(Refer to press release in the Announcements forum)

I'll answer a few questions that were asked before..

The software for this product was developed by the team in Cambridge.

The first version of the software does not synchronise with the car player - it does support the Rio 600, Rio 800, Nike 60/120, Rio Receiver and (via CDR burn) Rio Volt. We hope to add car player support to a later version (but it requires a lot more thought, as two-way synchronisation would probably be called for).

The product runs Linux. You can plug in a USB keyboard and get a shell up on the screen (I'll leave it for someone to work out how, though!).

The product has two USB master sockets as well as a slave socket. If you want Ethernet, you can plug in one of the supported USB to Ethernet adapters. HPNA is built in as standard.

The fan is very quiet, and variable speed depending upon the temperature inside the box. Most of the time it doesn't spin.

Rob

Yes i can see synching with the car player would need alot of head scratching but i have a more important qustion can you get a waving Tux at start up.

Surprised not too see ethernet but if you can get it via ehernet no probs

So when are we going to see any demos in europe offical or otherwise

Congratulations guys! If the excellence of the Riocar platform is anything to go by, It's already an outstanding unit!

first questions off the rank:
is the OS upgradeable and how?
is it hackable or are you having to be a bit more tight lipped with the code?
are the hard disks upgradeable?
What are the other I/Os?
Will it have Prolux Visuals?!!!

This is one sweet unit. Too bad it probably costs several million in AU$

Wow what a product! A few questions/comments.

Is there a pc emplode type remote management software for it? I know that for my setup leaving a usb keyboard hanging around my already crowded audio center would not be appreciated. I hope that the USB connector is on the front!!

The price is a bit high. I had figured that this was the kind of product you were working on, but I thought with the larger form factor the price would be lower, like sub $1K.

Otherwise I want one!!

John

The new product will only be available in the USA for now. International release is more of an issue than for the Receiver because there are network infrastructure matters to be considered.

Rob, I fail to spot anything in the press release that would be the base for the above statement (from the Rio Receiver bbs)....

Care to elaborate?

/Michael

... And is the protocol the same as the Empeg? i.e. Will third party apps work w/o modification?

Mike

Is there a pc emplode type remote management software for it?.

emplode v2.0b3 works completely as you'd expect with it. It will ship with emplode
v1.50, however.

I hope that the USB connector is on the front!!

One host connector is on the front, the other host connector (and the slave connector) is on the back.

The 56K modem needs an ISP. Sonicblue don't have one lined up in Europe. Plus other issues like that.

But if you use the Ethernet to connect your ADSL connection that will work right ? Or are SonicBlue going to in some way prevent those of us outside the US doing that as well ?

No, that'll work just fine. Rather preferred too, for large online software updates.

Hugo

no way of getting cddb over ethernet simply as most folk with one of these is going to have an ISP or enter your logo on details via emplode or front panal

CDDB is on disk, up to a point (about 450,000 titles). If it's newer than that, it needs a net connection to tag correcty - but it will back-annotate any CDs that need tagging at that point.

Hugo

> is the OS upgradeable and how?

It runs Linux in the same way as the car player (double boot from flash and so forth). The kernel could be patched in just the same way.

> is it hackable or are you having to be a bit more tight lipped with the code?

I'm not sure what you mean by hackable. You can get a Linux console right up on the screen with a USB keyboard. The database, software and so forth will look quite familiar to someone who has experience with the car player.

> are the hard disks upgradeable?

There won't be an official upgrade path as far as I know. Unofficially, the product ships with a CD which will build a new disk.

> What are the other I/Os?

2 x USB Master (1 on the front, 1 at the back)
1 x USB Slave
Analogue out on RCA's
Digital out on TOS Link
Home PNA
Telephone
Consumer IR (for supplied remote control)

The USB provides for USB-Ethernet, keyboard and joy pad (you can play SDL games).

> Will it have Prolux Visuals?!!!

Yes!

Rob

Yes, you can connect to the net (for tags or software updates etc) via Ethernet or PNA instead of the modem, if you have a suitable LAN.

