Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Hi Just out of curiosity i pinged 66.151.159.231 from my tele2 adsl conection in sweden. My SN experience is that it is sometimes slows intermittently, but in most cases it is quick. So while it could get better, it's workin fine I suppose you us folk get better ping. Skickar signaler till 66.151.159.231 med 32 byte data: Svar från 66.151.159.231: byte=32 tid=199ms TTL=75 Svar från 66.151.159.231: byte=32 tid=199ms TTL=75 Svar från 66.151.159.231: byte=32 tid=199ms TTL=75 Svar från 66.151.159.231: byte=32 tid=200ms TTL=75 Ping-statistik för 66.151.159.231: Paket: Skickade = 4, mottagna = 4, Förlorade = 0 (0 %), Ungefärligt överföringstid i millisekunder: Lägsta = 199 ms, Högsta = 200 ms, Medel = 199 ms -- Mnyb Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
I read through this rather lengthy thread and it prompted me to give SqueezeNetwork a spin after a year or so of using just SlimServer. I have to admit, the response (via the SB remote) does seem *very* sluggish relative to what I remember, and the poster may have a legitimate gripe here. I'm curious if anything has changed with the software driving SqueezeNetwork, or if popularity has simply taken its toll on performance. - Ken MattB wrote: 3) Why is the Squeeze Network so slow? When I press buttons on the remote, I have to wait several seconds or more between presses for the display to respond. Is this for real? Are users supposed to be accepting of this? I was using the system on FIOS, with WEP encryption (I heard about the WPA problems) and 802.11(g). There was no difference when I hooked up via an ethernet cable. ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
MattB;252083 Wrote: ... It will take Apple five minutes to make a competing product that works with iTunes, works well, and doesn't require setting up a linux box to use. And it will come in a really nice box... You mean something like this? Been out for years now ;) http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/airtunes.html Oh and don't get me started on the iPod... the Touch has nothing on a Clix or Cowon player these days... -- rh2600 rh2600's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11564 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Re: searching. I think you've missed something here. Use the Slimserver's 'lazy search' option, and you just press the button representing the letter you want once, so to enter 'carole' you press 2 for the first letter (for a, b, or C) then 2 again for A or b or c then 7 for p, q, R, or s. The server almost instantly shows a list of matching artists/albums/songs -- mecouc mecouc's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=227 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
rh2600 wrote: MattB;252083 Wrote: ... It will take Apple five minutes to make a competing product that works with iTunes, works well, and doesn't require setting up a linux box to use. And it will come in a really nice box... You mean something like this? Been out for years now ;) http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/airtunes.html Oh and don't get me started on the iPod... the Touch has nothing on a Clix or Cowon player these days... I have an Airport Express but I just use it as a small and elegant access point. I wouldn't dream of using it as my music source. Too cumbersome. Regards, Peter ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
I appreciate everyone's comments. Thanks! Forgive my semi-rant above, but I am trying to give candid feedback on this product from a first-use perspective. While I appreciate the technical capabilities of the SB fans on this forum, the masses do not possess these skills and thus any answer with the word linux (or any of its derivatives) is not a solution for me, and most people. I hope the folks at SD do read this thread. I think the product has some major issues that need to be addressed for this product to survive. It will take Apple five minutes to make a competing product that works with iTunes, works well, and doesn't require setting up a linux box to use. And it will come in a really nice box -- which, btw, SD did well with the little black and red drawer inside its box. Take Sonoa, for example. The big advantage to the SB is that it is cheaper than Sonos. Sonos, on the other hand, just works and is easy to use. Again compare the ipod to various other mp3 players that are probably better and cheaper, but more difficult to use. The ipod is destroying them. Anyway, I guess I had four basic comments in my original post: 1) the remote lacking 26 letter buttons; 2) the Rhapsody search results being horrible; 3) the SN being slow; and 4) no direct, off the shelf, NAS connection. Re 1), no I don't use my cell phone to text. I have both a berry and a regular cell phone. I use the berry for sending email and SMS. Also, this gripe with the remote needs to be taken in context with the SN slowness and the crummy search results problems. If I have to press the 7 button four times and have to wait two seconds between presses, that is 8 seconds to enter one letter! Then, if I don't enter the complete name (e.g., Carole King), I get back 275 search results (see the Rhapsody post mentioned above). Ugh, then I need to start over. Next time, I just enter the