Re: NAS support on Soundbridge

> I think you are confusing the Roku HD-1000 product and the Roku SoundBridge
> product. These are TWO DIFFERENT PRODUCTS, with different feature sets.

Uups, yes I mixed them up, sorry.

But to my excuse, the thread where I found Anthony's statement was clearly
about the Soundbridge, not the HD-1000.

> Roku HD-1000:
> High Definition Photo Viewer & Music Player. Plays music directly from NAS
> or other file server storage, much like an AudioTron. No streaming server
> app required. Product has been shipping for some time.
> 
> Roku SoundBridge:
> Music Player only. Requires streaming server app running on a computer
> somewhere. This product is not shipping yet.

Thanks to clarify this.

I wasn't aware initially, that the  Roku SoundBridge requires a streaming
server app running on a computer and I'll bet a lot of (potential) customers
aren't too. The HD-1000 is a very nice product, and probably I'll buy one
for viewing pictures/video but without a display it disqualifies as a
standalone music player, as I do not want to switch on my TV just to listen
to music. And of cause the Soundbridge looks much more stylish.

Requiring a streaming server app is the biggest drawback for the
Soundbridge. While it may be ok for people having their Laptop always with
them, or living in a single room apartment, where your PC is always in
reach, for most people it is annoying to  have a computer running all the
time or to startup a computer in another room every time, just to be able to
play music.

I see 2 solutions to overcome this problem:

1.) Sticking with the need for a streaming server app, but adding some
functionality to the Soundbridge, so that it is able to wake-up (WOL) and
probably put into sleep mode the PCs hosting the server app as well as
launching/quitting the server app itself. I've sent some suggestions for
this to Rokulabs support already. While probably more difficult to make it
work on all supported platforms than 2.) it has the advantage, that people
do not need to buy a NAS (which is still expensive in compare to normal
PCs), setup centralized libraries etc. but could stick with the current
organization of their music libraries. Soundbridge simply would take care,
that computers from which it served music in the past, are powered on and
have the server app running, if possible of cause.

2.) Adding the filesharing client functionality of HD-1000 into Soundbridge,
so it can play music directly from NAS without a streaming server app.

As there is rumor for an additional client functionality in Soundbridge when
shipping , probably 2.) is on its way already !?!

Peter