Does SB3 play CDs?

pm314 · « **on:** 22 Nov 2005, 10:36 am »

My CDP is on it last legs so I was hoping to just go to a PC based system, but I have this question and havent seen it actually asked anywhere. My problem is that I have almost all of my music on my PC so SB would be great but if my wife or kids want to just play a CD then I either need to keep the old CDP around (while it lasts) or teach them how to rip CDs etc etc etc. Or if someone is visiting and wants to play a CD that I wouldnt really want on my PC

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It would be great if Slim Server could be configured to recognize an inserted CD, retrieve tracks, and have SB start playing it without any other action required. Possible??
I checked the SlimDevices forums also and didnt see this topic anywhere.

jakepunk · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Nov 2005, 05:04 pm »

Slimserver doesn't do that natively. You would have to write a program to automate the process (autoplay -> CD extraction -> encoding -> database import -> playing new tracks). And even if you did automate it, that CD would now be a part of your collection, which violates one of your requirements. You have to bite the bullet and rip your CD collection ahead of time.

When I ripped my CD collection, I went through the thought process of, "should I even rip those CDs I hardly listen to?". Most of us have CDs we keep around for sentimental reasons and don't listen to much. The conclusion I came to was, "rip them all". Disk space is so cheap these days that the incremental benefit comes at almost no cost.

I retired my CD player to its original box in my closet, BTW.

pm314 · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Nov 2005, 05:32 pm »

The issue is not as much disk space as ease of use. Two of my kids dont know how to read yet but do know how to find the CD they want put it in the CDP change the pre-amp and push play. I figured if I do loose the CDP altogether then I would just replace it with a SB3, but then there would be no more listening to Kermit the Frog singing John Denver songs....

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Maybe I should just get them a portable and headphones.....

davehg · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Nov 2005, 06:11 pm »

I allow my oldest boy, not quite 4, to be in the music room, but never to actually touch the gear (he likes pushing in the cd drawer which can cause the gears to snap).

I went to an SB3 system intially because I could avoid having lots of CD's around.

pm314 · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 Dec 2005, 11:48 am »

In case anyone ever has the same question I thought I would post one solution that I found. If you set Winamp/Shoutcast up on your PC (or some other PC on the network) you can stream virtually any audio from your PC, including CD's through shoutcast and point Slimserver at that stream. It is probably also possible to stream local FM stations this way with an FM tuner card or external tuner coming through the line-in. Now if I only had my SB3 to see how it sounds......any day now.......