening to (in my living room), or what I have been listening to during the year?

    I do not know how much information is stored in these "system logs", but even the simple fact of knowing that I am currently listening to some music or not (even without knowing what it is) can be a risk. More exactly, allowing strangers to know that I have not been listening to anything in the last week although I was previously using this service regularly could mean that I am not at home for a while. This could be an open invitation to some burglars... And all this without even knowing what I am listening to. But I assume that the logs store this information as well, which could be interesting for many companies... but not in a way that I am confortable with.

  • i like throwing my laptop (with TV out) next to the TV to listen to MP3's, it's nice and relaxing sometimes to let it run with some of the cooler winamp visualization plugins. plus, for music i'm trying out that i haven't listened to before i can have it pop the artist/name up on the TV when a song starts so i can know who/what i'm listening to.
  • Will your P90 decode an MP3 that was encoded at 320kbps?

  • The audiotron is much better... (Score:4)

    by Polo ( 30659 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @10:38AM (#203618) Homepage
    Why have an internal hard disk at all? It requires you to distrute the music to the edge. You don't have a backup and what you end up doing is paying for a very expensive hard disk.

    What you want is the Audiotron [audiotron.net].

    For the same price, you could put several of them around your house and connect them to the linux computer you already have, which could be the central music server.

    Basically, you plug it into your network through it's ethernet port and turn it on. It scans all SAMBA shares for mp3 music in /audio or /my music
    and lets you select from the IR remote. The output is a SPDIF jack, RCA stereo jacks and a headphone jack. The list price is $299 (cheaper other places).

    The only other thing I found was the dell digital audio reciever [dell.com], but it's totally tied to windows and I think it requires real player installation. It's inexpensive though - $199.

    Another interesting one is the harman kardon/zapstation [zapmedia.com]. It can do the same thing, but with video as well. However, if you look deeper into the specs, it's another pile of crap: they try to control everything about the device. You can't load DVD's onto the hard disk, and it incorporates most of the other controlware tactics.
  • The TV UI comes in handy if you've got a Bunch O' MP3's or digital music files stored and you want to call up a particular one quickly/easily.

    My Sony CD changer (CDCX450) has a video out that puts the song name/album name on the TV. I think it's handy so you can tell what song is playing, if you care to know when it's in random mode.

    Also, with concert DVD's you can get 5.1 surround sound, plus see that footage on TV, if you like.

    There's lotsa reasons to have the TV interface, you just need to think about it.

  • A similar product is available today (Score:3)

    by BrK ( 39585 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @07:29AM (#203620) Homepage
    Ucentric [ucentric.com] has a home networking server platform that is available now. Initial availability is limited to trials customers/ beta users, but they are signing up OEM's and a retail implementation of the Ucentric software should be available from Netgear by the end of the year. It can play MP3's to your current stereo system, via a built-in FM modulator/broadcaster, and could also stream Internet audio content on the same FM channel. Obviously you would use your FM tuner to get all the other stations, but a tuner could be built in to the box if you wanted to digitally record the FM broadcasts for later listening.

    The Ucentric box goes further by allowing you to control the music and other features from a TV UI, or any browser interface. So, you don't need to overhaul the technology that is currently in your home in order to take advantage of New Things. The screen shots on info on Ucentric's homepage isn't very end-user friendly, but if you poke around enough there are some screen shots and additional informations.

    There is also DHCP/firewall/router/etc functions built into the box, and the ability to interact with a video feed, plus a handful of other applications built-in.

    And, of course, the Ucentric box is based on linux :)

    I guess some of it comes down to a mindset of the end-user. Personally, I've got a few nice stereo's or boom boxes in my house, I'd hate to have to buy a new compoent (Hi-Muse, Kerbango, whatever) for *each* one, the Hi-Muse seems like a set-top box for your stereo. Not for me, but maybe others will go for it.

  • I had to go to Popular Science to find out that this interesting product costs US$800 [popsci.com]. That's a good price point now that I know what it is. But I wish ReQuest could simply tell me an MSRP on their site instead of having me "contact the corresponding representative for your area code" because of some archaic territorial sales channel agreements.

