OT: Media Streaming

Hi All,

Sorry for the somewhat off-topic post but I've found the inhabitants of this group better than most at answering all sorts :)

I'm looking to use my home network to stream TV and music around my house and have sorted a number of issues already, one thing I haven't found an easy answer to is using my Hi-Fi to playback music files from my NAS (or PC by preferably NAS). Are their any amps out there that have ethernet connectivity or are there any gizmos that could relay the signal to the amp?

Thanks,

Reply to
Endulini
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"Endulini" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

There's several.

I've got an older NetGear MP101, connecting to MediaTomb on the linux server.

I suspect, though, that now most people would be looking at some kind of "home media server" (Windows Media Center or Windows Home Server, or a wide choice of Linux distros or software) displaying the menu on the TV screen.

Reply to
Adrian

There are wireless USB audio devices. Plug the USB stick into your computer, plug a box into the hifi via phono plugs and mains via wall wart, and sound appears. Files sit on NAS, computer reads via wire or wireless, whichever way you prefer.

I couldn't see a way to do that with popular NAS devices.

One for All SV1740 is a cheap one - Play.com used to have them for under 20 quid. Probably not exactly golden ears compatible, but seemed fine here playing MP3s. There are more expensive and slightly different options - Squeezebox is a name which pops up regularly.

Reply to
Clive George

On 09/01/2010 13:48, Clive George wrote: There are more expensive and slightly different options -

Squeezebox requires an investment in a machine running dedicated software. If there is some horsepower left on a Windows/Linux based NAS, then the software just might install on the same unit - but it's a fair solution for the dedicated tech nutter (like me) and only does audio, not TV.

Why not just connect "line out" from the PC to the Hi-Fi?

Or use S/PDIF digital audio conversion. The Creative 'Live' soundcard in my PC system feeds S/PDIF coaxial into the MiniDisc deck (remember those?) on the hifi. The latter in record-pause monitoring mode, makes a good digital/analogue converter - lower noise than taking "line out" from the PC.

Reply to
Adrian C

I would be interested to know what you have so far to get the overall solution up and running. I am trying to achieve a similar thing. I would like to store all my DVDs and Music on a NAS device and be able to access it from any room with a small end device to stream off the NAS device. The problem I have is that I would like to be able to record TV (Freeview or Sky) from my lounge but store the files on the NAS device so they can be streamed to any room. Any ideas on this too?

thanks

Lee.

Reply to
Lee Nowell

Depends on what you want. When you say "streamed to any room" do you mean to a computer or to a TV?

Starting point is probably a media centre computer as Adrian describes. TV in/out, and you can use NAS as your backing store. (media centre computer = normal computer these days, but wired in to your AV kit).

Output of video to other kit on your wired/wireless network is easy. Output to dumb audio devices can also be done via wireless or wired.

I was looking into this sort of thing a couple of months ago. Ideally I wanted a NAS which I could remotely switch on/off, and some sort of sender to my hifi - not as interested in video, I've got a PVR for that. NAS didn't do all I wanted (no audio out), so I took an unused laptop and stuck it in the pile, controlling it via VNC. I was originally going to site it elsewhere, but decided not to bother with the wireless audio transmitter (though may use it to broadcast to the upstairs hifi). Now all I need is an external power switch so I can keep the lid shut. (WOL is wired only and only works from standby for this box, which isn't what I wanted).

Reply to
Clive George

Endulini :

There are lots of gizmos, so you need to provide more information to get the best advice. Are you looking for audiophile quality or just a tune you can recognise? Is there a wired LAN connection? Would you be happy using the TV screen or would the gizmo need its own display for selecting music? Do you have a budget? Any other relevant information?

Reply to
Mike Barnes

I bought an old MP101 (=A315) a few months ago to test the concept and to see if I would use it enough to invest in a squeezebox. I would be interested in your experiences with it.

I find that if there is any slowness on the network it seems to lock up. I upgraded to the most up-to-date firmware. It's basically unusable if using the wireless network; if using the wired network it locks up about once or twice during each album. If you press pause then play it normally starts again from where it left off. I'm using MediaTomb hosted on a NSLU2.

Do you find that you have the same sort of instability or do I have a duff unit?

Reply to
Bodgit

We use a Logitech Squeezebox. It has outputs for your amp. (analogue, digital and optical) and can run off wired or wireless networks (indeed it can act as a bridge between the two!). Running on wireless with an okayish set of mains powered speakers means we can have it in any room we like or even the garden (the neighbours don't mind as we only have a couple of parties a year outside and they're invited anyway).

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Whoops forgot to add. This is using a PC as the server, but many NAS devices actually run Linux and can probably be hacked to act as a server.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

I would be interested to know what you have so far to get the overall solution up and running. I am trying to achieve a similar thing. I would like to store all my DVDs and Music on a NAS device and be able to access it from any room with a small end device to stream off the NAS device. The problem I have is that I would like to be able to record TV (Freeview or Sky) from my lounge but store the files on the NAS device so they can be streamed to any room. Any ideas on this too?

thanks

Lee.

Only the mental plan so far, I don't have anything physical as yet apart from the NAS (Buffalo Link Station Live 1TB which already has all my music/videos on it). I was looking at getting probably getting an Xtreamer or similar to handle all the streaming however I don't really want to listen to music through the TV nor need to have the TV on to play music (it's down to the wife acceptance factor....) hence the question here.

I would probably record TV to my PC and then store on the NAS ready to stream, so long as your PC has a tuner and a Freeview/Sky conection to the aerial it don't see it being too problematic?

