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March 13, 2005
Omnifi DMS1 Networked Music Streamer
When Woot! offered up the Rockford Fosgate Omnifi package, consisting of a DMS1 (shown), a DMP1, and two wireless adapters, for $199 a second time last week, I couldn't resist. The DMP1 (the wireless hard-drive-based MP3 car audio system) alone used to retail for North of $400, so $199 was just too good to pass up. Plus, I'd been looking at the wireless home media streamers for a while, and the DMS1 seemed decent.
As of today, I've only had a chance to set up the DMS1 (installing the DMP1 will require me getting a new head unit to replace the factory stereo since I really don't want to go the FM modulator route). Once I get the DMS1 installed (or maybe I can get Mitch to write up his experience with it, since he has his 50% in right now), I'll post about that unit.
The DMS1 is a wired/wireless music streamer. In a nutshell, it grabs music off of PCs elsewhere in your network -- MP3 and Internet radio, for example -- and feeds them into your stereo. Given that we have our entire CD collection ripped to MP3, and given that we listen to WOXY.com a lot, a media streamer makes a lot of sense.
Installation of the hardware was a breeze. Plug in the audio patch cables into our stereo, plug in the USB Wi-Fi adapter, and plug in the power cord. All done.
Getting the included media server software (that runs on a PC somewhere on your network) to work was a bit more of a chore. An app called SimpleCenter is included with the hardware and it works fine...with one bizarre restriction: it will only accept 10,000 music files into its database. Now, not to brag, but Lori and I have 13,000+ files in our collection (yes, we have a lot of CDs), so this just wasn't going to be acceptable. So I started looking around for alternative solutions.
Since the DMS1 simply talks to any UPnP (Universal Plug-n-Play) music server application, there are several to choose from. Ones I've tried so far include SimpleCenter, TwonkyVision MusicServer, and Musicmatch Jukebox 10.
Of the three, TwonkyVision's solution is the best fit for my needs. It not only has no limit on files (none that I've seen yet), but it also feeds up Internet radio streams like a champ. It's not terribly robust -- I've had it crash a few times (althought I think that is just because I had multiple UPnP media apps running at the same time...since having it run by itself, it's been pretty stable) -- but it's free and seems to work OK.
It's pretty nice being able to browse our MP3 collection and favorite net radio streams from the family room without having to turn on the TV or use the HTPC. While the DMS1 isn't as full-featured as a PC-based solution is, it's easier to use and makes accessing our music much, much faster. Below is a pic of the DMS1 (sitting on top of a TiVo Series 2 for size comparison).
Posted by Craig in Home A/V
and Music & Audio
and Wireless
Comments
Curious to know if you've investigated how the playlists and/or "station" URLs work yet. I saw on the Fosgate website that there are 8 presets for playlists. But if you have more than 8, is there a way to get to them via the DMS1 interface? And additionally, is there a way to get to station presets, like I'm sure you'll want for WOXY? Just thinking ahead to the potential sweetness of having this controlled with a Pronto....
Posted by: Freezer at March 14, 2005 8:15 PM
I have investigated playlists a bit, but not with SimpleCenter. Due to that app's limit of 10,000 tracks, I'm using TwonkyVision's MusicServer (and it works really well). With MusicServer, you just create an playlist in M3U format (or modify the stock one) and stick it in one of the directories that is being monitored for music files. The DMS1 then lists these under the "Playlists" category, and I don't think there's a limit.
As far as the 8 "presets," I haven't much played around with those. That requires reading the manual and button-twiddling, so it'll have to wait til I get a couple of "free" moments. ;-)
Posted by: craigf ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.gearbits.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 14, 2005 9:53 PM
One other thing: playlists can include any combination of local MP3 files and streaming MP3 URLs, so it works just like you'd want it to.
