Smart Home Blog

Recently the mCubed, well-known producer stylish small factor PC, presented its new device – RIPNAS. It combines Audio CD ripping, Network Attached Storage and Media Streaming in one easy to use small, quiet and fanless box. The CD ripping is fully automated and it doesn’t need user interaction. The metadata is retrieved 4 providers – AMG, GD3, MusicBrainz, freedb, with quality album art, spelling mistakes are automatically corrected using PerfectMeta technology. Ripped to a lossless format CDs are automatically shared for streaming for various network media players such Sonos, Logitech Squeezebox, uPNP/DLNA compatible players and iTunes DAAP.

The RIPNAS is based on Windows Home Server which offers complete home network backup for all family Windows PCs. It’s available with 640Gb HDD. But storage capacity can be easily extended by connecting external USB drivers.

The price of RIPNAS is not so cheap – €995.00. You can buy even semiprofessional solution with RAID support and many others options. IMHO it isn’t reasonable money for possibility to rip your CDs (and not DVDs). The lack of gigabit Ethernet is also not an advantage.

[via TestFreask]

Roku – a leader in Internet-connected digital media players, has selected Qt for Embedded Linux® to be integrated into a soon-to-be-announced multimedia streaming product:

Roku chose Qt because of its ability to quickly create a rich user interface, providing an important time-to-market advantage. Qt also delivers the ability to support multiple operating systems and devices from a single codebase. As with all versions of Qt, developers are able to focus on building the core value of each product, instead of platform-specific maintenance. Qt also eliminates the need to invest resources in multiple languages, toolkits and environments.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Sqeezebox together with SlimServer is the easiest way to create a multiroom music system. Now with plug-in mceSoftsqueeze it’s possible to use Windows MCE as a Softsqueeze – software emulator of real Sqeezebox. It logs into SlimServer (preferably installed on a separate networked PC) and can be managed directly from your Media Center’s 10-foot interface and remote in your entertainment area.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Recently I wrote about MaemoMyth which allows to watch TV streamed from the MythTV box to Nokia 770 and N800. Now it’s time for iPhone and ipod Touch to be clients for the open source PVR. Both gadgets handle a specific version of the MPEG-4 standard, as well as H264 video streams. So, that brief howto explains the way to make an iPod stream from your MythTV server. Additionally you can find there many working (I hope) scripts and code snippets.

Regarding to MaemoMyth. It does not just offer a way to display video stream on the Internet Tablet. It allows to use Nokia 770 or N800 as a full-featured MythTV client. But in case of iPhone or iPod Touch you get just possibility to watch video. Nothing more.

Sonos announced its new bundle to build multi-room music system. Now you can get two ZonePLayers ZP80 and ZP100 and controller for $1000. Moreover, good news for all Pandora fans. The new bundle is integrated with Pandora. Just for $4 per month you’ll able to stream “nerds’ favorite recommendation-based customized internet radio” to your rooms.

I’d like to note that Squeezebox includes that possibility maybe for years.