Squeezebox like functionnality?

[pieroxy]

Hi there,

SageTV looks well and good, but so does Squeezebox. A Squeezebox has several advantages over a SageTV extender:

• It has a screen so that you can see what's playing
• It has a remote control so that you can control the box with just the screen and the remote.
• You can synchronize two squeezeboxes so that they'll always play the same thing (think two rooms with no doors - don't want different streams there)
• There is a free iPhone app to control your music stream

So I was wondering if something like that could be coming to SageTV? I'm thinking of:

• An audio-only extender, or at least an extender with an OSD. I don't want to turn on my TV when listening to music.
• A way to sync two extenders so that they'll ever both play the same thing.
• Having the remote + OSD enough to browse audio content (and why not video content as well)

[ehanekla]

Hello,

excuse me, but your question sounds funny to me. I guess you want to have a Squeezebox with a SageTV sticker right?

Just buy what best fits your needs.

Eyk

[nebulink]

SqueezeBox would be more comparable to a Sonos system than SageTV.

I would say squeezebox would be the cheap economy version of Sonos.

[pieroxy]

Originally Posted by ehanekla

Hello,

excuse me, but your question sounds funny to me. I guess you want to have a Squeezebox with a SageTV sticker right?

Just buy what best fits your needs.

Eyk

Ok, I understand your point. There are two differences though:

• I want a box that'll work with my server. Why installing Squeeze + SageTV on my server? Granted, it's not that big of a hassle.
• I don't want two boxes sitting in every location I have a TV. They are expensive enough as it is. Plus, there's the pain of switching your amp's input whenever you want to switch from the HD300 to the Squeezebox.

Does it make more sense now? The HD300 + SageTV server are almost as functional as a SqueezeBox. But not quite. Having both (because I want sometimes TV and sometimes music) sounds like a big overkill. I'm not a millionaire ;-)

[Fonceur]

Since you mentioned iPhone, have you looked into the web server for mobile or TiSageTV? It won't do the automatic sync between multiple boxes, but the rest seems fine...

[pieroxy]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Since you mentioned iPhone, have you looked into the web server for mobile or TiSageTV? It won't do the automatic sync between multiple boxes, but the rest seems fine...

You are correct, these apps do work as a remote control and are enough to control the audio stream. The remaining part is syncing different clients.

I'd still like a small OSD on the HD300, but I can live with an iPhone only remote.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by pieroxy

Ok, I understand your point. There are two differences though:

• I want a box that'll work with my server. Why installing Squeeze + SageTV on my server? Granted, it's not that big of a hassle.
• I don't want two boxes sitting in every location I have a TV. They are expensive enough as it is. Plus, there's the pain of switching your amp's input whenever you want to switch from the HD300 to the Squeezebox.

Does it make more sense now? The HD300 + SageTV server are almost as functional as a SqueezeBox. But not quite. Having both (because I want sometimes TV and sometimes music) sounds like a big overkill. I'm not a millionaire ;-)

As much as I love Sage, it's nowhere close to a Squeezebox for music.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by pieroxy

I'd still like a small OSD on the HD300, but I can live with an iPhone only remote.

You could always consider a small LCD monitor/TV (hook up HD300 component outputs if the HDMI is occupied with the main TV). 15" ones can be had for ~$100. This is what I am doing and I personally prefer the nice, larger display over a small handheld display that I could easily misplace...

[scanner95]

Originally Posted by stanger89

As much as I love Sage, it's nowhere close to a Squeezebox for music.

Agreed. I run both SB server and SageTV server software on my server, and yes, I have two boxes (HD-200 and SB3) in my living room.
If you REALLY want to have just one box, then you could build a PC with some virtualization software; run SageTV client on one virtual machine, and SqueezePlay or Softsqueeze one another machine. As for control and display - most people use remote controls of some sort, be it Android, iPhone or Logitech controller.
A cool thing would be if HD-300 could be made dual boot, and you could select whether you run native Sage extender image, or SB emulation. But this will never happen, I suppose.

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by scanner95

A cool thing would be if HD-300 could be made dual boot, and you could select whether you run native Sage extender image, or SB emulation. But this will never happen, I suppose.

Never say, never...please check out this plugin HERE

Eddy

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by stanger89

As much as I love Sage, it's nowhere close to a Squeezebox for music.

If you're only talking about the analogue audio output of course

[stanger89]

Well actually I was talking about the management, organization, playback options (dynamic playlists anyone?). Sage is OK, but it doesn't have near the capabilities of Squeezecenter or J River Media Center.