First Impressions - Jive hardware/software

[fluffybeastie]

Hi, 's my first post here. I hope you're all well.

I thought i'd post my first impressions. Firstly, a little background as to my usage.

I'm 27 live in a large flat with a friend(27) and his girlfriend(21)

My housemates and I currently run a single SqueezBox in our main living area. It's positioned under the TV (so competes for use) and integrates with an amp that's also shared with the TV and DVD player.

It connects to a wireless network. SlimServer runs on a Windows box that also serves at a home computer. We've not downloaded any additional plugins for any Slim products.

We have a reasonably large collection of music on that computer, ripped using iTunes and even more on other formats - mainly CD, that have not been ripped yet. The SqueezeBox is the only non-portable device in the flat that's used for playing music aloud although we have 2 desktops and a laptop.
We might use playlists for certain occasions, but they are not generally used and are compiled in iTunes.

We don't download any music from the internet.

I got the latest jive.bin from the site today and any issues mentioned are present in that version.

My comments are be based on my, admittedly limited, use of the complete package to listen to music over a few days. It's therefore possible that there may be cross bleed between the various items that make up the system - but all of them are Slim. My comments here do not claim to look viability from a business perspective.



A few comments about the hardware:

-Battery case cover has about 0.5mm of travel which does, to an extent, affect the feel/perception of build quality.

-The pause and volume up buttons must be a little far away from the backlights which gives them a rather brown/yellow hue.

-Volume up icon seems to be off-center on the button.

-The unit itself is quite large but it has a nice weight and feel to it (apart from the battery case)

-I like the screen.

-If i had kids then i'd be a little worried about the gloss finish on the back, but i don't so it's fine.

-Buttons have nice feel.

-Flatmates asked if it was available in white or silver. They were also scared that, being clumsy, they might break it. They didn't like that they were always drawn to try and rub of their grubby paw prints.

---------

In use (software + hardware) :

-Doesn't wake_on_lan like the Squeezebox does...which means reverting back the original IR remote to fire up the PC.

-Booting has a clock in the top left hand corner, i'm sure i've read it in another post.

-Time format didn't change between 12 and 24hr in the clock in the bottom right hand display. Date format probably shouldn't have 1st Jan 1970 as the example - since day and month are both "01" - maybe this should be hardcoded to a more suitable value?

-When using a flickr screensaver the "loading" text is off the screen.

-I like the look of the analog. It'd be nice maybe to have the name of the trace scrolling across the bottom.

-It might just be me, did there used to be a 'play all tracks at random' type of command - i don't want to have to select a playlist or a single album.

-The volume control didn't seem to work at all.

-"Now playing" was quite sluggish to populate.

-"Play all songs" in "My Music" give no audible feedback that it's worked (i was testing the device whilst the TV was selected as the amp source)

-Selecting "pause' maybe has the wrong sound - and the window maybe doesn't need a sound when it moves off.

-never really got the skip buttons to work, if it did work then it would only ever work once. I think that would stop more songs playing after the subsequent songs.

-i didn't really like that the device would stack the various button clicks sometimes - maybe a lockout would be more appropriate until the action has completed, which might make it feel less...sluggish? I did manage to get the interface to stop responding by button hammering.

- scrolling through any large list was a little tiresome, and somewhat unpredictable when scrolling quickly.

- wasn't sure if (+) was working - a sound would be a good indicator if it was working.

- no positive feedback on shuffle and repeat controls

- in 'now playing' it'd be nice if the middle button acted as a play button.


Heh, that's it for now (sorry Rich!! )I'll post more on any issues that arise as i get more into it.

[mvalera]

Great feedback, thanks!

Just one note, remember these are beta units!

The battery door issue you're experiencing has already been solved with a new rev of the case. It's now VERY tight.

Cheers,

Mike

[rtitmuss]

Heh, that's it for now (sorry Rich!! )I'll post more on any issues that arise as i get more into it.

Thanks for the feedback! It would be great if you could enter the software bugs into http://bugs.slimdevices.com.

Cheers,
Richard

[vrobin]

It seems that I've missed something... can anybody point me to a post describing this "hardware alpha version" of a SS remote? What was the condition to be enrolled in the program?

[erland]

It seems that I've missed something... can anybody point me to a post describing this "hardware alpha version" of a SS remote?

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=37856

[vrobin]

Thanks, i had seen this thread with pictures but oddly missed the first post or read it too quickly (my mistake).

[fluffybeastie]

just downloaded the latest version - UI feels a LOT better.

[ModelCitizen]

The battery door issue you're experiencing has already been solved with a new rev of the case. It's now VERY tight.

I must have received one of the new ones then.

Can someone tell me exactly how I get the battery cover off?

I have not yet used extreme force as I do not want to break it, but I am imagining that I put some force on the indent in the back of the cover and attempt to slide the cover downwards (i.e. towards the bottom of the device). Is this correct?

Thanks.

BTW. It looks quite exciting.

MC

[dean]

Sorry for the difficulty. You shouldn't be able to break it while
opening it, so feel free to use a little force. Put the tips of your
fingers in the indentation and rest your fingers along the back, down
to the base. Then pull the back down with your whole hand, pushing
up the front.

[ModelCitizen]

Sorry for the difficulty. You shouldn't be able to break it while opening it, so feel free to use a little force. Put the tips of your fingers in the indentation and rest your fingers along the back, down to the base. Then pull the back down with your whole hand, pushing
up the front.

Got it! Cheers Dean.
MC