What if Logitech pulls the plug

[castalla]

And as to the complaint that the Roku model generates a lot of uninteresting content, the solution to that is simple, don't listen to it. Pick and choose your favorite service providers and ignore the rest. Even on the Squeezebox now, I don't listen to over 90% of what is offered. We should be so lucky to wade through excess content to find what we want.

Don't want to start a Roku Wars debate, but really there's no comparison between the quality services which are available on Logi and the hotchpotch of religious nutters, prepubescent youths aping around on video clips, clapped-out old video and film services which constitute the major Roku offerings!

In any event, the nature of the beasts are very different - Roku serves up video junk, and Logi opens up the amazing world of international radio services. Even the Tunein channel on Roku is crippled because the stupid box can only stream mp3 audio,

[erland]

Content providers will show interest if they see sufficient market penetration for the squeezebox. They do a cost/benefit analysis just like Logitech. If the missing content providers see that they can reach a tipping point for eardrums, they'lll come to the platform.

Which is also why it's hard to use the Roku philosophy before you have the volume, the content providers basically don't want to invest in making a proprietary solution for a specific product before they are sure they can get enough users on it and the dilemma is that the product won't get more users before the content providers have done their part with the Roku model.

But I guess that as a content provider it's a matter of:
- Either doing an analysis if you believe the manufacturer (Logitech, Roku, ...) will be able to sell enough devices and make the investment in advance to help them (and yourself) getting more users.
- Or just deciding to wait and do the investment later when the manufacturer has sold enough devices to make it interesting.

In order for Logitech to be more mass market, it should lower the price, turn up the volume and get rid of the LCD screen to keep the cost down (it's more efficient to put control into the user's hands on already owned multi-purpose devices,like iPeng on the iPad and the iPhone).

I agree on the Squeezebox Touch if it would significantly lower the price, personally I still doubt that dropping the LCD would bring the Touch below $99 which I think is needed to make it attractive to the mass market who can purchase a AppleTV or AirPort Express for $99.

I think the Squeezebox Radio still needs an LCD to be useful in kitchen and bedroom, but I could see use for a cheap device without display and without hard buttons but with a built-in speaker. It wouldn't be as useful as the Squeezebox Radio, but some people might like such device if removing the display and hard buttons can make it a lot cheaper than the Squeezebox Radio.

Logitech already has the hardware for such lower cost products. It just needs to open up its software to make it easy for the content providers to be enticed to the platform.

Just out of interest, which hardware are you talking about, is it the Touch without display or are you referring to some non Squeezebox hardware ?

And as to the complaint that the Roku model generates a lot of uninteresting content, the solution to that is simple, don't listen to it. Pick and choose your favorite service providers and ignore the rest. Even on the Squeezebox now, I don't listen to over 90% of what is offered. We should be so lucky to wade through excess content to find what we want.

Right, I want to listen to Spotify (which is the best premium streaming service available in Sweden), how do I do that on a Roku device out of the box ?

[mortslim]

I want to listen to Spotify (which is the best premium streaming service available in Sweden), how do I do that on a Roku device out of the box ?

Roku has an official Plex channel. Plex connects the Roku to a media server.

“Plex Media Server seamlessly connects your Plex clients with all of your local and online media. The combination of centralized library management, streaming of online content, and powerful transcoding functionality provides an unrivaled level of flexibility and ease of use.”

“Plex Media Server runs on your Mac, PC, or compatible NAS device and serves your media to all of your Plex clients.”

http://www.plexapp.com/getplex/index.php

also: how to stream Spotify to the Roku

http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php...=44695&start=0

which hardware are you talking about, is it the Touch without display or are you referring to some non Squeezebox hardware ??

Here are examples of Logitech products that don’t have a screen and should be able to adapted to Squeezebox funtionality:

"Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter for Bluetooth Audio Devices"

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wirel.../dp/B004VM1T5S

"Logitech Wireless Boombox for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch with Bluetooth"

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wirel...h+Bluetooth%22

[aubuti]

In order for Logitech to be more mass market, it should lower the price, turn up the volume and get rid of the LCD screen to keep the cost down (it's more efficient to put control into the user's hands on already owned multi-purpose devices,like iPeng on the iPad and the iPhone).