Rob

CDDB on the disk now that is incredable anything else like this that might make it over to the empeg.

How would that be useful on the empeg? It's only of use to products which can rip/encode by themselves.

Rob

Give us some tech specs...

How fast StrongARM it has?

What is the screen resolution, bitdepth and refresh rate?

How the screen is illuminated? Backlit? Separate contrast/brightness control?

Kim

206Mhz StrongARM
16Mb RAM
1Mb Flash
320x240x4bpp greyscale (OK, bluescale) screen

CPU utilisation is far nearer the max than with the car player, as this product background rips and encodes.

Rob

What speed is the CD drive in the machine for burning?

I still have mixed feelings about if I would really use one, but it does seem to be a very nice product. From the blurrs on the pictures on RioCar.org, it looks like the screen is bright enough to elliminate the need of either standing next to the unit or using a TV as a monitor for the device.

More importantly than the speed (for me anyway) is what encoding software is being used and what kinds of options can be configured for it? Does it support VBR? Does it support the finesse of the latest LAME encoders? The encoder is what can make/break this type of product for the discriminating crowd. Other than that, everything else sounds very sweet.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this product goes far for Sonicblue.

Bruno

Well, I guess there's only one major outstanding question - how do we convince PaulH to start an HSX-109 forum?

What has the reception been like from press & public at the CES, Rob?

Also, how do you think it compares to the HP MusicCentre? Have you had anyone comment or make comparisons?

CDDB is on disk, up to a point (about 450,000 titles). If it's newer than that, it needs a net connection to tag correcty

Yeah, but that assumes that CDDB information is correct, which it usually (okay, often) isn't. What are our options for fixing it? Can we update the track information ourselves? Can we update the built-in CDDB? Can we submit updates to the official CDDB? Can we use a different CDDB server? Can we update the on-disk database manually?

Also, can the device be used as a CD transport? That is, can it read the cdda data off the CD (or however you want to put/do it) and immedately send it over the TOSlink without reencoding it? Or even just as a normal CD player, sending the audio over the RCA cables?

CES is January 8th - 11th 2002 - but they choose their award winners ahead of time so they can showcase them throughout the show.

I've never used an HP MusicCentre so I can't comment on how we compare.

Rob

It'll burn at 8x after imaging the disk (which can take longer than 8x, though).

Hugo

It uses ARM's MP3 encoder and our own ripper. The ripper is about as good as it gets - it can rip damaged CD's that most programs throw up at. The encoder is ARM's optimised Fraunhoffer engine, which a certain empeg developer worked on while he was at ARM. To get a nice unbiased opinion I asked him if it's any good: "Yes it's very good. And it was very expensive."

So there you have it

We don't currently offer VBR encode (playback is no problem), but you can select your CBR bitrate. If you want you can have the player automatically encode a second file at a different bitrate for downloading to portables.

Rob

This is CDDB2; the info is better than the "free" CDDB database (eg, few truncated titles, genre & year info, etc). It's the same stuff that you get with (eg) a registered version of musicmatch.

You can update the track info yourselves, by hitting the edit button, by plugging in a USB keyboard, or via emplode.

You can't change CDDB server (there is only one; the gracenote one), and can't upgrade the database yourself (there may be updates available, however, but they are ~400MB. Incremental updates may come later).

It can be used as a CD transport to just play a CD, yes.

Hugo

And yes, it has separate contrast/brightness controls. it's a CCFL backlight.

The screen is actually 480x320, not 320x240 rob!

Hugo

The screen is nice - quite bright, decent resolution, nice shade. Colour TFT would be nicer but probably not necessary for this application. As with the car player, there's a choice of display modes, some of which give lots of detail in small type, and others (such as Transient) which give just the essentials in large type. The HSX transient mode is rather cute - it looks just like Top of The Pops.

The text display modes can be overlayed on top of the visuals, which is quite sweet.

Rob

Wow, Hugo, the product is even better than I realised! I'm gonna order mine NOW!



Rob