[geeks] home mp3 system suggestions

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Thu, May 30, 2002 at 11:32:00AM -0400, Tim H. wrote:
>   I've been toying with similar ideas myself, not to the point of hardware 
> yet.  I was thinking of doing it all streamed to browser, on switched 100Mb 
> with not much other load I should be able to get good quality.  A PHP 
> frontend to a simple database (MySQL?) would allow custom playlists, 
> download/upload capability, etc.

>   The only issue is multiplatform streaming, which might not apply to your 
> friends situation.  

My understanding is that MP3 streaming is pretty much platform neutral.

Personally, I want to skip the platform streaming idea and jump straight to
putting a small box in each room.  The box would have a nice DAC, a small LCD
screen, a dial, and a few bottons.  3.5mm amplified stereo and RCA unamplified
stereo should be provided as well.  These boxes would connect via fairly high
speed serial (perhaps USB if USB can support the cable lengths needed, other
wise likely to be something proprietary) to a central server.  The central 
server would except requests from the buttons, dial, etc, and it would decode
the flac files to raw audio, and toss them back over the serial link to
each box.  These boxes would be placed in each room.

I think you get the idea.  I just don't know what form of serial would 
supply 1.4megabit over long distances (like 30 meters) affordably.  I don't
believe that RS-232 goes that high.  USB does, but you would need signal
boosters.


-- 
Joshua D. Boyd