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chumbysphere forum → Product Suggestions → SlimServer client
I am so incredibly pleased that my Chumby can now play my tunes via SlimServer, using the beta Control Panel.
(I've been running it for hours as a test. Seems really solid. Hiccups a bit while viewing web cams. Just not enough bandwidth for that, I guess.)
Now we just need a front-end that would display the currently playing song, with album art and a button to jump to the next song.
I don't really desire more functionality than that.
I don't think that SlimServer has an XML-over-HTTP RESTful interface for controlling it remotely - which seems like a pretty weird omission considering all of the other stuff it has, and the popularity of Flash.
Somebody wrote a Flash 9-based UI for SlimServer that uses the CLI interface, but it requires socket support that's not in Flash Lite 3.
Food for thought, though.
I wonder if you could parse and fake responses for the HTML interface? Or does Flash require it be real XML?
Maybe this will be the incentive for me to learn Flash.
But, even without a front-end, y'all have my thanks for adding SlimServer.
I was considering messing around with this, but then I found this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVsS56KoH1Q
PhillipK, who I've seen on these forums did this. Maybe it was just a mockup or something, but if it works, post it man!
I am brand new to Chumby...I find it fascinating! as a neophyte can someone point me in the right direction to set up my slimserver with Chumby.
if you install the beta control panel, under the music settings, there's a way to point your Chumby to an existing Slimserver installation.
For those of you who have been able to make Chumby work with Slimserver, can you provide a bit more information on how to do it? I've got the beta control panel installed and think I am pointing Chumby to the right IP address but am not certain and clearly don't have the talents of the rest of you. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
One thing to remember about SlimServer is that there are two clients, sorta, a playing client and a controlling client. So, while your Chumby is pointing at http://192.168.1.x:9000/stream.mp3, it's acting as the playing client. Bit it may just be waiting for the stream to start playing. The stream doesn't start automatically. The controlling client has to kick it off.
You do have to still fire up the SlimServer controllign client in a browser, pointed at just plain http://192.168.1.x:9000/. (Where that IP address is the address of the computer on which you've installed the SlimServer server software.) This is where you can designate which songs you want to play. (Or iTunes playlists on a Mac. Dunno about SlimServer on a PC.) The browser can be on the same computer that the SlimServer server is installed. Or it can be another computer entirely. (I use a Nokia 770 mini-tablet in the bedroom.)
One other thing to check is that the client in your browser is controlling the stream your Chumby is reading. With most SlimServer skins, there's an IP address in the upper right corner. If you're grabbing SlimServer streams from multiple clients, then changing that IP will determine which device you're controlling.
Does that matter if you're just using a single device, your Chumby, to play the tunes? Yes, it still can. Suppose your Chumby is at IP address 192.168.1.100. And you've tried playing some streams, but didn't know you had to fire up a separate Chumby control client. So you gave up and shut down your Chumby. Then you found out about running the control client, so you fired the Chumby back up. For whatever reason, it was given an IP address of 192.168.1.101 this time. When you pull up the control client, that client may still think it's controlling a device at 192.168.1.100. In the upper right-hand corner, usually, you can click on the drop-down box to change the device that you're controlling.
Get all these steps right and it works great.
I'm working a little backwards here, but, the SlimServer software is at:
http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html
It's free of charge, but, alas, not open source. It works on Windows, OS X, and various flavors of Linux. You can also get the Perl source code. It worked wonderfully for me on OS X. I've had problems with older versions on Ubuntu crashing on odd characters in MP3 tags.
Under OS X, once it's installed, you configure it via System Preferences.
I've requested a version of the controlling client for the Chumby, but it appears that SlimServer lacks an appropriate API for that. Bummer. That would be really cool.
Thanks Tommy! Great help! I got it to work. The music sounds good and having "music mobility" will be great. However, when playing around with MP3s recorded at different bit rates I noticed that Chumby only plays back 128kbps songs without sounding like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Not sure if this is a Chumby problem or a Slimserver problem, but the same music played back on my slimp3 player sounds fine (or at least as good as it can at 64kbps). Fortunately, most of the music I have is at the higher bit rate, but I have not gotten around to reripping the songs recorded at the lower bit rate. Any thoughts?
