Topic: Infocast in Fall 2012...

As they are selling 'new' Infocast 3.5s for $30:

A) Is there any streaming WMA support? (I did some searches - I see someone mentioning it - yet another that it's only on the 8...)

B) How long will the servers stay alive?

C) I see there is offline firmware (unofficial) available - is that really a good replacement?


Thanks

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

Unfortunately, no crystal balls here about how long the servers will stay up. You might want to try the "Zoltar" widget for a more concrete answer. There's tons of discussions about the offline firmware. What kind of Chumby device are you using now? I think you should just try the offline firmware to see what you think of it. Just load it on a USB stick and shove it in your device. It's customizable, but that would give you a good idea of the basics.

Someone mentioned here months ago that there should be no more "new" Infocasts out there any more, so I'd double-check your fine print. I don't know why a company would sell "new" ones for the same price as 'used' ones in only fair condition, so maybe you happened onto something great. Or not. Let us know how you do. $30 for a new Infocast would be a great price if it comes through. As for wma, I think it was tried in a beta update but never finished. It's a proprietary format with DRM issues. You know the Chumby Company went out of business 9 months ago, right? I doubt we'll be seeing many innovations from the now-defunct R&D department. Priorities changed. On the other hand, maybe if you post the WMA question as a separate question to the hackers, somebody might be interested in working with you.

If you let us know what kind of Chumby you have now, maybe I could steer you to more pertinent info about the offline firmware. Hope that unbelievably-excellent $30 deal comes through for you. Can't hardly buy a cheap AM-FM clock radio for that price! Please let us know the specifics on the seller if the deal went well- I know I'll want one!

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

dr2,

I went back and read all of your posts (3) and they all mention WMA support. It seems to be a make or break feature for you. Perhaps if we knew specifically how you planned on using a Chumby we could be of more help to you.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

Who is selling "new" Infocast 3.5" devices?

If you're not getting them from Best Buy themselves, then they can't be new, legitimately licensed devices.

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

He has "new" in quotation marks. It's probably similar to the one I got from http://www.techforless.com for only $15.97. It was an "open box" item.

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

I just picked up another (used) I8 this week for $36 shipped.  I have some sort of addiction to these devices.  My code isn't even near complete with what I want to do with them, but at this price point, I can't help myself!

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

The new one I saw at that price seems to be gone.... I would gather someone bought one, but never opened it. So not "officially" new - but close to it.

I don't see anything at techforless.com now - am I missing something?
Where did you see an I8 for $36 shipped?

I thought I saw that the I8 (unlike the I3.5 and Chumby) included WMA support?


The goal is to listen to webstreams which uses WMA (some use WMV, even though it's just audio).
I noticed that some are on yourmuze - which transcodes to AAC+ -Would that work?  But again, that's only for some of the statoins.

For a couple of them, the URLs change daily, I actually have a webserver (on a Raspberry Pi) which creates a playlist, so that my Squeezebox Radio can get at them.  I use curl / perl and/or sed to create the playlist. I would need to do that for the other feeds.  Would I be able to do the same on the unit itself?    (The RaspPi won't have enough power to transcode by itself).  Also, one of the thoughts was to set this up for a relative.

Thanks!

8 (edited by Materdaddy 2012-09-22 20:24:50)

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

dr2 wrote:

The new one I saw at that price seems to be gone.... I would gather someone bought one, but never opened it. So not "officially" new - but close to it.

I don't see anything at techforless.com now - am I missing something?
Where did you see an I8 for $36 shipped?

I thought I saw that the I8 (unlike the I3.5 and Chumby) included WMA support?


The goal is to listen to webstreams which uses WMA (some use WMV, even though it's just audio).
I noticed that some are on yourmuze - which transcodes to AAC+ -Would that work?  But again, that's only for some of the statoins.

For a couple of them, the URLs change daily, I actually have a webserver (on a Raspberry Pi) which creates a playlist, so that my Squeezebox Radio can get at them.  I use curl / perl and/or sed to create the playlist. I would need to do that for the other feeds.  Would I be able to do the same on the unit itself?    (The RaspPi won't have enough power to transcode by itself).  Also, one of the thoughts was to set this up for a relative.

Thanks!

The $36 I8 was my jumping on a low ebay buy-it-now: http://www.ebay.com/itm/170911832732?ss … 1497.l2649

I haven't tried anything with WMA, so I can't help you there.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

I got that $15.97 one from http://www.techforless.com several months ago. At that price, it's not surprising they no longer have any.

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

I have both a newer 3.5 chumby and an infocast 3.5. 

The infocast no longer shows either Pandora or iheartradio  options.  The chumby still shows and plays those just fine. 

Also shoutcast has stopped working on both of them.  Has something changed I don't know about?

Any enlightenment is appreciated.

mystreams is also working dandy on both,  btw.

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

We're having some server problems at the moment.

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

Thank you for all your fine efforts keeping these things chugging along.

I'm still nervous about trying the zurk mod, so this is very much appreciated.

Re: Infocast in Fall 2012...

I got an Infocast 8 for $40 delivered and then another one for $20 delivered from same seller on ebay. I paid for an Info 3.5 ($20 delivered) but the seller dragged his feet to ship so he agreed to cancel and refund. The guy seemed like a good sport just behind on his ebay. Now he says he going to ship it out to me tomorrow. I guess he means free. Merry Christmas! He says it is basically new but missing the antenna cover. Where am I going to put all these chums? My kids love to play with them. Some good educational games on them. Love the YouStream app.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.