Re: [slim] Best of Luck - moving on...
I have had 3 SB3's for a few years and while it was a bit challenging to get everything running exactly the way I wanted it, it now runs with virtually no maintenance and hardly a hiccup (except when running the microwave, which reliably kills reception after 30 to 60 seconds every time--but I'm used to it). I never tried the Duet, but it sounds like that might be a good thing :-) I will probably get a Touch eventually. I bought this system primarily for the great audio quality that was promised (and delivered), its ability to completely integrate my audio collection, its openness and flexibility, and (yes) to some extent its geekiness and niche aspects. In researching it, I fully expected it to require tweaking and tinkering; but that was actually appealing to me since I knew I could ultimately tailor such a system in ways that I could not do with other more canned systems. This, of course, makes it a system that is not for everyone. This is one of the reasons I was always a little concerned of what would happen after the Logitech takeover. It's not that there is anything in particular bad about Logitech (I own lots of their products), but a large, popular company is going to have a tendency to pickup a more mainstream population of users with lower desire to be challenged by their audio system. I've always viewed the system as a hobbyist sort of system, but those who want a turnkey system are likely to be at least somewhat disappointed in the effort required. I personally think it is absolutely worth the effort, but understand why others may see it differently. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=67040 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[slim] iTunes 9
iTunes 9 readme mentions that it includes a new simpler way of organizing files. Has anyone tried this. Does it mess with SC? Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=67779 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Nedd to worry about display burn in?
I got them right around the time they were released, but I didn't remember exactly when that was. Guess its closer to 4 years than 5 then. Anyway, I run the displays on all my units at max brightness 24/7 with a custom time/date/weather screensaver. This has produced some uneven lighting of the pixels in all of the units. Like I said, it is not terribly serious at this point, but definitely noticeable (particularly during smooth scrolling of text across the screen, where it produces a kind of ripple effect). Dave aubuti;439355 Wrote: As a self-appointed fact-checker, I just wanted to point out that it has to be less than that, because the SB3 was only released in November 2005. Of course, that doesn't negate your observation in any way. Fwiw, I don't see any such problems in my SB3 (Jan '06) or my 2 SB2s (both mid-2005). -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=7614 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Nedd to worry about display burn in?
I have three SB3s, and I've begun to notice (after 4 or 5 years) that all three have noticeable, uneven fade in their displays. It's not bad enough to warrant service yet, but it does make me wonder whether the display can be replaced by the user or by Logitech. Has anyone had experience with having a display replaced on their SB? If so what was involved and how much did it cost? Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=7614 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Why is SB so expensive?
I tend to be price sensitive and have never thought of the SB3 as overpriced. In fact, I bought it because it was the least expensive device that fulfilled my minimum requirements for a decent quality wireless streaming device. What I *would* like to see is an inexpensive ( $150) self-contained unit (i.e. boombox) to move around the house, take out on the porch, use in the baby's room, etc. Such a device wouldn't need the pricey near-audiophile capabilities and fluorescent display, so I think they could keep the price down. Another thing to consider about the price. Unlike other similar devices that I've had (the horrible Linksys Media Adapter comes to mind), SlimDevices/Logitech is constantly investing their resources in keeping the software up-to-date. And their server/web-based approach makes for a highly flexible system that, to me, has significant value all by itself. So to me, $299 is a bargain (and I got mine for $250 during one of the last sales!) -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=39223 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] iTunes alternatives
There are lots of alternatives to iTunes, but before you jump ship you might want to just investigate the cause of this problem first since this *shouldn't* be happening. I've been using iTunes to manage my large Squeezebox music collection for a couple of years and have never had any trouble with corruption. Considering the features you're looking to preserve, sticking with iTunes still sounds like your best bet. I might suggest completely uninstalling iTunes and reinstalling. I can't imagine why this should be necessary, but I do know that iTunes is generally very stable. Perhaps you can share more information about your system and the nature of the corruption. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=39111 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] How To Get iTunes Store Purchases To Play on Squeezebox
There have been some applications to strip out the DRM such as JHymn, but I'm not sure if any of these work anymore with current iTunes files. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JHymn The burn-to-CD then rip option is really the only other alternative, but has the drawback of requiring that you rip the song to a (large) lossless format if you want to preserve the full fidelity of the original. This is because ripping it to compressed format would effectively be double-compressing the file. Either way it's a pain and everyone wishes that this silly DRM stuff would just go away. For honest users (like me, and I presume you) all it does is get in the way. The rest of those folks out there who illegally copy music will *always* be able to get around it since the whole DRM idea is deeply flawed. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6189011.html My wife and I purchased music from iTunes for a while, but I've now gone back to only buying music on CD. Not only is the music uncompressed and free of DRM, but you're getting your music pressed on free archival media ready for storage, a case, and real liner notes. That is what I recommend. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=38368 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Artist vs. composer
