Comments on: Build your own Sonos player with Ruby on Rails http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/ The act of making love, tenderly. Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:27:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Rod http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-26947 Rod Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:46:10 +0000 http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-26947 <p>I've been curious about building a Sonos clone, with exactly the same hardware (Nokia Tablet & Airport Express). I just now stumbled across this post, I am surprised too at the lack of comments. Anyways, I installed the free SqueezeCenter (formerly SlimServer) and tried a few of the touch screen friendly skins. It works OK, a bit slow I think using iPod touch to navigate the AJAX skins. I'm not sure why RAOP isn't included in SqueezeCenter since it is open source and all. Even as a plugin it would be great for those who have existing Airport Express devices. SqueezeCenter provides an mp3 stream which I opened in iTunes which sent the output audio to the Airport Express. What a hack.</p> <p>I hope you'll continue development on this project!</p> I’ve been curious about building a Sonos clone, with exactly the same hardware (Nokia Tablet & Airport Express). I just now stumbled across this post, I am surprised too at the lack of comments. Anyways, I installed the free SqueezeCenter (formerly SlimServer) and tried a few of the touch screen friendly skins. It works OK, a bit slow I think using iPod touch to navigate the AJAX skins. I’m not sure why RAOP isn’t included in SqueezeCenter since it is open source and all. Even as a plugin it would be great for those who have existing Airport Express devices. SqueezeCenter provides an mp3 stream which I opened in iTunes which sent the output audio to the Airport Express. What a hack.

I hope you’ll continue development on this project!

]]> By: Ben http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-26117 Ben Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:52:13 +0000 http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-26117 <p>So, maybe an alternative to the crappy linksys and apple options:</p> <p>http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_receiver.html</p> <p>Since they just came out with this I am totally unfamiliar with it, but it it might be a bit easier to control though I am not sure. Let me know what you think, and I am sure using the N770 as a controller is still way cooler.</p> So, maybe an alternative to the crappy linksys and apple options:

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_receiver.html

Since they just came out with this I am totally unfamiliar with it, but it it might be a bit easier to control though I am not sure. Let me know what you think, and I am sure using the N770 as a controller is still way cooler.

]]> By: Ben http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25493 Ben Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:22:54 +0000 http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25493 <p>Okay, so I really missed some of the points, so thanks for understanding my lack of understanding. So, about the third point, I am not really sure what I had in mind either. For the airport express, you really do get what seems like a pretty neat piece of equipment for the money, and I can't seem to find anything out there that might work better (Linksys has something that people haven't seemed to enjoy). When I was asking about the other UPNP options, this was more because there are a lot of digital media receivers coming onto the market (like D-link, which works really well with their NAS I believe), which are different from the Sonos and Squeezeboxes of the world, and it would be cool to also use the N770 to control them. Looking around, I am not quite sure how to control this, but this is because I just haven't seen one in person. Here is an article about the N800 and UPNP:</p> <p>http://withouthyphens.wordpress.com/2007/05/30/playing-with-upnp-on-the-n800-windows-and-linux/</p> <p>Anyways, please keep the code coming and doing a great job about being innovative. Something that one day would be great is having this code more as a plugin for Rhythmbox or Amarok or even Slimserver. Personally the only thing I didn't like about moving to Linux was losing Winamp, whose interface I loved, but the abundant codecs have been great. Will touch base again once I get my system going to let you know how it worked.</p> Okay, so I really missed some of the points, so thanks for understanding my lack of understanding. So, about the third point, I am not really sure what I had in mind either. For the airport express, you really do get what seems like a pretty neat piece of equipment for the money, and I can’t seem to find anything out there that might work better (Linksys has something that people haven’t seemed to enjoy). When I was asking about the other UPNP options, this was more because there are a lot of digital media receivers coming onto the market (like D-link, which works really well with their NAS I believe), which are different from the Sonos and Squeezeboxes of the world, and it would be cool to also use the N770 to control them. Looking around, I am not quite sure how to control this, but this is because I just haven’t seen one in person. Here is an article about the N800 and UPNP:

http://withouthyphens.wordpress.com/2007/05/30/playing-with-upnp-on-the-n800-windows-and-linux/

Anyways, please keep the code coming and doing a great job about being innovative. Something that one day would be great is having this code more as a plugin for Rhythmbox or Amarok or even Slimserver. Personally the only thing I didn’t like about moving to Linux was losing Winamp, whose interface I loved, but the abundant codecs have been great. Will touch base again once I get my system going to let you know how it worked.

]]> By: Aaron Patterson http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25196 Aaron Patterson Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:43:14 +0000 http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25196 <p>Basically, the Airport Express will (sort of) accept any format. You have to decode your audio source before you send it to the airport express. So if you're playing mp3s, you have to decode the mp3 to raw audio before sending it to the Airport Express. Same thing with Ogg. Basically, if you can play the audio file on linux, you can stream it to the Airport Express.</p> <p>2) No, the controller doesn't have to be on. The server just has to keep streaming.</p> <p>3) Possibly. What did you have in mind? The stuff I have written is pretty specific to the Airport Express, but could be generalized to support other equipment.</p> <p>4) I don't know. I don't really know much about UPNP. :-(</p> Basically, the Airport Express will (sort of) accept any format. You have to decode your audio source before you send it to the airport express. So if you’re playing mp3s, you have to decode the mp3 to raw audio before sending it to the Airport Express. Same thing with Ogg. Basically, if you can play the audio file on linux, you can stream it to the Airport Express.

