Question on using Vortex vs USB

[gellie]

Thanks everyone. This has been a very informative thread!

[jarrod2750]

I too was hesitant with going down the path of converting a CPU to a vortexbox. I spent maybe a $120 on a used dell optiplex usff, new hard drive and upgraded memory. The install of the vortex software was easy and copying of files effortless. The payoff is tremendous and the response time is instantaneous. My prior set up was a self powered hd. It slowed down and as my library grew it had more problem accessing files. I do not have any of these problems anymore.

[gellie]

for those of you using vortexbox, how difficult is it to transfer files from you computer to the vortexbox? Can this be done wireless? Thanks

[vining]

And depending on the flavor of windows, you could use Remote Desktop on that machine to access it from some other machine if need be. And even without this, once up and running, you can disconnect the monitor/keyboard and store elsewhere. You'll be able to access LMS via any webbrowser on any computer in your network.

You can do the same with a Vortexbox too and it's not all that difficult to do but you'd have to repeat the setup process when/if you upgrade to fedora 18.

[rgro]

for those of you using vortexbox, how difficult is it to transfer files from you computer to the vortexbox? Can this be done wireless? Thanks

Not difficult at all. Assuming the vortexbox appears as a device on your network, it's simple drag and drop---wired or wireless.

[garym]

Not difficult at all. Assuming the vortexbox appears as a device on your network, it's simple drag and drop---wired or wireless.

On my windows laptop, I've simply mapped the vortexbox storage (drive) to a letter drive in windows. So it is like any other folder on my laptop (drag and drop or copy/paste as noted above). The transfer speed is 10 times faster for me when I connect the laptop to ethernet vs just using it on WIFI, but it works either way. And it is also easy to edit tags, etc. the same way. If I want to edit any FLAC file tags in mp3tag, I just open them up directly on my laptop version of mp3....again, the files are actually on the VB, but are mapped to a local drive on my laptop.

[jarrod2750]

On my windows laptop, I've simply mapped the vortexbox storage (drive) to a letter drive in windows. So it is like any other folder on my laptop (drag and drop or copy/paste as noted above). The transfer speed is 10 times faster for me when I connect the laptop to ethernet vs just using it on WIFI, but it works either way. And it is also easy to edit tags, etc. the same way. If I want to edit any FLAC file tags in mp3tag, I just open them up directly on my laptop version of mp3....again, the files are actually on the VB, but are mapped to a local drive on my laptop.

The transfer of files for me was easy. Just make sure you copy it to the right music flac folder

[garym]

The transfer of files for me was easy. Just make sure you copy it to the right music flac folder

yes! as they note on the vortexbox wiki:

"If you have music files to transfer to VortexBox, transfer them to \\vortexbox\files\music\flac\, not \\vortexbox\music\flac."
http://info.vortexbox.org/tiki-index...e+share+layout

this is a mistake often made by new VB users.

[P Nelson]

I tried using Tiny LMS with a USB powered drive and it had nothing but problems. While others had success with a toshiba portable drive, it did not work for me. I switched it out with a external powered western digital drive I was using for backups. A sudden performance change!

Instead of the scan taking hours it took minutes. It has severed the Touch and two SB Radios with minimal problems. In a two week period Tiny LMS crashed once while no music was playing and it rebooted by itself.

To those trying to use Tiny LMS, take notice of the recommendation to use an external powered USB drive! I think that was more important than perhaps removing embedded artwork, etc from the music files. However, I never tested that to it is just a guess.

As for converting an old windows Pentium 4 machine to vortexbox, I have not tried it. The machine has only 258mb of memory and the recommendation is 1GB. I don't think it's worth adding memory to an old machine. If anyone has tried vortexbox with this 256mb of memory and was successfully, please let me know.