    Maybe it's just me and my experience with software companies who ask you to "contact us to discuss your enterprise solution" instead of disclosing price but I can't shake the sour taste that people who can't give prices up front have something to hide.
  • Picked up an old mini-desktop case (about 14" on a side and 4" high, ie: size of a small stereo component), came with a p200, 64mb ram, small hard drive (easily upgraded), on-board tv-out (thank you ATI) and 10/100 ethernet.

    For a while, I had something similar built up under the TV, only with a K6-200, 32 megs of RAM, and no hard drive. It net-booted off the server in my coat closet. The most expensive part of the system was an Acer IR wireless keyboard/thumbpad-pointing-thingy :-) that set me back about $55. Before I got a standalone DVD player, it had a hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and a Dxr2 so that I could play DVDs as well as MP3s on it (it was running Win95 at the time as there was no Linux support for the Dxr2).

  • This new development is letting the genie out of the bottle, so to speak, even if it is vapour. It lets the people who would otherwise hold off on such a product in favor of handhelds and portables realize that they're about to lose out on a new market. Who's going to be next to make a MP3 component? Diamond? The folks who brought you TIVO?

    Sony may never come out with an MP3 component for your stereo system, but you can sure as hell bet that once a demand is evident, it will be met one way or the other.

    You must not have heard of the Apex AD-600A and similar products. While it's primarily a DVD player (one that's easily made region-free and Macrovision-free), it also plays MP3 CDs. It looks like any other DVD player, so it blends in with the other stuff in your A/V stack.

  • Set top boxes. Wait for another few months and you'll be able to buy a number of NFS or HD bootable boxes from Motorola, Nokia, and others. I develop software for these boxes for my day job, and they do what everyone wants - have enough CPU to decode mp3, nice mpeg codecs, some of them run linux, and they look really nice in your entertainment center.

    Save your money, wait for some standardized platforms to come out (Keep your eyes on the Nokia STB) and start up some open source interactive content management software that looks good on a TV. That's all these things are!

    Alternatively, get a PC with a TV out card and stick it by the television. That's what I did. :) I mean, we're supposed to be technically inclined here! :)

  • >>>The big question for some folks, is if this device is RIAA friendly or not.

    It all depends on the height you drop it from :-)
  • Move the audio decoding outside of the box. There are 2 easy ways to go about this.

    1) use a USB sound adapter. Several different ones exist and they aren't all that expensive (Sony bundles them with some of their Minidisc players).

    2) use an optical link to your stereo. Several of the high end Sound Blaster cards have a toslink port on the back which should give you noise free audio output to your stereo.

    ________________________

  • I'm not sure about how well a Faraday cage would work within the computer case. I suspect that a lot of the undesireable noise is actually coming off the bus (PCI or ISA depending on your card). For obvious reasons you would need to bring the signal lines from the bus into your cage and then you'd be bringing the noise along with it. There really isn't much of any way that you would be able to block noise from the PCI bus without setting up a separate North Bridge for the sound card.

    If you still want to experiment with this, I'd suggest building your shield from copper sheeting. You can usually buy this in rolls at a hardware store. The thinner you go the easier it will be to work with. Fold it into a box around your soundcard and make sure to close all gaps at the edges with solder.

    ________________________

  • I can definatly see the use for a home MP3 player, but why do all these companies want to limit their systems with a build in HD? If it's in my house, I'll just hook it to the network .

    I have found one produce (it was on SlashDot a while back) called the AudioTron [audiotron.net] from Turtle Beach. It connects to your network (Ethernet or SPLN -- silly phone line networking), scans it, and plays your MP3's. It can index 30,000 MP3 files off your network and read standard M3U playlists.

    Looks like a standard component, has a REMOTE, and not a bad looking interface.

    --

  • I think you want the Nokia Media Terminal - which btw, isn't vapourware and is fully supported by one of the largest companies there is ...

    Not vapourware? Great! Now where was it I can buy one of these? BTW, 10 hours of digital video storage space is pathetically low. If this thing is self-upgradable, it might have a chance as a PVR. But with a 10-hour capacity, TiVo and Microsoft have little to fear. Nokia has a good start though, I'd certainly like to have some of these features on my TiVo.

