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CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) phreak23 I am creating CD Listening Stations out of 4 Epods for my music store. I am currently trying Citrix, and it's wonderful, and I am thinking about using Flash 5 to create the user interface. I am going to use high quality MP3's of the CDs for the audio source, but I am left with one major problem: - What to use for the sound generator, since the Epods sound is crap. My current options I am exploring are: - Four soundcards in the Citrix server, and finding a tricky way of accessing the appropriate one within each client session. - Four separate cheap-o PCs that just run WinAmp or Media Player under some sort of remote control. I am going to use a separate headphone amp circuit with a volume knob for the volume control for each pair of headphones. Does anyone have any thoughts on the two mentioned setups or any alternative ones? I'd rather do the four sound cards, but I am not sure how I am going to access them thru the ICA Client. I don't know how I would remotely control the separate PCs if I went that way, either. All help is greatly appreciated! I have already gotten much farther with the help of this BBS! phreak23 03-07-2001 23:34:33

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) Calvin Albeit the epods are cool looking, and easier to mount, I think you are going to are going to fare better with an actual PC on a LAN in your case. The only other option would be the seperate audio cards but that would be tough to set up and control. As long as you have Pentium 200MHzs or faster on them you should be ok. 03-08-2001 01:26:46

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) phreak23 Individual PCs with Touch Screen Monitors = ~$900 each. EPODS touch screen =~$300 So 3 PCs costs me somewhere around $2700, while 4 Epods costs me $1200. Lots of difference in money, and the Epods are way cool looking, which can be used to my advantage. I was hoping to get USB working and get a $49 USB sound box. Does anyone have any ideas on this? I am waiting to see the outcome of the Windows CE 3.0 situation, and hoping that it would give USB connectivity. (Probably not CE drivers for a USB sound box though... but maybe). I figured I could use Citrix's sound capability then. Lots of alternative ways, and one will work. Before I found Citrix, my display would have been slow, but now, I can do Flash 5 at full speed!!! That's pretty dope! And powerful. On a side note, if anyone knows where to get cheap-o used PCs (like under $100), let me know! I know there are millions of usable computers thrown away and liquidated each year, but not how to find any for cheap prices. I could use some utility comps and such. Phreak23 03-08-2001 07:58:54

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) calvin Try http://www.retrobox.com/ They have really good deals on used PC, I picked up a like-new laptop for $350. 03-08-2001 10:47:53

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) akelley Profile I would suggest using I-Openers - they can be had for around $125-150, and a touch screen ad on can be had for another $150 (I think that's the price). These are full PCs that can run Win98 so you don't even need the Server, unless of course you need it (my point being, you can install a 5 gig hd in each io which should be more than enough for quite a few songs). They have a built-in SB compatible sound card, but the native volume isn't that great - I can't remember if there's a headphone jack or not... Check the IO discussion group here http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=technical&Idle=0&Sort=0&Order=Descend for what everyone is doing with theirs. I have one set up as basically a dumb terminal for web surfing and it works great! -Adam 03-08-2001 13:11:54

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) cshatto Or possibly Winterms from http://www.Wyse.com 03-08-2001 13:45:46

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) Steve I'd be worried about people walking off with your Epod. better have them securely bolted down or something. 03-08-2001 18:24:33

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) phreak23 I am going to secure them very well. I have been looking into the i-opener, but it seems like too much work and too much money!!! Four touch screen installs, audio hacks (although I can use $49 USB-Audio boxes), etc. Its an interesting idea, but lots more work. Money and time are serious issues... Probably over $500 per unit... Epods are usable, and I am almost there. Citrix makes them smoke, so now, all I need is to figure out how to remotely control a computer running WinAmp or Media Player, or how to get four soundcards to work. Any ideas on how to remotely control a PC running WinAmp or MediaPlayer from Flash 5? 03-09-2001 09:14:15

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) Billings I'd go the iopener route -- what would be way cool is to use Iopeners on all of your stations (they can be had for very cheap since the demand has peaked) and get some icat barcode scanners so your users can pull up the CD titles with scanner the barcodes (they can be had at Radio Shack for free). 03-09-2001 09:29:48

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) Billings Hehe not icat, I meant cuecat! 03-09-2001 09:30:11

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) phreak23 OK, I have decided to go with I-Openers. The touch screen is going to be a bitch, but is very necessary. 800x600 video is far superior, and they will require a much smaller backend (no Citrix). I am going to keep an Epod for myself and hook it up wireless to my LAN, so I can browse from anywhere in the house. So much for that thread! 03-09-2001 16:22:57