I basically agree with this last post. Slimbox/Slimserver doesn't appear to be designed with organizing Classical music in mind. So whatever you do it's a compromise. I have a large Classical music collection and I do the available iTunes fields in the following way. Name (i.e. Track) = Movement or Song name (ex. 1. Allegro) Artist = Composer (ex. Mozart, Wolfgang Amadaus (1756-1791)) Composer = Orchestra and Conductor (ex. Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras, John O'Conor (piano)) Album = Piece (ex. Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491) Grouping = Album Name (ex. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 No. 24, John O'Conor) I too use Custom Browse, but mainly for setting up personal menus, not for doing anything special for Classical music. As the previous poster mentions, the tags that you get automatically are not usually very good. I just retag to consistently abide by the scheme above. This works out very well. ceejay;224872 Wrote: You need to start by recognising that none of this stuff was designed with classical music in mind. That done, you can move on to solving your problem: its not too hard and you don't have to throw away any information. If Artist is the main search field you are going to use (and Slimserver makes that a natural thing to do) then just make sure that Artist always contains the data you are going to want to search on. For classical music that's usually the composer, for non-classical its usually the performer/band. So let iTunes fill in the Composer and Band tags, and let it fill in Artist with whatever it will. Then, for Classical music, simply ensure that the Band/Performer tags have the right data in, and copy Composer to Artist. You can set up a very simple action script in mp3tag, for example, to automate this. This might be a little extra work, but it is probably insignificant compared to the work you are doing anyway (should be doing!!) to fix the rubbishy information that is always downloaded for classical albums... YMMV Ceejay -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=38119 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] iTunes Album not in slim server?
There are a variety of reasons why this can happen, but one thing to check is to see whether the music in the album is tagged with the same artist and composer. There is a bug in recent versions that causes music so tagged not to appear in SlimServer. To workaround this, just change either the Artist or Composer name so that they are not the same. This *might* fix your problem. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=36103 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] 6.5.2 indexing problems
Small refinement to the previous post. Getting rid of the composer tag *will* work, but I found that the bug is actually tied to when the Composer and Artist tags are the same. As long as the text is different, the problem doesn't seem to occur. You can also fix the problem by choosing to list composer with your artist, but that can result in unwieldy artist lists. I retagged my music to correct this problem (fortunately, I didn't have much music with this problem), but its good to hear that there is now a real fix for this. I wasn't aware of this. I'll have to give it a try. Dave strindberg;208796 Wrote: Version 6.5.2 was released with a bug, which makes albums disappear from the album list if one or more of the files in the album contain the COMPOSER tag set. Check if this is the case for you, and if it is, you can update to one of the nightly builds, where the problem is solved. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=36096 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] New (Logitech) Squeezebox
That new logo is awful. I don't know. I have Logitech logos on my Harmony remote and my computer keyboard/mouse and never thought twice about them, but this one for some reason really bugs me. The old logo seemed understated--like the logos on all my sound equipment; and this one seems in your face. I agree with someone else that was hoping for a Slim Devices...a Logitech Company or a smaller logo in the corner or something. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35899 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Band/Orchestra Checkbox
Not that I'm aware of. But you might want to check out the custom browse plug-in that lets you do this sort of thing. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35882 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Music missing in standard browse, but not in Custom Browse
Ok, I've confirmed that my issue is this one. http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=4925 This is pretty serious. I hope it gets fixed soon. At least there is a workaround. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35787 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Opinions/Suggestions on living room amplifiers/receivers
gbreit;115796 Wrote: I picked up the Harman Kardon 3480 a few months ago after my 12-year-old JVC died. Basic good sounding 2-channel receiver. Just don't use the VMAx fake surround feature, which is horrible. I bought this unit along with a pair of Axiom M60s for my SB3. I've been very happy with them and can easily recommend the HK. It has few frills and no digital inputs, but that's what I wanted. I agree that the VMax is not very useful most of the time, but if you're sitting right in the sweet spot and have the right kind of music on (usually, soft, atmospheric kind of stuff), the effect can be quite interesting. It can also be effective on movies. Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=24701 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] music files gone missing
