[lug] Ethernet sound card

[Peter Hutnick]

> Protocol - TCP retransmission, etc?

It'd be hard to run TCP without IP.  Again, raw Ethernet frames.

> Buffer management?

Well, this may be a problem.  This is one of the "magic" items.  Clearly
it would be very fault intolerant without some greater level of
sophistication than I am suggesting, but failures would be similar to
playing a scratched CD (i.e. not the end of the world.

> Security?

Again, it isn't a client, it is a peripheral.  Needs as much security as
your sound card or hard disk.

Perhaps someone on your Ethernet could blow up your speakers/amp. 
Probably not a big threat.

> Configuration?

What config?  Digital audio in, analog out.  The only /possible/ config
would be MAC, and that's what DIP switches are for ;-)

> If the whole problem is that your stereo is in one room and your
computer in
> another, then controlling it through your computer (which you've already

> said isn't close by) would be a problem.

That is outside the scope of the discussion.  I'm talking about a
single-purpose audio peripheral.  How you get Winamp or XMMS to play your
favorite tune is irrelevant.

> Luke's suggestion is better.  Just use cat5 wire and a pair of codecs
over
> the wire.  You can buy these easily - and a pair of high-quality codecs
is
> in the same price range as the Auditron - because of low market volumes.
>
> What you can buy the parts for is quite a different matter from what you
can
> buy the device for.

You've intrigued me.  The only "codecs" I am aware of are software codecs.
 Some googling didn't reveal anything other than software codecs.  Can you
elaborate (links are good :-).


-Peter