Nathan Syverson writes: > Hi all, > I've been reading about setting up an mp3 juke box with an older > computer of mine. I know there are meny people who have done this > before. Are any on this list and would like to share what they used for > hard/software, how they interface with it, etc. The more long, > convoluted and rambleing the better. I tend to identify with that. I have used Jamie Zawinski's gronk, which has a couple of advantages over alternatives: 1. It uses only a web server + perl, rather than a web server + perl + database. He argues that the latter is overkill. Now that I've ripped all 200+ of the CDs I own, I'm not so sure.... 2. It uses CDDB information instead of just the ID3 tags. I think this IS a real advantage, because the ID3 tags, even v2 are really impoverished in terms of the information they store. It also has some disadvantages: 1. It's meant for a club. That means that if you don't tell it what to play, it will just pick something at random and play it. This is bad for my home for a couple of reasons: (1) I don't want my stereo to do this and (2) My music collection ranges from the Clash to the Barber of Seville, with many stops in between. Almost every random sequence of tracks it affords makes you want to puke. A recorder concerto followed by "Janie Jones" will make you want to puke. 2. CDDB is really only adequate for cataloging pop/rock music. Once upon a time before the 60s, there was no assumption that the PERFORMER and the SONGWRITER would be the same person. Or even that the SONGWRITER would be one person instead of a LYRICIST and a COMPOSER. CDDB just associates one person or band with a piece of music. You might want to be able to find all the different versions of some Jazz standard by songwriter, e.g. With CDDB you'll be able to find everything Billie Holliday sang, but no useful information about her accompanists, the composers of the songs, etc. CDDB is even LESS adequate with classical music, where you might care about SOLOISTS, COMPOSERS, (for opera) LIBRETTISTS, CONDUCTORS, etc. 3. The web ui is pretty clunky --- it's too slow to control the stereo in your living room, because there's a huge lag between the message getting to your web server and filtering through all the way to mpg123 or XMMS, which drive your speakers. 4. I don't want to have a computer in my living room next to my amplifier! I especially don't want a computer with a monitor for accessing the UI. I want something that will run with an IR remote, and that has its own (small) display, or that can be operated through my TV set. Me, I'm probably going to abandon this attempt, and just buy slimp3 and serve up tracks. I looked into building my own box, but I don't see how I'd save money over slimp3, even if I value my hourly effort at $0. R _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list