I'd like to get a low power pc (arm or atom) running linux and control the music that it plays through an android app, effectively becoming androids version of Logitech's Squeezebox. I'd prefer not to install X Windows on the box. Has anyone heard of such an app?
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Do you want to install Android on the linux machine or are you talking about controlling the media player on the linux machine with your android phone?– MattCommented Jan 18, 2011 at 2:52
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The latter - I'd like to control media playback on linux machine with my android phone– JamesCommented Jan 18, 2011 at 9:05
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4 Answers
You could install XBMC on the linux box then use the XBMC Remote app on your Android device to control the media playing through XBMC.
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I'm familiar with XBMC, in the past I've simply used a wireless keyboard to navigate the gui on the tv. Do you think it would work simply by booting the machine and then complete control with the android remote? I'm really keen to have a headless box.– JamesCommented Jan 18, 2011 at 9:08
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I don't know. You could try asking over at the XBMC Remote Forums to get a more detailed idea of it's capabilities.– MattCommented Jan 18, 2011 at 14:27
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You can install XBMC Live to HDD or a USB drive to boot straight into XBMC if you don't need a fully accessible Ubuntu front end - I use this with the remote app (which is really solid now) for my media center. Otherwise, you could set XBMC to launch on startup. Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 17:48
I'd recommend installing mpd on the linux server and an mpd client on the android device.
The squeezebox server software doesn't play audio directly so you would have to either install a player like SoftSqueeze or SqueezePlay on the server, or use another music application to play the mp3 stream.
You didn't ask about it, but if you want to play music stored on linux server through your android, you can also install the squeezebox server (now called Logitech Media Server) on the same linux server, and install Squeeze Player on your android along with any squeezebox controller app (I've found SqueezeDroid and SqueezeControl to be best).
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MPD is definitely the way to go here. XBMC also has an MPD client if the machine also doubles as a media server. Commented Mar 26, 2012 at 14:42
Android's version of Squeezebox... is Squeezebox! I do currently use my Android phone as a remote for my Squeezebox.
I've got the Squeezebox server installed on my server, and I have the Android SqueezeControl app installed on my phone. It's handy for skipping unwanted tracks from another room, and for starting the music playing before you walk through your front door.
You can also connect to the MP3 stream that Squeezebox broadcasts to listen from your phone.
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Just to clarify, is there no hardware dependency other than a pc that runs squeezebox server and the android device, i.e. no logitech hardware required?– JamesCommented Jan 19, 2011 at 17:28
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@James The server is open-source, written in Perl and using Mysql and is freely downloadable. For playing the music, you can either use the Logitech hardware (I have a Squeezebox Radio and Squeezebox Boom), or there's a Java based Squeezebox player applet that comes with the server package for playing on PCs, or you could attach your favourite player app to the MP3 stream that the server outputs.– GAThrawnCommented Jan 19, 2011 at 17:39
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More info on the Java players, wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/SoftSqueeze and wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/SqueezePlay and the stream itself would be available on your server from localhost:9000/stream.mp3 see wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Remote_streaming– GAThrawnCommented Jan 19, 2011 at 17:47
XBMC remote for android has playlist control, but when I last used it it was pretty basic and buggy. It's probably better by now.
You will need to set up a monitor to get xbmc up and running and configure it to use the xbmc remote. After that you should be good to go headless.
