Greetings All,

First off, thanks to all of you still keeping this forum alive. I've had my empeg for a good 5 years or so now, and I've been browsing the forums off and on ever since the first time I broke it (~5 years minus 1 week). Needless to say, they've been an invaluable resource.

My question today deals with Internet radio streams and the Empeg. Specifically, can it be done, and if so, how much work would I need to put in to get returns? I currently work for a company putting out an embedded Linux box for EV-DO/HSDPA routing over 802.11a/b/g (we're using the Soekris net45x1 board for anyone interested) but what this comes down to is that I currently have Internet connectivity in my car on the way to/from work every day. Not being one to waste, I've been using it to play Shoutcast streams on a laptop and sending the audio to the Aux-In on the Empeg, and it's amazing getting audio piped across the planet and out the speakers. The two problems that have come about so far are:

a). It's distracting having to set the connection up through XMMS on the laptop and changing stations while driving is just a crash waiting to happen
b). Setting line levels reduces the quality about ten-fold. The soundcard on the laptop is certainly nothing special.

So, what would be required to switch the functionality over to the Empeg? I'm no stranger to Linux in general and I'm currently studying to be a Comp Sci major. If needed, I can immerse myself in code, but before I start I'd like to throw out a few feelers as to the total amount of work required to get this to work. I'd like a relatively clean solution, ex. be able to select the stations through the playlist system if possible, but I'm willing to settle for dirty if it means a good deal less headache for me. The two main problems I foresee are buffering the audio and hooking into the menu system, but if I'm missing something huge let me know. I've already downloaded the cross-compile toolchain and I'm looking through kernel documentation now but I have absolutely no idea where to start. Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks,
John Weigele

There has already been some work done along the lines of porting other kinds of player software to the empeg platform, replacing its existing player software. I seem to recall that some of them even played streams (although I could be wrong about this). A high degree of fit-n-finish wasn't ever achieved, but I know there were working prototypes. Anyone got links?

Another option is the one where you install the empeg player "rio receiver" version, which emulates the rio receiver, and then tweak a server-app so that it'll translate streams to rio receiver units. Dunno if anyone's ever tried that, though. I think all the existing Rio Receiver replacements were a combination of client+server, I dunno if anyone ever did a server-only version that'll send streams to a normal Rio Receiver.

This shouldn't require writing *any* new code. Just a matter of porting the shoutcast client of one's choice to run under Linux on the empeg. Kill off the player application, start the shoutcast client. Connect via ethernet to your wireless gizmo.

Cheers