Well, after playing with my new empeg for the better part of the day, I have to say wow!

I thought I managed to crash emplode once, but that was just because I added a directory to it with about 10 CDs worth of music, and it was just taking a while to figure out what I did to it.

Adding music is a breeze, and I now have to come up with a better method for organization. I've been reading the posts about how people plan on organizing their music, but I've put it off until I had a chance to actually navigate the music myself.

The one thing I miss from my Alpine is a mute button. It used to drop 10 "levels" off the volume. i.e. if I had the volume at 25, it dropped to 15. I don't remember if this was in db or not, but I doubt it. I know that I can pause playback, but that's not what I'm looking for. When I pull up to a toll booth, the attendant probably doesn't want to hear More Human Than Human at 0db, but I don't want to pause it just to pay the toll. This is a minor thing, and if my last stereo didn't have it, I probably wouldn't even think of it.

I went straight for ethernet when I hooked it up, and since I've got DHCP running at work, it worked magically. No problems finding the empeg at all. Now I just have to get ipchains running on my empeg, because as soon as I had it turned on, the guys in my office were running port scans on it, and trying to telnet/ftp into it.

As for the wow factor, what can I say? To quote John Gaeta (visual effects director for The Matrix,) "The empeg kicks holy a**!" OK, so I'm paraphrasing a bit here, but you get the idea. Two of the guys in my office are now seriously thinking about getting empegs, and two more said something like "Wow, that's COOL!" Keep in mind I've only showed it to four people there so far. Not bad percentage wise. Even my wife liked it, although she only likes the starfield visualization...

OK, this post has gotten long enough, I guess I ought to get to bed now.


-Trevor

Mark 2, Green 12GB #080000349

Hehe, I like the starfield visual too.

I had the same reactions as you, although I've had much less chance to actually use it and haven't shown it to anyone but the installers and my parents, but the reaction was great on all parts! One good note about the installers. Yes, they were wary of the computer technical side of the empeg, but they were fully aware that this is the future in car audio. They said something to the effect of "man, this thing is the future! and I'm scared of the future!" To me, that means they recognize the importance of this thing, and they know they are going to have to familiarize themselves with this type of thing in order to do business successfully in the future.

Anyway, they were very impressed, even though I told the guy there wasn't a tuner in it yet. He also thought the new design was very good.

Oh, if anyone else here lives in the DC metro area, I went to a place called Sound Solutions in Chantilly. I took 495 south to 66 west to 50...north? 50 towards Fair Oaks. Then left onto Lee rd and the shopping center is on the right. Here's their website.
The site isn't too impressive but their knowledge is. And you gotta like that batmobile limo...

...oh yeah, empeg rocks!

DiGNAN
13653

I thought I managed to crash emplode once, but that was just because I added a directory to it with about 10 CDs worth of music, and it was just taking a while to figure out what I did to it.

There's a problem in Windows that causes Drag-and-Drop to deadlock both applications while the file import is proceeding. This is bad. Windows 2000 provides a way to do drag and drop (from Explorer) asynchronously. I've had a look at this, but nothing yet.

I'm considering adding a progress dialog to the file import if it takes a long time, but that's proving tricky as well. We shall see.


Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

Now I just have to get ipchains running on my empeg, because as soon as I had it turned on, the guys in my office were running port scans on it, and trying to telnet/ftp into it.

Jesus Christ, where do you work? Sounds like a place where you have to be on your toes all the time!

___________
Tony Fabris

I'm considering adding a progress dialog to the file import if it takes a long time

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd just like to have something like a "percent done" about the progress bar. I know these are usually not a great read of how much is actually done (it could take 10 minutes to go from 30% to 40%, then 1 to go from 40% to 60%), but the first time I started synching, I wasn't sure if it was showing the progress of just one song, just one playlist, or the whole thing. I know now that it shows the progress of the whole thing so that's good. I'd still like to see a "percent done" or even, if possible, a "time left".

Other than that, I was really impressed with the software.

By the way, I know this has probably been asked before, but I didn't understand the manual. What exactly are "unattached items"?

DiGNAN
13653

My favorite are the status bars that approach the end, and you think you're done, and it resets at zero to do something else. A la that funny scene in Office Space.

By the way, I know this has probably been asked before, but I didn't understand the manual. What exactly are "unattached items"?

They're tunes that somehow came unstuck from their parent playlists. If you're familiar with Unix, it's analogous to the "lost+found" directory.

If you get any files in there, then there was a minor database inconsistency. You can just put the tunes back where they're supposed to be. If it happens regularly (particularly if you can reproduce it) - I've seen it happen a couple of times when emplode's not managed to delete tunes from the player properly, let us know.





Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

I'm the Network Administrator the School of Business at a University. They just did it to have fun... However, I did lose a Linux box to a hacker here.

I left ftp open so I could move files back and forth, and succumbed to a buffer overflow in WU-FTP. It's no fun when you try to log in as root, and nothing happens...


-Trevor

Mark 2, Green 12GB #080000349

Edited by trevorp on 24/8/00 08:33 PM.

The one thing I miss (..) is a mute button. It used to drop 10 "levels" off the volume.

Agree, continued plat at reduced volume is much nicer that having to stop (pause) the player. Put it up on the 'Wish List' xetion of this board. I suggested the same thing (with the option to drop to set the 'drop' in settings) about a year ago. It's a nice feauture: use it at home a lot. Maybe the empeg folks can find a lost 15 minutes to put it in . . . .

Henno
mk2 6 nr 6