Bangalore HFV Meet?

[stevieboy]

hi george,

i have a further question on your wireless setup. have done some research and found that popcorn hour also can stream internet radio stations as well as store music via the storage disk inside. so what's the difference between the squeezebox and the popcorn if one is looking at streaming internet radio and playing music files/stored video?

one thing springs to mind ie the squeezebox has a screen whereas the popcorn hour doest seem to have a screen to see the tracks as you scroll through.

thanks!

 

[santhosh]

I'm planning a trip soon to see Santhosh's HT room and get some ideas/suggestions so that I can finish mine off as soon as possible. In case anyone is interested we can tie up details, so that Santhosh can explain his ideas to a group. I plan to take a couple of my friends along, but there will be space for two more in my car should anyone want to come along.

Santhosh: Would like to do it this weekend if possible since my son from the US is coming next Saturday morning. Please let me know a good time, prefer Saturday to Sunday.

I am also willing to join,

You are most welcome George, would be my pleasure to have you visit my home. Anybody interested are welcome to join George and cmsajith. Please bear in mind that my HT room cannot accomodate more than 5 people comfortably. So, if more members are interested, we can schedule another visit.

Saturday noon between 2 to 5PM suits me best as we have a family function to attend on Sunday. George, would it give you sufficient time to plan if I confirm by Thursday?

 

[santhosh]

the 34$ NAS on ebay:

Ask KMD to get it.

Before you guys jump and buy this, please be wary that this is an IDE NAS and will not accept SATA Hard disks. Most hard disks in higher capacity today are SATA. If you still want it, I would suggest not to depend on KMD(with due respect to him) as he may not be online and may take time to reply to PMs and this ebay deal is only for today. Try and ask your friends or relatives in US to get it for you.

hi george,

i have a further question on your wireless setup. have done some research and found that popcorn hour also can stream internet radio stations as well as store music via the storage disk inside. so what's the difference between the squeezebox and the popcorn if one is looking at streaming internet radio and playing music files/stored video?

one thing springs to mind ie the squeezebox has a screen whereas the popcorn hour doest seem to have a screen to see the tracks as you scroll through.

thanks!

Mr.Bond, you seem to have a "Quantum of Questions" on the wireless setup. Since I like to be Mr.Q, let me try and answer your Qs:clapping:

The Popcorn hour can accept 3.5 inch hard disks and can play both audio and video stored on it. The PCH can also play audio or video stored on a NAS just like the NAS. The advantages of using the Squeezebox is that it is made mainly for audio and hence has a very good DAC(Burr Brown). It also has a very intuitive interface which allows you to play and sort music by artists, albums etc. The Squeezebox also allows you to connect to an external DAC via optical. Even the Popcorn Hour has an optical out, but am not sure about the quality.

About the missing inbuilt display in PCH, you have anyways figured it out. They don't call you agent 007 for nothinghyeah:. Being Mr.Q, I would suggest adding a cheap 7 inch LCD monitor(for power savings) via the composite out. You can also make it touchscreen. Will tell you more when we meet, our conversation is being bugged:lol:

 

[teky]

Before you guys jump and buy this, please be wary that this is an IDE NAS and will not accept SATA Hard disks. Most hard disks in higher capacity today are SATA. If you still want it, I would suggest not to depend on KMD(with due respect to him) as he may not be online and may take time to reply to PMs and this ebay deal is only for today. Try and ask your friends or relatives in US to get it for you.


Mr.Bond, you seem to have a "Quantum of Questions" on the wireless setup. Since I like to be Mr.Q, let me try and answer your Qs:clapping:

The Popcorn hour can accept 3.5 inch hard disks and can play both audio and video stored on it. The PCH can also play audio or video stored on a NAS just like the NAS. The advantages of using the Squeezebox is that it is made mainly for audio and hence has a very good DAC(Burr Brown). It also has a very intuitive interface which allows you to play and sort music by artists, albums etc. The Squeezebox also allows you to connect to an external DAC via optical. Even the Popcorn Hour has an optical out, but am not sure about the quality.

Santosh,

PCH can also sort by Artist, Albums etc and customise the Album art etc, Although you would need a monitor connected to view all this information whereas with Squeezebox you have it in your fingertips.

I think Stevieboy will prefer the later.

 

[stevieboy]

hey thanks santhol aka Q

i did discover on closer reading that the popcorn hour does have a display 'white dots on blue' is how the website describes it.

i do have a dac so would be using it. its a wadia 12 so guessing it would be better than the internal dac. the popcorn so far seems to be an all in one solution where i dont need to store on a different unit, the squeezebox as you say seems to be made for music. then there's the darned xstreamer so reading up the other thread. this is gonna take some time! thank god lps are making a comeback in india for us tech-challenged dodos

regards

 

[stevieboy]

Santosh,

PCH can also sort by Artist, Albums etc and customise the Album art etc, Although you would need a monitor connected to view all this information whereas with Squeezebox you have it in your fingertips.

I think Stevieboy will prefer the later.

thanks teky!

ah needing a separate monitor would indeed be a drawback. though refer to my previous post, the pch (i feel ultra cool knowing the abreviations ) does have a display mentioned on the specs page the model cs200 or something like that.

regards

 

[stevieboy]

Being Mr.Q, I would suggest adding a cheap 7 inch LCD monitor(for power savings) via the composite out. You can also make it touchscreen. Will tell you more when we meet, our conversation is being bugged:lol:

awesome Q!

you are indeed full of surprises true to your name! touchscreen mmmmm :clapping:

 

[cmsajith]

awesome Q!

you are indeed full of surprises true to your name! touchscreen mmmmm :clapping:

I dont think a touch screen is possible since the media player supports only one sided data communication. It could be possible if you are using a PC.