Do the album titles or any of the songs within the missing albums contain special characters such as accented letters or tildes? If you are scanning your library using the iTunes Music Library.xml file, I have found that any albums containing such characters do not import at all anymore (it used to work). If this is the case, I have found that turning off iTunes support and just scanning the library directly allows the albums to be imported correctly; however, you will lose tag data that is unique to the xml file, such as your iTunes playlists, so this is only a workaround. I don't know if this is the same issue as you are having, but I've just emailed tech support about this and am awaiting a response. Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35790 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Music missing in standard browse, but not in Custom Browse
I use iTunes (ALAC) to manage my music and have some albums that are tagged with a dual genre separated with a semi-colon as Classical;Easy Listening (although I'm not sure that matters as you will see). Most of these appear correctly when browsing with the standard Genre menu, but one album does not show up at all in either genre (although it does show up when browsing by Albums, so SS is seeing it), and a couple of other albums show the artist, but report no songs. The curious thing is that all of these albums show up perfectly when using the Custom Browse plugin, so I'm pretty convinced everything is tagged correctly! I have gone as far as examining my folders for problems, reviewing all of the tags, and deleting the music from iTunes and reimporting it. I have also restarted SS (both with and without deleting the cache folder), and deleted/rescanned my library countless times. I should also mention that I went ahead and changed the Genre to just Classical as well, and it still doesn't show up. That's why I don't necessarily think this has anything to do with using compound genres. Nothing I've done so far fixes this, and it is very frustrating. Has anyone a clue about how to fix this or suggestions on other things to try? Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35787 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] 6.5.2 with trepidation
Heuer;204418 Wrote: Vista! Just had to remove it and re-install XP. Nice graphics but little else in improving performance or productivity. About 70% of my software will not run and there are no fixes yet. I'm not a Vista fanboy by any measure, but 70% not working? I mean maybe that's true, but it sounds kind of excessive. I'm aware that some software has issues on Vista (Wikipedia maintains a pretty good list), but most of these are low level utilities. I still dual boot with XP to mitigate risk (highly recommended if you can), but have managed to get pretty much all my old software, including old DOS games through DOSBox, and recent stuff including games (like Oblivion) running great. Any problems I've had have been all solvable by using either Administrator mode or XP compatibility mode (my SB runs on a SuSE Linux box, so I don't know how that would have gone). I did have some major sound issues, but they were pretty much solved by upgrading to an X-fi. I'm still migrating my software over, and I'm certainly not discounting that I may have a major problem at some point with something, but so far Vista has surprised me by exceeding my expectations in terms of compatibility. Especially after reading the horror stories online. I have absolutely no doubt that you may be having issues with some software, but unless a huge part of your library is virus scanners and low level utilities--or if much of your software relies on old hardware that isn't supported by Vista, 70% sounds a bit extreme. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35563 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] iTunes on Windows SlimServer on Linux
I had the same problem. There is some data and metadata in the XML that is not available elsewhere. Unfortunately, you cannot change the location of the xml file on your Windows box. You can, however, share a Linux directory with Windows, and copy the xml file to this location after you've made changes in iTunes. This works well for me. You will just need to make sure the ITUNES MUSIC LIBRARY.XML LOCATION option in the iTunes server settings is set to the path to this shared location (as Linux sees it). jst1;176369 Wrote: SlimServer on Linux box; iTunes on Windows with iTunes folder (via samba) the same directory as SlimServer Music Folder (/srv/music). The iTunes iTunes Music Library.xml file is on my Windows box 'C:\Documents and Settings\my_username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes'. Can I change the location of this file so that my slimserver on linux can read it? Can the xml file be located anywhere else? I rip CDs and organize tags with iTunes, and use SlimServer to stream to a SqueezeBox and remote players over an ssh tunnel. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32321 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: IR Blaster - Basic Question
Yes, that is what I meant. AudioVideo;170745 Wrote: I think Dave means a 1/8 jack to 1/8 jack cable like he said. They are available at Radio Shack or many other places. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31425 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: IR Blaster - Basic Question
Your amp is listed as having an IR input, so all you should need is the IR Blaster plugin and a patch cable with 1/8 plugs on the ends to make this work. Dave mister_t;169390 Wrote: Amp is a Cambridge Audio 540A -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31425 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Stereophile 2006 Editor's Choice
One small error in this article is the statement ...any sonic compromises resulting from the use of my WiFi network to transmit audio data around the home were minimal. It should state that any sonic compromises using WiFi are non-existent. Digital is digital regardless of whether you're hardwired or wireless. Unless this reviewer is experiencing dropouts from an especially bad connection, I don't know how he could qualify any connection-related sonic compromise at all. Of course I've never tried one of those uber-expensive Monster Ethernet cables. Maybe it actually does help. :-) -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31490 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Wake-on-LAN: something new...?