  • I have a Celeron 333 Compaq box next to my stereo setup. It has a TNT2 graphics card with TV out, which goes into my widescreen telly. It's controled from the other side of the room using a radio mouse (keyboard is hardly ever needed, MP3s are downloaded by other computers on the network and playlists are created in the same way) and it gets all the music off a central server elsewhere in my apartment. It works really well, the Geiss visualizations for Winamp look sweet on a 28" widescreen :)

    It also doubles up as a WebTV box, for when I really can't be bothered to move to another room to use a real computer.

    xx Stuii!
  • "Personally I'd rather see a standard stereo component sized box, a UI that operates through your television and normal remote, and 30+ gigs, but this one is looking like a great start."

    Then get an Audio Request [request.com].
  • Who needs an OS? Try this kit-based open-sourced MP3 player that we talked about last year:

    http://slashdot.org/articles/00/09/15/1239247.shtm l

    I have one on my desk at work, with 10GB of MP3s I ripped from my CD collection. It's sweet because some of the hardware is implemented in a field-programmable gate array-- and the designer has already used this feature many times to improve the design. I've uploaded a brand-new DMA controller to this puppy just by changing the firmware. Don't forget: this thing holds as much music as your recycled hard drive does.

    Tony

  • how much of their feature set revolved around music downloads? If they're going to use that as a primary feature, they're going to have to support several future proprietary secure music formats. Unless it's upgradable to these currently-unspecified standards, it may be seen as nothing more than a neat music piracy medium.

    The rest of the features look great, but they sure talk about downloads a lot. That just doesn't seem like it's going to happen with large scale music distribution anytime soon, except of course peer to peer MP3 sharing.
  • Unfortunately, it doesn't have a "RUNS LINUX" infoband splashed all over it so it will, of course, be ignored by our illustrious geek toy connoisseur CmdrTaco.
  • This [sourceforge.net] has been around a pretty long time; I built a component stereo MP3 player almost 2 years ago now.
    It runs all the mp3's off of my serve in the basement over ethernet, so there is no need for a hard drive or any other spinning, noisy moving parts.
    It's pretty cool, and it cost maybe $100 to put together. And it is very non-vapor, cause I've been using it for many moons.
  • And hey, you can actually buy one now, it's 30gigs, and it shows stuff on the TV, and looks like normal stereo equipment. Everything on his list.

    Buy it here [thinkgeek.com]
    --

  • Hmm .. read up on the meaning of vapourware.

  • Tss tss ... (Score:4)

    by Troed ( 102527 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @07:17AM (#203638) Homepage Journal
    Lots of harddrive space? Mp3, digital radio and TV? Goodlooking? Able to record TV shows? Able to receive digital cable/satellite? Able to play cool games? Able to surf the web?

    Running Linux?

    Fully open platform?

    I think you want the Nokia Media Terminal [nokia.com] - which btw, isn't vapourware and is fully supported by one of the largest companies there is ...

  • On top of the other points already raised there's the following quote:

    "An entire CD can be ripped and stored in about five minutes."

    Now Joe Public, who doesn't know much about PCs, and has no idea how to rip a CD or download stuff from Gnutella or wherever, will be perfectly able to rip his CD collection w/o learning anything more complicated than his VCR. A Good Thing, to be sure, but I doubt our friends at RIAA will see it that way.



  • Please excuse the implied sarcasm of the headline. I actually do mean to complement C.Taco on his correct use of the apostrophe
    twice in his editorial introduction of this story. This is the first time in the last two years I've been reading sd that I've seen him get through an entire paragraph without botching this or some other syntax.

    Good job!



    Seth
  • The site says the "hi" in Hi-muse stands for High Fidelity. . . maybe I'm dumb, but how can mp3s be considered hi-fi?

    ----------

  • This is ridiculous!! Why on earth do you need a P3 or Celeron to just do mp3s?? And 64mb of ram? I'm building an mp3 player for my car, and it uses a Pentium 90 . That is more than enough. Granted, it won't rip a CD in anything like 5 minutes, but I personally would be very impressed at a decent rip in 5 minutes... let's just hope it sounds half-way decent!

