GearBits

I'd go for the Slimdevices SliMP3 (if still available) or the Sqeezebox which is wirelessly enabled.

They are low-cost - comparably and offer a great deal of functionality. I've had the original for over a year and love it. The software is free and lets you stream to software (itunes, winamp) players - even beyond your local network. The latest software update supports shoutcast and you can easily create playlists with internet radio stations (broadcasting in MP3 though there is a Real solution for windows) and play away. You can even play your iTunes store purchases now as well.

http://www.slimdevices.com

Jonathan, yeah, I just now updated the list to include the Squeezebox. It looks pretty decent, despite it only having 802.11b. I really need to find some authoritative entity to end the debate over whether mixed b/g wireless environments slow down all connections -- I've read things that support that it does and I've read some things that say it doesn't matter. Anybody know this for a fact?

OK, well, to answer my own question, here's a FAQ from SlimDevices itself:

"If you have an 802.11g network, adding 802.11b devices (including Squeezebox) will cause the overall performance of your network to drop. The overall network speed does NOT drop all the way to the speed of 802.11b devices, but the specific amount of that slowdown depends on the devices in your network."

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_faq.html#about-wirelessperformance

I don't know definitely if having a mixed network slows things down, but I would think that signal integrity would be more important than network speed.

Of course it depends what you're doing on the network. If you're just listening to mp3 files, or simple networking then I can't imagine that you'd notice a difference between a 802.11g and an 802.11b network. The choke point is still your Internet connection for all intents and purposes. At maximum you're getting only 3Mbit and an 802.11b, with good signal coverage, is going to give you 10Mbit.

I see where you're going with wanting to make your network consistent and if I had invested in 802.11g technology, I think I would be doing the same thing. The only downside at the moment is that 802.11b is much more prevelent in the marketplace and in trying to keep costs down, I think vendors will continue to release B devices instead of G.

Here's a thought, you could use the Audiotron and then get a wireless bridge like the Dlink DWL-G810 (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=241) or the Linksys WET54G (http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=603&scid=36). What a bridge does is enable a standard ethernet port to become wireless. Buy the individual components and you could get the setup of your dreams. :)

I use a modified Xbox to do all my streaming from my computer to my stereo/TV and I couldn't be happier with it. I do have to use the TV as my interface, but I could hook up a small LCD monitor to the xbox or the new modchips can take a tiny LCD screen (say 3").

I use Xbox Media Center as my software of choice and it can stream most audio and video formats over the network.

Also, I can run emulators for most past systems and use the xbox controls: c64, NES, SNES, N64, Sega, Arcade, etc.

This is not an out of the box solution, but for the price and value you get out of the xbox vs. other streaming devices, you can't beat it. And oh yeah, you can play games on it too.

The Roku M1000/2000 does have Streaming Internet Radio, I thought:

http://www.rokulabs.com/products/soundbridge/faq.php#5

My problem is that the internet radio I'd like is from the Beeb and they only broadcast in Real which none of the above can stream.

I've got the Netgear, mainly on cost (would have got Squeezbox but it's twice the price!) and although the server software is a bit flaky I'm pretty happy so far.

Internally the Sqeezebox uses a PCMCIA card for it's wireless connection. It might be possible to remove this and replace it with a 802.11g card - voiding waranty of course.

Brian, the Roku doesn't _yet_ support Internet radio. While I'd like to think it will, I dislike buying products on spec that they'll have a necessary feature in the future.

If you're in the UK you can of course get the beeb's stuff via normal digital radio - I'm got a lovely Pure Evoke 2 for that very purpose. That said, the Squeezebox uses an opensource music server which several people have written their own modifications for - I'm sure someone would of looked at using the Helix core to support streaming real audio...in fact a quick google has found one such plugin: http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.heslin/amusements/alienstream/version2/

Really, all I want is an inexpensive MP3 DVD player that has a good interface (ala iPod) and will play MP3s burned on a DVD (that's over 4Gigs). Much easier than having to set up a network, stream stuff, blah, blah, blah. Plus it'd be cheap since DVD players cost around 50 bucks these days (that way I can put one in each room, as I like).

I use an Audiotron and which has a web server and then a wifi pda to control it. That way you can roam around the house with a full GUI interface to your music library. You might also check out the J River media jukebox coupled with a pocketpc running netremote.

I have similar requirements and have come to virtually the same conclusions.

As mashby suggests, I've considered an ethernet-only model along with a bridge, but the bridges he mentions run US$100+.

But I'd add another requirement: they should support some lossless audio format!! By providing the means of getting music to a *hi-fi* system, they should also provide the means to listen in *hi-fi*. Let's face it, mp3s were great for the PC but for many of us, they just don't cut it on the stereo. FLAC (which Squeezebox supports), WMA Series 9, Monkey's Audio, whatever!

