Build a Multi-Output MP3 Server?

[wessman]

Build a Multi-Output MP3 Server?
from the tunes-in-every-room dept.
posted by Cliff on Friday June 27, @23:30 (music)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/28/0110244

[0]z80 asks: "I'm rebuilding my house and I am thinking about fitting speakers in every room of the house and pulling some massive amount of cables in the walls. I also want to control and send the output to each set of speakers from the same source, and was thinking that a PC, with 4-6 soundcards, would do the trick, and there are of course a couple of questions I have. What kind of hardware would be required to be able to stream up to six different MP3's through six soundcards at the same time ? Can it even be done? What kind of software can be used to do it? Which OS? How can it be remotely controlled? With respect to the last question, I'm thinking about mounting a couple of flat displays around the house connected to old PC's that run some sort of connection (VNC maybe) to the mp3 server." This is a topic Ask Slashdot tackled [1]three years ago. Now, with applications like [2]Ardour showing off the power of Open Source frameworks like [3]JACK, it seems like building such a machine might not be as hard as it once was. For those of you who have managed to build something like this, what did you do and what hurdles did you have to navigate before things were working? How would you set up a machine to run independent audio to 4 or more rooms?

Links:
0. http://z80.org
1. http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/09/22/212257&tid=141
2. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/27/1445205&tid=141
3. http://jackit.sourceforge.net/

[Inverted Whale]

I do this with SLIMP3 ethernet mp3 players and wireless bridges.

As long as you're happy with only mp3 support it works great.

SLIMP3 site (http://www.slimdevices.com/)

[notbob]

i already did

using surplus (slow gabage computers 66-166 mhz) i managed to make my mp3 music collection available in 3 rooms (and my home stereo) at a cost of about 300 bucks for a hub, wires, outlets and obsolete computers

the basic premise is simple, and requires nothing higher than win 98 (even on the server)--the main thing is setting up a "workgroup" and sharing drives, then mapping the drives so that they can be read as local on the network boxes (in other words virtual hard drives on computers with hard drives as small as 255 MB)

each box has windows (or whatever os you like) and winamp (or your favorite player), and each computer is hooked to speakers or an amplifier

this can be done with wireless tech also (only at a higher price), i used a standard cat 5 10/100 network

it can be to every room in the house, or a few, as complicated or simple as you want

(the win 98 music server runs for weeks at a time without reboots, and the electrical use is low)

[Inverted Whale]

Nice one notbob - you've sure got me on cost, but I'll bet I have you on looks.

My setup for 3 rooms and 3 stereos cost about $1480, broken down like this:

Crappy Walmart PC running NetBSD 1.6.1 - $200
2 x 80 Gb Mirrored Drives for music - $200
3 SLIMP3 players - $690
3 Linksys WET11 Bridges - $390
(I already had a wireless base station)

So running CAT 5 would have saved me a lot of money, but I'm lazy.

The advantage is that I have 1 computer storing all the music that I tuck away in the closet and I can play music using a remote control in each room. The players can be synchronized or independent.

Once you have a setup like this, you'll never go back to the old fashioned way of listening to music.

[CCSDUDE]

Originally posted by notbob
i already did

using surplus (slow gabage computers 66-166 mhz) i managed to make my mp3 music collection available in 3 rooms (and my home stereo) at a cost of about 300 bucks for a hub, wires, outlets and obsolete computers

the basic premise is simple, and requires nothing higher than win 98 (even on the server)--the main thing is setting up a "workgroup" and sharing drives, then mapping the drives so that they can be read as local on the network boxes (in other words virtual hard drives on computers with hard drives as small as 255 MB)

each box has windows (or whatever os you like) and winamp (or your favorite player), and each computer is hooked to speakers or an amplifier

this can be done with wireless tech also (only at a higher price), i used a standard cat 5 10/100 network

it can be to every room in the house, or a few, as complicated or simple as you want

(the win 98 music server runs for weeks at a time without reboots, and the electrical use is low)

Right on....I basically do the same thing, but I use ME rather then 98 since some of my systems had odd ball built in sound...and no true drivers in sight.

I just finished rigging up a P2 @ 333mhz with MMX and 50 megs of ram...along with a 20 gb drive I spent all of 10 bucks on.

Also rigged up a series of fans to keep the whole thing cool with power switchs for each one...the fans were free (old dead systems) as well as all the switchs and PBC boards I used to route all the 'wire' for these fans. I even rigged up a connection to run a temp control on the fans...can't do them one at a time but being able to turn 'em on an off by way of case temp is a plus. The soundcard was free....lol guy tossed a classic SB card with SCSI support cuz the SCSI part 'died' on him. It's got a nice, strong, crisp output...

All together I spent maybe an hour getting all the parts and buying the HD (trave included lol) and another hour rigging up my PBC and soldering it all....plus maybe 20 bucks in parts.

One included part would be a minijack too RCA converter cord...made it outta scrap stereo stuff I had packed up. So now I've spend 20 bucks...2 hours worth of my time which is worth little to nill...and I can play around 18 gbs worth of mp3's non stop out my amp....I also rigged up a mini 'on the go' mp3 player....

65 dollar Apex DVD drive
Free 486 IBM laptop
Cheap set of Labtech's

The laptop is HD-less so I run a line-in program w/ mixer control from basic dos off a floppy...no battery...and it's always in 'suspend' mode via it's bios config.

Duct taped the laptop to the top of the apex....lol zippy tied a load of short wires needed to connect it all. Then screwed the labtechs to the side of the apex with small blocks of wood inside the case to 'catch' the screws. LOL Looks very odd....but it's like a mini-mp3 boombox to take to jobsites and such....then again I coulda spent 80-120 and bought a cheap mp3 playing boombox...but the decoding on the ones I've seen sounded like shit and wouldn't play audiobooks in the 32kbs range.

[notbob]

as for looks, all you really see is a mouse (which i tuck behind books), everything else is hidden

for the ultimate in simplicity, make a playlist of everything, leave it on random, and make your own muzak, piping it through the amp when you feel the need

i do it for parties etc.

[Inverted Whale]

Here's a funny project someone did with their SLIMP3 player - mixing old tech with new.

Portable (http://www.olsontribe.com/slimp3/)

I don't know if he could have picked a crappier looking ghetto blaster...