  • "Personally I'd rather see a standard stereo component sized box, a UI that operates through your television and normal remote..."

    I agree with a standard sized component box, but why would you want it to use the television for a GUI? That means you'd have to turn on the TV to listen to the radio or some MP3s.

    I would much rather see a small screen on the device so that an external monitor isn't needed. It is just too much of an inconvenience.

  • http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/3863 /uir/index.html
    A IR reciever in one end, a 9 pin serial port in the other, easily buildable if you've got a soldering iron and can read circuit diagrams. Look for the winamp plugin, the Remote Selector program that ties into popular DVD software, and UIRD for UNIX, which is, I believe, mostly written in PERL.
  • Hmm. Nice blank page!
    Ironic really - didnt think Beos was bothering with the audio market. Steinberg gave up Cubase developement a long time ago - is anyone developing audio apps for Beos?
  • The page works now - strange!
    I`ll check your links out now too. I wanted to get into Beos, as it sounded really really good..then i tried a demo, and it didnt support my video card (tseng labs et6100)..then i heard about Steinberg, and that was that.

    Cheers.
  • Is it just me or is a 533MHz Celeron WAY overkill for an MP3 player? I'm glad they are considering more integrated chips from TI and Cirrus.
  • in all the systems that I used, I found the amount of noise in the audio output to be very noticeable.
    it gets worse the more activity you have in the case (e.g. disk activity).

    I'm looking for a way to reduce the EM noise inside the box - I think this is critical to any setup with a PC as the audio source.

    any ideas?
  • I still haven't given up on a simpler solution - I thought about putting up a simple EM cage around the relevant cards (something conductive, grounded and relatively small/light), but I haven't had time yet to improvise.

    do you know anything about the feasibility of this? (i.e. - should I even bother?)
  • thanks, I'll see if this helps me.

    the worst by far, btw, is the noise I get on my pci tv card - I especially hope it will help that.

  • --Seems good. Needs a feature that locks in Howard Stern every morning.
    ---
  • Sony Digital Relay, you mean :-)

    Why not, though? But that would be the high-end model...

    /Brian
  • People want standard stereo-sized MP3 components. I agree. What I don't get is why none of the few that I've seen are like this: -Built-in CD-ROM (so it can replace your CD player if you feel like it) -razor-thin (like 4cm) form factor. You don't need much for this thing. -Option of front-panel and TV control. -Built-in ripping capability and a USB port to add a burner. Apart from the form factor, you could just as easily do this with a pizza-box-case PC with a TV-out card, but it would probably be more expensive than would be practical. Come to think of it, that would be a great way to build your own Ultimate Jukebox as well -- all you need is a coinbox and a touchscreen... /Brian
  • Through its Internet connection, the device's internal software can be upgraded to add new features, support next-generation audio formats, change its operation, fix bugs, etc.

    How about current generation audio formats? Ogg [xiph.org] Vorbis [vorbis.com]!

  • I did pretty much the same thing with an old IBM p133 w/ 32mb. Dropped a 30gb hard drive in along with a soundblaster live value and 10/100. Have the audio running to my stereo's DAT input.
    Sorta solved the reboot problem by putting Win2k on it. You're not going to do much besides winamp, but it does run.

  • VCRs (Score:1)

    by iGawyn ( 164113 )
    "will be perfectly able to rip his CD collection w/o learning anything more complicated than his VCR."

    How much of the populace can properly program a VCR? Not much. I think you overestimate a bit.

    Gawyn
  • How hard would it be, really...

    Take a celeron or p3 of reasonable speed, put it in a low-profile horizontal case with a bigass HD, a NIC, a great sound card, and a video-out card, attach a wireless mouse and/or keyboard, and stick it in your home entertainment center.

    Now create something cute/aesthetic in Flash with big buttons that lets you pick your music and make playlists (use Perl or something with a libswf API to generate dynamic Flash files), run an appropriate web server and browser, and set this script up to load in your browser full-screen mode at boot (the use of Flash may require something like The Best of Redmond or JobsOS X rather than Linux).

    Then you're golden. Hell, add a DVD drive to further improve the bang/buck ratio.

