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Music Media

Linux-based Digital Audio Player with Ogg 172

Posted by Hemos from the be-cool dept.
asv108 writes "MP3 Newswire has a story about a new Linux based home player that supports OGG vorbis among other features. The MPST Digital Jukebox is currently under beta test, interested parties can aquire a beta version of the product for the cost of the parts. The Hardware breakdown for the device has a host of options including: wireless support, expanded storage, and a larger LCD display."
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Linux-based Digital Audio Player with Ogg More

Linux-based Digital Audio Player with Ogg

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  • It's a good gift (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    For the geek who thinks he's a nonconformist because he doesn't use MP3s.

    FP
    • Or for the geek that appreciates higher quality audio.

      • Vorbis audio is higher quality than MP3 at equivilant bitrates
      • I can hear artifacts in MP3s encoded at 128kbps (haven't tried Ogg Vorbis @ 128kbps)
      • Fraunhofer's (et al.) patent(s) on MP3 technology put a significant hurdle in front of free and commercial software writers, as well as developers of portable digital audio hardware, such as this device.
      • Xiphophoros's Vorbis libraries are licensed BSD-style, and the rest is licensed under the GPL.
      • If you don't like the licenses, the standard itself is 100% open, and you can create proprietary implementations that don't credit Xiph.

      Ogg Vorbis is superior, save it's not as wide-spread as MP3. And it's free in both of the cliche senses. I'd recommend reading the FAQ [ogg.org].

      Would you say Linux and BSD geeks just think that they are nonconformist when they don't use Windows?

      • Or for the geek that appreciates higher quality audio.

        I'd think that the geek that appreciates higher-quality audio would go the sensible route and get a good, dedicated audio CD player. No compression at all, no fan and HD noise, far less high-frequency electronics to interfere with the analog signals, far better analog stages and DA converters than the average computer...

        • I'd think that the geek that appreciates higher-quality audio would go the sensible route and get a good, dedicated audio CD player

          Then what would seperate the geek from most people? And what if she wants to have access to hundreds of songs wherever she goes without having to bring a bunch of cds with her? Huh? How about that, smarty?
      • A compressed format is never "high quality". Real digital imaging folks don't store their pix as JPEGs between sessions. Similarly, a real audiofile wouldn't compress stuff without a reason.

        FWIW, I agree that Ogg Vorbis is cool. But after ripping several gig of CDs to .ogg, I am now going back and re-ripping them to .mp3 so that the hundreds of .mp3's I've downloaded (legally via emusic.com) can easily use the same tools for cataloging and playback.

        This thing is nothing more than a PC with an LCD on the front. I've already got a PC connected to my stereo (which, grumblegrumble, is 5mm too big for my stereo rack, so it's on the floor). Complete with black paint job.

        This whole article is an example of the new "Slashvertisment" policy... and you thought they were joking!

  • But the real question... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous DWord ( 466154 ) on Thursday April 04, 2002 @03:06AM (#3282780) Homepage
    Will it record my brand new Celine Dion album? I so wanted to hear it in my car.
    • Nice attempt at a joke...but at least read the actual post at least..most don't read the article but still. It's for home use, go look at it, it's a beast...and it would probably get killed by the CD...as it looks like it's a normal tray load cd-rom drive...who knows that they are using however...

    • Will it record my brand new Celine Dion album? I so wanted to hear it in my car.


      And get your car crashed?

  • I saw a demo of this unit, and it sucked. (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It has zero support for Beowulf clustering.

  • OggPod (Score:2, Interesting)

    by resonator ( 151559 )
    I want an iPod (who doesn't?). The big thing holding me back (besides the $400+) is that it only does mp3. If it were firmware upgradable perhaps, or if Apple were to succumb to the greag Ogg, that would change things. This new devices seems to be the first step in a right direction for scalable audio encoding/playback.

    • Re:OggPod (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sveinhal ( 469879 ) on Thursday April 04, 2002 @04:55AM (#3283016) Homepage
      I just sent an email to Apple, asking if there were any official plans for ogg vorbis support in the near future, as the tech spec page [apple.com] says that the firmware is upgradable to enable "support for future audio formats"

      I put my usual .sig in the mail, stating my address and phone number. Two days later Apple called(!) me on my cell phone (they even got me a person speaking my own language) and told me that thay could not give me an unofficial anwser to that, but they had noticed that at least one person (me), was interested, and that they off cource would act on market needs.