I had this issue when I first got my Squeezeboxes over a year ago. I eventually gave up on using WOL for precisely this reason and run my server 24/7 instead. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23176 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: sound level seems too low
Note that if you want to control your receiver's volume (and/or power) with your SB remote, you can use the excellent IR Blaster plugin. If your receiver has an IR input on it, this is as easy as running a 1/8 plug patch cord from the headphone output of the SB to the IR input of the receiver and doing a little bit of configuration. If you don't have an IR input, you can use an IR emitter instead. Once in place, the volume of the SB will be locked (at 100/100 or whatever you want), and the volume controls on the SB remote will adjust the volume of your receiver. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31362 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Sonos - Support for M$ DRM
I for one am NOT looking for DRM support. It may sound good on the surface for some folks but it is definitely walking down the wrong path. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31440 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: WMP or itunes to create library
I standardized on iTunes although I don't have an iPod (my wife does, however, which was an influencing factor). The two main drawbacks are that it doesn't support FLAC, which in a perfect world I would prefer, and that its tagging capabilities are more limited than other tools. I have found, however, that Apple Lossless is a reasonable alternative to FLAC and that iTunes' tagging capabilities are acceptable. iTunes offers a single interface to my my music (for both tagging and playback on my PC) and by letting iTunes manage my folders I don't have to futz around as I used to when I had to do this manually. I also happen to like the UI, which is fast and relatively unadorned. These are the things that I value most about it. iTunes support is also fairly well integrated into the Slimserver software even to the point of reading its proprietary xml library file, consequently, I've never had any major issues getting them to play nice together. When I get a new CD, I just pop it in the drive, iTunes automatically rips/tags it; I make any necessary tweaks to the tags, then use SS to sync. Done. iTunes isn't a perfect solution (none are), but by accepting a few compromises it saves me time and effort. So don't discount it entirely when evaluating your choices. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31060 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Live365 Problem
Frequently when I try to connect to a Live365 station, the SB buffers and appears to connect but there is no sound. To make things worse, once this happens, I can't get sound from any other Internet radio station, Live365, Shoutcast, or otherwise. The only way to get things working again is to reset the SB by pressing and holding the power button. After that, there is about an 80% chance that I will be able to connect to the Live365 station, if not, I have to go through the dance again. Curiously, this seems to happen more with some stations than others. ~MOVIOLA~ (under the Soundtracks genre) does this to me all the time. This never happened in the 6.3 builds. With 6.5.0, Live365 didn't work at all. The effect that I am now describing started when I switched to a 6.5.1 build in November. I figured this was just a glitch in that build so I was patient, but I just upgraded to last night's (12/22) build, and I continue to have this same problem, so it appears that this was not just a hiccup in a build. Does anybody have any clues about what's going on here?? -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30551 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Ideas for Squeezebox 4
I am definitely with the folks saying that we don't want to lose site of the core functionality of the SB. That said, here are my suggestions. 1. The SB3 has great sound now, but everything and anything that can be done to improve sound even more without increasing the cost should be near the top in terms of priority. 2. I do view the display as a part of the core functionality (it's one of the keys to making the SB such a blast to use). A larger display might be nice, but what I'd love to see even more would be an auxiliary color LCD panel below the main fluorescent display that could be used to display the album cover. Now that would be neat. 3. A accessory Sonos-like remote. This concept could be expanded to include a headphone jack and/or line outs. Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30399 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: close to giving up
I've emailed support before with fast and excellent results. This was for a problem that no one on the forum could seem to answer. Don't forget, they are the experts. Dave Swannea;153673 Wrote: @ mitch: No!!! Shear frustration preventing me from doing the obvious. Thanx for the advice;-) It's kinda late on this continent, so I'll try tomorrow. @crawler: makes sense in general, but what's baffling me is the flip-flop between power down and startup for no apparent reason. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29561 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Upgrading from 6.5 to 6.5.1 tonight
I'm planning to upgrade from 6.5 to the 6.5.1 nightly tonight in order to resolve the iTunes 7.02 and Live360 issues. In the past I've always done upgrades from scratch in that the upgrade deletes my slimserver config file, and I manually have to reconstruct my settings--which of course is time consuming. Does anyone know whether 6.5.1 will work ok if I copy my old 6.5 config file after installation? In other words, have there been any changes to the 6.5.1 config file that make it necessary to upgrade it? Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29453 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: iTunes7, SS6.5, Volume Adjustment
kdf;145973 Wrote: player settings - audio, volume adjustment. you can set this to disable. -k I know about that. In fact it is what I've had to resort to. What is meant here is the ability to turn off the soundcheck gain, but keep the separate slider gain turned on. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28524 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: iTunes7, SS6.5, Volume Adjustment