    Of course...I've already patented the "method for decoding and playback of digitally-encoded audio from a rectangular-shaped computer through circular magnetic transducers", so you'll just have to piss off and find another way lest I Rambust your IP-violatin' ass...


    "Sweet creeping zombie Jesus!"
  • My only question is: how much? That thing looks frickin sweet!

    -antipop
  • The big question for some folks, is if this device is RIAA friendly or not.

    Given the presence of thing like the new MS system that lets business autolock you out of different files, you got to wonder if RIAA got their claws into the hardware maker.

    although I do note:

    Input/output interfaces -- the device provides analog and optical audio output ports, an analog input port, a video output port, three USB ports, and one Ethernet port. The USB ports cab be used to connect a modem, MP3 player, and other supported peripherals (additional storage units, keyboard, etc.). The Ethernet port connects the Hi-Muse to either a PC or a local network. The video output port provides optional connection to a TV, resulting in the display of album covers, pictures of the artist, or access to the artist's website. . . available (or planned) add-ons for the Hi-Muse include a CD writer module (secured audio format

    Well, it seems like there shound be some options to mess around with it there. But the front door may be locked.

    Check out the Vinny the Vampire [eplugz.com] comic strip

  • I'm not too sure about this one. Despite what fans tell me, you can still tell the difference between compressed music and a CD, and I personally consider mp3 a personal portable format - great for walkmen or background sound off a computer, but if I wanted to actively listen to some music I think I'd go with a real hifi and a CD player. For $700 (or even the projected lower price), you could buy quite a nice high capacity CD jukebox unit.

    If they make it cheap enough though, it could definitely score in the same way as my minidisc seperate does. I don't listen to it, but it's really useful for recording minidiscs for the walkman or car stereo - if they can get this unit to talk to the currently available portable mp3 players _without_ the use of a PC, that would be very useful. Oh well - best of luck to them - anything that popularises mp3 above microsofts new closed format is fine by me.


    --
  • I guess whether you think it's "funny" vs. "flamebait" depends on your perspective. Slashdot does have a Linux bias. Lighten up.
  • "Now Joe Public, who doesn't know much about PCs, and has no idea how to rip a CD or download stuff from Gnutella or wherever, will be perfectly able to rip his CD collection w/o learning anything more complicated than his VCR. A Good Thing, to be sure, but I doubt our friends at RIAA will see it that way."

    To bad for the RIAA. YOu can't get much more Fair Use than what this device would allow.

    Jaysyn

  • Is this the best you can do? (Score:3)

    by tswinzig ( 210999 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @05:18PM (#203663) Journal
    I want something like Scot Hacker described in this article [byte.com] (Be's BeIA-based Aura device, aka HARP, aka Home Audio Reference Platform). Aside from doing everything else that's cool, it will either hook up to it's own LCD panel, or to your TV set, to have full visual GUI for navigation.

    Plus you gotta have wireless ethernet, so you and your entire family can stream all their MP3's -- AT THE SAME TIME -- to their Wi-Fi "net speakers," located throughout the house and underwater in the swimming pool. Each net speaker set can be controlled by any Wi-Fi webpad or computer system on your network, of course.

    And some people think there's no market for IA's... what visionless morons!
  • a UI that operates through your television

    Why would I want a UI that operates through my television? I don't play cds on my DVD player because it's stupid to have my TV on. Sure, I could turn it on and off when I'm listening and not changing the music and all that, but there's also a reason my stereo doesn't operate through my tv- because it's stupid. This is a music device, why would you want to require it to be next to a TV? The only devices which use a television as their UI are ones which use the television for the main function- this wouldn't. Put a little screen on it, put a big screen on it, whatever.. they figured it out with stereos, MD players, etc.. and this isn't all that different.

    I like to listen to music with the main lights off and the xmas tree lights on in my living room, it's really relaxing. The hum/glow of my tv would not add to that atmosphere.
  • mp3s are great
    ---
  • or a proper stereo and cd player
    ---
  • "Personally I'd rather see a standard stereo component sized box, a UI that operates through your television and normal remote, and 30+ gigs, but this one is looking like a great start."

    www.zapmedia.com

  • In light of the recent report of the death of desktop Linux [slashdot.org] one wonders if this is maybe the niche that Linux is destined to fill. I mean to say that perhaps Linux will become the embedded OS of choice for those people making smart phones, mp3 players and so forth.