      I therefore suggests that other people do likewise. The email for public relations on the iPod is found here [apple.com].

      sveinhal

      • Re:OggPod (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I already sent them a mail three weeks ago, pointing to my petition, but they didn't call me :)

        Here it is [petitiononline.com]

      • Re:OggPod (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ChristianHJW ( 571117 )
        Nice one,

        we should make sure Apple gets hold of Bejamin's signature list ( about 1300 now ) , make sure all of you sign in : http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi? vorb123

        If we have 10.000 signatures is should be possible to raise interest in Vorbis .

        • Re:OggPod (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward
          No, everyone should do what he did. Every company knows by now that people will sign any internet petition without reading it as long as it doesn't require filling out too many fields. His way says that he's genuinely interested.
  • I think my prayers have just been answered.
  • IIRC the Nomad Jukebox as well as other portable MP3 players are Linux based. The only thing stopping them from having ogg support is a lack of interest- I think if enough people request support for it, creative will do something about it. The original Jukebox didn't support wma, but with lobbying from Microsoft, they released a firmware patch that added that ability.

    • Re:Nomad Jukebox & Co. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by boopus ( 100890 )
      I don't think the Nomad Jukebox is linux based, but I could be wrong... The real point is to counter the argument that ogg just needs a software update. At the momement, there is no real free ogg library that uses integer math. Many mp3 products don't have floating point hardware. The product I have the most experience with is the riocar/empeg car player, and this is the main stubling block to implementing ogg support on it.
  • I am sorry, why should I pay extra for this when I could build this myself?

    The only hard thing here is to connect the LCD screen, which isn't all that hard anyways.

    This is nice and all, I am looking for something smaller and not made by some highschool kids in their basement.

    • Re:It's just a PC (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 ) on Thursday April 04, 2002 @04:03AM (#3282882) Homepage
      I am sorry, why should I pay extra for this when I could build this myself?


      Obviously, you shouldn't. This device is made for people who don't have the time, skill, or inclination to build their own box.

    • Sure it's pretty large in its beta stage, but if you read the article you will notice the following paragraph.
      The unit's present box is a desktop PC painted black, nothing fancy and fairly large. Patnode admits the unit is still much bigger than it needs to be, but he is already working on variants to reduce its size.

  • looks could kill (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jest3r ( 458429 )
    Sure its black .. but why does it have to be the size of a computer??

    Unless it is a computer!

    I think i would rather buy a lowend Laptop with a big HD .. much smaller .. nicer display .. and i can move it around.
    • Also, the article doesn't say if the device will make a lot (any?) noise. If it is a computer (it sure looks like one), it will probably make noise, which would really disturb the music.

      • If you click the tech [mpsharp.com] link it says:

        The Jukebox is actually a Via C3 home built system designed to run silent and cool. It does not require cooling fans and makes very little hard disk noise

        • Sorry, I missed that one. But still, it says that it makes "very little hard disk noise", not "no noise at all". Even a noise that is barely audible can disturb music (in my opinion anyway). I'm no expert in acoustics, but I think some high frequencies are interfered by typical hard disk noise. Does anyone know?
          • If you're the kind of person who's going to be bothered by the sound of a quiet (probably 4800 RPM) hd thats not even active most of the time, then you aren't going to be listening to OGGs. You are going to be in your specially designed soundproof room with the CD on your $1M sound system listending to marginally better sounding music.

  • Why not get an iMac? (Score:3, Informative)

    by mmusn ( 567069 ) on Thursday April 04, 2002 @03:15AM (#3282813)
    They cost around $1000 (the CRT-based one), have a slot-loading CD drive, and come with a nice color screen. I think the Graphite one looks pretty good--nicer than a big, black box. And iTunes is very convenient for both capturing and playing back MP3s. If you want a remote control, there are a couple of companies offering USB remote controls. And, of course, it has network interfaces, USB, and FireWire.