full name (which takes about 2 minutes to do and two years off my life) and wonder whether I really want to sign up for Rhapsody. I presume whether I sign up for Rhapsody matters to the folks at SD as they probably get a piece of the action. Re 2), I read the Rhapsody thread and I appreciate the complexities of the problem. That said, the thread was from April. Where is the fix? I see several great suggestions, both recognized by Real and SD, so why does the product still have this problem at Christmas? Re 3), don't blame Verizon FIOS. It is not a slow ISP. And if it is, it is state of the art. The slowness is SD's problem if they want to sell the units. They need to figure out a way to fix this. For example, why does every letter I enter need to go back to the SN? Why can't I enter a whole word and have it then get sent as a bundle back to the SN? Sort of the same way that I am entering this post -- the whole post gets sent at once. I don't expect it to instantly start a song or log into the squeeze network, but there should only be a couple of times, when I experience latency. Not every time I press a button. Re 4), I don't know linux and don't want to. I just want to buy a music player. I don't want to leave my computer on all of the time, but would be happy to leave a NAS on all of the time. Whether this makes sense or not doesn't really matter because it is driving how I spend my money. Which I am happy to give to SD if they make a product that can fill the need. Sonos does, but it is more expensive. I am willing to give up the fancy remote of Sonos for less money, but expect similar features -- like the ability to read music directly from the NAS without any hacks. Again, sorry for being critical of the SB and SD, but unless you can tell me that my issues above are wrong, these really are unacceptable problems in a third generation product. While this product is great for people who are hard core techies, it will never survive with non-techies who don't have an IT department unless these issues are fixed. -- MattB MattB's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=14616 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
unless you can tell me that my issues above are wrong IMHO, only a very small part of the value proposition for the SB/TP is using Pandora/Rhapsody type services. Navigating a raw NAS file-system is a rather poor experience, the slimserver provides the browse/search and all the plugins. -- amcluesent amcluesent's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10286 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
MattB;252083 Wrote: Re 3), don't blame Verizon FIOS. It is not a slow ISP. And if it is, it is state of the art. The slowness is SD's problem if they want to sell the units. They need to figure out a way to fix this. For example, why does every letter I enter need to go back to the SN? Why can't I enter a whole word and have it then get sent as a bundle back to the SN? Sort of the same way that I am entering this post -- the whole post gets sent at once. I don't expect it to instantly start a song or log into the squeeze network, but there should only be a couple of times, when I experience latency. Not every time I press a button. Another consideration regarding the poor responsiveness from squeezenetwork is your local network traffic. If I am doing a large download on one of my machines and I try to use SqueezeNetwork, I see the behavior that you describe. Yes, it is frustrating. But then I either throttle the download or wait until it is done and things run normally again. Do you see this poor behavior with the network idle? Since FIOS sends TV over the IP network, could that have an impact? Not trying to blame FIOS but just trying to see if there is a large amount of local network activity that could be causing your responsiveness issue. -- maggior maggior's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9080 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
MattB;252083 Wrote: I don't want to leave my computer on all of the time, but would be happy to leave a NAS on all of the time. A NAS is actually a computer as indeed is the Sonus remote. I can understand your point about not wanting to leave your laptop or desktop on all the time, but it's possible to set-up the SB3s to run with an off-the-shelf NAS (so long as it can run Slimserver), or to build a NAS using Linux and standard components. The power of the SB3 is in the flexibility and openness of the approach, but the downside is that that can make it a little geeky to setup compared to an 'Apple-type' approach. You don't have to learn Linux, but if you are prepared to get your hands a little dirty, there are lots of solutions and helpful people here. -- Patrick Dixon www.at-tunes.co.uk Patrick Dixon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=90 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
There is no difference between leaving a PC on and leaving a NAS on. They are (more or less) the same thing! -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... ...SB3+TACT+Altmann+MF DACXV3/Linn tri-amped Aktiv 5.1 system and some very expensive cables ;o) Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