I'll look into these things a bit more deeply, but here are a few observations I made. 1. When I look at the iTunes Music Library.xml file, the only tracks that have a volume adjustment tag are those for which I have made volume adjustments using the slider. This implies that the other (sound check) volume settings are stored somewhere else (in the song file headers, perhaps?). 2. When running the first script, the only tracks that are displayed are ones for which I set the volume using the slider. 3. In iTunes, every album that had a slider value set was set to 100% on the slider. However, the value displayed by script 1 differed from album to album (but not track to track). For example, on one album, all the tracks were set to 58, another whole album had its tracks set to 100, etc. 4. To confuse matters some more, when I look at these same albums (the one set to 58 and the one set to 100) in Slimserver, all the tracks are set to 6.02db. Other albums have other db values, but this is strange indeed. 5. After running the second script, the first script no longer shows anything. If I go into iTunes, I will also see that all the sliders are now set to 0. And finally, to answer your questions, I have done a full delete/rescan, and I have never used anything but iTunes for tagging my collection. Pretty weird huh? -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28524 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] iTunes7, SS6.5, Volume Adjustment
In SS 6.5 I was (at first) happy to see that it now reads the sound check values from iTunes. With sound check turned on, in SS if I look at the info for the song, I will see a volume adjustment setting like db-4.5, db3.0, etc. If I then turn on the Volume Adjustment by track feature on my squeezebox, it obeys these volume settings. Cool. Unfortunately, I don't like the effect. So I turned off Sound Check in iTunes, in order to try using the volume adjustment slider in iTunes on a couple tracks to see if manually adjusting the volume might work better for me. Upon turning off sound check (and reimporting) I would have expected to see all the db settings (like db-4.5, db3.0, etc.) be reset to zero; however, they are all still set to the soundcheck values! Consequently, I can't get a clean slate upon which to apply my manual settings since all the tracks still have their soundcheck values. This seems like a bug, but before I report it as such, I was wondering if I might be doing something wrong here. Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28524 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: iTunes7, SS6.5, Volume Adjustment
slimpy;144907 Wrote: Oops, it seems you did rescan already! Does itunes actually remove the volume adjustment values when turning sound check off? I doubt it does so the values are still there and there's probably no way for slimserver to recognize if sound check was turned off in itunes -s. Yes, I did do a rescan. I have a suspicion that what you're saying might be true. If so, this might actually be an iTunes issue. I'd love to figure out a way to clear these values, however. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28524 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: iTunes7, SS6.5, Volume Adjustment
Thank you for a very informative post! Unfortunately, when I run the second script, it only clears out the manual volume adjustments set by the slider bar. When I reimport, the decibel adjustments apparently made by the sound check action are still there. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28524 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Radiotime
I just discovered the radiotime plug-in in 6.5, along with its ability to receive almost all of my local radio stations. Cool. However, it doesn't seem that I can add any of these stations to my Favorites list. Does anyone know if this is bug, and whether there are plans to address this? -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28091 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimserver 6.5 on Suse 10.1
I'm using SUSE 10.0 and YaST stopped working for doing installs a while ago. So I just do everything from the command line. To uninstall 6.3, stop slimserver then type rpm -e slimserver Then clean-up anything left behind. To install 6.5 type rpm -i name_of_your_rpm_file No YaST required. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28005 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Radio woes in 6.5
Since upgrading from 6.3.1 to 6.5, it seems that the radio features have taken a step backwards. 1. I can no longer receive any Live365 stations. 2. radioio stations are almost impossible to tune in. 3. For some reason, many stations do not display the go right to add to favorites, so I can't add them. 4. For many stations on the new radiotime service, pressing play just jiggles the screen a little and does nothing else. So far, I haven't been able to add the few that I could get to favorites. Shoutcast stations don't seem affected too much, although it does seem like I can't tune in as many as before (this could be my imagination), but I can't help but feel that 6.5 is definitely a step backward for radio listeners. I'm tempted to go back to 6.3.1, but fortunately, most of the stations I listen to regularly are among the ones I can still receive. Also, on my relatively slow (750Mhz) Linux box, the performance on 6.5 is a giant leap over 6.3.1--which for no other reason makes it a keeper. There used to be a delay whenever I attempted to access a long list of titles (like all albums or a genre with lots of titles), but now access is virtually instant. Rescans also seem much faster. Great work here, and thanks to Slimdevices for actually doing work on the backend rather than just the visible eye-candy stuff. But if anyone has work-arounds for these radio issues, I'd love to know about them. Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27872 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Why use iTunes
Here are my reasons for using iTunes. 1. iTunes is something of a standard. 2. Slimserver has built-in integration for iTunes. 3. I find it very simple and fast to manage tags using it. This is probably the single most important reason I use it. 4. I wanted lossless for everything, and Apple Lossless fulfills this. On Windows, playback was not gapless, but on a Linux machine using ALAC, playback is gapless (I use SUSE 10.0). If you use aiff, playback on either OS is gapless. Gapless under Windows might work better with 6.5, but I haven't tried it on Windows recently. 5. Fast forward on the squeezebox does not work with Apple Lossless. This is a possible drawback, though I consider it minor. FF will work if you use aiff. 6. Volume management has never worked for me, but it is supposed to be fixed in 6.5. I have to try this to see if it's working now. 7. On my HTPC I sometimes use iTunes itself for playback. Visualizer supports widescreen and is cool on a 50 DLP 8. Podcasts--both audio and video. Audio podcasts can be listened to on the squeezebox. 9. Ordinary and Smart playlists are supported by the squeezebox through its iTunes integration. 10. My wife has an iPod (though I'd still use iTunes even if she didn't). Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27729 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Administer Linux from XP Pro?