Reply to
Endulini

"Endulini" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@brightview.com:

Didn't you post something similar back in November?

I answered at the time with my current setup:

- Squeezebox for audio streaming

- Xtreamer for video streaming

- a mix of wireless and powerline networking

- a PC as a media server

I'm *very* satisfied with the Squeezebox products, and can thoroughly recommend them. I have several Squeezebox 3 devices (now renamed the Classic), a Duet and a Boom. The Boom is a standalone product. The others are connected to audio amplifers (traditional Hi-Fi amps or powered 2.1 speaker systems) using RCA analogue connection (phono plugs)

It's still early days for me with video, and I'm using the Xtreamer as a test product: it's cheap enough that I can try something else if it doesn't do what I want. At the moment it's fine and has played everything I've thrown at it, but the user interface (on the TV) needs polishing a bit; firmware upgrades are promised for this.

I used a QNAP NAS for a while, and also used it to run the Squeezebox Server software. I found the NAS short on engine power for this, so changed to using a PC, with a vast improvement in responsiveness. Lesson: a NAS is good for serving files, less good at being a general purpose computer. Others report good results from an Intel Atom powered mini PC, but do remember that you'll need shed loads of disc.

Important: don't forget that you need backup storage as well, and please don't assume that RAID on your NAS provides backup. It doesn't

- RAID is for availability.

Here a link to my earlier post:

Kind regards

Reply to
Richard Perkin

I have trouble finding anything I want to watch or listen to in the first place, so storing it, and streaming it to the toilet isn't an issue.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Thanks, you're right I did post earlier but was concerned really about the video side of things then (thanks for your reply though which was spot on!). Having that sorted in principal I am thinking about the audio side (more important for the wife and a cruical factor in getting her buy-in) and really want something that doesn't need the PC to be on permanently. I have a Link Station Live NAS (1TB) which is covering the storage angle at the moment but am beginning to doubt whether this would run the Squeezebox software and save the PC. I have an old Dell system (around 10 years old) and wander if that could act as a server...............

Reply to
Endulini

Endulini :

You could quite cheaply acquire a netbook PC which is small, has low power requirements, and could run free software such as Winamp. Some netbooks (e.g. Dell Mini 8) are fanless and therefore listening-room compatible. Depending on your ears you might want a USB sound card as well.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

Mike Barnes wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g52lk5g23lkgk3lk345g.invalid:

Winamp is fine for playing a few tunes, or even a large playlist from an extensive collection. I use it myself. And yes, I've got a Xitel external USB sound device. But frankly, using Winamp (or any other PC based player) isn't a patch on a Squeezebox based system - they simply don't have the same facilities...

The problem with running Squeezecenter on a NAS is that some components of the software require a reasonable amount of engine power. One issue is the responsiveness of the browser-based interface interface (if you choose to use it) which can be sluggish. The other is the speed of scanning a large music collection. The database component of Squeezecenter is populated from the metadata in each music file (that is, the artist, album, track number etc tags). And scanning every track in a large collection to extract this data takes time. And it can be a looooooooong time on an underpowered system.

Don't get me wrong - playing the music will be fine, but some of the other things you need to do require a bit more engine power than most NAS devices offer. One based on an Intel Centrino or Atom CPU should be fine, particularly if they have a fair amount of memory. But most low end NASes are built down to a price, and use an underpowered ARM cpu (typically embedded in a Marvell chipset) with a limited amount of memory.

The thing to do is to 'suck it and see'. Download the Squeezebox Server product for the PC from the official Logitech site, and download a copy of the SoftSqueeze PC-based emulator product from

Squeezebox software products are open source, developed and supported not only by the manufacturer but also by a highly active user community. A good place to start is the wiki, here:

As for whether a 10 year old Dell will be up to the job, then almost certainly Yes. A Pentium 3 or later system running WinXP or virtually any Linux variant will be fine.

In my case, I started with a 2-bay QNAP TS-209 Pro. When my need for storage outgrew a 2-bay device, the price of a barebones Dell on eBay compared to a 4 or 5 bay QNAP made the choice very simple :) You can read more details here if you're interested:

You are of course posting in a DIY group. One of the advantages of Squeezebox is that you can indeed 'do it yourself', as opposed to a more packaged product such as the Sonos product line...

Hope this helps

Reply to
Richard Perkin

Richard Perkin :

What facilities are you thinking of (confining ourselves to playing sound files)? I'm actually quite impressed by the facilities offered by J River Media Center, though the only facility I actually use here is the (excellent) database management.

I wasn't thinking of running the software (Winamp, whatever) on the NAS, but on a dedicated PC.

I can understand that scanning would take a long time if it re-read the tags of files that it had previously scanned. Does it really do that?

The way I keep scanning time to a minimum is to load new media files to a dedicated area outside the library, scan them there, then move them into the main library area.

Agreed. That's exactly what I suggested - a netbook.

My own system is very DIY...

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Reply to
Mike Barnes

Does the Squeezebox 'wake' the PC up out of stand by or hibernation or must it be on permanently?

Reply to
Endulini

"Endulini" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@brightview.com:

It wakes it up using Wake on LAN (WoL).

If you use a PC for running Squeezeserver, then for it to wake up correctly the PC needs to support WoL. This is generally a function of the power supply, motherboard, LAN card or on-board Ethernet, and the associated driver. All (?) recent PCs have this functionality.

Hope this helps

Reply to
Richard Perkin

And, after enjoying it, if ye need to power down the server from the remote control, there's a plugin for that - 'Server Power Control'

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Modesty forbids me from saying who originally wrote that...

;-)

Reply to
Adrian C

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