MattB;252083 Wrote: ... Re 4), I don't know linux and don't want to. I just want to buy a music player. I don't want to leave my computer on all of the time, but would be happy to leave a NAS on all of the time. Whether this makes sense or not doesn't really matter because it is driving how I spend my money. Which I am happy to give to SD if they make a product that can fill the need. Sonos does, but it is more expensive. I am willing to give up the fancy remote of Sonos for less money, but expect similar features -- like the ability to read music directly from the NAS without any hacks. ... Again, sorry for being critical of the SB and SD, but unless you can tell me that my issues above are wrong, these really are unacceptable problems in a third generation product. While this product is great for people who are hard core techies, it will never survive with non-techies who don't have an IT department unless these issues are fixed... No, your issues are not wrong, they are perfectly valid from the consumer/clinet point of view. And you have right to vote with your wallet. Sonos unit offers some goodies that you consider important. However, they come with the price (I understand more than double). You may not realize it, but the techincall difference between the two is more than just a fancy remote. However, as you have noticed, this product is (has been) geared towards the somewhat technical crowd that tends to get involved, or have needs that match the product. For example, I don't care for internet feeds all that much. Prefer higher quality sound and to listen to the music of my own choioce. I also poses technical ability to get out of the box functionality from SB in about 5 minutes. So for me, SB is perfect and offers much more value than sonos. After all, how often one makes $300+ for a 5 minutes of work. Now, if you choose to still give a SB concept a chance, you might find out that some of your concerns are easily resolved. For example: - slow and non-responsive remote: I have re-mapped my amp's remote to control SB with its CD dedicated keys. It is way faster and SB reacts to it better that to the original one. - too many keystrokes: there's a plugin called 'Lazy Search'. Very nice piece that would allow you to get to your exemplary 7 character search in maybe 4 or 5 strokes. (it's not based on 26 key kbd, but on the theory of probability - 'smart involvement rather than throwing money away', at works again) - PC vs. NAS: right now, I'm listening to the music away from home that comes from 'buddy'. I left it on this morning when I left home. 'Buddy' is my music server, that I choose not to call either PC or NAS. So, no PCs or NOSs involved, just 'buddy' :). Seriously, you do realise that NOS is just a PC in a different skin and with the serious performance issues. So, if you are going to have something on, it really doesn't matter how it's called. Lots of people here have old PCs that are used as NAS's, always on and tucked somewhere away. But hey, if you still shoose to go different route, there's nothing wrong with that too. K -- slimkid The sound stage will open up, bass will tighten and the imaging will improve. DVD performance will also increase substantially. slimkid's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8881 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Phil Leigh;252193 Wrote: There is no difference between leaving a PC on and leaving a NAS on. They are (more or less) the same thing! Indeed, most NAS's run some variety of Linux The only real difference is a home NAS is usually on very limited hardware, suitable for one or maybe two machines copying files at acceptable speed. A business NAS is going to have beefier hardware and is even harder to distinguish from a PC. -- snarlydwarf snarlydwarf's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1179 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
MattB;252083 Wrote: Anyway, I guess I had four basic comments in my original post: 1) the remote lacking 26 letter buttons; 2) the Rhapsody search results being horrible; 3) the SN being slow; and 4) no direct, off the shelf, NAS connection. Two comments that noone else seems to have mentioned: On (1): If you don't like the remote you can use your blackberry or any PDA or other device that can surf the web instead. Many people use a small Nokia PDA or a small laptop. An iphone works fine too (though typing on an iphone isn't that great either). With a little effort you can also use any remote you like. I use a Harmony 880 universal remote, but that won't address your issues as it doesn't have a qwerty keyboard. On (3): This seems somewhat unique to you. My SN has very low latency, for example, and I think that's true for many. Thus, if you're willing, you could look into the causes. Possibilities include your ISP (my bet) or something about your network. Also, as it's a problem at your end, there's nothing SD can do to fix it. -- lanierb lanierb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5566 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Jonathan Miller;251737 Wrote: Last time I looked a Dell Linux machine cost more than the equal Windows machine. No, they are about $40 less. (Ie, the Optiplex 330N, is $335 while the 330 is $375. That comes with either XP Home or Vista Basic, other OS's cost more.) -- snarlydwarf snarlydwarf's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1179 