Squeezebox
No Arthur hasn't taken up the accordian. A Squeezebox is an MP3 player designed
to stream digital music around your house to your audio system.
Every home should have one of these. They are a fantastic piece of technology.
And with prices between £150 to £200, an absolute bargain.
The box looks like a clock radio with a large LED screen. It connects to your
home PC network via an ordinary Cat 5 cable or via a wireless LAN connection
(Arthur only has the wired model but the wireless version only costs slightly
more). The box can then be connected to an amplifier via a dull old stero phono
connection or a digital connection, either optical or coaxial (Arthur uses the
digital coaxial connection).
Some free server software is then installed on your home PC which is in turn
pointed at you collection of MP3s or other music files. And voila! You can now
play all the music on your PC on your home stereo system!
But wait... there's more! You can also connect to internet radio stations and
becasue the server software is open source, people are constantly making new
plug-ins such as a BBC news ticker which displays the lastest BBC news
headlines on the Squeezebox's display.
A new version is now available called the Squeezbox 2. It features a higher
resolution screen, "always on" digital radio streaming and just happens to look
like an i-Pod. Vist Slim
Devices for more information.
Arthur's Home Cinema Links