Touch or NAS

[STEVESPUR]

I have had a Duet for most of this year and barring last month's server problem have had no issues with it at all - a very good experience in fact.
However the 'PC needs to be on' item has constantly nagged at me.

So with the Touch looming, my question is - If I want to deal with the PC om question, does the Touch become preferable to a NAS?

I am not particularly interested in the 'Touchability' element of the Touch device and will presumably be able to control it via the Duet Controller

I am not a super tecchie, so if I went down the NAS path it would have to be one with SB already installed.

My music (mainly FLAC) is stored on a separate USB connected drive which is connected to the PC.

Much appreciate any views

Thanks

[garym]

Sounds like you'd probably prefer the touch. Plug your USB harddrive into the TOUCH and play all your music (and internet radio/services) without another computer being on.

[iPhone]

I have had a Duet for most of this year and barring last month's server problem have had no issues with it at all - a very good experience in fact.
However the 'PC needs to be on' item has constantly nagged at me.

So with the Touch looming, my question is - If I want to deal with the PC om question, does the Touch become preferable to a NAS?

I am not particularly interested in the 'Touchability' element of the Touch device and will presumably be able to control it via the Duet Controller

I am not a super tecchie, so if I went down the NAS path it would have to be one with SB already installed.

My music (mainly FLAC) is stored on a separate USB connected drive which is connected to the PC.

Much appreciate any views

Thanks

Hello and Welcome to the Forum.

The Touch is not really an NAS. The Touch is a Squeezebox Player that can be a Player, Controller, and TinySC Server all at the same time.

Would you be able to not run a PC anymore? Sure, just by having a Touch and plugging the USB Drive full of songs into the USB port on the Touch. One loses the use of 3rd Party Plugins when doing this. One also loses the WebUI when only running a Touch.

Personally, I have been down the NAS road and don't care for it with its expense, lack of power/performance (most won't run SoX), especially when a dedicated PC usually works better for half the cost with 4 times or more the processing power. And if you don't want to build your own then have a look at Vortexbox Appliance or their new mini. They can be left on all year for less then $25 a year.

The Touch is really a Smart Player where the Duet and SB3 are Dumb Players. I like being able to use the Touch in the SUV and at the cabin on weekends. All I have to take is the Touch and my USB powered Toshiba drive and I have tunes for the truck as well as the cabin.

[mdconnelly]

Hello and Welcome to the Forum.

... One also loses the WebUI when only running a Touch.

Hmmm, didn't think of that. So would this imply that a Touch, running as a tiny SBC with hard disk attached, could ONLY be controlled by the Touch screen itself? That is, no WebUI, no Controller, no iPhone app, etc..? Syncing with other SBs?

[aubuti]

Hmmm, didn't think of that. So would this imply that a Touch, running as a tiny SBC with hard disk attached, could ONLY be controlled by the Touch screen itself? That is, no WebUI, no Controller, no iPhone app, etc..? Syncing with other SBs?

No, it wouldn't imply that. No web ui means not being able to control it via a web browser by going to http://<SBS_ip>:9000/. The SB Controller and iPhone+iPeng don't use a web interface (http), so they can control the SB Touch just fine. Sync'ing with other SBs is also possible.

[mdconnelly]

Ah! Thanks for the info. Makes sense. So in a household of several SBs, Duets and a Touch in mini SC mode, control would only be possible from SB remotes, a Controller or iPeng on the iPhone. There wouldn't be a way to configure anything or select music via a laptop?

[aubuti]

Configuration would be done on the SB Touch itself. It *might* be possible to use a laptop to control things via 3rd party programs like Moose, but I haven't heard of anyone trying that yet. But you definitely could not control things via a web browser. In order to accommodate SBS in the limited hardware resources of the SB Touch and guarantee that other demands would not compromise the ability to serve music they have to disable a few things in SBS, most notably:
- the built-in web server that serves up the web ui
- transcoding support
- support for 3rd party plugins

[Mnyb]

Squeezeplay on the PC would also act as a controller, so control is possible and some settings can be accessed that way to ?

[aubuti]

Squeezeplay on the PC would also act as a controller, so control is possible and some settings can be accessed that way to ?

yes, absolutely. I'm embarassed I overlooked that. That would be the most normal way for a pc to interact with the SB Touch.

[iPhone]

Ah! Thanks for the info. Makes sense. So in a household of several SBs, Duets and a Touch in mini SC mode, control would only be possible from SB remotes, a Controller or iPeng on the iPhone. There wouldn't be a way to configure anything or select music via a laptop?

Also don't forget the Touch. It is a Controller as well as a Player so it can also Control the other players while being a Player running TinySC. Also if you were to start up the SBS Server, you would once again have the WebUI and control over your Squeezeboxes. TinySC and SBS on a Server can be going at the same time also if need be or is wanted.

The Touch and TinySC are very flexible.