    Of course, this dedicated box may be a little cheaper, but then it also isn't quite as versatile.

    • It's a fabulous machine for what it is, and a fine companion for an iPod. I also have a thing for historical computers, and this certainly qualifies :)
    • Why not get an iMac? They cost around $1000 (the CRT-based one), have a slot-loading CD drive, and come with a nice color screen. I think the Graphite one looks pretty good--nicer than a big, black box. And iTunes is very convenient for both capturing and playing back MP3s.

      The whole point is that the hardware and software hack presented in this story supports Ogg Vorbis format. Many of us have our entire CD collections, several gigabytes worth of music, encoded in the Patent Free Ogg Vorbis format because (a) it sounds better that MP3 at similar bitrates and variable-bit-rates and (b) no one can go pull a Unisys on us and start demanding back royalties down the road or effectively make every free(dom) player/encoder illegal at the date and time of their choosing.

      Now perhaps Itunes and Imac supports Ogg Vorbis playback as well ... since I wouldn't own one of the ugly buggers (though I do lust after a high end G4 laptop with DVD-RW support, if they ever make such a beast) I don't know. But your post does seem to kind of miss the entire point of the story and the article it links to.
      • The iMac also runs Ogg Vorbis if you like, together with your favorite encoders and players. People have been talking about an Ogg Vorbis plug-in for iTunes, but I don't know whether anybody has bothered adapting it.

        Why you would want to use Ogg isn't clear to me. Obviously, the iMac comes with an MP3 license. At the bitrates where you would want to encode home audio, I don't think there is a big difference between the two. And the MP3 patents are going to expire sooner or later--what matters is that the MP3 format is open and well-documented, and has numerous open source implementations.

  • Doesn't this look like the most pointless device!
    Sounds to me like they collated a few open source projects, got a nifty black case, and voila!
  • -- this player is yet another in an already oversaturated market and only exists because it lends support to a music format that no one on planet earth cares about outside of a small group of nerds who don't like paying for anything.

    Smells like success. I give it six months.

  • As much as i want to use the open source alternative to MP3, I really can't.

    Unless i find a way of converting 5000+ songs in less than a couple days.
    • http://faceprint.com/software.phtml
      http://yotus. linuxhq.dk/mp32ogg/

      It's amazing what you can find on freshmeat.net, isn't it? =)
      • But do you get no net benefit if you convert from MP3 to OGG? I would think you would only gain anything from changing formats if you went from the WAV to OGG. After all, MP3 has already removed some things, and if OGG doesn't remove it, and it removes other things then you've got less things!!

        (I haven't looked into the exact differences of the formats and I don't know which is better in which situation, I just know that they remove "things" to make music smaller, I'm assuming they remove a lot of the same "things" as well as different "things" and do some other compressions).
        • um, he probably could set the ogg bitrate lower than his mp3 one, and get the same quality for less space. Theoretically it would work, although in actuality i bet you would lose data (going from lossy format to lossy format, like the first link says). i haven't tried the freshmeat script, so i have no idea...i don't have to play with some new toys tonight. I keep my old mp3's the way they are...just not enough time to homogenize everything. It's Ogg for the new stuff, though.

          But yes, the best results would be in taking a full .wav file and running it through your ogg encoder. I _highly_ reccomend CDex [n3.net] for windows, and of course the usual ogg stuff for linux.
          • No. With mp3 you have already lost waveform data... and reencoding it in vorbis will only increase the data loss. Now you are left with a file with dataloss from vorbis AND mp3.

            The only way to get the quality around the same is if you have a format that's nearly lossless(read: very high bitrate) involved in the transcoding.
        • The "thing" with you is that you don't really grasp the "thing" but nevertheless keep on talking about "things" you don't really understand.

          When the density of "thing" thingies on any on of my phrase gets above a certain limit, it's a sign that it is a good idea to thing^Hk before posting.

    • For those running windows:
      http://www.dbpoweramp.com - look for the converter and the extra ogg codec.
    • Unless i find a way of converting 5000+ songs in less than a couple days


      Are you in a hurry? Write up a conversion script, run it in the background, leave your computer running, and go about your life for a couple of days.... no sweat.