Here are examples of Logitech products that don’t have a screen and should be able to adapted to Squeezebox funtionality:

"Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter for Bluetooth Audio Devices"

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wirel.../dp/B004VM1T5S

"Logitech Wireless Boombox for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch with Bluetooth"

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wirel...h+Bluetooth%22

I'm probably missing something, or maybe the other thread about "Better-Logitech-products-than-the-Squeezeboxes" has come full circle here. By those examples it looks like Logitech has already done what you suggested in the earlier post. The price is low, control is from the assumed-to-be-already-owned mobile device, and judging by the hundreds of 4.5 star Amazon reviews the mass market loves them. The content issue is somewhat solved because that is provided via the source, and there are apps for Deezer, Pandora, Spotify, Stitcher and lord knows what for the iPad and other mobile devices. I could see using them in certain settings, though not as SB replacements.

So what adaptations to SB functionality would you propose? I see four things missing. One is wifi / ethernet. A second is multi-room capability, particularly sync'ing in different rooms (an essential feature for me). Third is decent quality audio hardware (DAC, better circuits, digital outputs on the speaker adapter, better amp and speakers on the boombox). Go down that road and kiss your cost savings goodbye, because they all cost a lot more than the dime-a-dozen LCD screen. And fourth is the flexibility and scalability of LMS software. If I'm sitting in a suite (or a suit) at Logitech HQ, my question would be why adapt them at all to be SBs? This kind of product may be exactly the kind of thing Logitech knows how to produce, market, and support. EDIT: Unlike SBs.

[audio53]

... So they put much more effort into it than Logitech (advertising, R&D, etc..). The survival of Logitech does not depend on SB, the survival of Sonos depends on their products.

Not sure I can agree with the R&D part of this statement. Sonos has yet to come out with a product capable of playing hi-rez files like 24/96. Their line seems rather stagnant. For that reason alone Sonos is off the table for me. If they ever update their player with hi-rez capability then they will have my interest.

[garym]

Not sure I can agree with the R&D part of this statement. Sonos has yet to come out with a product capable of playing hi-rez files like 24/96. Their line seems rather stagnant. For that reason alone Sonos is off the table for me. If they ever update their player with hi-rez capability then they will have my interest.

I have very little hirez, but the Sonos deal killer for me is the inability to handle more than about 60,000 files (except in some back door clunky way involving windows media player). I have 70,000 files and I'm only a third of my way through ripping my CDs.

[erland]

I have very little hirez, but the Sonos deal killer for me is the inability to handle more than about 60,000 files (except in some back door clunky way involving windows media player). I have 70,000 files and I'm only a third of my way through ripping my CDs.

I understand why they neither focus on 24/96 nor 65,000+ libraries, the main reasons are likely that the amount of users with a lot of 24/96 files who also cares about audio quality or the amount of users with 65,000+ libraries, is both probably fairly small compared to the amount of users they can gain in other areas. Adding a new streaming service would probably easily give them a lot more users than what adding 24/96 and support for 65,000+ libraries would do.

If I've understood correctly you can get around the 65,000+ limitation by using a PC as server using WMP, Sonospy or similar solution. It will of course require you to have the PC powered on but this is also the case for Squeezebox which needs LMS/SBS to be running on a PC if you want to have larger libraries than what can be supported with the built-in server in a Squeezebox Touch. Of course, I don't really have a Sonos myself, so maybe WMP/Sonospy creates other problems/limitations.

The biggest obstacle for me with Sonos is their more closed model which makes it harder (but probably not impossible) to add functionality through third party add-ons if Sonos doesn't want to develop a certain functionality I like to have. Still, I've sometimes been thinking about getting one just to evaluate it a bit, I'm just a bit scared that I won't see the potential unless I switch to Sonos in all rooms and that's not something I'm prepared to do yet as the Squeezebox system I have really works great.

[maggior]

I know Sonos has controller apps for phones and tablets, but I don't think there are players. That would be a deal breaker for me at this point since I regularly use my andriod media player and my iPod Touch as portable squeezeboxes in my house and on family trips when we have access to WiFi.