Posted by: craigf at March 14, 2005 9:55 PM
Hi! I'm curious why no one thought to hack the Linux kernel to support -- I dunno, say -- a generic USB MASS STORAGE DEVICE?!?!? ;o) Do you know if anyone has done this? ...or maybe you could point me in the direction of how to get the OS on/off of the thing to do it myself? This would be a KILLER feature, I think... Makes it quite a bit more useful if you don't happen to have a 24/7 music server running nearby.
Cheers!
-Dáithí
Posted by: CelticWonder at March 22, 2005 4:06 PM
I also purchased the combo set from Woot. I installed the car player this past weekend and it works as well as the home player does. Thanks for the tip on TwonkyVision. The SimpleCenter site says the software is cross platform but I can't seem to find a linux version. Twonky aught to work perfectly on my linux box (which has the mp3s on it anyway).
I was able add my music folder (linux box) as a networked drive on my winXP machine and ran simplecenter from there. But I hate having that extra service running on my primary machine when the linux server is happily waiting for something else to do.
Posted by: Rob at March 29, 2005 9:48 AM
Guys, check out the great Omnifi community on Yahoo Groups: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/omnifi/
More answers there than I can give here, especially about Linux.
Posted by: Craig at March 30, 2005 8:43 AM
ANy idea whether or not there are any after-market head units that allow the DMP1 to work while allowing me to get rid of the one that came with the DMP1? Don't really want another display in the car.
Thanks,
Rob
Posted by: geoslob at April 16, 2005 8:02 AM
[img]http://www.avhp.com/images/cw/dsc03901_omnifi_dms1.jpg[/img]
Posted by: CelticWonder at April 22, 2005 1:17 PM
I learned from Omnifi (Rockford) Support that, although they advertise compatibility with Rhapsody Music Service, their media player is not compatible with the latest Rhapsody version 3 software.
Their support staff are arrogant.
Buy at your own risk
Posted by: Alan J Ross at May 27, 2005 6:32 PM
I wish I read your comments before I bought the DMS1. Anyway I have it. Now I read earlier in this post that the originator had a radio station play on it. Is that true? I just got a reply back from Omnifitech. The reply stated it will play internet radio stations that broadcast in MP3 or WMA. Can you give me more details?
Posted by: bluecraby2k at July 15, 2005 4:45 PM
bluecraby2k: Sure, just figure out the link the Internet radio station uses to direct people to its MP3 stream and paste that link into the dialog box that pops up in SimpleCenter after clicking "Add Link" in the Library page. Most streams work in SimpleCenter, but not all -- it depends on a lot of variables -- but SC will tell you when it can't use a link. HTH.
Posted by: craigf at July 17, 2005 8:04 PM
I got it to stream WMA and MP3 off my favorite internet sites, but how do I edit artist, genre, album, etc, so its not all unknown, thanks
Posted by: heemid at July 23, 2005 1:33 PM
heemid, are you asking how to edit the information on MP3 files you have on your computer? If that's what you're asking, go get a free program called MP3Tag (at http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ I think) -- it will let you edit all the ID3 tags (that's what stores the info you're talking about in an MP3 file) on your music files (not WMA...don't know anything about editing tags in WMA files). HTH.
Posted by: craigf at July 24, 2005 10:20 AM
The deal got better, got dmp1, dms1 for just $165 ebay for christmas. i am setting them up this weekend
Posted by: Anna Nagar Guy at January 8, 2006 10:55 AM
Whats funny is that the Tivo series 2 DVR that the DMS1 is sitting on in the picture has wireless streaming built in and a nifty GUI to boot! Not sure why he didnt use that instead.
Posted by: Dustin Moore at August 7, 2006 12:36 AM
Dustin: Because that would require me turning on my TV just to listen to music, and I'd rather not have to wait the 25 seconds it takes to power up before I could even begin to select my playlist. Plus, that would require my TV being on the entire time I'm listening to music, which seems like a big waste of electricity.
Posted by: Craig at August 7, 2006 8:39 AM