I think there are some of those sorts of issues with btplay, which is, I think, what the Chumby uses to play the stream. (A load of "I thinks" in there.)
Personally, everything I stream tends to be 320k I've ripped myself, or 128k off the net (legally, of course, well, kinda legally). I've had no problems with those two bitrates.
The bit rate is not the issue - it's the sample rate that determines whether or not you get chipmunks.
Interesting - I've found that the SlimServer does indeed have an XML-based interface (what they call a "skin") that would seem to allow a certain amount of browsing and control of the server from the client. There are a couple of tricky security things they've got that need to be worked around, but it's hopeful. I'll put this down for some attention in the future.
Hi
I am planning to buy a squeezebox for years now but always decided that it was i tick too expensive for me -- although I think it is a really cool gadget. But nothing else would ever come even close to convince me to be a better concept than squeezebox/slimserver... until I discovered chumby that is 
I am fully aware that chumby is capable of doing so much more than a squeezebox (how can chumby ever be less expensive than SB?) but I really must be sure that I could do anything with chumby I would do with a SB. So from what I read above chumby can be the streaming client for a slimserver. And although I know almost nothing about chumby and not so much more about slimserver I am convinced that there will be a way to also control the slimserver via chumby. So my open points are (maybe some of the guys who have both gadgets can answer):
1. How good is sound quality of chumby compared to squeezebox with its dedicated DAC, digital and analog output, etc?
2. How good are the build in speakers of chumby? Are they good enough to be used to listen longer times to music?
3. Is chumby capable of playing every MP3 file SB could (I am thinking of VBR, gapless playing and such things ...)?
4. I really need my streaming client to be controlled via a remote control. So is there the possibility to do so with chumby? Maybe by adding a IR-receiver via USB or such-alike?
(how can chumby ever be less expensive than SB?)
The last time I checked the price for a new low-end Squeezebox is $299, with the high-end versions topping out at $1999 - though, of course, you can find used models on eBay for less.
The chumby is currently priced at $179.95.
Nobody would claim that chumby is a substitute for a "real" Squeezebox - as you said, the Squeezebox has much better audio hardware, has a remote control, and that extra quality comes at a higher price although with less overall functionality.
So, if you're an audiophile, the Squeezebox is a better choice.
Agree with Duane. If what you really want is a Squeezebox, get a Squeezebox. It's a great product -- I have had every iteration of it and think it's the best of breed for streaming audio players that connect to a stereo. Of course it can't do what a chumby can do either, like play music bedside through it's own speakers :^) On audio quality, I'm sure that the Squeezebox is better. That said, I hooked my chumby up to my stereo over the holidays to stream symphonic Christmas music from various Internet radio stations and it sounded just as good as my Squeezebox did on the same sources -- but that's probably due to the fact that streaming Net radio isn't exactly the highest of fidelity, so the source material doesn't give room for superior electronics to shine, and my ears are old and probably fried from too many rock concerts in my youth. So probably depends on what types of audio you're looking to play and how deaf you are.
I do audio for a living. I mixed Dead Cab for Cutie's first album (back when they were Pinwheel) and now I make a fine living mixing for those three-letter acronyms that inhabit your television below channel 13. I've had two Squeezeboxes; they're okay. MP3 itself isn't the greatest, but frankly, there aren't that many stereo systems left where you can tell the difference. Frankly, the only thing a Squeezebox has over a Chumby is SPDIF.
The Chumby, on the other hand...
Seriously. Port SoftSqueeze or the equivalent to run on the Chumby. Logitech will buy you within six months, throw the Chumby in a black plastic case, rename it the "Symphony" or some such and sell them for $699. The thing that sucks about Slim is that their set-top interface is yucky to interact with. Y'all have a touch screen, tilt sensors, a microphone... you could make the *killer* Slim client.
...all that's missing is the IR port... And I'll bet it wouldn't be hard to make an RF dongle work on a USB port.