    Onorio Catenacci


    --
    "And that's the world in a nutshell -- an appropriate receptacle."

  • but does it run NewOS?

  • Ahh man! (Score:4)

    by canning ( 228134 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @07:19AM (#203670) Homepage
    The prototype version of the Hi-Muse is based on a choice of either a 733 MHz Pentium III or a 533 MHz Celeron Intel x86 processor, with 64MB of RAM memory.

    Oh great, someone has a walkman / clockradio that more powerful than my PC at home. Geeks have the coolest shit.


    Murphy's Law of Copiers

  • I agree. I think outboard mediaserving devices are silly unless they run on batteries.

    I just use a Mac in every room to drive the stereo and television. Playing files off other machines in the network is no problem.

    I think component MP3 products are redundant. Your laptop can do the same thing, anywhere. I suppose a portable and rechargable power amp would be nice.

    What we need are better consumer video capture cards and a software based TIVOlike systems.

    If anyone knows of a cableTVhack for Mac please let me know, thats one thing the PC's still hold over us oppressed Macintosh Loyalists. I shouldn't hold my breath.

  • I kind of like things that I can buy now at a price I can afford, like this one with a hard drive for $200 [vstore.com] or any of these anywhere from $120 to $380 [vstore.com] if I just want a portable...
  • MP3 players need to be SIMPLE. What would be the most successful would be an integration of MP3 capabilities into current CD players in standard stereos (both those tiny shelf ones and component systems). Stereo manufacturers have long since perfected the design, and sound reproduction issues. There's no sense in re-inventing the wheel. And keep it simple! A TV interface? C'mon. That's ridiculous. It's music, for God's sake! Put the title of the track on the display on the CD player, and let it be.

  • Yeah, I've seen those in Crutchfield. I'm getting one the next time I need a car CD player because it's SIMPLE and integrated. No special hard drives, controllers, etc. Blech.

  • This [benews.com] could be a killer device, though the referenced device sounds nice, too. Wonder what the final cost will be to consumers, provided it actually makes it to consumers in quantity...

  • Vapour is not necessarily bad... (Score:4)

    by Bonker ( 243350 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @07:14AM (#203676)
    I think many geeks, myself included, have been looking for quality MP3 players for our home audio shrin^H^H^H^H^Hsytems for quite some time. All the big audio producers have been so far unwilling to produce such a thing because of the current IP-rights clusterfuck going on between RIAA and the computer industry. While the technology is available and in demand, you can be sure as hell that Sony sure won't produce an MP3 stereo compononent.

    This new development is letting the genie out of the bottle, so to speak, even if it is vapour. It lets the people who would otherwise hold off on such a product in favor of handhelds and portables realize that they're about to lose out on a new market. Who's going to be next to make a MP3 component? Diamond? The folks who brought you TIVO?

    Sony may never come out with an MP3 component for your stereo system, but you can sure as hell bet that once a demand is evident, it will be met one way or the other.
  • I cant see spending almost a grand for something with a puny HD. I have over 100 CDR's of mp3's I have ripped from CD's I owned and would like to have a small quiet interface to my stereo. I would like to just leave the MP3's on the PC and use ethernet to connect to the unit by the stereo.

    The closest thing I can find so far is the Audiotron [audiotron.net] from turle beach. It seems to be basicly a windows only interface but from the faq [voyetra-turtle-beach.com]

    As a reminder, we do not support any networking or configuration issues other than Windows, but here's a configuration that we've used with the AudioTron successfully. We did not notice any hicupps or sharing issues. We have successfully used the audiotron with Redhat 7.0, samba version 2.0.6 and dhcp 2.0pl5.
    it looks like you can interface to linux as well. This is the device that appears rebranded by several other manufactorers. Think Geek has them here [thinkgeek.com] The audiotron runs around 300.00 bucks and I could throw a 60 gig drive in the puter and be set for only around $400.00-500.

