Does the Photobridge line of products support music play of Rhapsody and Itunes like the Rokus?

I am thinking of purchasing one for my living room. I have a number of Rokus---and I thought it might be nice to have the hd and video features too---that is, if it still does what the roku does.

Thanks for the info.

No, the PhotoBridge does not support iTunes or Rhapsody.

It does support SlimServer via a third party application:
http://www.permanence.com/SlimRoku/index.html

The main advantage (for many people) is that the PhotoBridge can play music without needing server side software, but accessing the files via SMB (e.g. shares on a windows machine, or a NAS).
It can do this with the built-in music player Listen (a.k.a Sonata) or with a third party application called Sonica
http://www.bobsplace.com/sonica/

The PhotoBridge also natively supports many more music formats than the SoundBridge e.g. FLAC or Apple Lossless.
It also supports internet radio through a few different (third party) applications e.g. HexRadio.

But as I mentioned, it doesn't support iTunes or Rhapsody.

My understanding is that the soundbridge supports more audio formats. For instance, wma. The photobridge has a third-party plug-in for this, but it doesn't work all that well. And the Soundbridge does music services, where the photobridge doesn't.
If I knew now what I didn't know before I bought the photobridge, I would have purchased a windows media center for photos, dvds, and music.

swingnstar wrote:

If I knew now what I didn't know before I bought the photobridge,

SOUNDbridge is for music
PHOTObridge is for photos

I'm not sure how much more clear that could be.

dgburns wrote:

swingnstar wrote:

If I knew now what I didn't know before I bought the photobridge,

SOUNDbridge is for music
PHOTObridge is for photos

I'm not sure how much more clear that could be.

Keep in mind that:

1. The Photobridge wasn't always called the Photobridge, and we don't know when he bought his, and

2. The Photobridge is advertised as also being a music player (I bought mine for the combination of functions)

swingnstar wrote:

My understanding is that the soundbridge supports more audio formats. For instance, wma. The photobridge has a third-party plug-in for this, but it doesn't work all that well.

What problems are you getting exactly with WMA files? If you have some problem files I'd be happy to have a look at them and see if I can figure out what the issue is. I'm more than happy to try to improve the codec but you have to let me know when you're having problems!

Thank you for taking a look at it, soiaf. wma works on many of my files, but the mono radio programs weren't happy until I re-sampled as stereo and 44,100. They were at 22,050, I think.
But I only had a dozen or so of those. The bigger problem is pretty often Listen decides a song is over before it really is. This happens a lot and I am guessing it is when I use variable bit rate. Since I've started ripping at constant bit rate, well none of those cut off early.

I'll start watching for a file or two that cut off early and I guess PM you with a link to them. Is that the best?

I think it is great that you and so many have given their time and talent to make the photobridge do more. I do enjoy it, but I do think it important to speak honestly - neither disparagingly nor with false compliments, but honestly about my opinions and experiences.

Gary

swingnstar wrote:

Thank you for taking a look at it, soiaf. wma works on many of my files, but the mono radio programs weren't happy until I re-sampled as stereo and 44,100. They were at 22,050, I think.

Unfortunately none of the codecs work at that sample rate, Roku disabled support for the lower sample rates in their code as apparently it was causing problems with some peoples receivers/processors.
I could modify my codecs to do some simple upsampling, but I'd have to do it for all the codecs and it would be much better solution if Roku just made it something like a flag/setting users could set (so if it does work on a persons setup they could enable support for lower sample rates).

swingnstar wrote:

The bigger problem is pretty often Listen decides a song is over before it really is. This happens a lot and I am guessing it is when I use variable bit rate. Since I've started ripping at constant bit rate, well none of those cut off early.
I'll start watching for a file or two that cut off early and I guess PM you with a link to them. Is that the best?

That would be great if you could, its always easier to debug these type of issues with a good example 'problem' file.

swingnstar wrote:

I think it is great that you and so many have given their time and talent to make the photobridge do more. I do enjoy it, but I do think it important to speak honestly - neither disparagingly nor with false compliments, but honestly about my opinions and experiences.

Totally agree.
Thanks for letting me know about the issues you're seeing.