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Diana Artemis;251734 Wrote: snarlydwarf wrote: big snip Use one of those with a copy of one of the CD-Rom based servers (I think there is one based on Debian Linux and one based one FreeBSD) Snarly Sorry to butt in on this thread, but I was interested in this bit of advice, and not sure what you meant exactly. Are you talking about a CD-Rom based SqueezeCentre? (Like Michael Herger's SlimCD?) Yes, hence CD-Rom based servers. If you don't want to really run a linux box, just boot from a CD. No install needed. It would be annoying day-to-day, but if it is a box you hide in the closet somewhere and reboot only every few months, a CD boot isn't that annoying at all. -- snarlydwarf snarlydwarf's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1179 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
snarlydwarf wrote: Diana Artemis;251734 Wrote: ... Are you talking about a CD-Rom based SqueezeCentre? Yes, hence CD-Rom based servers. Thanks. I wasn't sure whether you might be referring to some sort of 'live CD' distro - a sort of ClarkConnect-on-a-disc! Now there's an idea! ;-) ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Another option is to get a refurb Dell. Where do you find them? I've seen them mentioned here several times, but not on their site... Michael ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Jonathan Miller;251737 Wrote: Last time I looked a Dell Linux machine cost more than the equal Windows machine. Another option is to get a refurb Dell. I got one for $199 from Dell!! It is a P4 with 1GB RAM. No OS, no monitor...just keyboard and mouse. I downloaded Open SUSE Linux, added a 500GB hard disc and was set to go. -- maggior maggior's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9080 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Look on the bottom left corner of most of their pages (ie, go to 'small business desktop' and then look at the left under 'Shopping Alternatives'. I didnt find their outlet prices all that great.. I'd rather buy new. Since a Linux box doesn't need a fancy graphics card, etc, I don't see a reason to buy anything other than the cheap box I just want a mobo, case, cpu and some ram, actually. Just too lazy to shop around for all the parts and don't want to pay handling fees 10 times. -- snarlydwarf snarlydwarf's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1179 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
snarlydwarf wrote: Look on the bottom left corner of most of their pages (ie, go to 'small business desktop' and then look at the left under 'Shopping Alternatives'. I can't see this on the Dell pages here (UK). But the link for the 'Dell Outlet' in UK is http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=ukl=ens=dfo~ck=bt Like you, I don't find the prices that impressive - though if you keep a regular eye on the site there are occasional very good deals. (UK buyers should notice that the prices do NOT include VAT and delivery.) ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Diana Artemis;251902 Wrote: snarlydwarf wrote: Look on the bottom left corner of most of their pages (ie, go to 'small business desktop' and then look at the left under 'Shopping Alternatives'. I can't see this on the Dell pages here (UK). But the link for the 'Dell Outlet' in UK is http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=ukl=ens=dfo~ck=bt Like you, I don't find the prices that impressive - though if you keep a regular eye on the site there are occasional very good deals. (UK buyers should notice that the prices do NOT include VAT and delivery.) You are right - you have to monitor the inventory, which changes constantly. I think I got lucky that I found just what I wanted for the price that I did. Here is where I got mine: http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/ It is equipment that Dell gets back from expired leases. The prices here are better than on the Dell Outlet. They are certified and refurbished just like on the outlet site. -- maggior maggior's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9080 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Hello, Do not know if this can be used overseas, but it is worth checking into I guess. I use Pricewatch.com. Click on Barebones, find the lowest price, next click on the item which takes you to the dealers site. Most dealer sites show the special and ask if you want to add anything to configure a barebones the way you want it. Lowest price guaranteed, one handling fee if any (lots have free shipping, FedEx Saver), and the box the way you want it. As an example: Intel Pentium D 920 Barebones w/ 3.0GHz/800FSB Dual Core Pentium D 920 CPU -ASRock Conroe1333-D667MBoard - PCIe X16 - 7.1 Ch Audio - 10/100 LAN - DDR2 - 2 IDE 4 SATA - 8 USB 2.0 - w/ Heatsink Fan - Beige or Black 450W Mid-Tower 1GB of RAM Assembled and tested with 1Yr Warranty for $177.23 including free shipping. Add your hard drive and an old CD drive and you are on your way with mostly new stuff for under $200. Micro Center has 500 GB WD SATA drives for $99 if you do not have a Hard Drive laying around. If you have RAM laying about, you are looking at $139.98 delivered and its not a refurb! -- iPhone iPhone Last.FM http://www.lastfm.com/user/mePhone Media