Monday, January 27, 2014

More Jukebox

I need to make some changes to my Popeye cabinet.
I sold the CRT monitor with the hopes of replacing it with a larger LCD monitor.
Sadly I missed the boat on Boxing Day here in Canada.
A nice 23" CRT monitor (clearance model) for $70!!!! F**K!
With that said I'm leaving that project for now taking on something that will require less work.
Enter the jukebox (as touched on earlier) !!!!!!!!!!!

Things have been crazy around the house with a six month old daughter.
I have far less "me" time, and when I do have "me" time I confess I don't always have the best time management. I still have not picked up the All-in-1 23" touchscreen PC. I am 100%...........I REPEAT 100% committed to that PC!

We've had one heck of a winter here, and we were hit with another storm yesterday (Sunday Jan 26th).
That was the day I was supposed to pick up the computer. None the less I've contacted the seller to let him know my intentions. All be it he probably thinks I'm a real idiot and he's heard it all before.

However I'm still messing around and trying things out. I'm playing around with Splashtop...........LOVE IT!
My Belkin router however is blocking the connection causing Splahstop to not connect.
When I unhooked the Belkin router (which I was using to give my network more range) I had no connection issues. This issue will need to be sorted out at a later time, for now I can't be bothered.

For now I'm working on properly tagging my music. Making sure my album art is all in check!
I'm also using MP3 Gain to adjust all my levels..........BTW I love that program also!
I've said it before (broken record) but if all goes well I'll get the PC this weekend.
The tablet is all set up and really cool to use as a remote.


Thursday, January 9, 2014

The Jukebox

I'm proud of my man cave. I think all things considered (room size, budget, etc) it turned out really well.
I have my machines (that still need some TWEAKING), some really cool artwork, my foosball table, some cool sings, and even a gumball/candy machine.

I can actually say that I've crossed off many of my wants from my list. The one project that has evaded me all these years has been a jukebox. And perhaps not a jukebox in the traditional sense, but some cool means of showcasing and interacting with my music collection.

Years ago I had purchased 4 17" ELO touchscreen monitors, the good ol CRT type. Plan was use these for a jukebox project in connection with "Uncle T's Jukebox." Uncle T's was a great free program distributed years ago on various coin-op related sites. Only issue was that with my limited skills and lack of tools I would have needed someone to build me the jukebox itself. All things considered it simply wasn't worth the cost involved. To this day I still have the PC configured with a custom skin and featuring Uncle T's jukebox.

When my basement got done it was clear to say space was of a premium. Not everything I wanted I could have. The jukebox idea kinda fell onto the back burner until recently. I was looking for a suitable option that would allow me to access my music via my tablet. I won't get into too much detail about this, but in the end I found no suitable options.

Forever on Kijiji I came across some "All-in-1" PC's. I had tracked down an HP model with a 27" touchscreen monitor. It was located about 90 minutes from my home and I had enlisted the help of family to pick it up. The price was super low, about $200, but the machine was "as is." Seller was an older gentleman who was told the PC needed a new hard drive ($100). I figured for $300 this was worth a shot, sadly as busy as I was with my newborn daughter I was unable to pick up the PC. Any my aunt and uncle whom I asked for help were sooooooooooo paranoid they declined to pick it up in a timely manor. As it goes the item was SOLD !!!!!!

Needless to say when I missed this unit I was PI$$ED. But the silver lining was I was made aware of these all in 1 type PC's. Fast forward a few months and I came across a "Gateway ZX6800" with a 23" touchscreen monitor. As it turned out the seller had one with some slight corner damage for $200. I went to his place, saw the PC, gave a verbal promise to buy it and he was to configure it with Windows 7. It was my birthday that day actually, and as I was out for my birthday dinner I got a text from him. "Sorry to tell you the PC isn't responding to touch. I can offer it to you still for $200, or $250 for a working one." He had offered me a $50 discount and I had asked for an additional $25 off....................he didn't budge !

I emailed the seller back a couple days after but he was still unwilling to go down to $225. In the end I agreed to pick one up configured with Windows 7 for $250. Soooooooooooooo I'll actually pick that up this weekend.

 Gateway ZX6800 with the following specs :
  • Processor Type Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
  • Processor Speed 2.33GHz
  • Processor Cores 4
  • RAM 4GB DDR3
  • Hard Drive Capacity 500GB
  • Optical Drives 8X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti
  • Graphics Integrated Intel GMA X4500HD
  • Screen Size/Type 23" touchscreen LCD
  • Integrated WiFi 802.11b/g/n
  • Card Reader Multi-In-1
Here is the concept :



I'll use the PC as is moving my music collection to the internal hard drive.
The PC will be networked with my existing home network so music can be easily added/removed.
Via the software I can even point the jukebox to music collections on other PC's in the house.
I'll add a Bluetooth transmitter to the PC. I have two as is, I've tested them and they work well.
My existing AV set up (5.1) and additional "in wall" speakers will be hooked up with a Bluetooth receiver.
I picked up a copy of the great "TouchJams" software and created a custom skin for it.
http://touchjams.com/default.asp

Simply put I'll set up the PC downstairs, install Touchjams, and set up the Bluetooth pair.
The PC will boot right up into TouchJams (and perhaps contain other touchscreen friendly games), users will be able to navigate my music collection selecting a playlist. The music will then be sent via wireless


existing system. I'm excited !!!!