Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99

Posted by: Cris

Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 23/11/2005 07:23

Not sure how widley they sent the e-mail but Roku are offering the M500 (basic LCD model) for $99 if you buy direct and use the code SB5GIFT at checkout. That's a thrid off, so not a bad deal, if only Slim Devices would match the deal.

Thought it may be useful someone on here. Did anyone else get sent deals for their other models?

Cheers

Cris.
Posted by: furtive

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 23/11/2005 08:57

I ordered the M1000 this morning. Expansys (UK) had it for £25 cheaper than Roku themselves.

How does the Soundbridge compare to the Squeezebox?
Posted by: andym

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 23/11/2005 10:22

Is that available in the UK? I bought a Netgear MP101 a while back, a bargain at £25, although the supplied software is shite.
Posted by: tman

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 23/11/2005 10:26

Quote:
Is that available in the UK?

The UK site doesn't list the M500 at all so I guess not. If they even do ship it to you from the US then the savings are probably wiped out because of the extra P&P and potential import charges.
Posted by: Cris

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 23/11/2005 15:20

Yea, i think it's a US only offer I think, direct from their US store

I am still waiting for the squeezebox to come down in price, Scan had them for £117 (wired) but they are out of stock! I use slimserver for all my music here, running the Java Client on the multiple machines in the house, the best one being on the CCTV server, that feeds what is playing onto the CCTV channel on all the TV's along with the camera outputs, I use that all the time in the kitchen, changing songs from my mobile.

Roku doesn't do it for me, but at that price it is very tempting.

Cheers

Cris.
Posted by: SuperQ

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 24/11/2005 00:38

I can't speak for roku.. but I just picked up a new squeezebox 3, it's amazing
Posted by: peter

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 25/11/2005 13:08

Quote:
I can't speak for roku.. but I just picked up a new squeezebox 3, it's amazing

Is it gapless track-to-track, on continuous mixes or on stuff like The Wall or Sergeant Pepper?

Inquiring minds would like to know...

Peter
Posted by: SuperQ

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 25/11/2005 21:22

Hrm.. looks like yes for FLAC.
http://lists.slimdevices.com/archives/discuss/2003-November/021284.html

mp3 support is "supposedly" but I need to batch-encode some test files to tell you for sure. I will test and let you know.
Posted by: tonyc

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 26/11/2005 15:52

I'm a new Squeezebox3 owner myself, and I just gave Dark Side of The Moon a quick run-through on my Squeezebox3. It sounded gapless to me. It's hard for me to tell if they're "cheating" (cross-fading the tracks a tiny bit to achieve a gapless effect) but it sounded like a true gapless transition to me. One thing I did notice in testing this out is that the Squeezebox crashes when rewinding past the beginning of a track (at least with my LAME-encoded VBR mp3s.)
Posted by: peter

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 26/11/2005 16:54

Quote:
It's hard for me to tell if they're "cheating" (cross-fading the tracks a tiny bit to achieve a gapless effect)

If they're MP3s, that wouldn't really be cheating -- it's a perfectly valid way of doing it, especially if it's not reading the Lame headers.

Peter
Posted by: Daria

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 27/11/2005 05:28

Quote:

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font>
It's hard for me to tell if they're "cheating" (cross-fading the tracks a tiny bit to achieve a gapless effect)
</blockquote><font class="post">
If they're MP3s, that wouldn't really be cheating -- it's a perfectly valid way of doing it, especially if it's not reading the Lame headers.

Peter



Eh, what makes it correct? I mean, why do I not want the last frame of one mp3 to end and the first frame of the next mp3 to begin, as opposed to even a slight crossfade?
Posted by: Roger

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 27/11/2005 08:28

Quote:

why do I not want the last frame of one mp3 to end and the first frame of the next mp3 to begin, as opposed to even a slight crossfade?



Because the frames are fixed length (38th of a second), and might have some silence in them.

You either need to spot this (which is what gapless on the Karma does), or you need to crossfade a little, blurring the edges.
Posted by: peter

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 27/11/2005 10:24

Quote:

Because the frames are fixed length (38th of a second), and might have some silence in them.


And, further, the MP3 algorithm can't encode arbitrary data starting at sample 0 -- it needs a bit of a "run up". So MP3 encoders typically only attempt to represent the input waveform starting at a point several hundred samples into the output waveform. Lame stores a special header saying exactly where in the actual output waveform, the intended output waveform begins. Other encoders don't, and you've got to use heuristics.

