Logitech Squeezebox?

vining

FYI, logitech has made a change to their business direction that leaves the future of Squeezebox up in the air. They no longer manufacture the Touch and for audio all they have is the new UE Smart Radio (boom box style) which may or may not even host the SB server. I had to replaced a bad touch and my only choice was this new radio version so i'll know more when i get it.

There's always Vortexbox or Fusion Research which can run SBS but you can't get Rhapsody and quite frankly they're may be no future spport for SBS anyway. The Logitech website doesn't even have their audio section anymore under products.

John Nagy

Fusion Research has a pro server based on SQUEEZE, and I asked them how this was going to affect their future. The response:

"In regards to the SB EOL, it was quite a gift to us that they announced the discontinuation of their hardware products as it will focus more dealers on our hardware."

I find this to presume that the various inter-vendor/service licensing that makes the Squeeze platform interesting will all stay in place without Logitech. I suppose that's possible but it remains a long term concern to me. Maybe you too.

vining

Have you had a chance to play with the Fusion Research boxes yet? Do they run multiple instances of SBS (LMS).

vining

vining wrote: »

Have you had a chance to play with the Fusion Research boxes yet? Do they run multiple instances of SBS (LMS).

Well they don't run multiple instances of LMS but use multiple MACs. My module is set up for 1 server/player per zone so I'd have to adapt my code.

Fusion has no Rhapsody or Spotify support in their initial release but possibly later. But how long will MySqueezebox.com be maintained? How will apps be downloaded and their sub accounts handled. 4 years, 2 years?

DHawthorne

Squeezebox existed before Logitech took over, but the question is what will Logitech do about licensing and patents. They may simply allow third-party maintenance of the server code as a user-supported kind of thing. But they are not likely to allow anyone to make money from it.

vincen

DHawthorne wrote: »

Squeezebox existed before Logitech took over, but the question is what will Logitech do about licensing and patents. They may simply allow third-party maintenance of the server code as a user-supported kind of thing. But they are not likely to allow anyone to make money from it.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Slimbox sofware is open source probably under GPL so whatever Logitech wishes the software will survive end of life decided by Logitech For hardware I heard some manufacturers plan to release some new players compatible with Slimserver so hopefully it's just an other step in long life of that great system !

vining

The server software for stored music can live on as is with out any revisions indefinitely but what happens to the internet apps like Pandora, Rhapsody, etc when there's no more MySqueezebox.com to handle these accounts and interface with the LMS.

John Nagy

Exactly my concern. Today there are a lot of choices for music servers for local music, what made Squeeze compelling is when they licensed all the services in. That just can't keep going with no one to manage or pay for the licensing.

vining

I just picked up the new rack mount VortexBox and it seems very similar to what Fusion is offering. Comes with 3 analog outputs, zone 1 has a digital option and you can add two more zones by adding USB DACs. Nice looking 1 RU and you can get it with 1TB for $600, add more memory for nominal fees. I think 4 or 6TB max with onboard drives. Comes with a DVD drive so it will rip DVDs too.

I was able to get three Pandora streams going at the same time but who knows how long that ability will last since Logitech will likely drop support for mysqueezebox.com in a couple of years but the music and dvds capability will last indefinitely. I though Rhapsody was going to work since it will now connect, libraries displayed but it just won't stream.

Also if anyone gets a box or updates to the newest LMS version they changed the mac requirement. Used to be it would work with upper case but now only lower case works. If you code pulls the macs from the device and uses them to send you're fine but if you hard code you own you'll need to make them lower case or use the LOWER_CASE function. I was freakin cuz most things weren't working when they did on older units, i was happy to learn it was just the case issue and not something major.

vining

FYI, I loaded the new UEML beta onto an older VortexBox and it works just fine, basically the same CLI as LMS, probably just a new "slicker" name since I don't see any difference except a couple of icons. Set up UE through the web GUI it still asked for my MySqueezeBox.com address and pass so maybe this is all about nothing. Of course if you go to the Logitech's SqueezeBox forums they're all in a panic about the future so who knows.

FYI, I also had to deal with Logitech for a defective Touch and my god what a PITA. They can't get anything right. First the Touch was only a month old and bought direct form them, they sent a UPS label, I returned it and then they informed me they had no Touch's, wait a week or 2 and contact them again, now the Touch is EOL and OOS so no more ever, so they offer me the UE radio of lesser value, since I had no options I said OK, a few weeks later I get a call asking for the Touch I was to returned and I informed them it was returned and that they had sent me an acknowledgement of receipt when it arrived, another week goes by and I contact them again and they inform me that they can't offer me the UE Radio but would give me the older obsolete radio which I refused. I told them give me the UE radio as promised or refund my F'in money and they said OK they'll refund the money which means they have no UE radios either. A couple days later I get another UPS label email notifcation so they're looking for me to send in the defective Touch again.

