General Forum

Re: two way remote for music

soundproof — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 03:31:14 GMT

Agree with Peter. B&O picking one-way as standard some years ago is turning out to be less than ideal now, with the digital possibilities opening up.

But it really depends upon what you want. Look at Apple's remote - no screen there. Apple has chosen to have its users interact with their computer screens and televisions, selecting albums, tracks, etc., through those.
In the interest of reducing clutter, and having as few controls as possible, I have gone for Salling Clicker on a WLAN enabled PDA. That means that I get phone, e-mail, remote control and track/album feedback through one unit that also lets me control volume, balance, start recording of programs, etc. Here's that on a PALM:

http://www.tuaw.com/2005/10/23/who-needs-front-row-i-have-salling-clicker-and-a-palm/

And here's what your mobile phone would look like when controlling playback, for instance VLC:

If your PDA or phone is WLAN enabled, you control "everything" over the wireless network at home. I can pick songs from the mediacentre throughout my house, all the way down to the jetty outside where I sit in the evenings. Salling started with Bluetooth, but that has range limitations - with WLAN compatibility, those are gone.

But I would have loved for that unit to be a B&O product, integrated with the rest of the hardware. (B&O should have a chat with Salling).

My dream system would have the storage capacity of the Infrant NAS NV+ used as music server; the wireless transfer quality of Slimdevices or Sonos; the music selection interface of Frontrow; the brilliant controller of Sonos; excellent digital-to-analog conversion; and BeoLab 3/9/5 at the outer end in the various rooms. And it would do both audio and video. Bliss.

I'm looking into whether there are any mod's to the Sonos interface, to enable it being used on other units - or whether there are any similar products out there, that would work through my Mac as media center setup with similar functionality. Give me a heads up if you know of any.
Though I must say that Salling on my PDA delivers for now.

And if B&O cracks that one, they have me landed as a customer for all their units.

You could also look into www.sooloos.com which is a High-End Sonos solution. Personally, I'm more for the Slimdevices Squeezebox or Transporter than Sonos, as the latter doesn't have the absolute quality of the Slimdevices solutions. But Sonos is catching up, and their ZP80 has digital coaxial and optical outs, which means you can get a proper signal all the way to a high-quality, stand alone DAC (or to your BeoLab 5s), wherever you want to do deep listening -- and then just use the standard outs on the ZP80 or ZP100 for "less critical" background listening.

Re: two way remote for music

Peter — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 02:37:28 GMT

The other solution is to use the screens offered by Ridax. The information we need is on the ML system - I get full information on track, artist and album on my BC2. I agree however that this is one area where B&O remote control is lagging badly.

What about a Beoworld campaign through Beovocal to encourage B&O to do something about this? I am impressed with the Sonos interface but would really want a B&O solution.

I suppose we need to identify what we want and then ask for it. From my point of view, it needs to be able to work with a Mac as well as PC. I have over 100Gb of music on my Mac!

My requirements would be a small display - the best deal would be a small version of my computer screen with the ability to navigate iTunes with a Beo4. I should be able to use the full Library or Playlists and then scroll through to find what I wanted. If this required me to use a Beo5 remote instead, I would be happy to pay the additional cost.

Re: two way remote for music

Razlaw — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 22:06:46 GMT

To correct my previous post, I should have said connect to the AV-aux on the Beosound, not to audio tape.

Anybody have any thoughts on this possible setup?

two way remote for music

Razlaw — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:15:17 GMT

I have been troubled by the fact that while the masterlink system is wonderful, it is difficult to find specific music in a link room given that the Beo 4 provides no feedback. I believe I have read of others having this concern and the search for a solution. I have had an idea and wonder what others think of it. Would it work? Sonos makes a wireless music system with a two way remote that displays album covers etc. A complete sytem can be purchased for $999 US. It seems to me this system could be plugged into an unused audio input in a masterlink system, such as perhaps audio tape. To operate one would merely push audio tape on the Beo 4 and then the Sonos remote would be used to pick the music and would offer the benefit of a two way remote. It would require two remotes but if one wanted to use just one remote the Beo 4 could be used to access music via net music or net radio just without the two way functionality.