Linksys partners with Yahoo to promote Wireless Music Bridge

Linksys' latest entry into the streaming music space looks like a worthy successor to the company's Wireless B Media Link. The Wireless G Music Bridge connects to any home entertainment system or powered speakers, and uses its own drivers to pipe audio from your PC to the sound system over WiFi. According to Linksys, the $99 device will work with any audio source on your PC, which makes it a touch better than Apple's Airport Express, which is designed to work only with iTunes (though, of course, it's not a full-featured streaming client like the Roku Soundbridge). Linksys is currently pitching the Music Bridge in partnership with Yahoo, as the perfect "complement Yahoo's digital music download service," which doesn't mean much, other than the fact that you can get a $20 rebate if you join Yahoo's music service for a year and buy the Music Bridge.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 14th 2006 8:37PM]

I purchase Linksys music bridge cause of it price. Was disappointed that it wasnt compatible with Mac and that I would have to dig out my old pc and load XP up. Well it was great for the first day or two, now it just cores everytime i try to bring it up. I'm ready to send it back and go back to slim device which is pricier but has a remote interface.

[sirreal Posted Jan 26th 2006 1:54PM]

What's the interface? Does your TV need to be on? Do you have to control it from your PC?

seems like a poor mans Squeezebox.

i'd be interested to learn more about how it is capturing and passing on audio from "any audio source on your PC." a la Replay Music?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2006 2:14PM]

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/

stream any sound source over airport express; however, it costs 25 bucks.

i have an express and i really like its portability; however, this looks pretty promising and it's cheaper.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2006 2:16PM]

you can get a roku m500 for $99 new off the rokulabs web site. enter gift code 'SB5GIFT' at checkout. i recently bought one, code should still work.

it's a discount code i discovered on the rhapsody site. no need to be a rhapsody subscriber.
http://www.rhapsody.com/-homeaudio?pageregion=header&pageid=rotw.homepage

[sh0nuff Posted Jan 26th 2006 2:17PM]

You can use a cheap shareware program to send any type of audio across the airportexpress network using amoeba software's Airfoil for mac.
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2006 2:29PM]

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Product_C2%26cid%3D1137451822026&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

It actually looks like it works like an Apple Airport Express, except instead of being dependent on a single application (iTunes) it acts as a sound device on your PC. You switch from your sound card to the WMB54G and sound from any application is routed to the music bridge. There are no details on the codec it uses to transfer the sound, but my guess is it is some losseless codec (FLAC, SHN, etc...) It has RCA, 3.5" line-out, and Optical/Coaxial digital output.

Sucks that it has no display, but you could use this with any music service or audio application (iTunes, Napster, etc...) which sounds pretty good to me.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2006 2:34PM]

Airport express is not limited to iTunes only.....

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2006 5:18PM]

I ordered one from Buy.com--waiting for the FedEx guy to show up.

I understand that this gizmo essentially turns your stereo system into a new set of computer speakers. Nifty. Any computer sound--from phone calls to games to music in any format--can be routed to this puppy.

I looked at the Airport Express but it won't hunt: It locks you into iTunes and the hackware to open it up is Mac OS X only...

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2006 6:25PM]

I use AirFoil with my AE and it works great for audio, but for video, which is nice for home theatre where my Mac is connected to a projector and AirFoil to my stereo, there is a 2.5 second delay between audio and video. There's an open source movie player that lets you set a delay time on the video to re -sync, but its buggy and crashes if you're not careful.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2006 6:38PM]

That is indeed a pretty nifty gadget. I get concerned with wireless products though, ever since I bought a wireless mouse and keyboard that when you moved the mouse, you couldn't type anything on the keyboard or vice versa.

Still, they were early versions of the technology a few years ago...

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2006 11:10PM]

Is there a program to open up the airport express to other audio sources available for windows XP? I have two AirportExpresses and love them (except recently I've been having a lot of lag issues) but would love them more if I could output other sources.

This might be a good option. Thanks for the heads-up.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 27th 2006 8:49AM]

I'm using airport express with my mac and Itunes - it has an optical out that lets me feed the digital signal directly into my AV receiver (like I do with my DVD and HD sources). It allows me to expand the wireless network. It also has an RJ45 so I can plug in a ethernet cable and connect another computer (or a notebook).
Its more than just a wireless MP3 distribution device.