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home stereo MP3 players

pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
I hate CD's. they take up too much room and are a mess. I would like to put all my CD's onto a computer or something and stuff it in the closet. then get some decent speakers and use the compter as my stereo.

tiger direct sells a computer with a 160 gig drive for 300 bucks. then I would need speakers and a wireless NIC.

is there a better solution then buying a big computer?

keep in mind, I'm not rich...
nor do I have a super fine ear, so I don't need some crazy speaker/stereo thing...
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
why? they have good prices and have been around for a long time....
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,152
1,253
NC
There are several companies that sell wireless audio streaming devices, such as Roku and Slim Devices.

They aren't super cheap, but they're a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a new computer.

Narlus has the Slim Devices Squeezebox, I'm sure he'll chime in here. With a solution like that, you keep your music on your main computer and it streams it wirelessly to your stereo.

edit: incidentally, Tiger Direct is pretty spotty on quality, and downright sucks for rebates.
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
binary visions said:
There are several companies that sell wireless audio streaming devices, such as Roku and Slim Devices.

They aren't super cheap, but they're a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a new computer.

Narlus has the Slim Devices Squeezebox, I'm sure he'll chime in here. With a solution like that, you keep your music on your main computer and it streams it wirelessly to your stereo.
Click to expand...
I don't have a main computer that has a large enough HD. I only have a laptop right now.... I would like something I can hide someplace..

so I need to purchase a rather large drive and something to power/play it...
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
tiger direct was just the first place I looked. my point being that large computers w/ large drives are pretty cheap these days...
 
N8 v2.0

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
Microsoft readying Apple iPod rival: sources
Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:01 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Software giant Microsoft Corp. is laying the groundwork to compete against Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod digital entertainment device and iTunes service, sources familiar with the discussions and plans said on Friday.

Microsoft has held licensing discussions with the music industry to create its own music service, the sources told Reuters.

The Redmond, Washington-based developer of software that runs most of the world's PCs is also demonstrating an entertainment device that plays videos and music, the sources said.

It is unclear when Microsoft plans to launch, they said.

Microsoft's software technology has provided the copyright framework for a handful of subscription music services globally. But these services have failed to topple Apple's dominance in music and device sales, despite well financed backers including Yahoo Inc..

Apple and Microsoft were not immediately reachable for comment.
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
how does that help me N8? get out of my thread unless you have usefull info..:nuts:
 
RenegadeRick

RenegadeRick

98th percentile on my SAT & all I got was this tin
Feb 22, 2006
1,458
0
riding the fine line between genius and insanity
pnj said:
I don't have a main computer that has a large enough HD. I only have a laptop right now.... I would like something I can hide someplace..

so I need to purchase a rather large drive and something to power/play it...
Click to expand...
I was gonna suggest the XBOX Media Center Extender, coupled with a Media Center 2005 PC, until I read this. Then I read this:

pnj said:
how does that help me N8? get out of my thread unless you have usefull info..:nuts:
Click to expand...
and knew it would be best if I kept my mouth shut. :rolleyes:
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,152
1,253
NC
There are a few ways to deal with the situation.

First off, a new hard drive for your laptop isn't that expensive. So you could go that route and pair it with something like the Roku Soundbridge or the Slim Devices Squeezebox. That would require the least amount of extra hardware or upkeep.

You could do what you originally planned and put together a cheap computer to be used as just a music streaming device. That could turn out to be a little expensive but it'll be slick and you won't have to have your music library stored on your laptop.

The third option would be to set aside a larger budget and build something very functional. You could build a real Home Theater PC that would be capable of streaming music or video and could act as a digital video recorder. Or you could build a real desktop machine that would be functional as a good computer and pair it with a Soundbridge or Squeezebox.

