RE: xPLRioNet and CD Changers

["Tony Tofts" <tony@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the reply.

My thoughts on how to achieve this are as follows:

To add tracks to the database we would have a folder for cd changers, with
a
sub-folder for each changer. In the folder would be an m3u (or similar)
file
for each cd (the file name being 1.m3u ... 400.m3u)

Each folder, along with the m3u files, would have a control file which
specifies if the cd changer is attached for shoutcast or just control (i.e.
if the cd changer is connected to the soundcard for use as a shoutcast, or
just for control if not).

E.g.

<details artist="my cat" album="meow" />

<control name="domino" shoutcast="Y" url="http://192.168.1.50:9000";
/>

So if shoutcast=Y then tracks appear as if mp3's, but player would be
switched to shoutcast stream.
And if shoutcast=N the xplrionet would add it as a 'changer device', but
the
tracks only appear against this device (as it is attached to an
amp/speakers
and not available to the rio's etc as a shoutcast)

Then if you select an item against a rio it sends out an xpl message that
can be captured by xplhal (or directly by an ir app) to change to that
disc.
And the rio (etc) switched by xplrionet directly to the appropriate
shoutcast stream (those shoutcast streams in the control file would
automatically be added to the shoutcast list to join those in streams.xml
by
the scanning process to save duplication). For control devices, it would
just send out an xpl message e.g.

Changer=domino
Disc=34
Track=3

It also allows for having either a cd-changer per sound card, or multiple
cd-changers per soundcard.

Artwork will also work in this scenario (e.g. 1.jpg ... 4.jpg).

How does this all sound?

One thing I hadn't thought about when thinking through the above is how to
handle two rio's asking for different tracks from the same changer.... Do
we
just accept that the first rio will get changed by the 2nd request? Or
should the 2nd rio be blocked?

Thoughts?

With regards to adding a shoutcast server to xplrionet (I'm using the same
method as you for my radio tuner) there are 2 parts to this.

A) adding the actual shoutcast server broadcast part - this is easy, no
problem.

B) capturing a soundcard input and converting to mp3 ready for shoutcast -
haven't a clue how to do this at the moment.

Part A is probably worth adding anyway at somepoint, as it opens up all
sorts of (as yet) unsupported audio players to attach to xplrionet?

Regards
Tony