>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/29/05 10:48 AM >>> > I can see the flaws, and I've chosen to deal with the ones I can > control... <take this lightly ;-> Me too - I bought a Sonos ;-)
You picked the right device for you. Enjoy the music! <snip> > Perhaps we draw the line at a different point? Probably... > > The sb2 doesn't, but now you're mixing hardware and > > software again. > > Well, I'm viewing it as a product. Hardware/software/firmware - > doesn't really matter. I don't really care how an iPod is constructed, > and how much of it is firmware or hardware. I care that I can drop > MP3s on it and it works (or perhaps that I can't drop FLAC or > ObbVorbis on it). In this case, MP3 is an example of the common > contract. And, you could make the argument that MP3 is > proprietary - Fraunhofer holds patents on it, and is therefore > their intellectual property. It is, however, practially an open > standard - everybody knows about it, everybody uses it, there > are no secrets to it, everybody uses it. I don't care how device > X decodes MP3 - I care that I can feed device X an MP3 and it > plays. Here is where we'd probably digress. MP3 is a very pervasive format, defintely owned by Fraunhofer...but they have essentially lost the ability to enforce the patent because they didn't defend the patent. Just because a great deal of people use it doesn't make it any less proprietary. Just like streaming via slimserver. It's just that not a lot of people have taken the time to design a device that can accept the streams. A few come to mind, and they are not slimdevices products: mediamvp roku soundbridge (ever wonder why this guy had 5 other companies?) softsqueeze > > It's just a shame that you seem to have made up your > > mind and haven't really said what technical problems > > you're having. > I'll paraphrase from my 2nd post: > > My NAS device runs Slimserver. Unfortunately, the version > of Slimserver it runs won't transcode m4a files (AAC) - not > enough horsepower on the box apparently. I know the > standard version of Slimserver will do this, but that would > require another boxen to run Slimserver. I don't want to > run another boxen. Hence, Slimserver/Squeezebox2 won't > play m4a's in my case. Ah, missed that. Valid point. So you went out and got another PC - essentially a NAS with more horsepower...they just sell it under the brand Sonos. Granted - the product is fully supported by Sonos, so if you need an update, you get it from them. Each of the Zoneplayers is a self contained music server, with the ability to access a common drive space, like a NAS, a shared PC drive or something like that, right? I'm not sure, but there is some point at which the Sonos becomes ridiculously expensive. 10,000ft comparison... Device: Squeezebox wired (199) vs. Sonos (499) Music Store: PC (???) vs. PC (???) Music streamer: Slimserver vs. ZonePlayer (included in device) Remote: Cheapo remote (sorry slim) vs. Controller (399) Client: Web interface vs. Windows or Mac client So, without going any further, just to get something that I can use and control from either a remote or a PC, I've got to spend ~200 for a squeezebox or ~800 for Sonos. I can use any PC (I only have linux) with a browser for using a squeezebox, but I have to have a Windows or Mac for Sonos. To be fair, I need to factor in the cost of the PC to run slimserver on, but since I already have that, there's no need to in my case. If I went for Sonos, I'd have to factor in an additional 2-300 bucks to buy a PC, and another $100 to purchase Windows XP so I can run the client. Wow. I was thinking Sonos would be twice, but not 5-6 times as expensive as the squeezebox. And it seems like the difference gets larger as you add more clients. I'd rather spend my cash giving my daughters dance lessons and taking them to a few football games. ;-) > I want to keep everything in m4a, so I can't use the > Slimserver/Squeezebox2 with the setup that I want. I guess not. Oh well. But no digital out? Ugh. What's the point of m4a then? Paul _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
