What's your favorite control point hardware/software?

[jbc]

Dear DS Cognoscenti:

Right now, I control my DS with either SkweezyDS and a Universal (Harmony) remote, or via Kinsky Desktop on a notebook PC (through Twonky). Both are OK, but I think that there are better options.

I am secretly envious of those with bright coloured touch screens as control points, and wish to attain that level of sophisticated elegance in my own life. The problem is that I'm a complete neophyte in the area. My life, so far, has been completely i-Free - no iPod, no iPhone, no iPad

It seems to me that the IPod Touch and Chorus is quite popular. Is that a valid starting point, or am I better off with something else.

Any feedback would be most welcome.

Thanks,
JBC

[Briain]

Hi

I've been running DS since 2007 and it was - in the olden days - sometimes a bit of a hassle when things didn't work as you'd expected them to; normally when you have guests round. The new hardware and CP's on the scene are a massive leap forwards from the 2007 days and quite a lot of that is to do with the processing power of the devices on which the new control point software can be run (enabling the CP software designers to provide more feature rich CP's without the worry of the hardware/software of the physical devices being unable to cope).

I started with a Samsung Q1 tablet then moved over to a HP iPaq 214 (Kinsky PDA) and both were great, but by today's standards, they are a bit like comparing a Model-T to a Ferrari! I bought an iPad (not too long after they appeared to market) and now, my honest opinion is that if you intend compiling a relatively large music collection - over about 1000 albums - it is the only sensible way to control your DS system. The current versions of Songbook and Chorus on the iPad make the system a total joy to drive and my personal opinion is that for folks with a medium to large music collection, an iPad should simply be factored into the essential cost of the DS system.

I have 2500 albums on my NAS and thus it would be a stress for things like the iPod Touch (I've tried one and thought it too slow). That said, for smaller - some would say 'normal' - sized collections, I'd expect an iPod Touch or iPhone (running Chorus or Songbook) to be an absolutely ideal solution, so the answer is not as Y/N as you'd at first assume.

Personally, I totally love the large scale artwork and fast response of the iPad and I'd now consider it an absolutely essential part of my music system. To put it another way, most folks who have been round at my house have also ended up buying an iPad to control their DS; usually pretty swiftly!

Bri

[jbc]

Hi Briain:

Thanks for the informative reply. Once again, you've managed to provide very useful feedback.

Sounds like the IPad is the way to go (not the iPod touch). I have ~2,200 albums ripped, so it is a reasonably large collection - even if I only really listen to about 5% of it. Also, in the olden days of ripping with EAC, I didn't download much album art.

One question - I understand that my speed limitation is likely my ReadyNAS duo (which is a vespa in the NAS world of Ducatis). Will the IPad make much of a difference in speed with this kind of set-up?

Best,
JBC

[tokenbrit]

LeiaDS seems to be quick running against my ReadyNas Duo, but I don't have nearly that many albums... (haven't tried iPad CPs)

[flatcoat]

The iPad with Chorus DSHD gets my vote. Not only is it a brilliant control point for a Linn DS, the iPad is the best gadget I have ever owned and is so good for lots of reasons. It fundamentally changes the way you use a computer.

I also have an iPod Touch with Chorus DS on it but rarely use it as it is inferior to the iPad system.

I have also owned and tested these control points:

Samsung Q1, Nokia N800, Ipaq214, Asus Netbook.

[HiViUser]

I do not have experience in other software & hardware on controlling the DS.

However, I use the iPad with ChorusDS HD from day 1 with the Linn DS.

Later, I get the SongBook DS under recent promotion by Jason.

As Briain pointed out, both of the ChorusDS HD and SongBook DS are good software which I do agree.

Anyway, I will vote as well a iPad with ChorusDS HD as my preferred control point combo.

I have over 1,600 albums with over 20,000 song titles and I can find the required song or album without any difficulty.

[TimB]

+1 for iPad. For me actually apps like Chorus and the latest version of Songbook are THE killer apps for iPad. Other than that it is a nice couch surfing device and maybe a little over-hyped in its other applications or use cases currently. If you have used it once for controling your DS there is really no way back to regularly using iPod touch or iPhone or even any dektop PC application.

The iPad feature that is most valuable in this context is the instant on / immediate connect to WiFi that the iPad provides. The only faster way to make DS play music remotely is the traditional remote control - but this restricts you to either only start playing what you listened to last time, switch to internet radio or play specific albums or playlists using Kinsky Jukebox.

The most stable app for iPad is Chorus IMO. Songbook has some valuable additional features like a better cover art browsing option and the direct radiotime integration, but I have seen too many unstable versions to fully rely on it. The last version of Songbook works very well for me, but from my experience I cannot say I am sure the next update would provide the same stability necessarily.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Tim

Edit: I should add that I have not used Skweezy DS and can't say how this compares to iPad / Chorus or iPad/ Songbook.

[VicJayL]

iPad + Chorus + Songbook = DS heaven.

[SaltyDog]

iPad is the only one with instant on. As TimB said, this sets it apart from the rest.

BubbleDS is the soon to be released Android competitor. With a bunch of Android tablets being released as we speak, this could be something to look into.

Instant on blows away all other features in actual use.

[Briain]

(2011-02-09 03:53)jbc Wrote:  Hi Briain:

Thanks for the informative reply. Once again, you've managed to provide very useful feedback.

Sounds like the IPad is the way to go (not the iPod touch). I have ~2,200 albums ripped, so it is a reasonably large collection - even if I only really listen to about 5% of it. Also, in the olden days of ripping with EAC, I didn't download much album art.

One question - I understand that my speed limitation is likely my ReadyNAS duo (which is a vespa in the NAS world of Ducatis). Will the IPad make much of a difference in speed with this kind of set-up?

Best,
JBC

Hi

Yes, I'd expect it will be fine. One advantage of Songbook is that it caches the images on the iPad and thus will operate slightly faster than a CP that doesn't. I've not used a ReadyNAS Duo for a while (and not tried it with Twonky 6) but I've just tried Twonky 6.0.30 on a D-Link DNS323 and it works very well with iPad/Songbook & iPad/Chorus.

The D-Link has a 500 MHz Marvell CPU and thus is a bit faster than a Duo (takes about 60 minutes for 2500 album database rebuild whereas the Duo will likely take 90 minutes) but it's approximately in the same ball-park; as it works so well, I'd also expect the Duo to be okay (even with a large and 'art-rich' collection). NB The D-Link reboot rescan takes 47 minutes whereas something like a Qnap TS-219P+ will be about 20 minutes rebuild and 6 minutes reboot rescan; gives you an idea of the speed for more modern devices

One reason I prefer a faster NAS is for the actual process of embedding images to FLAC files; the much faster read/write speeds make the process much less arduous and thus a lot more fun. My previous complaint about the ReadyNAS and Twonky 5.1 was that it took nearly 1 hour to rescan the contents and thus pick up a new album, but Twonky 6 addresses this (it works in a different way and only takes a few tens of seconds).

Hope that helps
Bri

PS In case anyone with a D-Link is reading this, I'll create a post with the instructions (and a Twonky start-up script) for installing T6 on the D-Link DNS323 later this week.