      • there's a realy nice utility called abcde you might find usefull:

        http://freshmeat.net/projects/abcde/

        it's a command-line utility that used cdparanio and some other stuff (see the url) and rips, gets info from cddb database, and automagically edit the id tags. after running, you have a dir with the name of the cd, and the ogg files nicely put in it.

        insert cd, type abcde, wait, and voila: ripping without thinking :-) that's what you like right?
    • You don't have to completely change over, why not just do all your new rips in ogg?
    • Transcoding = A Bad Thing(TM).

      If you want to use ogg, grab a CD of your own and rip/encode it. Give it -q 4.99 (not 5) and _no_ bitrate. Enjoy the quality.
  • I don't care WHAT operating system it runs, a hideous contraption like that doesn't belong in anyone's living room. Locked up in the basement, perhaps, but for God's sake keep it out of sight!
  • Don't get me wrong, this thing is pretty cool.

    But I want a black case with beige spray paint.

  • damn its made it a dirty black pc case! not exactly a commerical product.. i thought this would be a component device i could add to my stero system.. guess not..

    Oh well.. nice he has links to commerical ones thoe!

  • Why can't MP3 players work with plug-ins?? Software plug-ins that is. Give it a small hard drive and an operating software (the playing program) that works with plug ins. Set it up with USB so you can hook it up to your computer and install different codecs.

    Then the whole WMA, MP3, OGG thing is done with. You want OGG, install the OGG codec, you want MP3, go with the MP3 codec. Want some wild codec that nobody has heard of? Install that one!

    It's stupid to hardcode the audio format into the player. That you could also update the codec if a new standard comes out two months after you buy your player.

  • If it had samba/nfs/streaming HTTP then maybe... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Wee ( 17189 ) on Thursday April 04, 2002 @03:59AM (#3282872)
    I have an AudioRequest [request.com] (the older kind, the ARQ1, that were like very simple PCs, not the newer rackmount kind). It was great. You could stick a CD in and it would rip and encoded (albeit slowly; I think it ripped at 4X). It had cool screensavers and a great UI. I replaced it with an AudioTron. The ARQ1 is sitting in its box in my garage. A $800 doorstop. They don't even list them on ebay. I keep checking like once a week to see if anyone is selling one so maybe I could offload mine too...

    The MPST Digital Jukebox reminds me of that unit. Not because it could play MP3s, or didn't play Ogg, or because it ran an embedded OS. No, it reminds of the ARQ1 because I wouldn't buy it for the very same reason: There's no way to get your music off the thing except through an audio cable. I looked through the MPST web site for this unit. I know it's Linux-based. But how can I log into it? I want to be able to get music off of it as easy as I get music onto it. I have a PC upstairs, and a stereo downstairs. If all my music is on the MPST, then how do I listen from my PC? Hell, how do I back my music up? You can't.

    Someone needs to make a simple music appliance like the MPST, but it needs that one crucial feature: you need to be able to get your music off of it as easily as you can get it on to it. You have an smbd running which shares the entire /music slice, or export that music partition via NFS. Or even let me stream from it via HTTP (and then I can write LWP scripts to mirror/spider/play my tunes). But just let me get my music off it somehow. It would also be cool if it had a PCMCIA slot so that you could stick in additional drive space/RAM/802.11b. And a way to get custom software on it would be cool. A bash prompt would be really cool

    Oh well. But as long as we're in the land makebelieve, with cool music appliances that do everything everyone wants for only like $100, I want one more thing: Can I have a pony?

    -B

    • Re:If it had samba/nfs/streaming HTTP then maybe.. (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The Empeg provides several of those functions (except ripping on the device itself), and I picked up the 10 gig version for 200$ :)
    • I'm in the same boat with the PJB100, which was one of the first decent portable MP3 players with a hardrive, designed by Compaq R&D.

      Can't get MP3's off it. Can't play Ogg Vorbis.

      It's really stupid, I think, that media players are still being produced that are *closed* and proprietary, but that's the way it goes.

      IF the PJB100 had a decent SDK for it, which allowed additional codecs to be uploaded, and allowed access to the drive through USB, it'd be soooo good.

