XBMC and Vortexbox

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izzy wizzy
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#1 XBMC and Vortexbox

Post by izzy wizzy »

I've been wading around the net looking at Vortexbox and the various streaming devices like Squeezebox Touch. That would be the easy solution but I read about a bunch of issues with the Touch and I don't fancy going that route. Cost being another one. I also don't want to be tied into a manufacturer and a specific dedicated device.

I have seen some streamers using a mini Itx Intel Atom mo'board and that lead me to XBMC as the streaming software. I'm assuming that a tablet or some such gizmo could be used as the controller for this. The system could therefore start small and grow as needs arise and funds allow. New streamers for other rooms could be added for about £100 whereas the Touch is £150 plus. OK I know there would be a lot more fiddling about to get the streamer going and therein lies my questions.

I searched for XBMC and couldn't find anything hereabouts. Has anyone here gone down this route? Is there something in my proposal that I'm missing/won't work/hard work?

cheers,

Stephen
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#2

Post by Neal »

What are the issues with the Touch? Theres quite a few of us who use them quite happily...also not sure I follow 'being locked in'...well I do... but....going down the XMBC route seems a difficult one to me and locks you into that s/w! ;)

Also you don't need to buy a Touch each time. The Logitech Receiver can be bought for under £100 or go for the classic SB3 or 2. They can all be controlled by a pad device or by a 'central Touch' or by remote access to a server. Seems a simpler way to do it to me...
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#3

Post by izzy wizzy »

I might have been thinking about this too much :)

I really wish I had thought about a Vortexbox a year or so ago. The cost of hard drives now is scary by comparison.

'spose I had hoped that XBMC Live could be used on the yet to arrive Raspberry Pi for little money. Yeah it's harder work and what cost is my time? And will it work? Who knows.

And of course, a squeezebox receiver could be just what I need.

cheers,

Stephen
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#4

Post by john8105 »

Im using XBMC on my music server - I must say its amazing and free. I built a small cheap pc and put an asus audiophile sound card in it.

I use a £1.50 app on my iphone to control XBMC and its just so slick and the sound quality is stunning as it has WASAPI and ASIO drivers.

Its well worth looking at as it costs nothing. I also bought J Rivers but there arent any decent remote controls that allow you to browse the entire music collection so I switched to XBMC.
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ed
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#5

Post by ed »

I've had a look at XBMC and have to admit I'm a tad confused by it's purpose....

many people have posted that it's a music server...as far as I can see it's a music player that uses lan file sharing to access music files...can anybody confirm this, or explain how it could be used as a 'music server'

I think there is a misunderstanding of the IT term server, or the word is being used here to mean something other than what it's used for in computer terms.

regarding using it as a music player, I tried it on an atom netbook and it consistently used 43% of the cpu.....playing exactly the same things foobar used 1.5%.....theres a lot of graphics bloat here so I guess it's aimed more at the HT market where visuals are important(I hadn't missed the fact that its big on video as well)

I think the raspeberry type approach is not going to get any joy here...

I may have missed something in the set up but I certainly can't find way of using this as a music server......edit..I have found a network setting that allows files to be shared and for xbcm to be controlled over the lan but I havn't worked out what this means yet

perhaps any XBMC users can put me right here
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#6

Post by izzy wizzy »

My understanding is XBMC is a client that was designed with Vortexbox in mind as the server. AFAIK, it's used mainly for video but can be used for audio.

It might be a bit big for the Raspberry Pi but soft squeeze or some such should be just fine. I'm not sure if XBMC can be slimmed down for less demanding applications/platforms.

cheers,

Stephen
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#7

Post by Ray P »

john8105 wrote:I also bought J Rivers but there arent any decent remote controls that allow you to browse the entire music collection so I switched to XBMC.
Did you try J River's own Gizmo app for remote control. I use it on an Android device and it is excellent, you can browse your whole music collection and its really easy to use.

In addition, J River is really well sorted for high quality audio playback, I'm not so sure home theatre oriented products are.

Ray
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#8

Post by Ray P »

Sorry, duplicate.
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#9

Post by izzy wizzy »

Reckon this is where I'm headed
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/571

cheers,

Stephen
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Nick
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#10

Post by Nick »

Yep, I noticed the other day that they had finished the port. I am waiting for the boards to start shipping as I have offered to buy a few for the kids school.
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