Home Media Server
I'm been wrestling with the idea of a home media server for a bit. Our home computing needs are pretty light, they only thing either of us really do outside of a web browser these days is ssh (me) or nethack (Angie). Outside of the laptop we have a pretty standard non-connected house. The only case where I'd really like to change this is music. We don't generally watch TV (and when we do, it's usually DVDs that we've actually purchased), but we do listen to a fair amount of music. The CDs tend to get scattered around the house and then mauled by our velociraptor offspring.
I looked at the Squeezebox, which would be perfect if it wouldn't mean replacing a whole bunch of perfectly good stereos with a whole bunch of nicer-than-we-need stereos.
The solution I've hit onto is this: a NAS with an FM transmitter on the site. The LineX one looks like it would do a nice job since it just acts as a USB speaker. The question then is figuring out if there's software or whatnot to drive such a thing.
What I think I want:
* 802.1n NAS with no moving parts. 2 64GB USB keys in a RAID-1 config would do the job nicely.
* Enough horsepower to play Oggs, MP3s and FLACs.
* Remote song selection through an Android app.
Anyone know if anything comes close to this? The best thing I can think of is perhaps Debian running on a Linksys NAS box. If I could get that far, then the software seems pretty straight forward if it doesn't exist in some form or other in the Debian archive already.
I looked at the Squeezebox, which would be perfect if it wouldn't mean replacing a whole bunch of perfectly good stereos with a whole bunch of nicer-than-we-need stereos.
The solution I've hit onto is this: a NAS with an FM transmitter on the site. The LineX one looks like it would do a nice job since it just acts as a USB speaker. The question then is figuring out if there's software or whatnot to drive such a thing.
What I think I want:
* 802.1n NAS with no moving parts. 2 64GB USB keys in a RAID-1 config would do the job nicely.
* Enough horsepower to play Oggs, MP3s and FLACs.
* Remote song selection through an Android app.
Anyone know if anything comes close to this? The best thing I can think of is perhaps Debian running on a Linksys NAS box. If I could get that far, then the software seems pretty straight forward if it doesn't exist in some form or other in the Debian archive already.
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Neat to see that TV stuff is getting that far, though!
MSI Wind
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856167032
Re: MSI Wind
Thanks, though! I'll look to see if I can find a fanless version.
Atom System
Re: Atom System
PC Engines Alix
LinITX.com would give you a good indication of what is available.
I run absolutely everything on mine (running Debian), including a wireless access point, record live radio, audio stream, UPNP, bit of web-serving and backup. The only thing it is too slow for is video processing.
Re: PC Engines Alix
This seems like the bet I'll likely make since I'm familiar with them.
Thanks!
anyremote
Sorry about the ugly yahoo URL, only just enabled OpenID and can't work out how to change it.
Re: anyremote
Thanks for the pointer to AnyRemote! That looks like what I want. I'll poke at this a bit and see if I can make it do the job.
Re: anyremote
I'll try that first.
sheevaplug
http://www.cyrius.com/journal/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug
Main problem is that for your usecase you'd need a usb hub, and some hubs are notoriously flaky.
Re: sheevaplug
If I can find something with an internal powered USB hub, then that will be ideal.
That looks like a nice little box, though!
Tesla ?
Tesla should be it. I haven't tried it though:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/android-tesla/
Re: Tesla ?
I'll invite you over for a demo. Now to clear the budget with the lady of the house. =)
SqueezeBox does analog...
http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/support/faq.html indicates to me that you can connect your SqueezeBox to your stereo via a plain-old RCA cable.
Would using RCA for audio require upgrading your stereo? That seems surprising!
Hope this helps - do reply!
Re: SqueezeBox does analog...
That's half the problem: In order to go to a media-centre solution, I'm currently having to look at replacing *each* of these. That goes from a $30 music solution per room to at least $200 music solution per room. Not a win!
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http://www.fit-pc.com/
Wi-Fi is b/g instead of n, but... well, in my Apple hardware environment that's fine, because the 802.11n devices are on 5GHz and the 802.11g devices are on 2.4 GHz. Not sure whether that works for you.
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So, with all due respect, I fail to comprehend how two is more than three.
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http://www.amazon.com/fit-PC2-Value-Intel-Atom-Fanless/dp/tech-data/B002BMER7W/ref=de_a_smtd?ie=UTF8&m=A3J2VUK9571N8X