[SlimDevices: Beginners] Anyone without problems?..

[lork]

Hello, Raffo333-

I should start by mentioning that I love my Squeezebox/Duet & it's
stable (now). I did have trouble at the beginning- but I was listening
to music within hours of opening the box, though it wasn't till the
next morning that the controller was working perfectly. Other problems
I made for myself by pushing the device limits, so that's different.

As to your immediate issue: the blue light means the receiver can't
find the server (your computer). I have found that, when this sort of
trouble erupts (I have brought it on myself often by doing everything
the hard way- linux, installing MusicIP headless, etc etc), sometimes
unplugging the receiver for 30 seconds (from both power & ethernet) and
then plugging it back in can make things work. Simple, & worth a try.
When I do this, I usually restart the server too just to make sure
everything's fresh when I plug the receiver back in. Nb: when you power
cycle the receiver, you may have to set it up using the controller
again. Sometimes it takes the controller a while to see it show up on
the network... try a time or two, wait 5 minutes, try again if that
happens.

Also, from your log it looks like there's an issue with mySQL... I
think this needs to run OK for Squeezecenter to work. You might check
that your firewall is permitting everything from Squeezecenter and
"mysqld".

With luck, that will help.

=========
Re: your complaint that 3 days of reading have you feeling this is all
super complicated...

It -_is_- complicated, depending on how you do it. However, beyond the
question of getting the Duet/Squeezebox to work with your Vista
machine, none of the rest of the issues are Slim Devices' fault. Their
device does a good job connecting a Mac or Windows machine to the
stereo. It's also extremely versatile re: plug-ins, running on linux,
etc.

But setting up a NAS or linux server, or deciding how to rip your music
library- those are big jobs (or were for me). But that's not Slim
Devices' issue- you'd need to rip your library no matter what you got,
and also figure out how to store/serve it.

So my (more general) advice:

- Run everything off your Vista machine. Setting up a server
(especially linux or a NAS) will be a headache... wait until you want
to undertake that task. Worth it for me, but maybe not for you.
Certainly a server (especially a NAS or linux one) is not required-
just convenient.

- If you already have MP3s, etc, just listen to them, and rip your new
CDs (and/or go back to rip old ones to FLAC) at leisure. It's a big job
to rip a library- take your time and figure out how to do it right,
since you'll never want to do it again. Doing it slowly will minimize
the pain too. dBPoweramp seems to be the most hassle-free of the ways
to rip your library- I'm a loyal EAC user, but if the hassles are
getting you down (and especially if you're about to embark on ripping a
whole music collection), use dBPoweramp, if only for the particularly
good track labeling it will do- worth the $35.

- BACK UP YOUR MUSIC LIBRARY. Do this BEFORE you start messing with the
tags (track names)... too much time invested to have a mistake (or a bad
hard drive) cost you. Storage is cheap these days (I got 500G external
drive for $95 from Amazon).

- Server: if you want a dedicated one, you can short-circuit a lot of
hassles by just using another XP or Vista box. Only try a NAS or Linux
if you want to learn how to do it/undertake a project. Bonus:
experience with linux/NAS, free OS. Cost: your time. I like Linux, but
it is not as plug-n-play as XP or Vista, at least if your experience is
mostly XP (as mine is).

- Once you're done with everything else, and feel like another project,
do check out MusicIP. It's awfully cool.


-- 
lork
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