I've seen the future

the Squeeze box will connect to any PC using any disc drive/RAID array

Buy the Imerge and spend a fortune

 

I'm not comming round your place for a chip buttie

 

It could be a microwave or a non DECT cordless phone.

 

but surely Paul, if his kit is currently working at 2.4ghz, then it IS Bluetooth

 

....and have a dedicated audio server that doesnt double up as Quake3/excel/word workhorse. (IME when the PC is used for other 'duties' then playback is compromised ie stutter and pauses due to the system unanble to keep up with the stream.)

But its all horses for courses, if you use your PC and it works OK, then both machines are doing an identical job.

 

i have an old 400 mhz pentium 2 in my garage that i'm going to try to turn into a media server. i've also got an old external 20gb hard drive which i'm going to incorporate into it to start me off. all i need now is a wireless router and my new laptop which has been arriving 'any day now' for the past 1.5 months :inferno: :inferno:
cheers


julian

 

I have a dedicated PC that the server & MP3's sits on, VIA Mini ITX are cheap and well suited for this.

 

I have no idea, to be honest

I'm just repeating what I have read in reviews:-

http://www.overclockers.com.au/article.php?id=151226

 

True, but these will make bounds forward soon. Add a remote to your pc, and download this software, and you have full menu driven capabilities. Soon companies will sell this stuff ready made...

http://myhtpc.net/

 

Just to clarify, Bluetooth technology is based on radio transmission at 2.4ghz . Whilst it is wireless, it tends to only function over very short distances (marketing hype is crap) and has serious issues with walls!

 

Personally I'd like an ethernet external hard drive. Iomega makes one but a European version is not available yet

For mp3 playback to the stereo off the central store on the home cordless network, I use a USB FM transmitter attached to the USB port of my laptop. Old tech and not great audio quality, but it works and it isn't too complicated for the other household members to use. It retransmits between 80 to 90 FM. Any radio in the house picks it up, in fact most of the local estate can

 

Hmmm. Well not my microwave as it plays up at times when I'm not cooking. And my phone is DECT. I don't have any other wireless devices except my mobile phone and it still plays up when that is switched off. It's infuriating. It does get better if I stay close to the receiver but that doesn't suit the layout I wanted to achieve. I bought this keyboard because it was the only one that claimed a decent range (5m). It does work at 5m but only when the interference is not occurring. It's not 24 hours a day. It's not even every day which leads me to believe that it may be something one of my neighbours is using. Whatever it is, it must be pretty strong as I live in a brick built detached house although I suppose the signal could be coming straight through the living room windows.

 

Err, no. Bluetooth, Wifi and my keyboard all work in the 2.4 GHz region of the spectrum but they are all different and in theory they should not interfere with one another (yeah right ).

 

So there goes the idea of having a terabyte music server in the loft and a low power diskless silent PC connected to the DAC64 in the living room

 

Still easily done. wireless LAN technology is fine in a house (just be careful of security on the network as your neighbor wil also have access!)

Bluetooth is crap EOS.

Within 3 years you will get 1 terabyte on 1 hard disc....just dont format it too often zzzzzzzzzz

//lamboy

 

What I want is one box that will function as:

- A preamp, with onboard DAC, digital and analogue inputs, analogue, wireless, and ethernet outputs, and ultra-wide scsi connectors to connect an external RAID array for hard disk recording and playback

- A CD transport and recorder

- A digital tuner

Connect that up to active speakers in the living room, and wirelessly to active speakers in the bedroom and kitchen, and that would do the job for me.

Not too much to ask for, surely!

-- Ian

 

you dont need SCSI for such a device. u can go with a SATA RAID box, much cheaper and does the same job.

 

You dont need a diskless PC to be 'quiet' - fanless is the keyword here together with a well designed drive enclosure.

Fans are the bane of consumer electronics.

 

But I've got a spare terrabyte of SCSI storage doing nothing in the office...

-- Ian

 

Tell me about it! My MESH PC is getting the Zalman Flower treatment on Friday It already has a superquiet Nexus PSU. Not sure how much residual noise there will be from the hard disk. It's pretty damn quiet when I momentarily stop the processor fan.