Squeezebox v. EyeHome v. Soundbridge

nguyenhm16nguyenhm16
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I'm thinking of getting one of those to play back tunes on my home theater system.



Squeezebox - http://www.slimdevices.com/



EyeHome - http://www.elgato.com/products/eyehome.html



SoundBridge - http://www.rokulabs.com/products/soundbridge/



Anyone have an opinion? I know the Soundbridge is not quite out yet, and the large one is very pricey, but it looks very cool with that ginormous display.



The EyeHome requires your TV to be one (which kinda sux), but can handle media other than sounds too.



The Squeezebox seems to be the granddaddy of these things (Roku seems to use Slim's open-source SW to serve up songs to their Soundbridge).



In any case I will connect them to the network via WiFi.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    limtclimtc Posts: 82member
    I think you just got your answer: if you want music only, don't get EyeHome. If you want to play recorded TV, stream Divx video, access Safari content, etc etc, get EyeHome.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    nobody specialnobody special Posts: 174member
    I have the SqueezeBox and am relatively happy. It certainly works as advertised and does everything I want it to, but it could be a little more elegant?it's a little like having a Dell MP3 player and wishing it were a little more like the iPod.



    Here are my complaints:



    Though it uses your iTunes playlists, it isn't otherwise integrated with iTunes. SqueezeBox doesn't increase play count or use the custom sound levels, etc.



    The SqueezeBox software's interface runs in your web browser which makes it really slow. There is no drag-and-drop and selecting anything requires the page to reload.



    AAC playback sucks?there is a pause every ten seconds as the box decompresses the next ten seconds of audio. Apparently, there is a work around, but that's no excuse. Also, it can't play protected AAC music from the iTMS.



    There are still some minor kinks in the software, but they are more of a slight inconvenience than a real drawback.



    All that said, the SqueezeBox does do what I need it to do: wirelessly stream my music library to my stereo. It is easy to set-up and use (though it could be easier) and I'm happy I bought it. I just wish Apple would enter the market, because I know they'd hit it out of the park.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    gordygordy Posts: 1,004member
    I have EyeHome, and it works okay for now.



    It plays AAC unprotected files, and it uses your Playlists in iTunes, as well as a few iPod-esque browse by Album, Genre, etc, smart playlists to access your tunes.



    It plays very few video formats, limited to mostly MPEGs. No real .mov (Sorenson, Cinepak, etc), .wmv, .asf, or .rm support yet.



    There's a web browsing feature, but I can't seem to get it to work on my machine.



    The photo section relies on iPhoto, so your pictures have to be the iPhoto Library in order to view them.



    The best thing about it is its integration with EyeTV. It really works great as a tv viewer for EyeTV.



    I have emailed elgato about some of these and other issues, xlr8yourmac.com has posted their response.



    Elgato is very attentive, so I expect EyeHome to work as well as EyeTV when they are done tweaking it.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    limtclimtc Posts: 82member
    There are also other alternarives (with Mac support) like Neuston Media Centre, check out www.neuston.com.



    For EyeHome, I have one unit here too.



    1) it plays MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, various AVI format, and works with Divx4 and Divx5. MOV itself is a container, so if it contains says MPEG1 video stream, it will work.



    2) It also plays MP2, MP3 besides AAC. The Apple loseless format is new, so it does not support it yet.



    3) The web browsing sync with your Safari bookmarks, if you can't get it to work, send me your bookmark, I will check it out.



    The next version also got alias support, btw.
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