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Thread: "reverse" mp3 server?

  1. #1
    lithium Guest

    "reverse" mp3 server?

    There are plenty of mp3 servers out there. These things host a repository of mp3s, and then clients can connect and have the mp3 streamed over to their machine to listen to it. This is ideal in say an office setting where everyone pitches in their mp3s, then people can connect and listen to whatever they want at their desk.

    I want basically the opposite. I want to hook a box up to my stereo, have it grab mp3s from a remote location, play them through my stereo, and give me an interface on any other machine on the network telling me what is playing and lets me choose songs. Sort of like every machine on the network has a winamp interface that controls one install of winamp on the machine connected to the stereo.

    Linksys has a hardware version of this for $160

    It seems pretty slick, but I'm hoping I can do this for free with an extra box I've got here. Any ideas?

    It'd also kick all kinds of ass if my PDA could serve as a remote control to pick the song and see what is playing. But that'd just the cherry on top.

  2. Not really answering your question but iTunes has the ability to see other machines using iTunes on a network and if they allow MP3 sharing you can stream their collections on your own machine. It works seamlessy in OSX but I don't know if PCs are harder to configure...

  3. #3
    lithium Guest
    Yeah we use itunes at work and it works well. But itunes basically is another mp3 server. I want to be able to sit at my main box and tell the other box to play a song on my stereo.

  4. There are various ways to do it in Linux but if you are familiar with VNC you can do it on a Windows PC. basically VNC allows you to remotely control other computers and it's free software. there is a delay depending on your connection but it will work for what you have in mind.

    http://www.uk.research.att.com/archi.../download.html

    Be sure to read the FAQ.

  5. Airport Express w/Airtunes is similar. You would just stream from one machine that has access to all the shared playlists. Dunno about doing it for free, though.

  6. #6
    lithium Guest
    hmmm, vnc's a bit clunky but that would work in a pinch. I could of course just use remote desktop. I used to do this off a linux box by sshing in and then using a command line mp3 player, but I'm hoping for something a little cleaner. I've also considered just writing my own, but to do this right would take a while.


    Actually, come to think of it. If I just put apache on the box then I could write what I want in PHP pretty quickly, and then I'd be able to use my PDA to control it all. That'd actually be pretty slick. I'll look into how much work this actually would be.

  7. Yeah, my buddy has a portion of his web server with all the music on it. He goes home, then uses his hacked X-box to play the songs.

  8. #8
    lithium Guest
    Well, I found one: mp3box

    http://www.igalaxie.com/ltt/mp3/

    It doesn't look too bad, a bit of work to get going but it's free.

    There's also a bunch of hardware options. Most Amazon reviews say they all stink, but apparently these Squeezeboxes are nice. They also cost a hefty $280, nearly double what all the others cost. But the wired-only version is $200, and I don't need the wireless.

    Actually, I dare say these squeezeboxes are very cool. Just plop this little thing down in your stereo setup somewhere and that's pretty spiffy...



    http://slimp3.com/

  9. #9
    lithium Guest
    Done!

    I downloaded slimserver, which is the server that runs squeezebox.

    Then I got SoftSqueeze, a software version of the SqueezeBox.

    about 15 minutes later I'm now listening to my mp3 collection with a slick interface through an old Dell box for free. It includes a web interface so my PDA can be used as a remote. Very cool. Weekend project a success.

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