Who has Nuvo Music Port?

[Neurorad]

I received a reply from Nuvo tech support (Ted Brasier), after I asked about what functions are to be expected in the MP update (Q4 per NuvoPete).

He said:

"Here is what will be supported...

Pandora - it isn't a paid-only service

Radio Time - over 100,000 free stations

Sirius online

XM online"

I asked him to explain about Pandora - haven't heard back yet.

100,000 free stations hard to believe, but I googled Radio Time and found the site
They have my favorite radio station - 10 hits when I searched, meaning they probably count it 10 times.

BUT as Jamie has pointed out, don't believe it until it's here.

Sirius and XM online will of course require $, but I think I'll hold off on the Sirius tuner.

I had some buyer's remorse last night, about the Nuvo system, when I saw a print ad for a DA system that allowed 256 sources - IP based. But I realized this morning that the amplification is most probably local, maybe in-wall, and that's not at all what I want.

If I have time today, I'll order the GC, and MP.

 

[charliebarns]

I received a reply from Nuvo tech support (Ted Brasier), after I asked about what functions are to be expected in the MP update (Q4 per NuvoPete).

He said:

"Here is what will be supported...

Pandora - it isn't a paid-only service

Radio Time - over 100,000 free stations

Sirius online

XM online"

I asked him to explain about Pandora - haven't heard back yet.

100,000 free stations hard to believe, but I googled Radio Time and found the site
They have my favorite radio station - 10 hits when I searched, meaning they probably count it 10 times.

BUT as Jamie has pointed out, don't believe it until it's here.

Sirius and XM online will of course require $, but I think I'll hold off on the Sirius tuner.

I had some buyer's remorse last night, about the Nuvo system, when I saw a print ad for a DA system that allowed 256 sources - IP based. But I realized this morning that the amplification is most probably local, maybe in-wall, and that's not at all what I want.

If I have time today, I'll order the GC, and MP.

Thanks Neurorad. This came in just before I ordered the T2SIR and as such I have decided to hold on on the tuner until Q4 and see what's in the upgrade software for the MP. I went ahead and ordered the MP from Brandon. Here's hoping Nuvo delivers on that list - although it seems like a bit of a tall order... B)

CB

 

[Neurorad]

I'm a very skeptical person - if I expect the worst, I'll never be disappointed.

I'll just wait until the MP update, to order the Sirius tuner. B)

 

[forgets]

"Here is what will be supported...

Pandora - it isn't a paid-only service

Radio Time - over 100,000 free stations

Sirius online

XM online"

I asked him to explain about Pandora - haven't heard back yet.

100,000 free stations hard to believe, but I googled Radio Time and found the site
They have my favorite radio station - 10 hits when I searched, meaning they probably count it 10 times.

It'd be cool if nuvo let us beta test the software, but i've been using autonomic's beta for a bit now.. seeing as they've already got pandora and xm integrated i don't think it'll be too hard for them to do radiotime.

I could probably answer any questions you have about pandora since i used it extensively with the autonomic version of the software. I think i've answered most of them previously, but in case i missed any, only selecting which station you want to listen to is available so far through the keypads.. (who knows if they'll be able to enable a thumbs up / down feature later, but it's not a big deal to me.) Everything else is available through the web / flash interface on the computer, including thumbs up / down, and adding / deleting stations (it's even got a popup keyboard for entry in case you're on a touch screen).. also someone asked before, it does show cover art for what's playing on pandora most of the time.. live versions of songs are usually the one's where it doesn't have any, and thats understandable since it wouldn't normally have any. As for the question about pandora being a paid service, i've never heard of that.. i've got a free subscription, works great, the only caveat being you can only skip 6 songs an hour.

Anyway, i'll be eagerly awaiting the next release from nuvo as well in Q4. I'll go out on a limb and say i'm pretty optimistic they'll hit their mark with the upcoming features since most of them are already working through autonomic's version, and all NuVo really has to do is slap their logo's all over it. Past that, i guess i'm the odd man out here, I've got a T2G, and it hasn't really seen any use since i got the music port.. i tried using CQC to browse my music library before and it's nowhere near the league of the music port (seeing as it was built by nuvo themselves for one purpose).. I'm stil happy being able to comb through all the music in my computer library and play what i want to hear anywhere in the house commercial free unlike radio.

 

[Neurorad]

Thanks for sharing your experience, forgets. You didn't mention that you had ACS beta software - from your posts I thought Nuvo was trailing ACS by 6 months.

 

[forgets]

Thanks for sharing your experience, forgets. You didn't mention that you had ACS beta software - from your posts I thought Nuvo was trailing ACS by 6 months.

I don't know if it's trailing by six months, but the released versions of autonomic's software is ahead of nuvo's as well (the one downloaded from
the link on their site), they just gave me a link as well to try out the beta version when i couldn't get the normal one to install.. there aren't any new features on the beta that i can see so i'm guessing it's just bugfixes from their current version.

 

[Neurorad]

Should I get a serial card for my PC, or try a USB-serial adapter, for the MP?

I just bought a Dell Inspiron 546 that has "one PCI, two PCIe x1, and one PCIe x16 slot supporting full and half-height cards".

Would a '2-Port Native PCI Express RS232 Serial Adapter Card with 16550 UART' be an appropriate choice?

Any/all suggestions/thoughts appreciated.

 

[AceCannon]

Should I get a serial card for my PC, or try a USB-serial adapter, for the MP?

