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Topic: How to Build a FLAC Jukebox (Read 8436 times) previous topic - next topic
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How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

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How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #1 –
Yes, that would be excellent for sure!

I'm already thought about playing FLAC files without PC, mostly thinking in a way that a NAS device sharing the music files on a hard disk, and standalone network players like Roku Soundbridge and Slimdevices (now Logitech) Squeezebox then plays the FLAC files from the music library, without using a PC. This is nice concept, but it would be good the play FLAC files from a data DVD as well, not only from hard disks.

Of course there are some standalone players which can play FLAC from a DVD, like the NetGear network players, but they are bloated with features, they play everything, so probably buggy as well. We only need to play FLAC and some other audio formats, not video (IMO). We need only a simple FLAC player which plays files from a data DVD.

How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #2 –
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How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #3 –
zensonic/ziova and I think a couple others also make players which will play FLAC from DVD, check the hardware page..

How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #4 –
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How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #5 –
Quote from: jcoalson on
zensonic/ziova and I think a couple others also make players which will play FLAC from DVD, check the hardware page..

Yeah I saw them. The Zensonic Z500 was in my interest some time ago. Now they discontinued and there's that Ziova instead. Indeed that's plays FLAC from DVD.
But my problem is that they have "too many" features, I mean, they plays AVI files and many-many features, which I don't need. And I guess when they develop the firmware not the FLAC playing quality is the most important (but I might be wrong...).
Many of the standalone players listed at the FLAC page have hard disk, which also not needed.

The mentioned Denon SE-32 and Denon SE-52 seemed interesting also, but I didn't found them on the official page of Denon.

Also strange that I remembered that NetGear EVA700 plays FLAC, but I just checked their webpage and FLAC is missing from Audio listing. I may remember wrong.
EDIT: the NetGear EVA800 plays FLAC.

Bourne, when you thinking about a PC based solution, it's very-very important to being it silent. I mean, there should be no need any fan noise. I know it's quiet hard to make a PC without fans, so they must have big fans (12 cm) with low RPM to make it silent.
Check Silent PC Review forums here:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/

I also thought about creating a Mini-ITX PC dedicated to a FLAC player, but I never managed it.

How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #6 –
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How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #7 –
Sounds interesting. Although I've always thought that a FLAC-DVD player would be kinda what I want, I never thought of just using a PC to do it.

You might want to check out Geexbox. THat's small Linux distro (~10MB) that plays a lot of mediafiles (all sorts of video, mp3 and flac too). Runs from CD (loads into ram and then you can add whatever DVD/CD you want). I think that would make a nice base for what you're planning, if not being what you want.

How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #8 –
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How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #9 –
Yeah the Geexbox is nice, basicly it's the software which is needed.

I have an idea, that instead a CD-Rom drive to boot Linux, maybe better to boot it from a Flash drive. I read that Compact Flash drives can be used as an IDE disk, with a CF adapter. I read that new CF 4.0 standard does support 133 MB/s data transfer. Of course this will be much expensive than a simple CD-ROM. Or an USB drive could be used, but of course those very old motherboard won't support from booting from USB.

Mini-Keyboard is nice idea.
Another idea for displaying info: the Imon VFD could be used for remote control, and it has a nice display, it can be fit to a 5.25 bay. Here:
http://www.soundgraph.com/Eng_/Products/im...amp;leftMenu=25
Of course, this again makes it more expensive....

How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #10 –
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How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #11 –
I just took a look at GeeXboX... and I am very impressive. Someone already thought of this stuff really well.
I am just puzzled with one thing... when playing a FLAC it will display:
Audio Codec: FFFLAC
Audio Bitrate: 64kbps

What does that mean? That it's not decoding as it shoud?

Apart from the fact that the writing display is ugly confusing, it's perfect and you don't need a second drive for the jukebox.

EVERYONE SHOULD TRY THIS: BURN THE IMAGE as DISC-AT-ONCE, (Track at Once will not work).
http://www1.geexbox.org/releases/1.1/geexbox-1.1-en.i386.iso    10 MEGABYTES only

How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #12 –
Quote from: Bourne on
Audio Codec: FFFLAC
Audio Bitrate: 64kbps

What does that mean? That it's not decoding as it shoud?


The developer must have a stutter.
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #13 –
For more convenience, it is possible to load Geexbox onto a hard drive, so that you can dispense with loading the Geexbox CD everytime you boot. Obviously, any hard drive would be enough, even a thumb drive would do for ~10MB. I think there's a howto in GB's website, else maybe try google, I thought I saw it once.

GB uses ffmpeg for FLAC if I'm not mistaken (else just the original code). I can't imagine they messed with the decoding quality, so that's just a small error I think.

How to Build a FLAC Jukebox

Reply #14 –
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