Is anyone controlling either an Audiotron or SliMP3 with a Pronto? I am wondering if it's possible to directly jump to an album/playlist on either of these devices using the Pronto.

I currently have a CD jukebox which I control with SuperNudelist, which is awesome. I'd like to know if there is a way to get similar functionality from Audiotron or SliMP3 before I decide if I should buy one of them.

Thanks!
Bryan

Not with the audiotron. I have CD jukeboxs (disc & track access via pronto & supernudelist) and an audiotron and have been looking for a way to add the same kind of functionality. Currently I just mimic the audiotrons remote.

It is, however, possible to write an app to control the audiotron using its api. So... if you're a programmer you could write an app (frontend) to the audiotron that would give us the functionality.

Just as a side note, apart from the remote control functionality, the audiotron is fantastic. It breathes new life into your MP3s. The sound quality blows away any pc sound card.

And what kind of functionality does the Audiotron remote have? Is it useful without scrolling through the display? I ideally want to be able to go right to a song(s) without needing to look at the display, as you can with SuperNudelist and a CD jukebox.

Wonder if the SliMP3 is any different?

Thanks!

With the audiotron remote you CAN'T go right to a song without looking at the display (like supernudelist & CD jukebox). It's a heirarchy type access. You select track, artist, album, or genre.

if you select track, you then scroll thru all your tracks in alphabetical order (not to useful)

if you select artist, you can then select track or all, all adds all to the que, track will allow you to scroll thru that artists tracks.

album and genre are much the same. You get the idea, like a tree view one level at a time.

It's pretty Brutal when your used to supernudelist & Pronto.

But then again...how else would they implement it?
They only have a few LCD lines to work with.

The only other way I could think of would require a two way remote to have the audiotron sync its table of contents with the remote. Then have an LCD on the remote that allows display & selection of the tracks. But I dream...

You can use the api to in effect say "Play This Song",
but that requires a program and hence a computer to run it on. I have a remote controlled HTPC using IRMan and Girder. So.. I have the hardware, I just haven't found the time to write the software.

I looked at SliMP3, it looks like the same kind of access method. Also I don't think the SliMP3 has an optical/toslink audio out (that I could see from the picture). If you have a digital receiver that makes a huge difference.

I looked at the SliMP3 manual on the website and it looks like it is pretty flexible for searching/selecting songs. I haven't had a chance to look at the Audiotron manual but from what you've told me it sounds a bit less flexible.

I really like the features of the Audiotron better - more polished web interface (which I don't know if I would actually use all that much, to be honest), the ability to use it without a remote, looks more like normal stereo equipment, digital output...

One really nice thing about the SliMP3 is the display, which is going to be important if you have to rely so heavily on the menus to find music. How do you like the Audiotron display? Is it readable from across the room, say 10-15 feet?

Thanks again!
Bryan

Just looked at the Audiotron manual. Wow... looks like it will indeed do what I would like (minus the direct access with Pronto). In advanced menu mode, you can select an Artist, then an Album by that artist, right down to individual song if you want. So basically, it reproduces the functionality of Nudelist to an extent, but you have to rely on the menus.

I can live with that if the display is readable at a resonable distance. Is it?

Thanks,
Bryan

Hmm, using the genre button or maybe one of the fav buttons can you put the audiotron in a known state and then navigate down with supernudelist, but navigations is done but arrow keys not by numbered disk assignments as in a jukebox, so I don't think supernudelist can control an audiotron easily.

Craig

The display is bright and vivid, but i'm not sure from how far away it is readable. Mine is only 3 or 4 feet away from where i usually use it. 10 or 15 feet may be another story. The people at the audiotron forums may have more insight for you on that point.
[Link: pub90.ezboard.com]

They also have a ccf for the audiotron at the turtle beach site so you don't need to learn the codes.

You can select down to the track level using the remote and the menus. The anoying part is once you select a track it goes back to the main menu. So if you wanted to... select 2 or more songs from one artist you would have to navigate the menu structure everytime. Fortunately it does remember the last artist (album, genre etc.) it was on. So... much like Craig suggested, I setup a macro which navigates the menu structure and returns me to the tracklist of the last select artist. The same could be done for album, genre etc. So the Pronto can get around some of the interface issues.

The sound quality from the digital out is fantastic, but I have heard complaints about noise etc. from the rca jacks. The Support is good and new firmware is released regularily. Be sure to upgrade to latest firmware after installing. It comes with a web interface which allows you to control the audiotron from any computer on your network but it is a little slow and clunky (version 3.0 is much better though). jtleavens made a frontend called "Alternatron", which allows you to display cover art and lyrics and is more responsive than the web interface.

that's all i can think of for now...

oh...I forgot to mention MP3 tags. The audiotron uses the MP3 tags from the files to build its table of contents. ITS VERY FUSY. So you may have to do some work on your tags to get the audiotron to properly catalog the songs.

I did read in some reviews that the MP3 tags can be an issue. I've also read differing opinions on the display - some say it's just fine, some say it stinks. I've seen what appear to be 2 styles of display on web pictures - one that is kind of orange-ish and doesn't look too great, and another that is blue-green and looks a bit nicer. Do you know if they switched to the blue-green because of complaints or something? (Or it could just be different marketing pictures or something.)

One other question - can you have songs assigned to multiple playlists? So if I want Song XYZ as part of "My favorites" and also "Party" playlists, can I do that? I assume songs can only be assigned one genre?

All in all, the Audiotron sounds like something I want! I also stumbled across some of the user-written applications for the AT today, which look pretty cool.

Bryan

I have the green display. The size of the display is more the issue than the quality when viewing from a long distance. there is two rows of text in a rather slim display window, so... the further back you move the harder it is to see because of its size.

I'm not sure you can make playlists with the audiotron, but it can play playlists made in other applications (*.M3U format). So you should be able to have the same song in different playlists.

As far as I know, only one genre per song, it reads that info from the mp3 tag.

And it also reads the tags for track number? So if I have 10 songs in an album, and put the track numbers in the MP3 tag, it will play them in order?

Re-tagging all these MP3's is going to be a project in itself!

Bryan

I spent days re-tagging my collection, I never payed any attention to the tag info until I got the audiotron. I used MP3 Tag Studio, check it out at:
[Link: magnusbrading.com]

sorting by track number... I don't think so... but I could be wrong. Most of my MP3s don't have track numbers so I can't really say.

Barman:

A friend of mine has written a small piece of software called "Send To Audiotron." Basically, it adds an entry to the Send To menu. Allowing you to select a song, right-click and send to AuditoTron.

It take just a little bit of setting up so that the path from you computer can be translated into a path that AudioTron sees. The song is then added to the current play que. If AudioTron in not playing, the program issues a play command.

I wanted to check with him before offering it to anyone. If you would like to try this out, send me an email: dbhenkel yahoo com (fill in missing parts).

How does one get a hold of AlternaTron?

DH

Bryan:

Please share where it is that you stumbled on the user-written apps for AudioTron.

Barman:

The tag editor in AudioStation works quite well. I have only just begun to covert CDs to .wma, so I have been paying close attention to what is in the tag before ripping. For the few times I have had to change something AudioStation was fine.

Warning: AudioTron does like tags that have been edited with Windows Media Player.

IMHO: I think that AudioTron is great. It is especially useful for casual listening. Some people may prefer an actual CD for intense listening or enjoyment. If are just interested in back ground music for while doing something else, AudioTron is what to have.

DH