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Author Topic: Which streamer: Sonos, Slim, Roku?  (Read 2693 times)

jagdriver

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Which streamer: Sonos, Slim, Roku?
« on: October 28, 2006, 05:40:25 pm »
I'm setting up a surround-sound home entertainment system and want to use a streamer component, connected to the audio receiver, with the display being output on my 58" TV. MC remote control is to be provided by way of my HP PPC.

All of my audio files (primarily MP3 format) sit on a RAID 5, 700GB PC, with that media center PC to be located in my second floor office, well away from the downstairs entertainment system. Since the house is presently gutted, I'm installing CAT5e Ethernet cabling to connect the downstairs streamer to the upstairs media center PC.

The question is, which streamer would be best suited to this application? The smart money seems to be with Slim Devices, a route toward which I'm leaning—especially since Creative Labs bought the company and I'm relatively happy with them (I'm a Nomad user).

OR.... since I'm in the design phase, might I be better served to use a spare PC as an integral part of the downstairs entertainment system, with its video output routed to the TV (it having a std. VGA input)? Long-term, wouldn't this preclude locking me into proprietary, non-MC-friendly engineering/coding decisions thrust upon me by Sonos, Slim, or Roku?
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mesue

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Re: Which streamer: Sonos, Slim, Roku?
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2006, 08:48:14 pm »
Slim was bought by Logitech, not Creative Labs. And the Slim Devices don't have video output, so I don't think "the display being output on my 58" TV" is possible with a Slim Device. Also, there's no MC integration with SlimServer, except for the MC2Slim utility that is mentioned elsewhere in this forum, but that basically makes the Squeezebox act as a wireless sound card, so you don't get all the functions and controls.
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Sue

johnnyboy

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Re: Which streamer: Sonos, Slim, Roku?
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2006, 05:09:10 pm »
If you wanted to buy an actual streamer I would have to STRONGLY recommend getting an X-box 1, chipping it and putting on XBMC2 as your front end.
It's an incredible HTPC front end, as close as I've seen to perfect for useability and to add to that - it's really cheap as you can use second hand, cheap on ebay, x-boxes!

If you want the ultimate solution however I'd have to say you just couldn't beat using an actual dedicated PC for the job. It's the best solution with the most expandability!
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jagdriver

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Re: Which streamer: Sonos, Slim, Roku?
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2006, 09:47:50 am »
..."chipping it and putting on XBMC2 as your front end.."

Sorry... what does this mean? Thanks
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