PC box used as a standalone module for music play

2003-08-10 16:16:13

Hello everybody. I've got a pentium 200, with 32 mb ram and a sound board. I want to use it as a standalone player conected to an amplifier. It want no to conect it to a monitor, mouse or keyboard, at first. It produces nearly no noise and consumes low power.
I would like to plug it a hard disk and a cd-rom.
Beggining from that, do you know if it is possible to connect a control device with few keys and a little screen (some kind of LCD) ?
It would be perfect to use that standalone box to play and rip&encode music from cds, or at least play, if rip&encode is to complicated.
some kind of linux or modified win95/98 could drive that machine (and would load in low time), and I think that there are players with plugins to control them via serial port or something similar.
My format of choice would be MPC standard.
Can anyone help me please? I've got only the idea, but don't know where to start, as it will have no monitor. What is the best software player and hardware control to do all these things in a comfortable way( or at least, the less problematic) ?

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #1 – 2003-08-10 16:20:34

This one is not perfect, but it does offer control with a palm OS compatible. Nice to eliminate keyboard and monitor.

GiantDisc

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #2 – 2003-08-10 16:25:29

That seems to be a perfect solution, but I don't have the remote control. I think the  most problematic thing is that, provide an external way to control the machine.
How does it cost a Palm handheld device? I think it is no cheap, and there is no way for it.

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #3 – 2003-08-10 19:08:41

I wonder if you could attach your player pc to a home network and then control it from another machine on the network using remote access software. If your application loaded at start-up (including your RA client) presumably you could connect to the player pc and perform whatever tasks you wanted to from your main pc.

I had been thinking along the same lines and this is what I came up with.
However, that was about as far as I got. Thinking about it, I mean. 

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #4 – 2003-08-10 20:06:51

Giant Disc is maybe the most sophisticated solution at the moment IMHO -- it has advanced control options from the Palm, though it doesn't support MPC. Some other projects to look into as well are Music Player Daemon and Boss Ogg, though neither of them supports MPC. (how is MPC linux support by the way ? any pre-built debian packages out there ? )

Especially MPD has been quite active lately and there is even a HOW-TO on IR based control, which would be the cheapest way to go I guess. Both projects can be controlled from network via a PHP interface too, which is on the other hand quite rudimentary in Giant Disc (only allows to stream). However, I don't think a second machine for controlling the jukebox is ideal, as you would have to run at least two boxes only to listen to some music...

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #5 – 2003-08-11 00:10:49

What you need is a Media Center PC. They are 100% bug free, have the most convenient GUI on the planet, and are cheap (less than $2000.00 US) And best of all, since the OS is a Microsoft product, that alone tells you its the BEST solution.               

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #6 – 2003-08-11 00:52:43

I got my Sony Clie Palm compatible for less than $75 on Ebay.

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #7 – 2003-08-11 01:18:15

I have a Pentium 166 with 32MB of ram running Windows 98 connected to my receiver for music playback.  The interface I use for music playback is a PHP web application called Netjuke.  It supports MPC out of the box.  The only problem is that you will need a web server and database server running (Apache and MySQL are the easiest to configure).  For remote control, you can either get a wireless device (gyro mice are nice, but can be pricey and may not work with your setup).  Or, if you have network access to your jukebox computer, simply install WinVNC to easily log into the remote desktop and start playback.  Netjuke is working to incorporate httpq (a plug-in for Winamp that allows web-based control) that would allow you to operate Netjuke as more of a true jukebox.  Playback functions on the jukebox computer wouldn't entail logging into that computer remotely once httpq is implimented.

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #8 – 2003-08-11 01:40:16

A great option I'm using (albeit for playback only) is to load DOS only onto the machine.  I use the DOS player mpxplay and it handles mpc, ogg and mp3 (CBR & VBR) just fine and it's only a 80 MHz 486.

The nice thing about DOS is there is very little startup time and you can just power down without shutting down.  MPXplay is also programmed to drive a standard LCD screen if connected correctly.  I plan on getting an LCD working but haven't actually done it yet.

The other caveat is whether you can get a DOS driver for your sound card, although if it's SB compatible mpxplay will drive it fine.

Good luck....

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #9 – 2003-08-11 19:24:27

well, it is intended to be a "standalone player" connected to an amplifier, as if it just was an ipod (for example) but the size of a pc box. There are easy ways to attach an LCD to show information of what is being played and so, but the biggest problem is to control it. I think there are some ways to connect some keys to do the 'up volume', 'next track' and that type of commands, but it is more complicated a program that lets you use an LCD, and that can use few keys for do everything, like album change, and so...
I think it can be done with winamp with plugins and some win95/98 modified to work with very few memory (www.litepc.com), but the major problem is to control in an easy way the change of album, I think with so few keys.

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #10 – 2003-08-11 19:26:09

MPXplay is good, I think, but it has to be controled via standard keyboard, isn't it?

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #11 – 2003-08-29 12:29:39

Well, I've got an idea about how to do it,
Win95 with Litepc
Winamp (mpc playback) with this winamp lcd plugin.
I will buy an lcd and attach it to new made case.
I will have basic buttons (play, pause, forward, backward, change album...), and the way to control it is with a keyboard, I will use an standard pc keyboard to make the keys, using its chip and some interruptors.
As the processor is an p166mmx, I have made it to do no none noise.

Basically it is, but the only dude I've got is which version of winamp use.
winamp 2.91 uses above 12 mb of memory!! in my amd duron, but the player machine has got only 32mb of ram, so, which version of winamp is enough to do the job, and uses the minium memory?

edit: I hope i will find an lcd ready to connect to serial/parallel port, I do not have any idea of soldering/circuits!!

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #12 – 2004-01-25 13:08:58

Have a look at MusicBox (http://www.luminosity.co.uk).

MusicBox is a cutting-edge wireless media system. Wireless clients such as the Palm Tungsten C are used to control a central music server capable of playing your music collection to multiple rooms independently.

Features:

- Independent multi-room playback
- Play, pause, stop, or skip the music
- Complete album catalogue
- Manipulate the playlist - add albums / tracks by artist, title, type or genre
- Add music wizard - let MusicBox choose a selection for you based on genres
- Rip new CDs using your favourite ripper
- Download CD information automatically (using freedb)

A BootCD will be available shortly so you won't have to install anything.

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #13 – 2004-01-25 13:20:27

You'll find many ideas for your jukebox here : http://www.audio-jukebox.com/

As for myself, I use Windows XP, Foobar2000... and a remote to control the system. Works great.

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #14 – 2004-01-25 23:16:30

Oh!, thanks, but I finished the player. It was intended to be as cheap as posible. It is the size of a VHS player, a little bigger, and I have spent on it no more than 30 euros using an old pentium 166 for building the case, putting the buttons and two 2x20 lcd. Apart of this, of course a 80Gb Hard disk. It works very well and it is also my music archive backup.
If anyone wants some photo ask me.

PC box used as a standalone module for music play

Reply #15 – 2004-01-26 00:14:30

There's a lot of info about this on Mp3projects