The (current) plan is to ship the next version sat on top of a Microsoft Access database
Brrr, that gives me the shivers.
it'll run on SQL server if you want to hack with it a little
even more scarrier...

Have you guys ever though of an LDAP-backend? It's got a lot of usable features in the protocol, due to it's hierarchical access-methods.
- unlimited depth in playlist structure.
- unlimited database size through references to other servers
- integration with DNS (eg: give a player an ip-address & domain name with bootp/dhcp and it can find the rest itself )
- controlled access to other people's servers using ACL's which can allow/deny on IP/username/time of day/database query
- platform independant
- fast,stable and low on resources (well, openldap is. Netscape is another story)
and from a commercial viewpoint:
- have client-databases updated/synchronized with a central internet-server. Think of distributing LDAP-links to shoutcast, free/demo MP3 servers or ad-servers ( I can imagine coca-cola scrolling on the display ). It could even work sort as a TIVO...

If I can get some decent MP3 software to run on the receiver, I think I'm gonna try to write a simple player app. I'm just so used to the empeg's userinterface. After 1.03 for a while, I'm longing for wendy-filters...

I'm not saying MS-stuff is bad; I think both backends are each-others opposites. Access is designed for single-user access and SQLserver would seem overkill.


Frank van Gestel