NAS support on Soundbridge

[Peter Gutbrod]

I'm little bit confused about a statement Anthony Wood made on Mai 28 in the
thread "Soundbridge Questions.

It is also true that the only audio only device that plays from NAS is the
audiotron (although there are rumors that turtle beach has discontinued
support for this product). The Roku HD1000 can of course play music from a
NAS, and at $299 it is the same price as an audiotron.

On one hand, I was told from Rokulabs support, that Soundbridge needs a
running server application to be able to parse a music library and access
the files. That server application could be iTunes with enabled library
sharing or a Slim Server.

Can I turn my computer off and still play AudioTron?
You can, with something called Network Attached Storage (NAS), which is
basically a hard drive with a power supply attached to your network. You can
put all of your music files on the NAS and then turn off your PC because
AudioTron will then stream the music from the NAS drive. As an added benefit,
all of the music on the NAS server is also accessible from any PC on the
network, as well as other AudioTrons on the network.

So it is clear, you can put your music on a NAS and play it with AudioTron
without the need to have a PC running.

With the information I got from Rokulabs support, you can put your music on
a NAS, but you must have iTunes or Slim Server running on the NAS, what most
NAS devices do not allow, or you must have a PC running these apps somewhere
on the network.

Andrews statement " The Roku HD1000 can of course play music from a
NAS" gives the completely different impression, that Soundbridge can parse
the music on the NAS without any additional apps running. Or did Andrew mean
Soundbrige can play music stored on a NAS but streamed through iTunes or
Slim Server from another PC?

Can someone clarify this?

The root of the matter is the question, whether you can use the Soundbridge
without the need to run a computer all the time or startup a computer every
time, just to be able to play music, which makes a big difference for the
usability of the product.

Peter

[Steve Martin]

The Roku HD1000 is not a Soundbridge. They are different products.

Does that help?

Post by Peter Gutbrod
Andrews statement " The Roku HD1000 can of course play music from a
NAS" gives the completely different impression, that Soundbridge can parse
the music on the NAS without any additional apps running. Or did Andrew mean
Soundbrige can play music stored on a NAS but streamed through iTunes or
Slim Server from another PC?
Can someone clarify this?

--
Steve Martin
Smart Calibration, LLC http://www.smartcalibration.com/

[Jim Reitz]

I think you are confusing the Roku HD-1000 product and the Roku SoundBridge
product. These are TWO DIFFERENT PRODUCTS, with different feature sets.

Roku HD-1000:
High Definition Photo Viewer & Music Player. Plays music directly from NAS
or other file server storage, much like an AudioTron. No streaming server
app required. Product has been shipping for some time.

Roku SoundBridge:
Music Player only. Requires streaming server app running on a computer
somewhere. This product is not shipping yet.

-----Original Message-----
Peter Gutbrod
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 7:31 PM
Subject: [Roku-tech] NAS support on Soundbridge
I'm little bit confused about a statement Anthony Wood made
on Mai 28 in the
thread "Soundbridge Questions.

It is also true that the only audio only device that plays

from NAS is the

audiotron (although there are rumors that turtle beach has

discontinued

support for this product). The Roku HD1000 can of course

play music from a

NAS, and at $299 it is the same price as an audiotron.

On one hand, I was told from Rokulabs support, that
Soundbridge needs a
running server application to be able to parse a music
library and access
the files. That server application could be iTunes with
enabled library
sharing or a Slim Server.

Can I turn my computer off and still play AudioTron?
You can, with something called Network Attached Storage

(NAS), which is

basically a hard drive with a power supply attached to your

network. You can

put all of your music files on the NAS and then turn off

your PC because

AudioTron will then stream the music from the NAS drive. As

an added benefit,

all of the music on the NAS server is also accessible from

any PC on the

network, as well as other AudioTrons on the network.

So it is clear, you can put your music on a NAS and play it
with AudioTron
without the need to have a PC running.
With the information I got from Rokulabs support, you can put
your music on
a NAS, but you must have iTunes or Slim Server running on the
NAS, what most
NAS devices do not allow, or you must have a PC running these
apps somewhere
on the network.
Andrews statement " The Roku HD1000 can of course play music from a
NAS" gives the completely different impression, that
Soundbridge can parse
the music on the NAS without any additional apps running. Or
did Andrew mean
Soundbrige can play music stored on a NAS but streamed
through iTunes or
Slim Server from another PC?
Can someone clarify this?
The root of the matter is the question, whether you can use
the Soundbridge
without the need to run a computer all the time or startup a
computer every
time, just to be able to play music, which makes a big
difference for the
usability of the product.
Peter
_______________________________________________
Roku-tech mailing list
http://lists.rokulabs.com/mailman/listinfo/roku-tech

[Peter Gutbrod]

Post by Jim Reitz
I think you are confusing the Roku HD-1000 product and the Roku SoundBridge
product. These are TWO DIFFERENT PRODUCTS, with different feature sets.

Uups, yes I mixed them up, sorry.

But to my excuse, the thread where I found Anthony's statement was clearly
about the Soundbridge, not the HD-1000.

Post by Jim Reitz
High Definition Photo Viewer & Music Player. Plays music directly from NAS
or other file server storage, much like an AudioTron. No streaming server
app required. Product has been shipping for some time.
Music Player only. Requires streaming server app running on a computer
somewhere. This product is not shipping yet.

Thanks to clarify this.

I wasn't aware initially, that the Roku SoundBridge requires a streaming
server app running on a computer and I'll bet a lot of (potential) customers
aren't too. The HD-1000 is a very nice product, and probably I'll buy one
for viewing pictures/video but without a display it disqualifies as a
standalone music player, as I do not want to switch on my TV just to listen
to music. And of cause the Soundbridge looks much more stylish.

Requiring a streaming server app is the biggest drawback for the
Soundbridge. While it may be ok for people having their Laptop always with
them, or living in a single room apartment, where your PC is always in
reach, for most people it is annoying to have a computer running all the
time or to startup a computer in another room every time, just to be able to
play music.

I see 2 solutions to overcome this problem:

1.) Sticking with the need for a streaming server app, but adding some
functionality to the Soundbridge, so that it is able to wake-up (WOL) and
probably put into sleep mode the PCs hosting the server app as well as
launching/quitting the server app itself. I've sent some suggestions for
this to Rokulabs support already. While probably more difficult to make it
work on all supported platforms than 2.) it has the advantage, that people
do not need to buy a NAS (which is still expensive in compare to normal
PCs), setup centralized libraries etc. but could stick with the current
organization of their music libraries. Soundbridge simply would take care,
that computers from which it served music in the past, are powered on and
have the server app running, if possible of cause.

2.) Adding the filesharing client functionality of HD-1000 into Soundbridge,
so it can play music directly from NAS without a streaming server app.

As there is rumor for an additional client functionality in Soundbridge when
shipping , probably 2.) is on its way already !?!

Peter