I use SUSE and have found the following remote administration tools to be exceptional. 1. The NX thin client/server software from www.nomachine.com. This permits you to take remote control of your desktop from Windows. It is also true thin client software, so you can have multiple simultaneous users connected, each with their own desktop. It's great stuff, and much nicer than VNC, which I previously used and abandoned. It's exceptionally fast on a LAN--almost indistinguishable from a live session (providing you're not playing arcade games)--and remarkably fast over the web too. 2. The Webmin web administration software from www.webmin.com. This permits you to conduct administration of your system through any web browser. It is not remote desktop software, but will permit you to administrate and configure a wide variety of system software and settings. My primary uses for it are for shutting-down/resetting my machine, and for performing administration tasks for my MySQL databases. But Webmin's capabilities go much further should you need to do more. Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25891 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Easy to use back up program ?
Another vote for robocopy. I tend to like very simple software that works. robocopy gets the job done. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=26081 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: My recipe for a cheap Slimserver
I had also observed many people trying to setup Slimserver on a NAS box, and wondered about trying this. This idea certainly has some charm (small, compact, quiet), but I found that creating a full-fledged PC was both less expensive and far more powerful. It's amazing how much PC you can build these days after scrounging around for spare parts. Started out with * Old (3.5 years) VIA motherboard sitting on my shelf. * Old 4X CD ROM drive and 8GB HD from my box of spare parts. Added * 256MB PC100 Memory, free leftover from a friend's box of spare parts. * 200GB Seagate harddrive, $29 after rebates from a CompUSA midnight madness sale. * Case + 250Watt PS, $19 from CompUSA after rebates. * 750MHz Pentium III processor, free from another friend's box of spare parts. * Ethernet card, free from another friend's box of spare parts. $48 total At first, I tried installing Free NAS with the intention of just using this machine as a file server. Free NAS worked like a charm, but since I couldn't run the slimserver on it left me wanting more. So never having tried a full Linux distribution before, I tried installing Mandriva. For some reason, Mandriva didn't like my machine, so after doing some research I settled on SUSE 10. SUSE is not directly supported by Slimserver, but ran smoothly on my machine. Getting slimserver to work required jumping through a few hoops, but all the information to do it was here in the forums. As an aside I have to admit that I absolutely hate setting things up in Linux. Everything seems three times harder than it needs to be (especially if your working with a distribution that isn't directly supported by the software you're installing). But once you have it working, it's fast and purrs like a cat. You also have full-fledged server with which you can do a whole host of other things. All-in-all it's a hoot for 48 bucks. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25892 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: My recipe for a cheap Slimserver
Mark Lanctot Wrote: I'm starting to think the term NAS is kind of a misnomer. There is definitely a place for pure NAS devices. By this I mean a simple storage device that connects directly to your network to provide shared drive space. Such a device needs little more circuitry than an external harddrive, and serves a very specific role. As such, a pure NAS can be a relatively inexpensive, quiet, and cost-effective way of putting shared storage on a LAN. However, I'm with you on the misnomer thing. It is easy to become entranced with these other NAS devices that add CPUs, memory, and other PC like features. But once you go there, it's not just a NAS anymore but basically a weak networked computing device with a big harddrive. Sure there's a place for these as they are adequate to suit the needs of many folk, but they can also be easily oversold as something more novel and more capable than they actually are. I guess caveat emptor is the word here. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25892 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: My recipe for a cheap Slimserver
CavesOfTQLT Wrote: Maybe so but with a system that's running 24/7 you want it to consume as little juice as is possible, if not for pennies sake but for the environment... Your point is true, and a definite plus for a NAS device. They are small, quiet, and energy efficient. I think what we're saying here is that if power, flexibility, and price are your objectives, then building a PC from surplus equipment can fulfill this very nicely--sometimes to a degree that is pleasantly unexpected. On the other hand, if small, quiet, and enviro-friendly are your primary objectives, an NAS may fulfill these requirements better--although the points made about low power boards can equalize this greatly. With that said, an older PC that runs in in idle most of the time with no monitor and energy saving features turned on, can be made to be reasonabley energy efficient. Maybe not as much as a NAS, but enough to not noticably affect my electric bill. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25892 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Tv vs Squeezebox
