From: Michael Bowyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: March 17, 2005 7:14:28 AM EST To: [email protected] Subject: [slim] Why should I return my Roku Soundbridge? Reply-To: Slim Devices Discussion <[email protected]>
Ben, I hear you -
I have a similar conundrum myself, and I'm begining to loose faith. I don't have a Linux server full of FLAC or Ogg-Vorbis music in the cellar, I have a Mac, iTunes, and a mixture of MP3 and AAC files.
The Slimserver feature list and cross platform capability is impressive, which is one of the reasons I wanted to support Slimdevices. But I don't need most of those features, and the ones I do need don't work as well as I'd hoped.
AFAIK, SqueezeBox cannot browse/play directly from an iTunes share, unless Slim provide DAAP support (http://daap.sourceforge.net/). Until they do, you need to run SlimServer - which really just seems like a duplication of features already offered by iTunes but with SB support and a webbased GUI. SlimServer 6 is in Beta and still requires some work, 5.4.1 should be stable but is much slower at searching. The advantage of SlimServer (for me) is that it's independant of the logged in user.
Apple also provide a far cheaper hardware solution, with 100% iTunes integration - albeit sans display.
With no remote or display, the Airport Express isn't a particularly good solution for me. I didn't want to have to run upstairs to the computer every time I wanted music. DAAP support would be nice, but unless you have client side AAC support, it won't work. Even if you do, you can run into problems. The Roku reboots itself if it comes across an ALAC file (I think it thinks it's just a normal AAC file and then chokes on it). The Squeezebox certainly handles lossless better, I just don't have a lossless library. Maybe we're in the minority here as to what we want to do. Or maybe Perl on OS X is more resource intensive then on other platforms for some reason. I don't know...
Ben [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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