My jukebox project(and hello)

[revmoo]

Hello all,

I've been working on a pc mp3 jukebox the past few months and I thought I would share my work with you all, maybe I can learn something new :-)

I want to eventually sell these things for a profit but so far I have no idea how to find clients, and I'm still not 100% done, I would eventually probably like to have a handcoded gui based on linux eventually, as for now I'm using mozilla with a few hacks interfaced to winamp running on top of WinXP. It's not pretty underneath, but aside from a couple mozilla bugs, it's surprisingly usable.

The hardware
The unit I decided to build this jukebox with is an NCR 7402 POS(Realpos 70) terminal. I like the form factor, and it's extremely resistant to bumps/spills, my only beef right now with it, is that the PSU fans are kind of noisy.

Pic:

2.0HGZ 256MB of ram, its fast enough

As much as I like the form factor, I think my next project will involve a TFT touch screen and a small form factor pc, It'll be cheaper and smaller(I think)


The software
I'm running a tweaked-out XP install with auto-login, a custom boot/login screen, no shell. I'm using Firedaemon to launch winamp as a service at boot, with http://browseamp.com/ running a webserver. I'm using a modified ranger skin, basically I've just tweaked it slightly: removed URLS(this machine is filtered at the router), and added an album view to fullscreen.

Firedaemon also launches Mozilla a few seconds after Browseamp initalizes, mozilla uses the autohide plugin and starts in fullscreen. There are no scrollbars, menus or any other way back to windows without plugging in a keyboard. Aside from one bug, there is no way to affect this interface or crash it that I've been able to find.

The one bug: If you pick up an image and 'drop' it onto mozilla, it does a "view image" mode, where mozilla loads only that image. I can probably kill dragging and dropping in touchware(Microtouch drivers), but I haven't gotten that far yet.

The [other] one bug: Selecting text is still possible as with any browser. It doesn't really harm functionality, but it looks weird, also if you select an image it draws the dotted line around it. Eventually I will have to find a solution to these two quirks.

Screenshots:


To add new music to it, I simply click the SMB link on my desktop...

..and drag mp3's into the folder. I also have to drop a 300x300 front.jpg into the folder if I want cover art.

Also, one weird problem I encountered(definitly the most trying problem with this project) was a HUM coming from my home theatre whenever I selected the jukebox as the source. Now obviously since I'm trying to sell these things I can't be having an annoying hum all the time. I did a bit of research and found out that it was probably caused by the TV and the cable connection. I unplugged the COAX and sure enough the hum stopped.

Turns out, the solution was to cut the ground wire from the jukebox power cable. This stopped the hum cold. Apparently when you have two devices on the same ground with a different potential(??) you get these ground loop hums. Feel free to clarify me on the science behind it, im still a little cloudy on electronics.

So anyway, the jukebox works pretty well, it's got an easy to use interface and you kind of forget that you are using a computer with this thing, it feels like a piece of stereo equipment. Aside from a couple mozilla quirks, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

[Chris]

If you want to try to sell these for a profit, note that the MP3 decoding algorithms are patented, and the license fee to use the patent is a minimum $50,000 per year...

[revmoo]

If you want to try to sell these for a profit, note that the MP3 decoding algorithms are patented, and the license fee to use the patent is a minimum $50,000 per year...

Actually, it's 15,000$ per year, according to my research, creditable against any paid license fees, meaning that will include the per-unit costs.

You still have a good point though, I'll find a way around paying the license fee. If I have to, I'll just give clients a URL where they can download the appropriate codecs.

Of course, I could just use SHN or OGG and avoid the mess entirely

[Chris]

Actually, it's 15,000$ per year, according to my research, creditable against any paid license fees, meaning that will include the per-unit costs.

Still too steep for me... The per-unit is 75 cents, which means you have to sell 20,000 jukes a year to break out of the hole.

[revmoo]

The jukebox license does not apply to me as I have no plans to distribute content.

I think I could setup a client with a program that would take their mp3's and convert them to OGG and then transfer to the jukebox automatically. This would be transparent to the end user and completely legal.

Here's what I dont understand: Why can't I put on the invoice every piece of software I install on this thing, purchase/download each piece of software for the client and set it up for them, and simply charge a consulting fee for setting it all up? Why would there be a license fee here? How is this any different from a standard PC with winamp installed on it?

[Chris]

The jukebox license does not apply to me as I have no plans to distribute content.

I think I could setup a client with a program that would take their mp3's and convert them to OGG and then transfer to the jukebox automatically. This would be transparent to the end user and completely legal.

Here's what I dont understand: Why can't I put on the invoice every piece of software I install on this thing, purchase/download each piece of software for the client and set it up for them, and simply charge a consulting fee for setting it all up? Why would there be a license fee here? How is this any different from a standard PC with winamp installed on it?

Nullsoft, WinAmp's publisher, is a patent licensee (see http://www.mp3licensing.com/licensees/index.asp).  If your juke uses WinAmp as its player, you're fine, as your code doesn't actually do the decoding.

You don't need to comply with the jukebox license office fees; what I was saying was if you wanted to sell the boxes to bars, you want to make sure it fits their definition of a licensable jukebox.

I'm not trying to be obstructionist; I've just gone through lots of the same issues and I'm sharing what I've run into....

[revmoo]

Nullsoft, WinAmp's publisher, is a patent licensee (see http://www.mp3licensing.com/licensees/index.asp).  If your juke uses WinAmp as its player, you're fine, as your code doesn't actually do the decoding.

Ok, that's kind of what I assumed/hoped/figured

You don't need to comply with the jukebox license office fees; what I was saying was if you wanted to sell the boxes to bars, you want to make sure it fits their definition of a licensable jukebox.

Understood. The sad thing is, I have business owners lined up all over town that would be interested in these things, but I'm not going to bother trying to sell them because there are so many licensing issues involved. Maybe after I've made a bit of profit I'll attempt to sell them commercially...