 

[santhosh]

hey thanks santhol aka Q

i did discover on closer reading that the popcorn hour does have a display 'white dots on blue' is how the website describes it.

i do have a dac so would be using it. its a wadia 12 so guessing it would be better than the internal dac. the popcorn so far seems to be an all in one solution where i dont need to store on a different unit, the squeezebox as you say seems to be made for music. then there's the darned xstreamer so reading up the other thread. this is gonna take some time! thank god lps are making a comeback in india for us tech-challenged dodos

regards

The PCH althogh the best among NMTs is almost thrice the price of an xtreamer. Buy xtreamer for movies and Squeezebox both for the price of PCH.

Lyrita tube amps, Lyrita speakers, TT and amazing performance from what I am told (by another secret agent) and now Wadia wow. Now I really have to visit your place for an audition.

 

[santhosh]

I dont think a touch screen is possible since the media player supports only one sided data communication. It could be possible if you are using a PC.

Mr.Sajith, remember that I am Mr.Q. When have you ever seen any of my inventions other than in a Stevieboy movie? My system is capable of any number of communication lines. I have just completed my prototype on the next version i.e, "capacitative think" technology:lol:. Actually you are right

 

[Raghav]

Syabas, the company which makes PCH has come out with a new product called "Popbox". It is very similar to PCH. Major differences are that it has only optical audio out (no coaxial), and that the HDD needs to be external or a NAS.

hey thanks santhol aka Q

i did discover on closer reading that the popcorn hour does have a display 'white dots on blue' is how the website describes it.

i do have a dac so would be using it. its a wadia 12 so guessing it would be better than the internal dac. the popcorn so far seems to be an all in one solution where i dont need to store on a different unit, the squeezebox as you say seems to be made for music. then there's the darned xstreamer so reading up the other thread. this is gonna take some time! thank god lps are making a comeback in india for us tech-challenged dodos

regards

 

[stevieboy]

thanks raghav!

i'd prefer a co-ax out i guess heard its better quality than optical out. and two boxes are a no no. trying to reduce the clutter.

regards

 

[stevieboy]

The PCH althogh the best among NMTs is almost thrice the price of an xtreamer. Buy xtreamer for movies and Squeezebox both for the price of PCH.

Lyrita tube amps, Lyrita speakers, TT and amazing performance from what I am told (by another secret agent) and now Wadia wow. Now I really have to visit your place for an audition.

you better hurry before i get rid of my cd player

the pch c200 is $300 plus customs ought to come to 20k. xstreamer seems to be bout 8-9k. plus squeezebox bout 20k = 30k. not thrice price difference no?

 

[cmsajith]

The PCH althogh the best among NMTs is almost thrice the price of an xtreamer. Buy xtreamer for movies and Squeezebox both for the price of PCH.

Lyrita tube amps, Lyrita speakers, TT and amazing performance from what I am told (by another secret agent) and now Wadia wow. Now I really have to visit your place for an audition.

Instead I recommend XTreamer + a 7" screen + a good DAC (will be better than Squeezebox). If you are planning for a separate music setup in different room, try the cheap media players that supports all audio files + 7" screen + a good DAC. If the music is going to be streamed then the media player should be network ready.

 

[venkatcr]

a 7" screen

Where do you get 7inch screens? I am looking for one to fit on my HTPC.

Cheers

 

[GeorgeO]

Hi Stevie

Since you have all the info aboout the two devices by now, I can share with you that I bought the PCH primarily for video. My model doesnt comfortably handle more than a 200Gig internal HDD-it's an older version, but it handles many formats of audio as well, as well as internet radio. So it is in many ways comparable to the SB, but in two key areas it is different:

1. It is wired-probably can be made wireless with some additional hardware-the newer and more expensive versions are wireless. But hey it only cost me $100!

2. It needs a display. Since I plan to install a computer in my basement it means that the display will only be available when the system is on-which is tedious. In that case I culd very well use my computer to play the music using the Slim Server front end software that I can download from the SB site.

An option that I may consider is to pick up another SB, which I just might be tempted to do!


Cheers

George

PS Santhosh-I will wait for you to confirm Saturday's PoA.

 

[cmsajith]

Where do you get 7inch screens? I am looking for one to fit on my HTPC.

Cheers

Any car accessory shops or any electronic shops which sells the car accessories will have these screens.

In chennai, ritchie street is the hub.

 

[cmsajith]

2. It needs a display. Since I plan to install a computer in my basement it means that the display will only be available when the system is on-which is tedious. In that case I culd very well use my computer to play the music using the Slim Server front end software that I can download from the SB site.

A simple trick would be to use the same monitor for both by using an external TV tuner card or a VGA switch.

 

[kaushik]

Before you guys jump and buy this, please be wary that this is an IDE NAS and will not accept SATA Hard disks. Most hard disks in higher capacity today are SATA. If you still want it, I would suggest not to depend on KMD(with due respect to him) as he may not be online and may take time to reply to PMs and this ebay deal is only for today. Try and ask your friends or relatives in US to get it for you.

This small piece of card will make it accept sata HDD : IDE to SATA or SATA to IDE Converter Adapter gifts in india at rediff shopping.

just abt 300 Rs ....

 

[GeorgeO]

Having a geek like Kaushik around to answer our questions is definitely an asset for us Bangalore folks! Kaushik, are you well versed in Linux? Or any of the other guys who came on Sunday?

I have a system that is running on Linux and I am considering getting a copy of XP or Win 7 and loading it on as well-some of my applications run on windows and I am more comfortable with it, but for simple email etc, I don't need to use Windows. Both my NAS and SB have Linux versions of their s/w. Since I have another system, also a Dual Core running on XP, I am seriously considering all options,BUT I am a bit challenged with using Linux!

George