Hello,

I've spotted a possible alternative to the Rio receiver. Check out the network audio player (NP200) at www.imerge.co.uk

At the moment it looks like you need an imerge sound server product to access files from but it has an Ethernet socket and so may be open to 'customisation'. Also it has a digital audio output but cannot play FLAC/Ogg out of the box. Not sure about the price and I don't know if it is available to but yet but it looks pretty good - any comments/thoughts?



I sent them an email asking about future PC and Flac/Ogg support - I'll let everyone know if they come back with an answer.....



Cheers



Chris

I got this reply from imerge:-

Dear Chris,

The Imerge NP200 requires an Imerge S2000 SoundServer as an audio
source, not a PC, to supplement it's internal AM/FM radio and the
Internet Radio functions.
The S2000 and the NP200 can both only decode WAV and MP3 files
(128/160/192/192VBR/320 Kb/s) and this is unlikely to change for the
foreseeable future.
You can transfer these file formats from PC to the SoundServer using
XiVA Producer Software.

If you have any more questions then please do not hesitate to contact
us.

All the best.

I've seen a couple recent dedicated client/server net boxes pop up at CES and proposal shows. This one looks like with some work a replacement kernel off PC might work, but it would be quite some work. Saw it in MN.

None interest me due to the dedicated server nonsense. Why duplicate all the work I've already done to encode my cds for the EMPEG?

Ed

From the photo this looks like a clone of the Onkyo NC500 (see

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?class=nettune&m=NC-500&p=i

) which comes with (downloadable) PC server software and looks like a MUCH more interesting version of the same thing. I'm downloading the manual right now to see what it will do.

The two other boxes which look interesting are both Ethernet-equipped DVD players. The D2730 from Sonic Blue ( but under GoVideo rather than Rio branding ) here:

http://www.sonicblue.com/company/press.asp?ID=580

(wonder if this will work with the existing Rio Server software?) priced at $250 RRP, and from a company in Denmark, the Kiss DP500

http://www.kiss-technology.com/projects/dvd_500.asp

which has the kicker of playing not only MP3 streamed audio and MPEG2 video, but also DivX!

The other product which is supposed to be out there but has zero coverage so far is the Philips Streamium:

http://www.audio.philips.com/streamium/mci200.asp

which might be OK apart from the horrible styling. Looks like 2003 will be interesting!

Brgds
Phil

Cheers for the info....

It looks like the Onkyo and Imerge units are identical apart from the Onkyo swaps the optical digital output for a tv-output. I wonder if the Imerge would work with the Onkyo net-tune software?

Also - I wonder how the architecture on these units compares to the rio. e.g. in theory would they play back flac and/ogg files given the right software....?

What about this Motorola Wireless one :

http://www.commercemarketplace.com/estore/liquidmetalmp3/specs/motorolasimplefi_specs.html

Anyone seen / used one ?

Update on the Imerge unit:- I sent them another email and got an interesting response.....

Chris,

The NP200 is primarily sold to work with the S2000 although I recently
understand that it will work with Onkyo's PC software but this is
unsupported. Many thanks for the codec / music format suggests, these will
be passed on to our developers feature wish list.

If you have any queries then please don't hesitate to contact us.

Regards

Simon

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 17 January 2003 14:38
To: [email protected]
Subject: Website Customer Support Enquiry


Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by
([email protected]) on Friday, January 17, 19103 at 14:38:27
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

B1: Submit to Imerge Support

Message: Hello,

I emailed you a couple of weeks ago enquiring about the Network audio player
NP200. I was informed that it could not be used with a PC and that files
could only be served up by the S2000 SoundServer. I have since spotted
this:- http://www.onkyo.net/uk/cms/products/home/av_rec/TX-NR900E/index.htm
and this:- http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=NC-500&class=nettune&p=i -
both devices carry the same net-tune logo as the NP200 and both can playback
files stored on a PC via the downloadable net-tune software - can the NP200
be used in the same way? The reason I ask is that the NP200 is the only one
which sports the optical digital output which I would like to have. One last
question does the NP200 support the new windows media audio lossless
compression format included in windows media audio version 9:-
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/quality.asp



Also a couple of other nice-to-haves would be ogg vorbis support:-
http://www.vorbis.com/ - No nasty gaps between tracks like you get with MP3
plus it is open source and free to use. Also FLAC support
http://flac.sourceforge.net/ - Again a good lossless compressor which is
open source and free.

Cheers in advance

Chris