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) Billings I'd nix the touch screens and go for a mini keyboard or numeric pad [so people can't hit control alt delete or get out of your program] -- and have the interface just require scanning of the cd with the bar code scanner. It's already a challenge enough to do what you want with real full computers, I think trying to do it with the epods would be doubly difficult. 03-09-2001 17:16:38

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) Phillerup Looking to buy an I-opener? I have a v4 that I never did anything with. I also have the imod kit for it. And a I.2 gig laptop drive. Email me at wfg97079@speedracer.com 03-26-2001 19:40:46

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) Billings If you are still investigating, I saw the coolest thing in compusa, it is a "music appliance" that can plug into a standard ethernet port anywhere on your network and stream mp3 music from your server computer running an application. The song names come through and you can select the songs remotely. I think it retails for $300. This would be your ideal solution because the music would be CD quality and $300 is less than a computer, and even with an iopener you'd be gerry rigging some stuff. 03-26-2001 19:45:25

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) JamesW Profile Yes, both Gateway and I think Dell make network addressable MP3 players. If only I could find a way to get a wireless NIC attached to 'em... Do go to www.neoseeker.com or somesuch and look up reviews on them. I remember they had some shortcomings depending on your requirements. epods, 2.04 Hack, 64MB Compact Flash, SMC 2632W "I have seen the enemy, and he is us." - Walt Kelly 03-27-2001 04:32:41

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) JamesW Profile Sorry, I've done a quick look around the web, and I can't seem to find where I read the reviews of the players. I think it may have been Etown, but I can't connect to them at the moment for some reason. I think the problems were mostly ergonomic ones, and indeed that'll be your main problem I imagine in building listening stations anyway. The standalone network-attached MP3 players might be just too inflexible to do what you want to do. I don't know what the sound output is like on a Virgin Webplayer, and you lose the touchscreen vs. the epods, but the unit is likely to be a bit more sturdy and abuse-resistant. Perhaps you could run Winamp (although I don't like its stock decoding engine) and use just a numeric keypad plugged into a Webplayer to run it. The user couldn't ctrl-alt-del it that way, and it should be reasonably user-friendly. Touchscreens such as what you get on home appliances just don't stand up to the sort of abuse things get in public environments - touchscreen kiosk screens are much meatier propositions (believe me!). I think you should consider an alternative to the epods, even though I understand the attractiveness of the price. Of course, this is an old discussion we're bringing up here, so you've probably solved all this anyhoo... let us know how it goes/went. I'm interested in this whole topic because I want to do something sort of similar, building listening points around the house for my MP3 collection. The trouble is the epods's poor sound chip - roughly 11kHz just ain't enough dynamic range (all you can get from the 22kHz sound chip). The headphone output is also not the best. The quest continues, I guess. 03-27-2001 05:59:05

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) MISMan Profile | Email I have this working fine with Citrix, but I echo the poor audio statement. I have seen somewhere at one of the hackers sites that they replaced the amp inside, but I can not remember where I saw it. If the speaker or the headphone jack had decent power, it would work fine. One thought is to turn the volume way down and use powered speakers out of the headphone jack, but I have not taken the time to test that. Peter 03-27-2001 16:15:50

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) SiliconIce I have tried the output on both Altec powered computer speakers as well as my home stereo system. To get decent volume, the stereo had to be cranked up pretty high and there was static audible. Flipping back to CD or tuner on the same volume level was extremely loud. Basically, it does not work too well. 03-27-2001 16:39:06

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) JamesW Profile Well, it seems that E-town died in the arse in February, so you're better off trying ZDNet's Gear section. Try http://www.zdnet.com/special/stories/sc/digaudio/reviews/0,12492,2689036,00.html for some brief reviews on network-attached players. There is a link to a full review of the Gateway device. 03-27-2001 20:38:43

RE:CD Listening Stations Using Citrix - Need Ideas (modified 0 times) icbloh2o I'm wondering about a theory I have for the TS inability to support audio: Could a Winamp skin be created that ran on the epods terminal server client session but the winamp controls point to a sepperate session on the Win2K server? ie - epods terminal session - run winamp on the epods TS session to play MP3's on the Server and its sound card - winamp on epods session points to different winamp session opened up directly from the server I'm short on magic dust to make this work myself. 04-09-2001 20:39:59

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