2) No, the controller doesn’t have to be on. The server just has to keep streaming.

3) Possibly. What did you have in mind? The stuff I have written is pretty specific to the Airport Express, but could be generalized to support other equipment.

4) I don’t know. I don’t really know much about UPNP. :-(

]]> By: Ben http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25191 Ben Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:25:49 +0000 http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25191 <p>I realized after my last post that I didn't ask some other important questions (sorry I am a bit of a noob on this): 1) what file types does the open source sonos player (and I guess Airport Express) support? 2) once you set the player on the server to stream, does the controller (PC or tablet PC) have to remain on to maintain the stream? 3) do you think the airport express back-end could be fitted to other players running off of the server? 4) is there not a general UPNP approach to take on a media AP (yes, I am a noob)?</p> <p>Sorry for the basic questions, and thanks for the great answers and please keep up the good code work.</p> I realized after my last post that I didn’t ask some other important questions (sorry I am a bit of a noob on this):
1) what file types does the open source sonos player (and I guess Airport Express) support?
2) once you set the player on the server to stream, does the controller (PC or tablet PC) have to remain on to maintain the stream?
3) do you think the airport express back-end could be fitted to other players running off of the server?
4) is there not a general UPNP approach to take on a media AP (yes, I am a noob)?

Sorry for the basic questions, and thanks for the great answers and please keep up the good code work.

]]> By: Ben http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25155 Ben Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:29:44 +0000 http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25155 <p>No actually this is perfect. I have a pretty small budget to work with, and therefore am doing things which can build on each other gradually with expandability in mind. So, grabbing an old computer this week to get a media server going on using Benji's how to, except maybe starting with the Ubuntu Server Edition so that LAMP is already up. http://rubbervir.us/projects/ubuntu<em>media</em>server/ . Quick on that, these scripts should work within Ubuntu right? But I have really dug the Sonos system because of the controller and didn't have anything that would work well to control the slimbox, so this way I can get something more versatile such as the 770, and then have more flexability in how and what I stream (file format concerns). Seriously though, I think it sounds pretty cool, and once I get the cash will invest in this end. Btw, any sound quality issues coming out of the Airport Express? Doesn't seem like there is a better AP out there (and not for much cheaper). Let me know about the updates and improvements since I will do this by the summer.</p> No actually this is perfect. I have a pretty small budget to work with, and therefore am doing things which can build on each other gradually with expandability in mind. So, grabbing an old computer this week to get a media server going on using Benji’s how to, except maybe starting with the Ubuntu Server Edition so that LAMP is already up. http://rubbervir.us/projects/ubuntumediaserver/ . Quick on that, these scripts should work within Ubuntu right? But I have really dug the Sonos system because of the controller and didn’t have anything that would work well to control the slimbox, so this way I can get something more versatile such as the 770, and then have more flexability in how and what I stream (file format concerns). Seriously though, I think it sounds pretty cool, and once I get the cash will invest in this end. Btw, any sound quality issues coming out of the Airport Express? Doesn’t seem like there is a better AP out there (and not for much cheaper). Let me know about the updates and improvements since I will do this by the summer.

]]> By: Aaron Patterson http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25148 Aaron Patterson Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:53:48 +0000 http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25148 <p>Hey Ben! Yes, this was written quite a while ago. I haven't been using it lately, and I really need to update the rails application I wrote. One thing that I would change is my dependency on raop-play. I wrote a <a href="http://raop.rubyforge.org/raop-client/" rel="nofollow">pure ruby version</a> that I would use instead.</p> <p>You could probably use something besides the Airport Express, but you would have to figure out some way to stream music to that device. I need to update the code base, but I've been ignoring it because people didn't seem interested!</p> Hey Ben! Yes, this was written quite a while ago. I haven’t been using it lately, and I really need to update the rails application I wrote. One thing that I would change is my dependency on raop-play. I wrote a pure ruby version that I would use instead.

You could probably use something besides the Airport Express, but you would have to figure out some way to stream music to that device. I need to update the code base, but I’ve been ignoring it because people didn’t seem interested!

]]> By: Ben http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25146 Ben Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:37:35 +0000 http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/06/27/build-your-own-sonos-player-with-ruby-on-rails/#comment-25146 <p>First off, strange that no one has responded to this. On the other DIY pages, with far less useful info, there are veritable verbal fist fights. So, I notice that this was written quite a long time ago, and was wondering if you would make any changes to the setup. From a software perspective, I know Jinzora works pretty well, but am a bit of a noob so I might miss the point of the ruby/rail setup. I like this setup since it using parts at hand to replace expensive media receivers (which you could also control with a laptop until you got money for the used tablet). So the next question is about the airport express: are there other alternatives to this, or is just a really nice AP of sort? Thanks again for the entry, this is something I really want and this would make it cost a lot less.</p> First off, strange that no one has responded to this. On the other DIY pages, with far less useful info, there are veritable verbal fist fights. So, I notice that this was written quite a long time ago, and was wondering if you would make any changes to the setup. From a software perspective, I know Jinzora works pretty well, but am a bit of a noob so I might miss the point of the ruby/rail setup. I like this setup since it using parts at hand to replace expensive media receivers (which you could also control with a laptop until you got money for the used tablet). So the next question is about the airport express: are there other alternatives to this, or is just a really nice AP of sort? Thanks again for the entry, this is something I really want and this would make it cost a lot less.

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