ChrisM Posted February 2, 2005 Report Share Posted February 2, 2005 (edited) Hi all I'm interested in networking a digital music player such as the Netgear MP101 as here. The idea being to burn my CD collection to a PC in one room, and listen through the good hifi in another - as well as being able to access muzik form the other networked machines. This model is compatible with my Netgear DG384 (cable router - not wireless), however, I've had it confirmed that the MP101 requires winbloze - but "may be able to find another media server to run under Mandrake, but this would not be supported, nor could we recommend any" - Netgear. So, I assume then that I would be able to get the MP101 hardware and install some other [linux] software? Anybody tried anything like this - I don't want to be doing anything majorly tecchy - I'd even be interested in looking at other hardware if anyone can vouch for such. Edited February 2, 2005 by ChrisM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted February 2, 2005 Report Share Posted February 2, 2005 I vowed never to buy another netgear after they made it impossible to use their netgear wireless without windows. They put a lot of effort into this making the driver (needed for driverloader or ndis) into a special executable that couldn't be run under wine, unzipped etc. etc. I have however got a running media server but its just running normally ... I have one PC with movies/music/photo's and its just exporting the directories via NFS. In the living room the XBOX is directly connected to the HiFi and picks up the media via NFS (running linux :D) and then I can play music/movies etc. all fromt he same place. In the bedroom for instance I have a PC with big screen ..and reasonable speakers and it just plays... (or watches movies etc. etc.) It says it does MP3 and wmv ... but all it really seems to be is a player/indexing SW and probably needs a Windows media server or similar installing on the wiondows PC's .... I guess for 70 quid what do you expect ??? except a XBOX is only about £120 (if you can get an older one second hand even better) and does video/photo's/whatever??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted February 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2005 X Box -> Linux I'll look into this :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted February 2, 2005 Report Share Posted February 2, 2005 X Box -> Linux I'll look into this :D <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You don't even have to feel guilty, because ATM M$ makes a loss on each Xbox sale... So it's okay as long as you don't buy Xbox game cassettes for it :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted February 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2005 (edited) Well, its something to consider - and I just found a site with a walkthrough. Anyone else interested in this take can take a look here :P Edited February 2, 2005 by ChrisM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted February 3, 2005 Report Share Posted February 3, 2005 Yep only difference is you need to pay for one of the Console WiFi things if you want it wireless (though I guess you could mess with USB) Your biggest decsision is if you use it as a dedicated media station or dual boot. If you go the dual boot way and no mods o the box then you are stuck with the 2GB or so spare. Then you need it networked for the files you wanna play. (This is my current setup) At this point its working as per netgear but also does video and photo's... not to mention surfing the internet and all the other goodies.... to be honest 'normal' display is a bit poor.. it can be tuned but I haven't bothered because it plays movies etc. just fine but the text isn't as clear as a monitor and you wouldn't wanna use it all day... its perfect for movies its the static text that shimmers a bit.... I don't wanna give the wrong impression... its perfectly good for everything except typing and high res... but the TV screen is just a TV screen at the end of the day and the refresh rates are lower... If you do a hardware mod you can switch the drive for a bigger one (up to 137GB) then you can keep all the movies on the disk ... if you do this you can take it on vacation/to a friends house etc. plug it into the TV and have all your movies and music etc.... The USB is 1.1 so external USB drives are out speed wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted February 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2005 Its certainly worth considering, especially if I can get a cheap enough s/h XBox. It would primarily be used for sharing music across the network and probably wouldn't be used for much else in the first instance (certainly not as a replacement box for typing etc). I've a friend who likes taking things to bits and rebuilding, so it might be something I can get some help with (though last time he nearly fried my modem when a USB port overloaded into a puff of smoke!). Its gonna be a few weeks yet anyway as I was initialy planning on saving to invest in something like the MP101 - but this XBox idea seems to be an option really worth considering - unless I can get something dedicated and way way cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted February 3, 2005 Report Share Posted February 3, 2005 Its certainly worth considering, especially if I can get a cheap enough s/h XBox. It would primarily be used for sharing music across the network and probably wouldn't be used for much else in the first instance (certainly not as a replacement box for typing etc). I've a friend who likes taking things to bits and rebuilding, so it might be something I can get some help with (though last time he nearly fried my modem when a USB port overloaded into a puff of smoke!). Its gonna be a few weeks yet anyway as I was initialy planning on saving to invest in something like the MP101 - but this XBox idea seems to be an option really worth considering - unless I can get something dedicated and way way cheaper. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yep well it needs a TV etc. to operate... (unless you choose blind :D) or set the playlists from elsewhere across the network. Then you should be able to just use the remote but thats an extra £20! So far as I can see the MP101 just collects an index of the music and streams it, albeit in a clever way all it seems to be doing is picking up the media on other PC's and not actually storing it... The difference here is it has its own disk... if you wipe the M$ 'dashboard' and ability to play games in a full hardware conversion you'll have 8-10 GB of music... a minimal install of Xebian or Gentoo with ratpoision (Im using on my xbox as WM) will set you back a couple of hindred megs and then you have it all together ..no need to have the other PC's switched on... However its also a DVD/DivX player... and Ive found having it permanantly connected it acts like a superTivo/MP3 player with built in DVD player etc etc. I planned on using it for DVD's .. noeew it does music/photo's and everything. I occaisionally play a game... and i mean occaisionally and I should probably just do a hardware conversion.... check on EBay for a second hand box... the DVD reader you only need once unless you plan on playing DVD's.... but I guess theoretically you can install without one if its networked. ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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