Have you checked out Eye Home. It is Mac only but it appears to have most of the functionality you are looking for, but plugs into a television for menus and to play Mpeg video.

I haven't tried it myself, but would be interested to know if it is any good. A bit costly though. They also have a product that acts like a TIVO for the Mac and integrates with Eye Home.

http://www.elgato.com/products/eyehome.html

How about one that nobody has heard of? Check out the HomePod from Gloo Labs: http://store.yahoo.com/gloolabs/homepod1.html.

Plays MP3 and AAC, Internet Radio, Shoutcast streams, has a built in FM tuner and 802.11b (sorry, no g just yet), but it also has ethernet and IrDA. It has built in speakers and an optical output (S/PDIF). And there's a developer edition if you want to tweak it - the box runs an embedded Linux that makes it very extensible. Pretty cool!

[disclaimer - I work for the following company]

We make a streamer with a nice big LCD and controls. We spent a lot of time on the audio (>100dB S/N ratio), and the product has Rhapsody (!) support, and works with internet radio stations. It also works with generic UPnP servers (like the one in MusicMatch) and integrates nicely with Omnifi's car hard disk player.

Check it out at http://www.omnifimedia.com

The solutions out there are crap. Just give me a simple wireless method for letting me use iTunes or whatever I want on my laptop so that the audio signal can be sent to my stereo system. I don't need a fancy display, I don't need a remote control. I just want audio out over wireless into a stereo system.

Does one 802.11b client degrade a 802.11g network down to its level?

Craig -- this relates to your quote from the SlimDevices FAQ.

Here is a statement that states something completely different:

An 11g device logged onto an 11b AP will shift down to the 11b data rate, so there is no advantage to 11g unless both are operating with 11g. But it gets worse. For an AP to operate at 11g rates, every device logged onto it must be operating in 11g. If there is even one device using 11b all the others will automatically revert to the lower protocol. So, if you have 11g in your office, and one person pulls out his 11b PDA to check his email, everyone on that network segment suddenly experiences a performance drop.

...this is from http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/10724_3332691_2

Does anyone know the truth?

If a 11b device does degrade the network to the 11b transfer rate, then I have zero interest in buying a 11b music streamer!

Frank mentions wanting a MP3 DVD player with an iPod-quality interface. If he has an iPod, he already has most of what he needs. He can buy extra docks (and cables and power adapters if he doesn't want to run off the battery), connect the docks to his stereos and he's all set. He has to carry the iPod around but that's hardly more of an inconvenience than carrying a DVD around.

To the mac guy who wants to wirelessly connect the audio out from his laptop to his stereo and laments the lack of solutions: try this "google" thing. People have been doing it for years now.

I've had a Motorola SimpleFi that was almost the right thing. Got rid of it.

Now I have the SoundBlaster Wireless Music which cost all of $150 and actually works excellently - when it works. There are crashes and hiccups that hopefully will get ironed out as the device is only a month or two old. Time to go from "I wanna hear that first Modern Lovers CD" to actually hearing it: 20 seconds, most of that spent finding the remote.

The "mac guy" isn't necessarily a Mac guy. iTunes now exists in a Windows version. And it's not the simplest thing in the world -- even with "that google thing" -- to stream music wirelessly to a stereo without having to use some sort of client/server architecture. He wants to use iTunes, or any other music player of his choice, on his laptop without having to deal with some sort of server running on his computer.

Kurt: what you've said is expressly my concern. It's odd that the _actual_ effect of mixing 'b' devices into a 'g' network isn't widely known or hasn't been clearly established yet.

The mac/itunes guy wants to "audio out over wireless to a stereo system". This problem was solved early in the last century. You can purchase any number of devices that do it at BestBuy or Radio Shack.

If you want a fancy digital transmission system it is a little more complex and will likely cost more than just buying a dedicated ipod and connecting it to your stereo.

Craig --

This:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/22/HNwirestandard_1.html

seems consistent with the SlimDevices paragraph you quote. Namely, an 11b device could degrade the actual data rate of an 11g network down to 10 Mbit/sec, compared to a pure 11g network at 20 Mbit/sec.

This ain't so bad... at least it lets me upgrade from b to g gradually, rather than all at once.

Still, it'd be great to hear a thread on this (tho probably not here). Maybe there's already one out there someplace...

Outside of the lack of wireless support, how do people feel about the Audiotron from Turtlebeach?

I'm building a house and putting a network connection behind the tv/stereo for my Xbox and it would be easy to add the Audiotron to the mix. I have one friend with an Audiotron and his main complaint is constantly having to reboot the machine when it loses the connection, but I plan on having my media storage PC run 24/7.