Or you could scrap the whole computer thing and buy a 60gb portable music player if that's big enough for you, and use the line outs.
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
RenegadeRick said:
I was gonna suggest the XBOX Media Center Extender, coupled with a Media Center 2005 PC, until I read this.
Click to expand...

way more money then I want to spend...

anyways, RenegadeRick, I'd never kick you in the nuts. N8 just gets on my nerves. comes across like some "I went to college so I'm smrt..." kinda person..:rolleyes:




:)
 
SkaredShtles

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
67,395
13,949
In a van.... down by the river
binary visions said:
There are a few ways to deal with the situation.
Click to expand...
Would old PCs be suitable for being a dedicated music machine? I'm thinking an old PII or III with a couple big-ish drives running stripped down Linux with its only job in life to sit in a closet and stream audio?

Ought to be able to find an old PIII for free, wouldn't you think? What else would be needed? An old sound card with RCA out?

I'm kind of curious now.............
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
I never watch movies (unless it's Dirty Dancing) so I don't need a full on home system thing.

my main objective is to remove the CD's from the living space and still be able to listen to music when I want. and of course, not spend much money...:)

I also would like the music player (whatever it is, new box,HD, etc.) to live in the closet or someplace..

a HD that was wireless would be awsome. does something like that exist? it could live in the closet and I could access/play off my laptop..
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,152
1,253
NC
SkaredShtles said:
Would old PCs be suitable for being a dedicated music machine? I'm thinking an old PII or III with a couple big-ish drives running stripped down Linux with its only job in life to sit in a closet and stream audio?
Click to expand...
Sure, it would. Just buy a nice sound card for it. Any kind of nice sound card will take on the processing tasks by itself so your processor speed is less important.
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
I do have an old Pentium 450 PC someplace. but I don't know how to configure it to access a larger HD. it has windows 2000 on it I think. and 128Mb of ram..
it would work. I could use a wireless nic and access it w/ my laptop..

but I have the "how do I get it to access a larger drive.." issue. I think that is an issue anyways...
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
no linux though. i'm too stupid to use that. unless it's changed and become super duper easy to use...windows would be better..
 
Tenchiro

Tenchiro

Attention K Mart Shoppers
Jul 19, 2002
5,407
0
New England
I have seen a number of WiFi enabled radios and stereos lately that will either stream internet radio or MP3's off the server of your choosing.

Would be an easy solution.
 
Da Peach

Da Peach

Outwitted by a rodent
Jul 2, 2002
13,758
5,158
North Van
pnj said:
way more money then I want to spend...

anyways, RenegadeRick, I'd never kick you in the nuts. N8 just gets on my nerves. comes across like some "I went to college so I'm smrt..." kinda person..:rolleyes:




:)
Click to expand...
He does?
 
Ciaran

Ciaran

Fear my banana
Apr 5, 2004
9,841
19
So Cal
Just though I'd chime in with my set up. I have a server that holds (in addition to all my other data) all my music. (Any computer in the house can access it and can stream music)

I have a cheapy PC connected to my stereo via the PC's line output. PC is connected to the network (wireless) which allows it to stream the tunes from the server and play them through the stereo.

With remote control software (DameWare) I can control the music PC from any other PC in the house.

If you're talking about a large amount of music I would strongly suggest a server (Or a PC with a shared directory) with a RAID set up.
 
RenegadeRick

RenegadeRick

98th percentile on my SAT & all I got was this tin
Feb 22, 2006
1,458
0
riding the fine line between genius and insanity
pnj said:
I do have an old Pentium 450 PC someplace. but I don't know how to configure it to access a larger HD. it has windows 2000 on it I think. and 128Mb of ram..
it would work. I could use a wireless nic and access it w/ my laptop..

but I have the "how do I get it to access a larger drive.." issue. I think that is an issue anyways...
Click to expand...
Nope that's easy. Just install a slave IDE HD, they are way cheap.

If that's too tech for ya, and you got USB 2.0 ports, Buy.com has a 500GB drive for $200 after rebate:
http://www.buy.com/prod/Fantom_Drive_500GB_7200RPM_USB_2_0_G_Force_MegaDisk/q/loc/101/202444754.html
 
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