I also had a Linksys WMA11B as a previous poster mentioned. One of the reasons I eventually replaced it with a SB (actually, 2 of them) was because of its built-in display. The on-screen display of the WMA11B was cool at first, but after a while it became annoying to have to have the TV on all the time to use it. Sometimes I just wanted to play a tune, and it felt like overkill to start the TV and let it warm-up before choosing my music. Also, leaving the TV on all day when I just wanted to have music on in the background (but still see what was playing), seemed excessive. Especially since the bulb in my DLP rear screen projector has a limited lifespan and costs over $300 to replace. I actually wouldn't mind having a video display *option* to supplement the built-in display; however, as others have noted, this kind of feature is somewhat mitigated by its existing web-based functionality. For example, if I want the multi-line interactive display akin to what a TV might display, I can simply log in with my PSP and get those same benefits as well as carry it around like a remote (who needs a Sanos if you've got a PSP). -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25973 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: harmony 880 and squeeze 3
I just got my 880 earlier this month to replace my 688 (688 went to my dad). It works great with the SB3. The benefits over the 688 are that the numeric keys have letters on them, which now makes searching on the SB easier. Also, there are more activity buttons with more text available providing more flexibility and clarity. I love the Harmony remotes, and this one does not disappoint. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23918 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Annoying Apple Lossless Issue
I believe you are encountering bug #2095. See http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2095 You can see my workaround as comment #10. This issue was reported in September '05 and is assigned, so you might want to add some of your own comments to the bug to raise its visibility. You -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23831 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: How to connect to a NAS drive
Just to go out on a limb and suggest something to think about. I investigated some NAS solutions, but found them kind of expensive. I wanted to go dirt-cheap, yet have the power to run real server software. With a little scrounging around, I came up with enough parts to build a bare-bones box (750Mhz PIII, 256MB RAM) for less than $20. In this I put an old spare 8.5GB hard drive to hold an OS, and a 200GB Seagate that I just picked up at a CompUSA Midnight Madness sale for $29.95 (after rebates) for data storage. My initial plan was to just install FreeNAS (www.freenas.org). This free Linux-based software lets you turn any modest PC box into a completely effective NAS storage device. I had zero Linux experience, but doing this actually turned out to be much easier than expected and worked like a charm. So in one evening's project I now had my cheap NAS. But I still had the issue of not being able to run the Slimserver on it. So I decided to abandon FreeNAS and try a full Linux distribution. After a little research I chose SuSE Linux 10 (www.opensuse.org), and have not regretted that decision. This distribution contains the Samba server which permits you to share drives on the Linux box with your Windows machines. Furthermore, since this is a real Linux distribution, you can run the Linux version of Slimserver on it--which, strangely, seems more responsive on this lowly machine than on my 2.6Ghz Windows XP box! Once the SuSE box is attached to the network, you don't need a keyboard, monitor, or mouse for it at all. In fact, you can put in a closet if you want. Just install the FreeNX thin client server software (freenx.berlios.de) to the Linux box and Windows client (www.nomachine.com) to your Windows machine. This will enable you to do remote management on your Windows machine (similar to remote desktop, but better). You can stop at this point and run this thing as a full-blown 24-hour availability LAN and Internet music server, but I went ahead and setup a few more things. First, I attached a printer and turned on print services. Magically, I now had a print server. I also installed Webmin (www.webmin.com) to remotely manage and configure the server over the web. This software is very cool if only for the feature that permits you to reboot the machine from anywhere you can access the Internet. Finally, I installed MondoRescue (www.mondorescue.org), a remarkable backup solution that supports writing bootable restore disks directly to CD/DVD/RW and/or iso images. Oh, and did I say that all of this software is free? It is. And did I say that it was easy to setup? Well, I can honestly say that setting up FreeNAS was, but setting up SuSE and all the other stuff was a definite challenge. Especially for a Linux novice like me. But it is now two weeks later and everything works perfect and is highly stable. Can I say it was worth it? Yup. ...and cheap. Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22820 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: How to connect to a NAS drive
I went with a decidedly low-tech approach to quieting the machine. I had some sheets of thin styrofoam in my basement and lined the inside of the case with them. I made sure I didn't cover-up any vents and carefully monitored the temperature afterward. Purrs like a cat now. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22820 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Wake on Lan question
danco Wrote: I could easily be wrong on this. But I thought that if the computer was asleep then its wireless card was also asleep and so could not receive the wake packet. A machine that is asleep is not off. There is still power going to certain components, including network cards that support WOL. If you enable WOL in your machine and your network card supports it then it will be able to react to an incoming wake signal. On a PC this works in both Standby and Hibernate sleep modes. Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22100 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Wake on Lan question
danco Wrote: No. You have to set it, I think in Energy Saver, under wake for Ethernet network administrator access. I think that wake on LAN is not possible for wireless networks where the computer is connected by a wireless card, but it works fine if it has a wired connection to a wirelss access point. WOL works fine on my wireless network. I'm using a PC, but I don't know why this wouldn't also hold true for Macs. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22100 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: What's the difference between SS 6.2 and 6.5?