Check out the SMC box
http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Product-Details&prod=331&site=c

The new EZ-Stream 11 Mbps Wireless Audio Adapter is UPnP compliant and engineered to be fast and easy to install, providing for a seamless integration into your existing 802.11b or 802.11g wireless network. The SMCWAA-B has a large matrix LCD display that provides for easy reading and the easy-to-navigate user interface allows for fast audio content selection. The SMCWAA-B gives you the freedom to play the MP3 and WMA music stored on your PC in any room of your home. You can specify audio tracks as “Favorites” by the click of a button, and then one menu gives you quick and easy access to the songs you listen to the most. In addition, support for the RHAPSODY™ Digital Music Server gives you access to consistent Internet Radio and a virtually unlimited collection of thousands of music albums.

I bought the slimp3 after reading rave reviews everywhere.

Have to say it doesn't live up to its reputation.

I've found a number of bugs - if you copy files over to the store directory, and it see's them before its finished copying, it decides that file is corrupted, and you have to stop / restart the service. I've managed to hard hang the device a few times, requiring power on /off.

It doesn't see network shares unless they're microsoft ones. Meaning my Mac with iTunes that is mapped as another drive is inaccessible with the software.

There's a half second delay in using the remote. That makes using it a real pain - the latency in using the remote is just terrible.

I've got mine on a 10/100 switch ethernet , yet it still gets to stutter when i'm doing file copying over that same lan segment.

The interface is ok, but not great. The screen is really too small to use as a remote screen. You can barely read it 4-5 metres away, which makes it the kind of thing you'd have at a desk near a computer rather than a separate hi-fi component.

Its promising, but nowhere near the panacea its made out to be.

Lawrence.
http://www.shanghaiguide.com

Here's a very simple and inexpensive solution. Run a separate 802.11b network just for audio streaming. With 802.11b access points selling for <$20, this is easy to do and won't interfere with your 802.11g network in the least.

From a security perspective, which is another topic entirely, this is also a reasonable way to set something like this up. And given this perspective, the open source Squeezebox is likely the clear winner.

I write reviews for powerbookcentral.com. I literally just got a Squeezebox for review and so far it's great. My home network is .11b, so I can't speak to the .11g/b performance issues, but the unit itself was very easy to set up, works like a champ, and so far shows literally seamless integration with my iTunes music. The UI is very easy to navigate and the display is easy to read. Remote works great, too.

The server software is a quick download, turns on/off almost instantly (which I wasn't expecting), and exists on my Mac as a preference pane, which is kind of nice.

I've only played with it for one session so far, but the sound quality is good (considering they're AAC and mp3 files) and Net radio came through no problem. It also has a much better wireless antenna than my PB G4, which ain't sayin' much (I have the notoriously bad for WiFi rev A machine) but it's nice.

I'll post a full review on our website within the next few weeks.

I also just heard from MacSense -- they're sending me a HomePod to review. I'm very curious about it -- the speakers and headphone jack could be kind of nifty ... well, the headphone jack, anyway ...

cheers
nk

To reply to Aaron re: Audiotron

I've been reasonably happy with mine. I have an always-on server so audiotron reboots only occur when I have to reboot the server. I wish the embedded web server were a bit quicker since it can be a little slow locating what I want from 13000+ songs but good list creation can address that. I only use the web interface at this point as I have the thing hidden in the basement.

D-Link is releasing soon a 802.11g version in several varieties for streaming music and/or video

Wow, there's a lot of misinformation in the posts here.

For starters, the SlimDevices' SqueezeBox/SliMP3 doesn't play iTunes Music Store (AAC Protected a.k.a M4P) files... at least not yet. Yes, it handles plain old AAC files, but not iTMS purchases.
http://www.slimdevices.com/su_changelog.html

The Roku device uses the same SlimServer software as the SqueezeBox (so I have to imagine streaming radio support is built in.) A client has one on pre-order, he liked the "look" more than the SqueezeBox, so I'll find out soon enough.

I too have a modified Xbox with XBMC, and it's slick. But the real solution to this question for me came when I picked up a Pismo PowerBook very cheaply. It's the ultimate media jukebox. With FireWire I could hook a huge external FW drive, both my iPod and my wife's iPod mini, share all of our music and listen to anything via the home stereo (including our iTMS purchases.) The interface (via the built in LCD, or the TV via S-Video) is top notch. Selecting playlists or radio stations with iTunes is a breeze. And it's shared to every PC in the house. And yes, I can even access it remotely by way of the (free) SlimServer software!

How about a wireless PDA remote to control the music server upstairs? IMO it beats trying to read an LCD on the hub from the couch.

tisdawan, sure that'd be nifty! Any hardware/software suggestions or were you just thinking in general?