  • Personally I'd rather see a standard stereo component sized box, a UI that operates through your television and normal remote, and 30+ gigs, but this one is looking like a great start.

    Taco, I really don't get it. As a college student, I have about 2.5 gigs worth of MP3's on my personal computer. My roommate has about a GB as well. Now we have a device that sports one of the smallest 15GB drives I have ever seen. Yet, you dog it and want more memory. I don't know about you, but not everyone sits down and downloads 5GB of music every night. As far as I know, I have the most music of anyone on my floor. This device, in it's current capacity, would be MORE than enough for what I use. Be happy with that. As far as I'm concerned, if you want something that is portable to hold your obscenely (sp?) massive 30GB+ collection, invest in a laptop. Otherwise, something like this (I agree with you though, needs a pretty massive redesign) would be completely adequate for 95% of all the MP3 pirates out there.

  • Go to http://www.r3mix.net/ and click on Quality (I recommend reading the other pages as well). It appears as if 300 audiophiles using audio equipment for >25000 USD (!) rated 256 kbit mp3's as CD quality... Still think you can hear the difference between an mp3 (good quality) and a CD.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • With respect to the problem of protecting music copyrights and safeguarding the user's private information, Grison says "the device is highly secure, as it is part of a closed network and therefore doesn't present the hacking threat a PC has."

    But that doesn't address the copywrite issue. They talk about a possible p2p network, so how are they going to avoid a napster-style situation, where people share their music between their jukeboxes? Dont get me wrong, i love the idea of these and would love to own one right now, but I dont want the RIAA telling me i cant use it anymore...

  • Actually, there is a portable cd player [crutchfield.com] that plays cds full of mp3 (and costs very little), which could easily be hooked up to a home stereo system (that's how I did it when I got my first cd player as a kid), and there is also a great line of in-dash receivers for your car [crutchfield.com] that play standard cds as well as mp3 cds.
  • Personally I'd rather see a standard stereo component sized box, a UI that operates through your television and normal remote, and 30+ gigs, but this one is looking like a great start. I could really give a rats-ass about hard drive space. If it has an ethernet port, it has access to all the drive space I will ever need. What I really need is on screen programming. How hard could that really be? What are all these players doing out there that support all kinds of strange features, but don't have a screen that fits more than 8 characters?
  • This is what I like about the Nokia so far, since you can never have too many input/output formats:

    Multi-standard connectors supporting composite video
    S-video or RGB
    SCART signals for TV set and VCR
    2x RCA connectors (analogue audio L/R)
    1x S/PDIF coaxial digital audio output
    2x ISO 7816-3 smart card readers (for conditional access and e-commerce)
    1x PCMCIA connector (WLAN, GPRS)
    2x USB connectors
    2x IEEE 1394 connectors
    1x RJ11 telephone connector
    1x IR receiver (supporting RC-MM protocol)
    1x RJ45 Ethernet interface (10/100 Baset)
    1x Common interface port

    Looks pretty future proof to me. Couldn't find out if the HD is upgradeable though. Hope so.
  • This could possibly be like a TiVo for radio.
  • It's not ugly, it's just French. Doesn't anybody else see a faint resemblance to the front end of a Citroen Xsara Picasso there?

  • I still prefer my solution (Score:4)

    by freeweed ( 309734 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @07:33AM (#203687)
    Picked up an old mini-desktop case (about 14" on a side and 4" high, ie: size of a small stereo component), came with a p200, 64mb ram, small hard drive (easily upgraded), on-board tv-out (thank you ATI) and 10/100 ethernet. Beyond the fact that I now have a 25' cable running to my hub, I've got a tv-outputted, potentially 60GB mp3 player. And of course there's always wireless ethernet. All it needs is a wireless keypad/mouse/gamepad (winamp has the COOLEST plugins), and voila. The whole thing will end up costing less than $200cdn.

