Floppyhead - Digital Media and Home Theater Computers

Home theater surround sound systems are a great way to enhance watching movies and television at home. The only drawback to such a system is the mess of wires connecting the rear speakers to the AV receiver. For the hardcore audiophile, this means fishing wires through existing walls. Not everyone can be [...]

Apple and EMI have agreed to release the studio’s catalog of music DRM-free and at a higher bit-rate of 256 kbps (iTunes typically offers songs encoded at 128 kbps). This is a good first step for Apple in creating a more consumer friendly music store. From the iTunes store FAQ:

iTunes Plus refers to songs [...]

Sonos has announced that their music system will work in conjunction with Pandora, the online music streaming and recommendation system.
With this announcement, Sonos is adding a nifty feature to their already impressive, albeit expensive, music system. The center of the Sonos system is its unique controller, which will now be able to directly access [...]

One of the most interesting features of Microsoft Vista is Sideshow, specifically remotes designed to work with Sideshow. Most of us still choose to haul out our collection of CDs when we want to get our groove on in the comfort of our own living rooms. Although iPods are incredibly popular, digital music is [...]

Amazon.com has decided to enter the world of digital music downloads. I am not entirely sure why they want to do this but I guess one more player in an already fragmented market is not a big deal. I think Amazon is a good place to buy CDs from so maybe this new [...]

TuneView for iPod provides a new wireless way to manage your music throughout your house or office. TuneView for iPod consists of a universal iPod dock, 2-way RF remote with color LCD screen, a USB power adapter, audio and USB cables, and selected dock adapters. According to the Tuneview website, these components allow you [...]

The Logitech Wireless DJ Music System streams audio–including copy-protected DRM music and Internet radio–from your PC to your home stereo. The $250 system is anchored by a wireless remote control with a built-in LCD readout that allows you to access and navigate digital music files on your PC or the Internet and hear [...]

I found this over at Denguru.com:
Unfortunately, according to market research firm Parks Associates, most of us still choose to haul out our collection of CDs when we want to get our groove on in the comfort of our own living rooms. They found that 40 percent of households play music files on their computers [...]

My goal is to get rid of Windows XP on my audio server and manage all of my digital media using Linux, most likely Ubuntu. Linux is appealing to me because I can run my server without having to purchase another version of Windows XP. There is also a certain level of “coolness” [...]

By all accounts, the Sonos Zone Player is a great piece of hardware for digital audio. Why is it not more popular? I recently came across a review of the Sonos whole house audio system done by the Wall Street Journal. From the article:
Both Sonos and Rhapsody were originally designed to work with PCs. [...]