Re: mp3 Squeezebox or Roku display units

[Kevin Hawkins <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

egelbeertje wrote:

>
>Unfortunately I cannot route back the audio output from a
>Squeezebox/Roku to my node0 amp (distance) so the question is as
>follows :
>
>
Assuming no CAT5 of any form you could use one of those 'audio over
mains' devices that have appeared in the last few months. They (I think)
translate the audio to digital and back again but I could be wrong. I am
told the quality is quite reasonable. but I am not sure how much of an
audiophile you are...  I even believe you can handle mutiple
destinations or multisource setups through addressing  (just saw it in
the CPC 'gadgets' catalog this morning around £70 I think)

>1) Can I use the squeezebox/Roku to just display the current song
>playing on my pc audio server
>

What software player do you use for mp3 btw ?? It might be there is a
xAP conduit for this...

When you move to a Roku or Slim based player design their functional
intent is to play the music through their own hardware rather than
supporting a software/PC based player, so you have a fundamental
decision whether to stay with such a solution or add player hadware at
the amplifier and/or control locations.

The Squeezebox is probably going to be more flexible than a Roku at
this. Essentially a Roku is a UPnP renderer (player) sourcing its files
from a UPnP server running on a PC (or iTunes.). Now I'm not totally
familiar with iTunes so I'm not sure if you can play locally on the PC
the same audio synched that is being selected/controlled/played on a
remote player. You can't achieve thsi with UPnP so that's not going to
fly. A Roku can actually attach to a Slim server as well though (and at
the current $99 offer price they're excellent value).  The Roku has
better (and larger) displays available and both have xAP based display
capabilities , xAP control for Roku is via TelCanto whereas Slim control
is a free xAP application.

A Squeezebox can synchronise with a software version called
'SoftSqueeze' (I believe - I've never actually tried this) -and thus the
player would actually be just a head devcie for the music playing via a
Softsqueeze PC application. Indeed I'm guessing this may be possible for
multiple players so some form of multiroom may be achievable.   I'm not
sure Roku's can synch at all, even two hardware players but i could be
wrong. This maybe a restriction of UPnP

The xAP Slim conduit fully supports real time event information and
control from xAP (although not full playlist management eg 'insert' etc)
and so you could create a PC application of any visual appearance
displaying 'Now Playing' info etc.eg 144 point text !  (using xAP
Desktop).  Indeed this could control a PC/Softsqueeze instance so you
don't actually have to purchase anything as SlimServer is free.  If your
existing mp3 app has a xAP conduit then again this could be possible.
This is actually one of the 'raison d'etres' of xAP/xPL the player
becomes a secondary concern   - if they both have a xAP conduit then the
display/control is the same from xAP - and you can swap one for the
other and things (theoretically) stay the same.


>and 2) could I use the unit to generate
>playlists etc while keeping the Xantech Smartpad as primary controller
>for volume and source select etc. (now I just push NEXT to get a
>different mp3 but it would be nice to see which one you're gonna get
:-)
>
>

That's slightly more awkward as you need 'next playing' information and
also generating playlists is quite an open ended request.  Adding an
album to a current queue is one thing, inserting track 6 from an album
you just searched for into position 23 in a playlist (that may or not be
the current one) and then saving it is quite another. I can't remember
if the xAP conduit gives you 'next playing' info I'll take a peek.


>rgds Rob
>
>

PS What wiring have you got in for your Xantech stuff ??  Just wondering
if there's spare capacity there.

Kevin