j.e.f.f Wrote: Hi folks I've been trying to figure out what SlimServer 6.5 has that 6.2 doesn't. From what I've been able to find over the last few days, 6.5 has a bunch more features... what are these features? Are they worth installing 6.5 and putting up with its beta status for the next little bit? I don't mind providing feedback to aid its development, but I also won't trade a potentially unstable system for features I won't use. Thanks! I'd like to know as well. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22045 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Wake-up timeout
Does anyone know if there is a way to increase the wakeup timeout on my SB3? Here's what happens. When I come home from work, my computer is usually in hibernation mode from the night before, and my SB3 screen is blank. I press the on button on my programmable remote, which also turns on my stereo and selects the correct input, and begins to wake the server. The squeezebox says that it is waking the server for about ten seconds or so, but because the server takes a minute or more to wake, the SB screen goes dark again. When the server finally wakes, the SB3 displays the date and time, but is in off mode. I must then press power a second time to put the SB into on mode. I would like to be able to set the timeout for waking the server to a longer value. In my case, this might be up to two minutes. This way, when I press the on button, the screen would display that it is waking the server for up to the full two minutes, and then, when it finally awakes, the SB would remain in the on mode. The way it works now is ok, but it confuses my wife for some reason. She can't get past why sometimes you have to turn the SB on a second time, and other times you don't. It is also a bit of a nuisance with my Harmony remote since you must hit a different button to turn it on the second time (if you own one of these, you will understand why). Dave Dave -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21900 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Ugh, coworker is buying a Sonos
I own a couple of SqueezeBoxes and just visited the Sonos site for the first time upon reading this thread. the Sonos is definitely a cool looking product (at 3x the price per station, it should be), but it really is in a different category than the SB. To me, the SB is more like a component that supplements an existing system, whereas the Sonos is more like a high-end, self-contained, whole-house audio system. Both can crossover and function in the other role, but which one you buy really depends on what you're expecting and want to pay. I picture the Sonos user as someone who wants to put a sound system in a lot of rooms, many of which don't already have dedicated sound systems. This user wants to be able to carry a (very impressive) propritary remote around the house and control the music to the entire house from wherever he/she is. This user also wants a turn-key system with as little dependency on a server as possible. On the other hand, I picture the SB user as someone whose main goal is to stream their music collection to an existing sound system or systems. Who tends to primarily play/control their music in one room at a time. And who considers simulcasting to other rooms or the whole house a secondary priority. This user also tends to be comfortable having their music on a real server and considers it an advantage. Judging from what I've heard, the sound quality of both systems is otherwise comparable. Setup is probably a little bit more complex on the SB, but I certainly wouldn't say it was difficult. So it really comes down to how you intend to use the system that would determine one's choice. If the Sonos and SB were the same price, I think I would still have gone with the SB. I don't need more amplifiers, I like using my universal remote, I really like the open-source server concept, and the display on the SB units is exceptional. I can certainly see why the Sonos system is compelling to some, but for me, it is not competition. It's just another category of product. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21684 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Linksys's new Slim-killer
I have a Linksys wireless router and cable modem which have served me very well. Basically, hardware products that sit on your desk and don't change much beyond a few dull firmware updates. About two years ago I purchased their WMA-11B wireless media adapter. It worked great, did what it was supposed to do with no frills, and that was it. There were one or two very dull firmware updates, but no really new or enhanced functionality. In fact, it was never even updated to work properly with SP2. It was a nice product; it's just that it passed way too quickly into obsolescence. My two new SB3s and the SlimServer software are remarkable by comparison. Not just the devices and software, but the incredible community and sense of commitment by the maker. The only other device that has given me this kind of satisfaction has been my TiVo. With the SB3, I can be reasonably confident of continual improvements and a respectable lifetime. I'm sure the new Linksys music bridge will work pretty well right out of the box, but I wouldn't expect much added value in the days beyond that. -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21466 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Switching Off the Server
Hibernate or Stand-by can be activated on a schedule using AutoHotKey from www.autohotkey.com. This free open source scripting utility lets you control many system level operations very easily. I created a simple script as shown below. I then created a windows schedule task to execute this script at 11:00 every night. So far I haven't figured out a free way to ensure that no one is using the SB prior to hibernation, but since everyone is normally asleep by this time, this script/task in combination with WOL is a pretty good compromise. ; Call the Windows API function SetSuspendState to have the system suspend or hibernate. ; Windows 95/NT4: Since this function does not exist, the following call would have no effect. ; Parameter #1: Pass 1 instead of 0 to hibernate rather than suspend. ; Parameter #2: Pass 1 instead of 0 to request permission from each application prior to suspending. ; Parameter #3: Pass 1 instead of 0 to disable all wake events. DllCall(PowrProf\SetSuspendState, int, 1, int, 0, int, 0) -- Gildahl Gildahl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4102 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20030 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
