My MP3 digital media player build

FlynnsMCP

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I guess this really isn't a build. For years I have wanted a jukebox but I have neither the space or resources to buy. So I decided about a year or so ago that I want to go the digital route. I wanted something with a small footprint, self contained, touchscreen and not too expensive. After months of planning, going back and forth on how to achieve the goal, I stumbled on to an old touchscreen POS cash register and decided this will suit me PERFECT!!

I found a UTC3100 POS 15" touchscreen register on Ebay from a local E-cycling company. It was listed with a Celeron 448 2ghz CPU, 1 gig of RAM and 1 160 gig HD, for $90. I offered $70 and it was accepted. I did check the manufacturers web site for drivers prior to making my purchase.

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First thing after I received it, let's make sure it boots. I removed the 160gig HD and installed a 120 gig SSD for the OS. Dropped in two 2gig sticks of DDR2 RAM. Loaded up Windows 10, installed video and touchscreen driver, BOOM, in business.

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Now that I now it boots with no issues, I dropped in a Pentium Dual Core E2610 1.8ghz CPU. I picked up a lot of two on Ebay for $5 shipped!! Even though the clock speed is a little slower than the Celeron, I easily doubled my processing power.

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Now for the software. After trying five or six different versions of Jukebox software, I decided on Zenpoint's DigitalCenter. Frankly I chose it because it looks fantastic, super easy interface and the price was right. The downside with DigitalCenter is the load time and you are limited tot he number of songs depending on system resources available. It takes a good 30 seconds for the program to completely load. Once it's loaded, it operates fast and smooth. Load time really isn't a big deal, just thought I'd mention it.

The on board audio had so much interference and a high pitched squeal (that I could hear even with my tinitus!) that it wouldn't be usable. My solution was a Sabrent USB audio dongle. I picked it up on Ebay, $7 shipped. There's still a little bit of interference at higher volumes but that might be my cheapo subwoofer/amp.

Now on to the music. I have collected MP3's since 1998 (some songs/artists I am still questioning WHY!!) and have amassed over 70,000. There are lots of duplicates so don't be too impressed lol. I needed to weed out the garbage, dupes, the bazillion greatest hits and Christmas CD's and finally whittled it down to just over 20,000 (told you there was a lot of garbage!). DigitalCenter does not automatically find album art, so I spent the better part of a week making sure those 20,000+ MP3's were tagged and had the art embedded. I had purchased Tag&Rename software years ago which made the task a little less painful.

There are slots for two HD's so I installed a 1TB to house the music. Even with all 70,000 MP3's copied to it, I'm using just over half the capacity.

That's it! The initial load of the songs to DigitalCenter took about 10 minutes. I now have a touchscreen jukebox to call my very own. Sorry for the long-winded post. Please to enjoy.

 

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OK since you didn't gut a legit juke, you deserve minimal flogging.
In fact, the info on software options for the non-juke-having music fans is a good thing.
 
One of my friends has an old Jukebox that he restored-from the outside everything is the same but on the inside It's an mp3 player going through the amp. There's no screen though. I don't know how he controls it.
 
I hook Jukebox wallboxes up to MP3 players. Wallboxes stay intact and original and take up much less space
 
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