I think it is obvious that the 'media centre' thing just isn't there yet - I agree it isn't for me either at the moment - but I don't think this is how it will always be. I embrace technology (I suppose I am one of those early adopters, I bet many of us here are!) I strive to understand it when it isn't obvious (hence loads of questions in excellent learning centres like here :-) and use it every day when I can.
I don't want a boring rectangular box that I have to insert a single silver disc, in order to watch a film or listen to an album - then get up and change the disc when I fancy listening/watching something else. I get part way to where I want to go with Squeezebox and Slimserver and I love it. Where else do I want to go, well I want to choose my media from an interactive menu, graphical and entertaining - probably on my TV screen or a dedicated remote control with a decent LCD display. I want to click on a film whilst it is playing and pause the action, hover over a character and get bio details, links to other films featuring this actor, director and so on. Same goes for listening to an album, I want links to similar types of music, other albums by this artist - videos accompanying the album to play on my screen if I choose (one day you know folks are gonna say did they really listen to just sounds with no video! in real life there are always pictures, even if its an orchestra playing). All these things might still happen in separate boxes actually, but so long as they talk to each other thats ok, and so long as they can all go out into the ether and get information to accompany what they are doing separately that also is fine - I personally reckon however it will be a one box affair, and probably centred around the telly (that being where most stuff happens in most households these days) but that is just my tidy mind I suppose :-) Still if its box removal I am after then my faithful and trusty Meridian 508-24 bit CD player has been the first casualty, replaced by my Squeezebox 3 - which is a probably 85% as good in some cases and better in others. Not so smooth perhaps, but definitely as detailed - perhaps it is all in the delivery! Now I want the rest of the stuff...now...just being wholly unrealistic and trying to push the envelope a bit probably :-) . -- Timbo ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Timbo's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=933 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28409 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
