Ok, I've been looking at the squeezebox duet setup for about a month now, was getting ready to purchase, when a new player enters the arena from a side door. Apple (full disclosure: I am NOT an apple guy, have 4 pcs at home, last apple product was a mac plus from 1985 that is in a box somewhere) has released remote control software for the iphone/touch that allows you to remotely control itunes on a computer and music on an appletv device. This would appear to have the same general functionality as a combination of a duet controller, sb receiver, soft squeeze and squeeze center. Now, I'm sure there are a number of drawbacks on the apple side of the comparison (lack of audio sync'ing and lesser remote software immediately come to mind - I'm sure repliers who are more knowledgeable could discuss in more detail) but there are also drawbacks on the sb side.
I am a big fan of open source, have spent a fair amount of time on sourceforge over the years, and I use VLC and Media Player Classic for all my video needs right now. I use itunes (after time with early musicmatch, and with foobar2000 and songbird also installed on my system) because it just handles a large (30,000 song) collection better and works more smoothly (though i swear foobar sounds better) My big hesitation on the squeezebox has been that the combo of squeezecenter and squeezesoft has just been clunky - it's not really easy to manage the music in squeezecenter and the insistence on using the sb model for squeezesoft, as opposed to taking advantage of the fact that it's running on a pc with a large screen is unfortunate. I had reconciled to continuing to use itunes to manage the music and taking advantage of squeezecenter's nice itunes integration. Squeezesoft in particular though is concerning -the SqS main page still refers to SqS 2 (we're on 3) and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of dev. activity.
So with the release of the apple remote software it occurs to me that a $299 ipod touch and $229 apple tv are just $129 more than a squeezbox duet (certainly more in that range than the sonos) with the added advantages of video support by the receiver (though I don't believe the remote software controls video yet) and a "remote" that doubles as a web device and mp3 player (essentially another receiver.) There also appears to be more community software support for the apple devices - a big advantage going forward.
I'd be interested in folks thoughts on this whole situation. The obvious consideration for me is the deployment level of the apple products and constant updates - it would make sense for them to increase this functionality over time (as they we're in audio wireless streaming early with the air-ports) and add video (and hopefully hd video). I was really this close to ordering a duet and was waiting on the new popcorn hours that were supposed to be released any day. Both of those seem to have immediate functionality advantages over an apple solutions, but what do we think over time?
I am a big fan of open source, have spent a fair amount of time on sourceforge over the years, and I use VLC and Media Player Classic for all my video needs right now. I use itunes (after time with early musicmatch, and with foobar2000 and songbird also installed on my system) because it just handles a large (30,000 song) collection better and works more smoothly (though i swear foobar sounds better) My big hesitation on the squeezebox has been that the combo of squeezecenter and squeezesoft has just been clunky - it's not really easy to manage the music in squeezecenter and the insistence on using the sb model for squeezesoft, as opposed to taking advantage of the fact that it's running on a pc with a large screen is unfortunate. I had reconciled to continuing to use itunes to manage the music and taking advantage of squeezecenter's nice itunes integration. Squeezesoft in particular though is concerning -the SqS main page still refers to SqS 2 (we're on 3) and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of dev. activity.
So with the release of the apple remote software it occurs to me that a $299 ipod touch and $229 apple tv are just $129 more than a squeezbox duet (certainly more in that range than the sonos) with the added advantages of video support by the receiver (though I don't believe the remote software controls video yet) and a "remote" that doubles as a web device and mp3 player (essentially another receiver.) There also appears to be more community software support for the apple devices - a big advantage going forward.
I'd be interested in folks thoughts on this whole situation. The obvious consideration for me is the deployment level of the apple products and constant updates - it would make sense for them to increase this functionality over time (as they we're in audio wireless streaming early with the air-ports) and add video (and hopefully hd video). I was really this close to ordering a duet and was waiting on the new popcorn hours that were supposed to be released any day. Both of those seem to have immediate functionality advantages over an apple solutions, but what do we think over time?