Music Server

[croccodillo]

Hello all,

I'm trying to build a wireless music server for my Home Hi-Fi system.
I would build a server with a good soundcard on which all of my music will be stored (and here, no problem at all); the server should be connected to the home network (WiFi), should be headless (hidden in a forniture) and should be controlled by a sort of remote.
My idea was to use a PDA (I own a HP ipaq 114 useless for me, now); through the PDA (remote) I would lijke to see my media library on the server, select songs and play them on the server, connected to my hi-fi amplifier.

I'd like to use foobar2000 as a music application.

I tried Alloysoft Signal with WinAmp, I didn't liked it (seems to have few bugs), I tried NetRemote with WinAmp, even worse.

My thought now was to use some sort of plug-in to foobar2000 and control everything through a web interface, but I can't find anything with a good media library management.

Any idea?
How would you do this thing?

Thank you in advance.

Ciao,
Giovanni

 

[konga]

Not sure about headless foobar2000.

I'm currently using an Ubuntu NAS box running SqueezeServer > Headless Seagate Dockstar running SqueezeSlave on Debian > USB Dac (AMB Gamma2) > reciever. It is controlled by either my android phone or web browser.

 

[croccodillo]

Well,

I'd like to have only one server, directly controlled by my PDA.
You should have a server and then an headless machine for your solution.
Or Install SqueezeServer+SqueezeSlave on the same machine.
But there's another problem; I'd like to use Windows for my server, just because I use the server also to test some applications I write for Windows Servers.
So, a Windows Server controlled directly by a PDA.
one option would be to write a client for the SqueezeServer which run on a PDA; I would investigate this route tonight...

Ciao,
Giovanni

 

[Face]

J. River is NAS friendly and can be controlled by an Android based device, I'm not sure about a PDA though(they still make those?).

 

[kec]

Giovanni,

I'm sort of doing the same thing, except a dedicated server instead of wifi.

My system so far,

Intel Mini ITX atom motherboard (fanless), pico power supply, two external 2TB WD green hard drives (mirrored), microXP Windows (loads in about 10 seconds!).

And for remotes, I'm looking at the Foobar HTTPControl plugin foo-httpcontrol - control foobar2000 via http - Google Project Hosting

Convert your iPhone/iPod Touch Or Any WiFi Enabled gadget to foobar2000 Remote

Also, there is GRemote for Android & Windows mobile devices (including PDA's) GRemote - the best way to control PC using PDA (Home)

 

[oenboek]

Why not use MPD, Music Player Daemon? There is a version of the server existing for windows. And there are lots of clients available for different platforms. I use the MPD-sever on a small Ubuntu-machine. Files (mp3 and flac) are on a NAS. There is also a client (GMPC) on the Ubuntu-machine, accessible through a touchscreen. And I have an (old) Nokia N770 as a remote. Before I had a smartphone (HTC Diamond) that had a remote client as well.
It is really fast, even for very large databases.

 

[croccodillo]

Why not use MPD, Music Player Daemon? There is a version of the server existing for windows. And there are lots of clients available for different platforms. I use the MPD-sever on a small Ubuntu-machine. Files (mp3 and flac) are on a NAS. There is also a client (GMPC) on the Ubuntu-machine, accessible through a touchscreen. And I have an (old) Nokia N770 as a remote. Before I had a smartphone (HTC Diamond) that had a remote client as well.
It is really fast, even for very large databases.

Oh, well, never heard of it before.
I will give it a try, once I undertstood how to run it under Windows.
This little program grown me the desire to migrate to Linux O.S., maybe in the next future...
Currently I'm trying foobar2K with UPNP plug-in, it works very well with KinskyPDA (or Kinsky dektop, if you prefer).
There's some minor issues I'm trying to solve, I'll let you know.

Ciao,
Giovanni

 

[MrSlim]

Get yourself a copy of Virtual Box and start playing with various distro's of Linux, until you find one you like. That's the best way to learn, as long as you get down and dirty on the command line, so you know what's going on underneath..

 

[Badge]

"microXP Windows (loads in about 10 seconds"

Give me some info on how to reduce the size of XP. Thanks

 

[OllBoll]

Why not use MPD, Music Player Daemon? There is a version of the server existing for windows. And there are lots of clients available for different platforms. I use the MPD-sever on a small Ubuntu-machine. Files (mp3 and flac) are on a NAS. There is also a client (GMPC) on the Ubuntu-machine, accessible through a touchscreen. And I have an (old) Nokia N770 as a remote. Before I had a smartphone (HTC Diamond) that had a remote client as well.
It is really fast, even for very large databases.

Ditto,

When I read this topic, my initial reaction was a screaming "MPD!"

I'm using mpd with gmpc too btw, works great

 

[kec]

"microXP Windows (loads in about 10 seconds"

Give me some info on how to reduce the size of XP. Thanks

You can create your own with BartPE Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD (there are other programs that do this as well).

Or, Google "microxp 0.88" for a pre-configured ready to go version - this is what I used. Takes about 10 minutes to install.

I forgot to mention that I have 16GB SSD in my system. But, it will still load fast with a standard HD.

My original intention was to use compact flash/adapter for the HD, but Buy.com had these Kingston 16GB SSD for $40 - so, I couldn't resist.