Okay, time to explain my earler post - http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=495404&postcount=29 , the killer feature for the Squeezebox is SqueezeBox Server for your own music library. Internet music players are becoming commonplace. So are players that will play from a disk attached to a USB port.
The reason SBServer is the killer is that most of the networked music players that do audio, such as the WD TV Live, do it with a crude player interface that "discovers" your local music and lets you pick an album and play it. Some will also let you play pre-built playlists. The SB server software with remote control is way ahead of the software on these players, However, some of these new players are uPnP enabled and already there is a plugin for Foobar2000 that can stream to a UPnP device allowing Foobar to be the equivalent of the Squeezebox Server software. If it hasn't happened already, how long before another Pippin comes along and builds an iTouch controller application for Foobar ? There is already a free iTouch controller for VLC media player. I don't know about MediaMonkey and WinAmp, but they won't be far behind in being able to stream to a upnp device (they may do this already) and be controlled from an iTouch. So, SBS and Squeezebox are in for some competition. All in one media players are going to be like the Stereo Center of the 70's, great for the "average joe" but component builds will still be preferred by those that know what they are doing. Conclusion - SBServer is the killer app, but as others have said it needs to be stable and allow the plugins that make it unique and so customisable to flourish. For the record, I have built and installed 7 SB3 systems (server, network, ripped music, SB3), 3 for friends and 4 for family members and also set up 4 booms for family. All the servers are connected to flat screen TVs, have DTV tuners for recording and DVD drives for playing DVDs. -- Wirrunna A camel is a racehorse designed by a committee. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wirrunna's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3225 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72512 _______________________________________________ beta mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/beta
