[Cialug] Home music

[Josh More]

I'm reviving this old thread.

Odds are that sometime in June, I'll be resurrecting my two old
fanless VIA boxes.  What's different is that I found wireless USB
cards for *really* cheap at MicroCenter and they list Linux
compatibility.  I also found some CF to IDE adapters that also list
Linux support. So I think I'll be able to re-use my old camera cards
as SSD drives (sorta) and connect to my wireless network on the 2.4
side for music streaming (leaving the 5.0 side free for heavier file
work).

After reviewing the status of Plex, I think that XBMC is the best
option, understanding that only the server in the basement will be
"master", and all other units will slave off the master's metadata DB.
The server in the basement will also function as a basic NAS and will
have reasonable storage on it (500Gb, I believe).

I am considering using XBMCbuntu on each system.  Any reason to
believe that this won't work?

I am also going to play with the various XBMC remotes for Android.
Anyone have a favorite?

Lastly, the CF to IDE adapters allow me to specify whether they run at
3.3V or 5V. My cards support both modes. Is one better than the other?
Is 5V faster at the cost of greater power usage? Should I care?

If anyone has done anything similar, I'd appreciate pointers.

-Josh






On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 3:42 PM, Nathan C. Smith <nathan.smith at ipmvs.com> wrote:
> I bought into the slimserver squeezebox system several years ago.  I have a VIA machine running what is now called the "Logitech Media Server" software, formerly squeeze server formerly slimserver, etc. running on Debian.  I believe It is largely written in Perl.  It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux for now.
>
> Many devices are available that can stream from the server as a source.  The content of the streams can be controlled from the server (for mixes, shuffle,  playlists, etc.)  The server can be controlled via the web, apps for IOS and Android, and hardware from Logitech.  I can also run vlc and other such programs and stream to them.  I have also had success streaming to chumby devices and other "things" such as mythTV, etc.  I have even streamed to VLC running over LTSP as you suggest you had working.  I have also used slimserver to stream music on hold to Asterisk for kicks.
>
> I also run a firefly media server on the same device that makes my music library (though not the actual files) available to play via iTunes.
>
> I picked up some of the older slim devices for playback on eBay.  I have them in bedrooms and what not, I like that they can display the temperature and time with NTP accuracy.
>
> I found an old Stereo FM transmitter on eBay and used a Linksys NSLU2, an audio USB dongle and command line audio software in Debian (I can't remember which one) to stream directly to the Radio.  I could tune in the station immediately around my house.  I needed some way to throw in an automated station identification and I would have been all set.  It lacked a bit in audio quality.
>
> -Nate
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On Behalf Of lister at kulish.com
> Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2012 3:12 PM
> To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
> Subject: Re: [Cialug] Home music
>
> I'm running xbmc on my windows gaming/media computer accessing audio/video/pic via SMB shares.
> Works like a champ.
>
> On Tue, 3 Jan 2012 19:37:04 -0800, Zachary Kotlarek wrote:
>> On Jan 3, 2012, at 5:56 PM, Josh More wrote:
>>
>>> At this time, I am leaning towards XBMC and connecting them to NFS
>>> shares off of my ReadyNAS and home server.  I've looked at Plex, but
>>> there doesn't seem to be a Linux client, so unless I buy tablets and
>>> hide them in odd places, that could be a less than ideal solution.
>>> However, it seems like this should be a lot easier by now.  What are
>>> all of you doing?
>>
>>
>> I'd strongly recommend Plex over XBMC. I don't use it much for audio,
>> but I've got almost 23,000 video files in it for usage much like you
>> describe for your audio, and it's by far the best solution I've found.
>>
>> There's a beta Linux client for Plex:
>>
>>
>> http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/34482-the-state-of-plex-medi
>> a-center-on-linux/ I haven't tried it yet, so I can't speak as to what
>> is isn't working.
>> But linux client support is definitely on their list, and their devs
>> will actually talk to you if you find bugs/etc.
>>
>> There's also PlexBMC, a plugin for XBMC that will connect to a Plex
>> server:
>>
>>
>> http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/27270-plexbmc-client-for-xbm
>> c/
>>
>> Plex is a lot like XBMC (being based on it) but it's slicker, and the
>> design has been updated to make it easy to manage your collection as a
>> single server and multiple clients*. You can make XBMC work on
>> multiple systems with a shared filesystem, but you'll run into
>> concurrency issues when it updates its databases and whatnot. When I
>> was running XBMC I eventually declared one system the master and gave
>> only it write access to the DB files so they boxes wouldn't interfere
>> with each other.
>>
>>       Zach
>>
>> *Among other things. It also has a vastly improved scanner,
>> transcoding support, etc. But most of the other new features are less
>> important for audio-only use.
>
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