    Maybe not the optimum solution for Uncle Pete in the retirement home, but this *is* 'news for nerds' isn't it? Now if only I wasn't so *nix-impaired, I might be able to keep it from rebooting every week or so :)


  • While I can understand the hi-fi purists objections to mp3 compression, as a general rule I couldn't give a rat's ass if I have slightly degraded sound quality compared to CD for 90% of the music I listen to. Most people use mp3s for listening to (a) disposable music (think Hanson), (b) old stuff that they would never pay a dime for anyway, and (c) trying out new music. Even the most fanatical mp3 collectors will still shell out for the CD if they actually care about the highest sound quality.

    My point is that an mp3 stereo component fills a significant niche - most people don't want the computer in their living rooms, but would like to not have to sit beside the damn computer just to hear the music. I'll be lining up for mine.
  • A quick scan of the article reveals, on one level, a closed-network device:

    "A business model we're working on is something halfway between the new Napster and the way cellular phones are marketed in Europe," says Grison. "that is, the Music Service Provider would subsidize the products to almost 100%, and users would pay a monthly subscription fee that enables them to download a certain amount of music (either in P2P or from a portal)."
    Aherm. "Halfway between Napster and cell phone marketing" is 400 free minutes of music, but 60% of those minutes will be blocked by the RIAA...
  • You can tell this is marketting spin for one reason -

    Why do they offer a choice of processor?

    There is only one criterion for the CPU of this device. Is it powerful enough to do the job asked of it. The answer is yes for both processors.
    If you go for the more powerful processor, what do you physically gain. You get geek bragging rights, and you get a smaller bank account, that's all.

    However, I think it's good that it's been done, if competitors in that kind of market think that they want to try this kind of device too it can only bee good for the consumer as prices drop through competition and free (as in market!) market forces.

    THL.
    --
  • You pay for size.

    How much is it for a cheap cheap laptop (with CD drive, no floppy necessary) nowadays in the US? And for cheap cheap, I include end-of-line, and reconditioned (2nd hand).

    That's probably the price level that we shoul dbe comparing this thing to.

    THL.

    --
  • *home mp3 players/media station
    *Gateway connected home with touchpads everywhere
    *TiVO
    *DVD players
    *Playstation 2 & Dreamcast
    *Digital cable & cable modem
    *1.4ghz Athlon on the desk with external RAID
    *video equipment everywhere

    ......and I'm stuck at work for 9 hours, in addition to my 1.5 hour commute each way. By the time I get home, the only thing I want to see is some dinner and a pillow...

    Why doesn't someone make a device that runs linux that will slap my ass out of bed and brush my teeth for me? Maybe go get the damn paper and my coffee... How about an alarm clock that doesn't have an iffy snooze button?

    Ahh... all this stuff and no time to use it!!! ;)

  • Reminds me of Hard Drive 8 track recorders (Score:3)

    by sporkinator ( 447444 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2001 @07:04AM (#203693) Homepage
    The most important thing being, unlike a standard stereo, this may be upgrade friendly. I'd rather buy something where I can take the drive out, and add a larger one later (1TB mp3player/stereo anyone?) than buy a standard component that eventually just gets replaced.
  • How is this different from mpegcar and all those mp3 players for cars with giga hdds and bluetooth connectivity, and linux based os's ? Rio recently took over mpegcar I remember, but what next? BTW, if and when this becomes a success, all the mp3 patriarchs (read fhg, thomson et al) will crowd around and demand their royalty. I wonder whether mp3's are still needed with all its patent disadvantages. We should probly look to vorbis for this...
  • and they do what everyone wants
    I think you missed the "upgrade" part of the story. And what about the cost of the Nokia stb vs this?
  • It seems to me that they will launch a pay service (note they say "new Napster", hinting it will be like their pay service), and they will have to buy licensing, etc.

    As for sharing between jukeboxes, the files will probably be secure and uncopiable. But you know this will mean that someone will have a crack for it in a few weeks following the launch of the service.

    I do not know if the RIAA will ever feel comfortable with digital music. Without a physical medium necessary for transfers (like a tape or a CD), they lose a lot of control over distribution.

    After all, isn't copyright about control, anyway?
  • well, all you need is a server with the mp3's so you can stream it to multiple computers/stereos. My current setup is a server with mp3's and a http interface that pops up in winamps minibrowser on my main computer. This will also allow your computer to have a very small harddrive that is almost not used at all, thus reducing heat and EM noise. Rune

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