...speaking of, with the brains that's in a Chumby, y'all could give Xantech and Pronto a run for their money. I mean, really - $500 for what's basically a bunch of contact closures? I'll bet you've got this much connectivity on the Chumbilical.
http://www.pronto.philips.com/index.cfm?id=1307
Just sayin'.
Seth
For some reason, I'm now visualizing a DJ controller that scratches when you shake the Chumby.
But, honestly, wouldn't it be cool to just smack the side of it to skip to the next track? Tilt it back to raise the volume. Tilt it forwards to quiet it. Show either album art or visualizers.
Limited voice recog to recognize "next" and "shut up", to skip to next track and mute, respectively. (Basically, listen for one word or two.)
slave2thelight has it right re: the Chumby's audio capabilities. Sure, its 1/8" mini-jack isn't as good as RCA or better (on a Squeezebox), but as sleve2thelight says, you need a darn good system and very good ears to hear the difference.
Hi folks!
Thanks for all the comments. First I have to say that I really like that you give good feedback for competitors products. That's really good attitude and I highly appreciate this.
Not let me explain a bit more exactly what I am searching. I'm not doing audio for a living, but I'm making music as a hobby and I am listening a lot -- to any stuff, be it jazz, pop, classic, rock. In my living room is a stereo which is really good enough for me. I listen there whenever I have the time to do so and I never play any MP3 there. Now I am looking for all the other locations and situations for a suitable streaming solution: for bath room, sleeping room and maybe the kitchen. So I know I will not get high end HiFi but that's completely OK for this purpose. I only want to be sure that the solution I choose isn't so bad that I get headaches after a hour...
What I liked about the Squeezebox was the very good sound quality, the good display and the good remote. Controlling via a remote is a must for me. So that's basically my question: I would not use the SPDIF of the Squeezebox but would connect good quality PC speakers to the RCA. Under those circumstances, is the sound of the chumby comparable or distinctly worse?
For the moment I really tend to give chumby a try: A waited so long for the Squeezebox, maybe I just skip it and go to next step: chumby. So does anyone has a suggestion on which USB-IR-adapter would work best?
Ahh, one more question. I understand that when it comes to internet radio chumby can quite the same as the Squeezebox with the squeeze-network. But unfortunately chumby can't consume WMA nor realaudio? I think the slimserver provides functionality to convert these on the fly into mp3 streams. If this is correct could I then also use the slimserver to do the same with a chumby?
Lots of questions. If anyone finds the time to answer I would be really glad. 
Many thanks in advance
Comi
It seems many people would like to see a widget to control a slimserver. I came across this website and it looks like someone was able to create a Mac OSX Slimserver control client. He says it can be used to control an actually squeezebox or to open a new stream to the computer. http://lifehacker.com/photogallery/Medi … 1000041032
He has posted his code here: http://code.google.com/p/slimcontrol/
I'm not a programmer at all so I don't know if it is possible to port this to the Chumby, but I thought I would post it. The layout would need to be different to accommodate the screen size of the Chubmy.
I would love to be able to access my slimserver from the Chumby.
SqueezeCenter 7 appears to have JSON-RPC API calls. I guess this is something FlashLite can call via HTTP?
http://forums.slimdevices.com/archive/i … 40905.html
i'm this close -> <- to getting a slimserver GUI client widget working.. got it updating with the "Now playing" info, just need to get the getHttp calls out to the controller functions (play/pause/stop/skip/ect)...
Any news on the slimclient widget? I am new to Chumby, but an Slimserver User for years now. I would love to have an extra client with a chumby. KR
Hi, new Chumby owner from Sweden here
I recieved my chumby yesterday and started hacking away with flashdevelop to create a simple Squeezecenter widget using Squeezecenter 7's XML api.
I've never worked with flash before, so it's quick and dirty hack, but it seems to work fine, have a look at the attached screenshot You still have to create the initial playlist with the squeezecenter web interface though.
I've got it running now as a local widget, with the configuration options in profile.xml. I need to clean things up a bit, but
in a week or so I will maybe have something I can release.
/ Dennis
Ooh! Oooh! Ooh! Make it work make it work make it work! ;-)
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