Room: Transporter, Vandersteen Quatro Signature, Ayre MX-R Mono Blocks, VTL TL-6.5 Signature Pre-Amp, VCC-5 Reference Center Channel, four VSM-1 Signatures, Runco 710, RAM Oppo DV970HD, VeraStarr 6.4SE Living Room: Squeezebox 3, Vandersteen Model 3A Signature, Two 2Wq subs, VCC-2, Two VSM-1, ADCOM GTP-870HD, Cinepro 3K6SE III Gold Bedroom: Squeezebox 3, Thiel 2.3, NAD C370 iPhone's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13622 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Don't forget that power usage can become an issue with a server (or other machine that's on 24x7). I'd suggest, if you can stand to do it, building a box around one of the Via processors. This is what I did, and with the following components via C3 1G ram 1.5T disk 80+ power supply I get a draw of under 60W (actually I have a firewall, gigabit router, wireless router and this server plugged into a UPS and, using a kill-a-watt meter between the UPS and the wall, I get 59.9W). Still not as good as, say, a 1TB NAS. Your other option is to use something that can read from whatever SMB servers it can find. The Turtle Beach Audiotron can do this - but it can't play flac, ogg or ape. There was quite a user community, though (I think lots of audiotron users ended up here at SD). There was at least one indexing utility so, when the audiotron started up it'd just read the index - so no long wait. Oh - and it's can't deal with more than 14K (or so) audio files. I've no idea if the Roku can just read SMB - anyone know? -- bobkoure bobkoure's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=14646 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
I got a good, cheap PC from Mad Tux. The $179 Celeron D system with the RAM bumped to 1 GB. It is surprisingly quiet. They will install a Linux OS for $25 but I just used ClarkConnect. Cost was about $240 with shipping. I then added a $99 500GB SATA drive. http://store.madtux.org/index.php?cPath=57 -- Pale Blue Ego Pale Blue Ego's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=110 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
I am new to the Squeezebox. I bought two recently as Christmas gifts. After setting them up and demoing them for the recipients, I am not happy with the performance. Perhaps I am doing something wrong. 1) The remote stinks. Is there a cheap remote that I can buy that has individual letter buttons on it? Pressing the 7 button four times to enter an S is horrible. 2) Why do search results in Rhapsody come back unsorted? Unless I enter the entire name of a band, I get back 100 hits. Then I have to search through all 100 to see if the band I am looking for is even available because they are unsorted. Ugh. Otherwise, I have to enter the whole name and press 20 buttons (on average) for a band with 10 letters in its name. 3) Why is the Squeeze Network so slow? When I press buttons on the remote, I have to wait several seconds or more between presses for the display to respond. Is this for real? Are users supposed to be accepting of this? I was using the system on FIOS, with WEP encryption (I heard about the WPA problems) and 802.11(g). There was no difference when I hooked up via an ethernet cable. 4) Why can't the Squeezebox simply pull songs from a NAS without a server installed on it (or a computer)? Sonos can, so I know it is not a technological problem. Thanks for any input. Matt -- MattB MattB's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=14616 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
MattB;251612 Wrote: I am new to the Squeezebox. I bought two recently as Christmas gifts. After setting them up and demoing them for the recipients, I am not happy with the performance. Perhaps I am doing something wrong. The Squeezboxes and Slimserver take a bit of a context shift in your brain to get used to. Relax, don't worry and it gets easier. Do remember this is not a support forum.. it is a user forum, and though support people wander through here from time to time that is mainly because they happen to also be users... I don't think their job description says to come here... they come here because they want to. So most if not all the support you get here will be from other SB users, who of course are under no obligation to help you at all... so be nice and calm and you'll get far. 1) The remote stinks. Is there a cheap remote that I can buy that has individual letter buttons on it? Pressing the 7 button four times to enter an S is horrible. You must not text message much? Those of us with tiny phones (I hate how fat blackberries are.. ewww) are used to the cycling. (And actually I do very little searching any more.. not much text entry at all.) That said there is a LazySearch plugin that you may find helpful: it is sort of like the spelling software on many cell phones... as you type a word it tries to figure out what you mean based on the contents of your library. You can get it from the Plugins page. 2) Why do search results in Rhapsody come back unsorted? Unless I enter the entire name of a band, I get back 100 hits. Then I have to search through all 100 to see if the band I am looking for is even available because they are unsorted. Ugh. Otherwise, I have to enter the whole name and press 20 buttons (on average) for a band with 10 letters in its name. Almost certainly an issue with how Rhapsody implements their API.. My guess is they come back in some order Rhapsody thought was useful (closest match first? or most popular first? dunno, i don't do rhapsody). 