I just bought a Dell Inspiron 546 that has "one PCI, two PCIe x1, and one PCIe x16 slot supporting full and half-height cards".

Would a '2-Port Native PCI Express RS232 Serial Adapter Card with 16550 UART' be an appropriate choice?

Any/all suggestions/thoughts appreciated.

FWIW, I used a USB-serial dongle to configure the main Grand Concerto box (configurator software, or whatever they call it). Worked fine.

Also, I just picked up a Moxa PCI card that has 8 serial ports. See Ebay item #360165242101 ($30.00).

 

[forgets]

Should I get a serial card for my PC, or try a USB-serial adapter, for the MP?

I''d go with a pci card like the moxa ace cannon linked.. i began running mine with a usb-serial adapter and frankly they can be hit or miss, mine would randomly need to be unplugged / plugged back in to make it work again.. probably because most of them need software to run and maybe it's buggy.

i ended up picking up a moxa card a while back when someone else posted a deal like that for them, and it's worked perfectly..
have you checked to see if your motherboard has a serial header? turns out mine did and it was documented in the manual, but not on any of the specs on the website for it, and they didn't include a 10 pin to serial port cable ($1.00 from ebay).. so i guess i could have bypassed the moxa if i was just running the MP, but i'm glad i got it anyway, cause pretty much everything HA still plugs in through serial ports, and the moxa has 8.

 

[Neurorad]

I splurged on the PC, and I'll probably eventually try to use it for CQC as well. I guess the Moxa PCI card would be a good option for that.

Moxa. PCI. Serial header. I have some homework to do...

quick Q - why PCI and not PCIe?

Thanks, guys.

 

[forgets]

quick Q - why PCI and not PCIe?

usually PCIE (pci express) ports are used solely for graphics cards since they have much higher bandwidth available to them than normal PCI slots, and a serial card with even 8 ports isn't going to stress a PCI slot, so making a PCIE version would kind of be overkill. Besides for right now the only things really being made for PCIE slots are the aforementioned video cards, and tv tuner / capture cards.. also a few sound cards have begun to trickle out for PCIE X1 slots (the smaller PCIE slots).. just in case you didn't know, you can plug a PCIE X1 card into a PCIE X16 slot (for most motherboards, check first), but never ever under any circumstances plug a normal PCI card into a PCIE slot, you'll more than likely fry both your motherboard and the PCI card.

 

[felixrosbergen]

I don't know if it's trailing by six months, but the released versions of autonomic's software is ahead of nuvo's as well (the one downloaded from
the link on their site), they just gave me a link as well to try out the beta version when i couldn't get the normal one to install.. there aren't any new features on the beta that i can see so i'm guessing it's just bugfixes from their current version.

Can you share the link? Basically it's the ACS version of the MCS rather than Nuvo's right but has Pandora and all that good stuff? You need a license for it or anything? I'm fine with beta software although the WAF could take a small hit..lol.

I am running out of PCI and PCIE slots on my server (after only 6 months), partically because the TV tuner card has a additional bracket for more inputs and my serial card has 2 on the card and 2 on an expansion bracket... I like the Moxa card concept, but feel it's rather messy with the octopus hannging of the back. Is there a cleaner solution available?

 

[Neurorad]

Thanks, forgets.

My PC is shipping without a modem, so it likely has an open serial connection -somewhere-. Would it have been connected off of the motherboard 'header', or do I now have another open PCI slot?

 

[Neurorad]

Seems Newegg is a respected supplier of add-on cards, I've been searching there. Good site for comparisons and searching.

Seems most Vista-compatible serial cards are PCIe (many more than PCI). I may go that direction.

StarTech any good? SIIG? Any real advantage of UART 16950 over 16550? 128-byte FIFO buffer useful?

 

[forgets]

sorry all for not having responded sooner, here's the links for autonomic's versions of MCS.
for the released version it's click here

and for the beta version click here

for the standalone beta setup click here
(which include the VB runtime files needed in the setup)

Also i just peeked on autonomic's site and apparently they're up to version 2.2 which includes being able to control apple tv's.. As mentioned earlier in the thread, you can use MCS on a trial basis for 14 days with all the bells and whistles, XM, pandora, etc.. but entering your key from the nuvo music port strips out the XM, pandora functionality. I prefer to use it that way for now, because it's less prone to crash when cycling through my music collection that way. As has been stated, NuVo intends to update to include XM, pandora and another online music provider (i forget which) in the future of Q4 2009.. when that happens i'll be switching back to nuvo's branded version.

Seeing the new update brings up an interesting thought though.. even though my gut feeling is that Nuvo won't have autonomic include support for any perhiperals that aren't nuvo's (in their build of MP software), maybe they will right? NuvoPete, if you're still glancing over this thread from time to time, how about putting out 2 versions of music port software.. 1 with just support for the music port, and 1 with support for stuff like the apple tv as well (with the disclaimer use at your own risk or something). Though i'm admittedly not 'in the know' for how licensing between nuvo and autonomic is handled, it seems like anyone who owns the version 2.0 software has been getting updates (including support for the apple tv now) for free, so if free updates like that are included in the agreement, throw us a bone if possible and let us have it's functionality as well. I think everyone on this board would appreciate it, thanks!

Edited to Add, if that isn't possible / plausible, how about Autonomic offer those who want the extra functionality some sort of upgrade price to autonomic's version of MCS? (anyone know if Autonomic has been keeping up with this thread as well?)