      But as it is, it's just a paperweight whose time for replacing with an iPod is almost come ...
      • I'm not sure why this was modded up as it is full of missinformation.

        There are a couple of SDKs for the PJB including an open one which you can find either on sourceforge or freshmeat. The openPJB project is quite old and has been out for a while.

        Also using a program called :PJBExploder: which has been out for at least 6 months one can play songs through your PC with the PJB or download your music files off the player to a computer. It will also allow you to push up non mp3 files.

        It will only plays mp3s however, but so what? The PJB design is an old one.

        Check the yahoo PJB group, there are quite a few 3rd party user created programs out there.
    • They don't even list them on ebay. I keep checking like once a week to see if anyone is selling one so maybe I could offload mine too...

      You know ebay can save your searches, and email you when it matches an item, right? Just look for "Save this search" after you do a search.

    • I had one of the ARQ1's as well. I'm not entirely sure how you mean that you couldn't get the music off the box.

      The ARQ had an Ethernet cable with which you could stream your songs from the box to your PC. And with some widely available software from the net, you could do this from Linux or a Mac as well...

      And if you were really patient, you could add songs to (or download songs from) the unit with COM port.

      When I got my unit originally, this is how I uploaded the 1st 500 songs or so - the ethernet port was not yet supported.

      So while the ARQ was not the most sophisticated thing out there, it was able to stream songs over a local network (with proprietary or free software) and you could retrieve songs from the unit once they were added.

      As the ARQ was on the bleeding edge of the hard drive based mass media music players, I thought it was a great unit.

      I was sorry to see mine die in water damage.

      However I agree, the $800 price tag was a bit steep.
    • Actually, the Creative Nomad JukeBox allows you to do this as long as the tracks you send over aren't "protected". I don't know how you get protected tracks onto the thing, but all the music you send over can come right off it to, to back up in case of the eventual HD failure. People have even rigged up HTTP servers for the thing (running on a PC with the JB tethered via USB) so you can control or monitor it over a network. Pretty nifty, although it has its own set of problems (chiefly battery life) like most products.
      You can also upgrade the HD to 30G if you don't mind voiding your warranty. Fry's has the 6G version refurbished for $150, which is where I got mine.
    • Did you read the article? It's just a PC running Linux. As it says on the website, you can build one yourself. The software is all open source. If you wanted, you could put Samba AND nfs for all it matters. Want to make it have a webserver, too? Just add Apache. Want it to have ftp capability? Add proftpd. The machine as built uses VNC, so you can remote control this thing from any PC that can run VNC (that includes Windows and a whole sling of 'Nix platforms, including Linux).

      Give the guy a break, he's just put together some hardware and software and hacked it together with a LCD to make an appliance.

  • Any slashdotter can tell this is just a computer and many of us have a retired PC with most of the functionality this box provides. Afterall, like many have already commented, the functionality already exists in many open source projects.

    Who really wants a audio box that costs $1000?

    I'd much rather have the now defunc Moxi [moxi.com].
  • With Ogg everywhere,there is no more need for Fraunhoffer. No one needs to pay royalties or deal with stupid patent issues. This helps beat those proprietary companies*cough* Microsoft*cough*.


  • God, that thing is big and ugly.

    One of the cheaper laptops could be modified to do all the same kind of stuff, and you would have a fancy colour screen to display the playlist. Add the Creativelabs external USB soundcard and you've got everykind of output connection you could possibly want.

    And it would probably be smaller that than box. And look nicer too.

    I can't believe that there aren't better products than this one about.
  • Except I didn't paint it black. Seriously, everyone geeky enough to be interested in this box can probably build his/her own and much cheaper! And why not throw in:

    All that in a box almost half the price?! :-) And it firewalls too!

