jeroen020
June 29th, 2004, 04:56 PM
Hi,
Earlier today I wrote the text below in a thread on the recently announced iMedia products from Skipjam. Check out the press release at http://www.skipjam.com/images/SkipJam_PR_iMedia_Release.pdf and the brochure at http://www.skipjam.com/images/SkipJam_iMedia_Center_Brochure.pdf
It would be great if this would integrate well with my existing NR/Girder/JRMC setup. Since iMedia center devices have serial port, Girder should be OK. But a direct JRMC or even better NR plugin would be even cooler...
If this turns out not be vaporware, I'm very interested - and if others are too, perhaps we can bring some resources together to make a plugin happen, no?
Cheers,
Jeroen
=====================================
This product sounds hot! I e-mailed them with a bunch of questions, as spec-wise these products fulfill my A/V distribution needs.
In my house I have Cat5 everywhere but no other wiring. I want to be able to route living room sources to different locations. I looked into the balun-route, converting line-level audio and SVHS video to Cat5-compatible signals, but found that solution to be inflexible and expensive, especially for distributing to more than 1 room.
Furthermore, I use Netremote as PocketPC/Tablet remote control software, Girder for PC-based control over devices (both with IR and serial plugins) and applications and J River Media Center for MP3/WAV playback and meta-info management, connected through LAN to my audio server in the basement.
Enters the Skipjam iMedia Center / Player. I plan on adding Center to my living room and connect the audio and SVHS outputs of my DVD player, satellite STB and the composite Zone 1 output of my Denon Amp to it. It accepts digital as well as analog audio and I may add some more sound cards to my J River Media Center PC to add audio zones, as the Skipjam device accepts up to 5 audio sources.
I then should be able to route any of these sources, either directly or switched through my amp, to any iMedia Player in the house. In other places that I have A/V sources I could consider using a Center instead of a Player, opening up those sources to any room with a Skipjam device as well. For non-video rooms I consider installing audio players, could even do one in the shed/garden with a powered amp - if my WiFi reaches that far (I assume WiFi is sufficient for mp3 streaming but that 100 mbit is better for video stuff).
In addition, I expect to be able to fully control the devices using Girder, I hope Skipjam's serial protocol is open and bidirectional so I can see the status of the device in Netremote. Or perhaps a Skipjam PC software-plugin could be developed for Netremote directly.
It even has a phone input, probably will be able to use a stereo as a speakerphone (not sure how useful that is though, but it would be really cool if this could integrate with skype as well...)
I also inquired about the PC software - I would prefer it if I could use my meta-info as stored in Media Center and make that available to displays in other rooms. A Media Center plugin for this device would be useful too.
The only thing missing that I can think of is component and digital video (DVI/HDCP/SDI) support, but I guess that's not feasible in this price class due to bandwidth (gigabit ethernet?) and encoding/decoding issues. And I hope the LCD screen contains useful information for controlling music etc.
It's been a long time that I've been so enthusiastic about a device just based on its specs, so I hope reality will not disappoint. If anybody has additional info or has actually seen/heard one out there, I'd love to hear!
Earlier today I wrote the text below in a thread on the recently announced iMedia products from Skipjam. Check out the press release at http://www.skipjam.com/images/SkipJam_PR_iMedia_Release.pdf and the brochure at http://www.skipjam.com/images/SkipJam_iMedia_Center_Brochure.pdf
It would be great if this would integrate well with my existing NR/Girder/JRMC setup. Since iMedia center devices have serial port, Girder should be OK. But a direct JRMC or even better NR plugin would be even cooler...
If this turns out not be vaporware, I'm very interested - and if others are too, perhaps we can bring some resources together to make a plugin happen, no?
Cheers,
Jeroen
=====================================
This product sounds hot! I e-mailed them with a bunch of questions, as spec-wise these products fulfill my A/V distribution needs.
In my house I have Cat5 everywhere but no other wiring. I want to be able to route living room sources to different locations. I looked into the balun-route, converting line-level audio and SVHS video to Cat5-compatible signals, but found that solution to be inflexible and expensive, especially for distributing to more than 1 room.
Furthermore, I use Netremote as PocketPC/Tablet remote control software, Girder for PC-based control over devices (both with IR and serial plugins) and applications and J River Media Center for MP3/WAV playback and meta-info management, connected through LAN to my audio server in the basement.
Enters the Skipjam iMedia Center / Player. I plan on adding Center to my living room and connect the audio and SVHS outputs of my DVD player, satellite STB and the composite Zone 1 output of my Denon Amp to it. It accepts digital as well as analog audio and I may add some more sound cards to my J River Media Center PC to add audio zones, as the Skipjam device accepts up to 5 audio sources.
I then should be able to route any of these sources, either directly or switched through my amp, to any iMedia Player in the house. In other places that I have A/V sources I could consider using a Center instead of a Player, opening up those sources to any room with a Skipjam device as well. For non-video rooms I consider installing audio players, could even do one in the shed/garden with a powered amp - if my WiFi reaches that far (I assume WiFi is sufficient for mp3 streaming but that 100 mbit is better for video stuff).
In addition, I expect to be able to fully control the devices using Girder, I hope Skipjam's serial protocol is open and bidirectional so I can see the status of the device in Netremote. Or perhaps a Skipjam PC software-plugin could be developed for Netremote directly.
It even has a phone input, probably will be able to use a stereo as a speakerphone (not sure how useful that is though, but it would be really cool if this could integrate with skype as well...)
I also inquired about the PC software - I would prefer it if I could use my meta-info as stored in Media Center and make that available to displays in other rooms. A Media Center plugin for this device would be useful too.
The only thing missing that I can think of is component and digital video (DVI/HDCP/SDI) support, but I guess that's not feasible in this price class due to bandwidth (gigabit ethernet?) and encoding/decoding issues. And I hope the LCD screen contains useful information for controlling music etc.
It's been a long time that I've been so enthusiastic about a device just based on its specs, so I hope reality will not disappoint. If anybody has additional info or has actually seen/heard one out there, I'd love to hear!