3) Why is the Squeeze Network so slow? When I press buttons on the remote, I have to wait several seconds or more between presses for the display to respond. Is this for real? Are users supposed to be accepting of this? I was using the system on FIOS, with WEP encryption (I heard about the WPA problems) and 802.11(g). There was no difference when I hooked up via an ethernet cable. That sounds like a latency issue. Speed and latency are related sometimes, but not quite the same thing. An eighteen wheeler moving 50,000 DVD's across the country is high speed (moving 200 terabits in just a couple days), but very high latency. That first disc takes a long time to get there. (Or if you have ever had the extreme displeasure of talking on a satelitte link, that 2-3 seconds of latency when you speak is enough to make conversations stutter like mad.) SN is working on opening some new data centers to be closer (at least network-topology-wise) but you really shouldn't see that problem in the US, the current center is pretty well connected 4) Why can't the Squeezebox simply pull songs from a NAS without a server installed on it (or a computer)? Sonos can, so I know it is not a technological problem. Because that is not how it is designed... Very few things in the world are technological problems. In order to access a drive it would take more CPU and RAM on the SB than currently exists, as the SB would need to at least perfom some mild indexes (even for 'Browse Music Folder' functionality... some people are weird and have thousands of items in folders...), and for the flexibility of what the SB can do (I abuse erland's plugins so I can have a Random Mix of Music Suitable for Work where I exclude some genres like Christmas and Explicit) a PC based server with a flexible plugin structure gives you a ton of power... In this case, I think that was the deciding factor: you could throw more CPU and memory at the SB but you would still lose out on functionality unless you basically made the SB into a PC. which would mean noisy fans, electricial noise, etc... By keeping as much of the heavy stuff outside of the SB itself, you not only keep the cost down, the extensibility of the product goes way up. PC's are cheap, get faster all the time, etc. So, yeah, Sonos has an internal OS (actually Linux as I recall).. but you still can't modifiy the server core, and you lose out on all the plugins (some of which you may find silly, but some of which I find essential... I would be -so- lost without Trackstat/DynamicPlaylist/SQLPlaylist etc these days...) If you are at least semi technically inclined there are some easy solutions: Dell for example sells Linux PC's (you have to look in their Small Business section, they seem to think consumers would never want them) pretty cheap. Since you're not paying for Windows, you save some money. Use one of those with a copy of one of the CD-Rom
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Rhapsody search was discussed in this thread http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34386 I'm sure it will improve in the future. As for the remote, I think it is wonderful, but it is obviously not intended for heavy duty text typing. If you're using Rhapsody, better organize a library via their PC client and then use the SB remote to access it. Pressing the first letter to choose from a list of artists/albums is very easy. Then you don't need to type that much with the remote, nor wade through the Rhapsody search results on the SB. -- y360 y360's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10150 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
I have three squeezeboxes. I'm happy with mine. My attitude is that this is cutting edge technology that is a work in progress. The benefits far outweigh the idiosyncracies (spelling?). As you use it, and use the pc interface too, things get easier. -- mortslim mortslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11039 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41393 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
Last time I looked a Dell Linux machine cost more than the equal Windows machine. On Dec 26, 2007 11:29 PM, Diana Artemis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snarlydwarf wrote: big snip Use one of those with a copy of one of the CD-Rom based servers (I think there is one based on Debian Linux and one based one FreeBSD) Snarly Sorry to butt in on this thread, but I was interested in this bit of advice, and not sure what you meant exactly. Are you talking about a CD-Rom based SqueezeCentre? (Like Michael Herger's SlimCD?) ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Thinking about sending two SBs back.
snarlydwarf wrote: big snip Use one of those with a copy of one of the CD-Rom based servers (I think there is one based on Debian Linux and one based one FreeBSD) Snarly Sorry to butt in on this thread, but I was interested in this bit of advice, and not sure what you meant exactly. Are you talking about a CD-Rom based SqueezeCentre? (Like Michael Herger's SlimCD?) ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
