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[leef]

Okay here's the skinny: I like music. I like it a lot. Currently, I have two CX455 Sony 400 disc cd changers. They support mp3s/cdrs and are also connected to each other; when on random, they play off each other (kinda generic mixing the current track into the next).

ANYWAYS, long story short, it doesnt have a very good random system so I sold 'em both in replace for a digital version. I figure i can get a few thousand albums on a hard drive, and was initially thinking of getting an external firewire drive to keep all my alnum on it, so i could use it for playing at the house and take my library to someone else's house. Then i thought, "shit, i have an xbox... Leef, you need to find out if XBMC (or similar) would be suitable. You should go onto xbox-scene" and here i am.

So, does xbmc read directories with a few hundred (and possibly thousand) folders? Can the system handle that? Is there a truely random option, is it possible to create groups? Will my xbox explode?     <

[evilnick]

I've got about 160Gb of music stored on my PC accessed through SMB from XBMC.

I'm also after a similar effect, but adding that many tracks to a playlist, then shuffling it would take (guessing here) probably around 20 minutes to complete.

I'll do a test tonight and let you know.

Also, crossfading isn't supported in XBMC. I wish it were as it'd be extra professional-sounding at a party or whatever but the headache of queueing up and buffering the next song as well as the currently playing song would be difficult under SMB...

This post has been edited by evilnick: Mar 5 2004, 01:10 PM <

[christer]

QUOTE (evilnick @ Mar 5 2004, 01:57 PM)

Also, crossfading isn't supported in XBMC. I wish it were as it'd be extra professional-sounding at a party or whatever but the headache of queueing up and buffering the next song as well as the currently playing song would be difficult under SMB...

Why is that? Apple iTunes supports crossfading between songs beautifully, even when accessed over SMB.  <

[leef]

Huh... so do you think XBMC is limited (by hardware, programming) or it just hasnt been written (well) yet?

I didnt really consider using SMB to stream, tho I suppose it's not a bad idea, thinking more about it. I guess I was kinda thinking I could just take my xbox and a few cords over to someones house and spin my music library.  <

[christer]

QUOTE (leef @ Mar 5 2004, 06:52 PM)

I didnt really consider using SMB to stream, tho I suppose it's not a bad idea, thinking more about it. I guess I was kinda thinking I could just take my xbox and a few cords over to someones house and spin my music library.

Should work without a problem. I'm streaming music from my mac server to the Xbox using a wireless ethernet connection. Works without a problem.  <

[CrushedSS]

In my opinion xbmc is not really that great for playing mp3's. I have a lot of mp3's on my xbox and it takes awhile to scan through them all. I prefer using winamp on my pc to play my mp3's. Perhaps this may change in later XBMC builds. I do love how xbmc plays all my xvids.   <

[christer]

QUOTE (CrushedSS @ Mar 5 2004, 07:18 PM)

In my opinion xbmc is not really that great for playing mp3's. I have a lot of mp3's on my xbox and it takes awhile to scan through them all. I prefer using winamp on my pc to play my mp3's.

But.....that's a one-time job, right? You don't have to do it every time you want to play the songs. So I reckon XBMC does heck of a job of p-l-a-y-i-n-g the songs, just (for some) a somewhat slow job of scanning through them. But with the extremely fast development speed of XBMC I reckon this might be improved in future releases.

XBMC is THE king at my home. Rock on!  <

[falser]

I've hosted 2 parties with XBMC running in the background.  It works very well, and has impressed everyone who sees it.  My suggestion: spend the time and make proper playlists.  You can export your Winamp playlists to XBMC with not too much trouble, and that way you can select your favorite songs.  I made separate playlists for Dance, Rock, and Hip Hop, and then queue up the 3 playlists into one big one for most of the party.  That way when the party's really going good you can flip over to just the Dance songs and get down with the ladies, or swtich to Hip Hop when you're swooping in for the kill.  <

[leef]

QUOTE (falser @ Mar 5 2004, 10:08 PM)

I've hosted 2 parties with XBMC running in the background.  It works very well, and has impressed everyone who sees it.  My suggestion: spend the time and make proper playlists.  You can export your Winamp playlists to XBMC with not too much trouble, and that way you can select your favorite songs.  I made separate playlists for Dance, Rock, and Hip Hop, and then queue up the 3 playlists into one big one for most of the party.  That way when the party's really going good you can flip over to just the Dance songs and get down with the ladies, or swtich to Hip Hop when you're swooping in for the kill.

haha okay cool, maybe I'll just buy a new fatty HD for the xbox then. thx  <

[christer]

QUOTE (falser @ Mar 5 2004, 10:08 PM)

My suggestion: spend the time and make proper playlists.  You can export your Winamp playlists to XBMC with not too much trouble.

True. But one thing that I'd like to see in XBMC in a better way to create, and edit playlists. I've never quite understood how it works in XBMC today so I use iTunes to create the playlists today.  <

[christer]

QUOTE (leef @ Mar 5 2004, 11:00 PM)

haha okay cool, maybe I'll just buy a new fatty HD for the xbox then.

A fatty HD is always nice :-)  <

[Keltik]

The ladies always love a hard fatty :
 <

[thepurpledino]

Leef,

Can't go wrong with XBMC.. It keeps getting better and better...

I have 2 devices I use for Streaming MP3's from my PC..

1 - XBMC.. Works great.. Still have some minor issues with the library taking long to load. Once it's loaded, it works great..

2 - I have a device called The AudioTron made by Turtle Beach. AWESOME Stereo component. Does the same thing as XBMC, streams Music from PC shares..

 <

[leef]

QUOTE (thepurpledino @ Mar 6 2004, 03:53 PM)

I have a device called The AudioTron made by Turtle Beach. AWESOME Stereo component. Does the same thing as XBMC, streams Music from PC shares..

funny, i reviewed the Audiotron (I write for a few publications here and there), thought it was decent, although pricey. I did like the share mode (woulda been great with 3-5 people living in the same house) but thought it was also cool that you can listen to internet radio as well.

back to the jukebox, it seems like most of you keep your music on a PC hd, and then stream it... i guess i'm trying to minimalize my jukebox. Before, i had two 20lb cd changers...

if I get a big internal HD for the PC, I can't take it with me AND i have to either play from PC or stream to XBOX, but it's the cheaper then..

if i get an external usb/firewire HD, i CAN take it with me BUT i have to either play from pc or stream to xbox. Also more expensive.

if i get a big internal HD for xbox, i CAN take it with me but then I have to depend on XMBC (and have to transfer mp3s to/from xbox). Cheap, but will XBOX/XBMC handle 700-1000 folders?

and yes, ladies do seem to like the fatty  :lol:  

This post has been edited by leef: Mar 6 2004, 04:40 PM <

[Herg]

I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but in the last week I have set up my collection to be shared via SMB.  It should work very similar using a big HDD.

I have about 750 folder total, but I have never tried to display them all at once.  I have them organized by Genre, Artist, Album.

The largest number of folders I have displayed at one time was about 200, and it worked with no major problems.  It did take about 10-20 seconds to display, but considering I am running over wireless, I can't complain.

I did run into a strange issue that I haven't had time to investigate.  When I loaded a large playlist, it said there were 2000 items.  I have a script that automatically generates my playlists, so I don't know for sure if that playlist actually was exactly 2000 items, or if XBMC only read 2000.

Oh, loading that playlist took less than 30 seconds... over wireless.  <