Peter
Posted by: furtive

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 29/11/2005 20:11

My Roku Soundbridge M1000 arrived today and I just have to say

BEST GADGET EVER*




*since I got the empeg

It's awesome and I want another for the bedroom.
Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 30/11/2005 00:08

What makes the Roku better than the new Squeezebox? (other than $100 difference in price $199 versus $299 for Slim)

What I think is lacking in both usints is video output for connection to a TV. Navigation seems to stink on both of them unless you were to use something like a PocketPC device through a web interface. The displays are too small to see from a distance and they definitely lack the depth of information I want to see when navigating or setting up playlists.

The Sonos looks pretty interesting, but filthy expensive. Not unreasonably priced, just too much for this buyer right now. Though I can say the same thing about the Roku and Slim products when compared to the empeg.

Bruno
Posted by: adavidw

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 30/11/2005 01:07

I haven't researched them in depth, but for me it's probably going to come down to the fact that the Roku does WMA DRM. I've got a Yahoo Music subscription for my Carbon, and I'd like to listen to those songs somewhere besides the Carbon or my computer if possible.

The Squeezebox had a bit of an edge for a while because it's got integrated ethernet<->wireless bridge functionality. However, I just recently bought a 2nd WRT54g to bridge my networks together, so that's no longer a plus for me.

I'm right there with you on the video out thing, though. I'd given some thought to Roku's PhotoBridge player, but that's the same problem in reverse, since there's no on-device display. What I want is a device with a high quality VFD display, compatibility with any audio format I might want to use, logical and sensible navigation and searching of songs, a choice of server software, video out with a well designed and good looking UI for the TV, kick-ass visualizations for both the TV out and the VFD, integrated ethernet and wireless, and digital out. Oh, and for less than $100. What's so hard about that?
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 30/11/2005 13:00

People often state that they want devices like this to have a TV console. While I'm not opposed to one existing, honestly, I don't want to have to turn on my TV to listen to music. (And, yes, I know you're not suggesting using the TV as audio output.)
Posted by: peter

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 30/11/2005 13:38

Quote:
What I want is a device with a high quality VFD display, compatibility with any audio format I might want to use, logical and sensible navigation and searching of songs, a choice of server software, video out with a well designed and good looking UI for the TV, kick-ass visualizations for both the TV out and the VFD, integrated ethernet and wireless, and digital out. Oh, and for less than $100. What's so hard about that?

Heaven knows. Such a thing is very obviously the thing that needs making. (You won't get VFD for $100, but I'd check out the LCD on the Netgear MP101 if you think that all LCDs are as bad as the Receiver one.)

Peter
Posted by: tonyc

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 30/11/2005 15:48

Well, I can't speak for the Roku, but wiith the Squeezebox, a TV display is quite doable. Not TV-out from the device, of course, but it'd be pretty easy to cook up something that runs on a networked PC and connects to the player to find out what's playing, song position, etc. and displays it on a TV. Likewise, a UI for browsing and selecting music wouldn't be too tough, especially since the slim server is written entirely in Perl, so stealing their routines for browsing/searching the music library should be a snap.

Of course, this all assumes you can spend some time hacking, and won't be as pretty as if the device had TV-out built in (no visuals, etc.) but with a little work, could end up looking pretty nice.
Posted by: furtive

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 30/11/2005 15:51

Just need a little PC in your living room with TV out to do that shirley?
Posted by: Cris

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 30/11/2005 16:31

Yes it would, but that's not important right now, and stop calling me Shirley!

Sorry couldn't resist

Cheers

Cris.
Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 01/12/2005 02:15

Doing that you're half-way to replacing the Squeezebox. Because now all it's doing is acting as a remote LCD. Sure, it's still playing the music, but you could easily do that with software running on that same PC also being served by SlimServer.

The idea with the Squeezebox is allowing you to have the server PC somewhere that is not practical to connect it to the TV. As it stands, I actually have a media PC right under my TV. And it has a small VFD in it (which I'm not currently using).... I still haven't put my music archive onto it yet though. Still use the empeg connected to the stereo system.

I like the Soundbridge and Squeezebox, I just don't think they're quite there yet. But yes, there are a few ways to enhance their functionality, including the use of a PSP or PocketPC to browse the music.

Bruno
Posted by: adavidw

Re: Roku Soundbridge M500 for $99 - 01/12/2005 02:55

Quote:
Such a thing is very obviously the thing that needs making.


Indeed. Be sure to mention that to some of those customers of Sigmatel when you get the chance.