    -adnans

    P.S. the pictures are very old, should take some new ones

  • I have one of these... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by powerlinekid ( 442532 ) on Thursday April 04, 2002 @05:10AM (#3283045)
    Its sitting right next to my tivo and dvd player... well its not the same one as mentioned above but it has:
    ogg support, with mp3 and cd
    110 gig of storage space
    burns cds
    internet connectivity (p2p) and usb support
    linux
    a java compatible browser
    a beautiful ui running through a huge screen
    2 processors and a whole hell of alot of memory

    if you haven't guessed its called a "computer" and is availabe from parts at pricewatch.com [pricewatch.com]
    for about 600 dollars, i really suggest you get one (they're great). It also plays dvds flawlessly (in linux), plays divx (again in linux, hell thats all i have on it), and acts as a tivo using simple bash scripting and some good old fashion c/c++. We won't even get into the fact that its dream console, capable of playing all your favorite games from nintendo and sega
    • where are the bash scripts and "good old fashion c/c++" ? i'm very interested!
      • Xawtv, Vcr and a crond job and my box will record any tv show at anytime i tell it to... for example say i want southpark every wensday at 10, just have to set the script to channel 25 and set the time and then have crond run it every wensday at 10. It helps that i have bttv card though ;)
        • And I suppose it's real easy for your girlfriend to go in and write her own cronjob to record Martha Stewart Living?

          I'll keep my TiVo, thanks.
          • Well if my girlfriend watched "Martha Stewart Living" it wouldn't be a problem. A simple tkinter python strip would make this extrememly easy. Just make a little gui that takes input like the name of the show, the date and time of it, how long it is and what channel. And then sets up a cron job for you. She wouldn't have to do anything.
  • If the programs that run this thing are open source isn't he supposed to provide a copy? I'm curious what this thing is running and why I couldn't download a copy from his site.
  • This is a petition which has just reached over 1000 signatures, and will be sent to portable audio player companies asking them to support Ogg Vorbis in their upcoming players. Please support the petition and sign. Thanks. http://www.petitiononline.com/vorb123/petition.htm l [petitiononline.com]

  • Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by smasch ( 77993 ) on Thursday April 04, 2002 @05:56AM (#3283156)
    Okay, I don't see who would want it, other than to have something that plays OGGs. This thing looks like an old PC (and probably is), only supports MP3 and OGG (where's FLAC [sourceforge.net] or WAV or anything else?), requires an internet connection [mpsharp.com], and the thing is huge (there's no excuse for it being anywhere near that size). The display is a 20 char by 4 line LED backlit LCD display. While this is easy to implement, they could have used a graphical display and had different font sizes, cool graphics, and maybe a better user interface. I also have to wonder how noisy it is, considering that most PCs have at least two fans. This thing really looks like a hack: if someone built one of these for himself it might be impressive, paying $1000 for it is simply a ripoff.

    I don't see what the market for this thing is: the real geeks would simply build their own that's both cheaper and has more features, while the average users would simply shrug it off for being ugly and for lack of features. Worse, it probably won't play any copy protected CDs^H^H^Hshiny plastic discs with music encoded on them.

    • Re:Why? (Score:2, Informative)

      by PygmySurfer ( 442860 )
      I also have to wonder how noisy it is, considering that most PCs have at least two fans.

      It's amazing what one can find by actually READING the website:

      The MPST Digital Jukebox is basically a Linux CD/MP3/OGG ripper and player (and real-soon-now) burner made for a non-Linux user's home entertainment system. The box is mostly remote and LCD controlled and the GUI is ran through a VNC client (or a touch-screen) such that the user never sees the Linux Desktop or shell interface. The Jukebox is actually a Via C3 home built system designed to run silent and cool. It does not require cooling fans and makes very little hard disk noise.

      • Okay, somehow I totally missed that Tech [mpsharp.com] link. You are right about the fans, though. I just found the hardware list [mpsharp.com] page, and I do find the hardware requirements rather high. 256 megs of RAM?? 700 MHz processor? I can excuse the high processor speed (as that may be easier to obtain) but the memory is major overkill. I've played MP3s and Vorbis files on my K6-2/300 with 64 megs of ram and I have never had a problem (except when compiling a kernel and running Mozilla while listening to music).

        Okay, I just noticied the hardware link on the top of this story. How it took me an hour to notice it I have no clue. Guess I'll shut up now and get some sleep... *thunk*

  • Still won't buy one. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by shippo ( 166521 )
    I won't buy a portable MP3 player until one turns up with integrated FM/AM radio.