The amount of time I've wasted talking to these idiots is ridiculous. I don't know what they've been smoking at Logitech but what ever it is, it's making them stupid.

the8thst

vining wrote: »

I just picked up the new rack mount VortexBox and it seems very similar to what Fusion is offering. Comes with 3 analog outputs, zone 1 has a digital option and you can add two more zones by adding USB DACs. Nice looking 1 RU and you can get it with 1TB for $600, add more memory for nominal fees. I think 4 or 6TB max with onboard drives. Comes with a DVD drive so it will rip DVDs too.

I was able to get three Pandora streams going at the same time but who knows how long that ability will last since Logitech will likely drop support for mysqueezebox.com in a couple of years but the music and dvds capability will last indefinitely. I though Rhapsody was going to work since it will now connect, libraries displayed but it just won't stream.

Also if anyone gets a box or updates to the newest LMS version they changed the mac requirement. Used to be it would work with upper case but now only lower case works. If you code pulls the macs from the device and uses them to send you're fine but if you hard code you own you'll need to make them lower case or use the LOWER_CASE function. I was freakin cuz most things weren't working when they did on older units, i was happy to learn it was just the case issue and not something major.

Can you test out Spotify (possibly requiring the installation of the third party spotify app on the vortexbox)?
I would love something other than Sonos to use with Spotify for customers that don't quite grasp the idea of switching apps on an iPad.

vining

I think Spotify and Rhapsody are the only apps that require an actually Logitech SB2 or greater to play but everything else seems to work. If you can get a Touch your good for everything but they're EOL & OOS at Logitech.

My Spotify account is still active and works on my Touch but not my new rack mount VB running LMS or the VB i have running UE.

List of apps:

SWITCH(iPlugin)
	  {
	  //CASE 'apps':
	  //APPS
	  CASE 'pandora':		
	  CASE 'spotifylogi':
	  CASE 'rhapsody':
	  CASE 'rhapsodydirect':	
	  CASE 'napster':		
	  CASE 'slacker':		
	  CASE 'amazon':		
	  CASE 'classical':
	  CASE 'orange':
	  CASE 'mog':
	  CASE 'lfm':		
	  CASE 'mp3tunes':	
	  CASE 'mediafly':
	  CASE 'cbsradio':
	  CASE 'radioio':
	  CASE 'lma':		
	  CASE 'sounds':		
	  CASE 'sirius':		
	  CASE 'live365':		
	  CASE 'flickr':		
	  CASE 'facebook':
	  CASE 'cbc':
	  CASE 'radionomy':
	  CASE 'skyfm':
	  CASE 'difm':
	  CASE 'absoluteradio':
	  CASE 'radiofeeds':
	  CASE 'somafm':
	  CASE 'bbc':
	  	  
	  //RADIO
	  CASE 'picks':	  
	  CASE 'local':	  
	  CASE 'music':	  
	  CASE 'talk':	  
	  CASE 'sports':	  
	  CASE 'world':	  
	  CASE 'search':
	       {
	       //fnDevMod_DeBug("'fnCheck_if_Plugin, Plugin name is valid-[ ',iPlugin,' ] :DEBUG<',ITOA(__LINE__),'>'") ;
	       RETURN 1 ;
	       }
	  DEFAULT:
	       {
	       ////fnDevMod_DeBug("'fnCheck_if_Plugin, Plugin name not valid-[ ',iPlugin,' ] :DEBUG<',ITOA(__LINE__),'>'") ;
	       RETURN 0 ;
	       }
	  }

again all work on a Logitech player SB2 or greater and I think all but Spotify & Rhapsody work on VBs or any other non Logitech device running the LMS or UE. Since the Touch is EOL the olny Logitech player going forward at this point which hasn't even been released yet would be the UE Radio which looks like a mini boom box. Can't tuck that away in a rack like you can a Touch, well I guess you can if you really needed.

Colzie

Has anyone actually used the Fusion server?

Their website has the protocol manual but it says to contact them regarding an AMX module. I called and the person that answered didn't sound confident that he really understood my question. I'm waiting for him to call back after he talks to someone who he said would know more.

I generally don't use anyone else's modules with the exception of media servers.

vining

From what I gather it's just the Logitech Media Server running on a windows (?) platform so any of the available modules for the LMS, squeezebox, slimserver or what ever incarnation for it you might find should work. I don't believe the older modules support the internet apps though.

I intended on trying a Fusion box but then found the new rack version of the vortexbox which also has 3-5 stream/zones and since I was already familar with that I canned the idea of trying fusion.

FYI, the older non rack versions of VB can also be configured for multiple streams/zones out with no added hardware, you just need to edit the Alsa sound card file. Wished I knew that the last couple of installs.

The vortex box also rips DVDs/Blue-Rays in MKV and/or MPEG4 format so you can stream to WDTV live, Dune, Popcorn hour, PS3, etc. 1 U rack unit, 3-5 zones, 1TB is just $600.00