Airport Express/AirTunes Plug-in

[Russ]

It'd need to encode it, and encrypt it, if indeed it is sent encrypted.

[ThomasW]

Originally posted by electricmime
wouldnt winamp need to be able to play apple lossless codecs first?

Winamp can play Apple Lossless already - look here:

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178807

It wouldn't be difficult at all to write a plugin that encodes songs on the fly to Apple Lossless - but how should I implement encrypting the song? I think you would have to reverse-engineer iTunes to find out how it is encrypted and with what key. Then you could try to write a plugin. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do that and moreover, it would be illegal to reverse-engineer iTunes.

[electricmime]

okay... so apple lossless can be played on winamp (though i still dont use it anyway)

i still see no point in the airport express

it just seems like an expensive item with very little functions..

[Russ]

I wonder if it's possible to hack an audio adaptor into the Linksys WRT54G... That would give the same functionality for half the price .

[cortana]

Heh, that would be great.

Also, I don't think the "encryption" for AirTunes is anything more than standard WEP, so Winamp wouldn't have to do any encrypting.

[CaboWaboAddict]

Cheaper Options???

X-10 makes a wireless sound broadcaster that works well. You plug the transmitter into your sound card, plug the receiver into the stereo, and away ya' go. no plugs needed. You can get a bundle that includes a RF remote too. I have several remotes that I use at home, work, and down the road, in the car. Have a VB code library I developed for it that controls Winamp too.

Here's another from RCA:

http://www.rca.com/product/viewmodellist/browseproduct/0,,CI700245,00.html

For $69 aint too shabby!

[barnie_bg]

That thing really makes some sense, but only in the following case:
- you have a wi-fi enabled laptop;
- you do not already have a wireless router or a desktop pc;
- your music files reside on the laptop.

So you could just come home carrying the laptop, open it and start playing music in the home stereo. Unlike the X10 thing you won't need to plug anything in the laptop. Actually the only real alternative I can think of is a bluetooth connection and I don't think there's a device that can do it with good quality.

It's not hard to realize that in this scenario the printer port also makes perfect sense.

There's something else that also makes perfect sense: a Winamp input plugin that presents itself as the airtunes device. Actually I'd love to do that, if I can find the information needed to do it.

[electricmime]

why wouldnt you just hook the laptop up to the stereo?

i mean, wouldnt that be alot cheaper/easier than buying this thing?

i mean, how many people honestly come into their house with their laptop open, song chosen (stereo on and hooked up) and wants to hear the music as they enter the house through the stereo? without ever hooking their laptop up to anything

[barnie_bg]

Because you're lazy.

You want to just have the connection the moment you sit at your desk. Nothing to connect. Like a docking station, only you don't need to dock to use it.

It's the same thing as the wi-fi itself: you start to like it when you start to use it and realize how convenient it is with a laptop.

[CaboWaboAddict]

Ok. here's one that's got a remote and does video for $199.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=318

Bet its propriatary too though.

[Bizzeh]

Originally posted by ThomasW
Winamp can play Apple Lossless already - look here:

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178807

It wouldn't be difficult at all to write a plugin that encodes songs on the fly to Apple Lossless - but how should I implement encrypting the song? I think you would have to reverse-engineer iTunes to find out how it is encrypted and with what key. Then you could try to write a plugin. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do that and moreover, it would be illegal to reverse-engineer iTunes.

"just reverse engineer the encryption and the encoding algorithmes" easier said than done

[ThomasW]

Who said encrypting would be easy? I just said it would be extremely easy to encode the song, because we know it's encoded in Apple Lossless and it wouldn't take me more than half an hour to write a plugin that encodes music to Apple Lossless.

However, if the music is also encrypted you would have to reverse engineer iTunes - that wouldn't be easy and it would also take a lot more time than I'd be willing to spend.

[cortana]

As I said, it probably only means WEP encryption, which Winamp programmers wouldn't have to touch.

[inthegray]

i think i heard mention that the encryption is aes

[Kalte]

I've kinda been doing this for years

Back in 99, I bought a sondblaster live card, this was a great card, as it had 4 channel support. The comptuer speakers were plugged in the front channels, a 400mhz FM transmitter (I think I bought it at raidoshack) was plugged in the rear. The transmitter/reciever pair transmitted three channels, two for stereo sound, one visual. (TV out for the video card as well) Hence the computer became the ultimate media center for music and movies. The living room and the computer room wern't that far apart so it was no hassle really to load up Mp3's, or DVD's in the comptuer and have them play on the bigscreen or the larger stereo.

In all reality - the new Airport/itunes thing is really just old tech, with a shiny new wrapper, and a diferent frequency carrier.

Recently however, it's more benifitial in the long run to run cat5 to whatever room I've wanted to access data in; and build up a cheep linux terminal in that room. Now I've got music/media/internet/movies in my workshop, office, bedroom, and lounge.