  • Give the Guy a Break (Score:4, Informative)

    by Jack Hughes ( 5351 ) on Thursday April 04, 2002 @06:43AM (#3283285)
    Of course it's ugly. Of course you could build one your self. Of course it looks like a PC.

    Because that's all it is. This is just one geek who's put together the hardware and software himself, made from old PC bits + a small LCD screen.

    He isn't some big company selling at a profit. in fact he says

    "...testers can purchase the Digital Jukebox from me at cost (+shipping) or I'm happy to help anyone build one themselves. The software is free. See the Hardware page for cost breakdown information."

  • MP Sharp?! (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Notice the name of the company. "MP Sharp". The logo resembles "MP#". Notice what's above your 3 key?

    You know this originated from people holding down the Shift key as they typed "MP3". cough

  • Ok....why.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Thursday April 04, 2002 @07:45AM (#3283399) Homepage
    they used standard pc parts. for around $350.00 they could have used a DCT/Allwell box that looks like a dvd player, has the cd drive,room for the HD, sound,video,etc... all on the board with 2 nic cards and had a nifty place to mount a VF display instead of a lame lcd to make it look super professional.

    Please please people.... if you are prototyping something... buy a public display type of system to make it pretty so you dont look like a couple of college students slapping S.A.N.E. in a box with an lcd and a remote and calling it an innovative product.

    mpg123 the backend to SANE play's ogg's so everyone that has a SANE player has this.
  • Can it be done? Like replacing Windows CE with Linux in Pocket PC handhelds...?

    Ciryon
  • Why is it that even though ogg is totally free, there is not one single portable or car music player produced by a major manufacturer that supports it? What is the big deal? I mean, how much space in firmware could adding in support for the ogg codec take up?

    My little brain just can't understand why ogg is so univerally ignored. Almost every other kind of software suffers from feature bloat with features that *no one* wants, yet its like pulling teeth to get *any* manufacturer to add ogg support that a large number of people would use and want.
    • One problem is Ogg Vorbis is not 1.0, I know the bit stream spec is locked so today's decoder should work tomorrow, but to marketing types and PHBs many times if something is not 1.0 then they don't won't to hear about it.

      Secondly, there is no freely available integer decoder (needed for embedded applications), I think xiph.org might have one to sell, but why take a chance on something that's unproven and not free, when there isn't really that much demand for it in the non-geek world.

  • Some users may complain about not having CD audio/mp3 audio/OGG audio/DVD audio playback on their PC's but a lot more users are complaing about not having the same support in appliances. Let's face it. Consumers won't pay for music but they'll give up their next 5 years salaries to have a convient way to play it.

  • Until my portable audio device supports Vorbis, whats the point? Making a codec succesful requires deep industry support, and this has always been an area where open-source has not been very strong. At this point its an MP3/MP4 vs WMA issue, and really nothing more.

  • I'm looking for a feature that's not easily found. You would think that somebody designing a Car-audio system would realize this, but it's amazing how many MP3/ogg/CD players are missing this one simple feature.

    I want a jukebox that will automatically start playing when the power comes on. I don't want to have to turn the ignition key, wait 2 minutes for the kernel to boot, then push "Play" and then start driving. I want to just turn the key and have the music start automatically where it left off without any action on my part. In other words, if I'm going to replace my car CD-player or tape deck with something else, it needs to be as convienient to use as what I've currently got, if not more so. Otherwise, they need to start selling these things as home-audio.

  • Numerous others have posted that this thing looks like a PC....

    I thought I'd chime in that the LCD looks a lot like the CrystalFontz 634 with PC Mounting Bracket [crystalfontz.com], which sells for $92.20.

  • Complaints (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ImaLamer ( 260199 ) <john.lamar@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Thursday April 04, 2002 @01:32PM (#3285154) Homepage Journal
    From what I can tell this is still in early production stages. A lot of people are complaining about the case while the head of the project is still working on software and things like power supply.

    In the spirit of the Open Source community I though this would be welcomed with open arms. The device is open in every way and yes they offer software downloads.

    Do you think that fancy HP device was pretty when they started working on it? I'm sure the early testing was done on parts wired together on a safe table.

    Packaging is last. I would say get the machine and fiddle with it [if you can afford it] and try to make it better.

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