# Network music player



## Hakka (Sep 10, 2006)

I am helping a friend put together a system from scratch, he has a dedicated theatre room and also a loungeroom system. One thing he is pretty keen on is having some type of networed music player that can be accessed from either system.
I have a modded xbox running xbmc but apart from this I have not had much experience in this area.

We are considering going the HTPC route, that should cover the DTV, DVD and networked music (xbmc in loungeroom) all in one box.

I am after any feedback and or suggestions. I don't realy know what other options there are apart from xbox360. 

All suggestions welcome.

Hakka.


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## Otto (May 18, 2006)

Hey Hakka,

I have all my CDs ripped to my server, which sits in my basement. They are in the FLAC format. These files are then accessed from my office PC, and played through the system there, or they are accessed from my HTPC, and played through the main system. DVDs also reside on the server, and are played through the HTPC. 

This setup works really well for us, and gives us instant access to all our music. Normally, I use an old laptop (i.e., no fan!) to Remote Desktop to the HTPC so that I can sit on the couch without having a giant TV in my face while listening to music.

The server is old -- probably around the 2000 time period. I think it's an AMD Duron 700 MHz chip. Never had a hiccup from it, so you don't need anything fancy there. At the HTPC end, I have a Dell E510 (IIRC) wth the Radeon x600 video card -- it was one upgrade level available from Dell, and it works OK. I might suggest to keep away from Radeon, as I've had trouble with them in the past, I have had trouble with this soundcard itself, and many others have also had Radeon/ATI problems.

Let me know if you have any questions about my setup, I'll be happy to answer.

There are also other store-bought solutions, mostly directed towards music. The latest Stereophile pretty much blasted the Roku Soundbridge ($199). It just didn't measure or sound well. However, Stereophile rated the SlimDevices Squeezebox as one of the products of the year for 2006 (I think it's was an editor's pick). I think it's around $299 retail. I had an audiophile friend that had one and liked it (using it with an external DAC, of course, althought I'm sure the built it would work if necessary). That guy upgraded to the Sonos system, which is way, way slicker from the user interface point of view. It's a beautiful system that will cost you about $750 (I think) for one interface and one box. If he wants to connect to two points, he would need another box, which I think would be something like $300+. All prices are in US$.

Good luck. Let me know if you have more questions. I really like the idea of home automation, so we can talk!

Have a good day.


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## Hakka (Sep 10, 2006)

Thnaks for the feedback Otto. 

We were initially thinking of hiding a server in the basement and using 2 xboxes running XBMC in the theatre and lounge room. We then started to lean towards a HTPC and 1 Xbox, which I was thinking would eliminate the need for the server as the HTPC could do the storage and double as a DVD and STB.

Can a HTPC output more than one source at a time? For example, is it possible to watch a DVD in the theatre and at the same time send DTV to the loungeroom. I am guessing this is one area where a dedicated server would be handy.

That squeezebox looks good, I like the idea of being able to browse through the music without firing up the projector.

Hakka.


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## Otto (May 18, 2006)

Hakka said:


> Thnaks for the feedback Otto.
> 
> We were initially thinking of hiding a server in the basement and using 2 xboxes running XBMC in the theatre and lounge room. We then started to lean towards a HTPC and 1 Xbox, which I was thinking would eliminate the need for the server as the HTPC could do the storage and double as a DVD and STB.


I think either way could work. I'm not familiar with how the Xbox would talk with the PC; I've just never been around an Xbox at all.



> Can a HTPC output more than one source at a time? For example, is it possible to watch a DVD in the theatre and at the same time send DTV to the loungeroom. I am guessing this is one area where a dedicated server would be handy.


That I'm not sure about. I've never implemented any TV demodulation/recording/playback in my HTPC. Just music and movies. Now, I can stream the same music to two different locations at the same time, such that I can listen to the same song on in my office and my living room. However, both of those rooms have their own PCs that are decoding the stream from the server and playing back the music to the receiver/pre/pro. With one PC, I could watch a movie in the main room, and _stream[/] data to another, but I don't think I could watch a movie in one room and send analog audio to another (or video). If I try to play a movie and a FLAC file at the same time, the PC gets confused, and generally one is locked out (I think Winamp gets locked out by PowerDVD). All that said, there may be software and/or hardware out there that will do that type of thing for you. I just have it set up rather simply with client PCs in all the places that need to do playback, and one server in the basement. 




That squeezebox looks good, I like the idea of being able to browse through the music without firing up the projector.

Click to expand...

Yeah, turning on a projector or a big TV is a pain just to be able to flip through your songs. I've never used the Squeezebox, so I don't know how it feels from the user's point of view. For PC playback I use Winamp, and it's incredibly easy to understand once you get it going._


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## Hakka (Sep 10, 2006)

Otto said:


> I think either way could work. I'm not familiar with how the Xbox would talk with the PC; I've just never been around an Xbox at all.



The xbox connects to your pc with a network cable, it uses a 3rd party software (XBox media center) to browse through the shared folders on the network. It can stream video, music and pictures from the PC, I use a component and optical connection to my HT.

Here's some pics of the interface to give you an idea.




















Hakka.


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## Otto (May 18, 2006)

> The xbox connects to your pc with a network cable, it uses a 3rd party software (XBox media center) to browse through the shared folders on the network.


Does it connect to just one PC or to the network? What types of files can it handle? Seems pretty cool. And it plays Blu-Ray?


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## Hakka (Sep 10, 2006)

I have mine connected directly to the network port on the laptop, but if you have a router you can connect more than one.

It can't play HD source material but it can upsample to 1080i. It supports DVD, AVI, DIVX, WAV, MP3, MPEG, WMV, Quicktime, Realmedia, OGG, Matroska, JPG, GIF, BMP and a heap of others that I've never heard of.

Hakka.


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## Woochifer (Oct 19, 2006)

I kinda have a similar question. I'm looking to add a network attached storage (NAS) drive to my wireless network and move my music files over there. Eventually, I want to add a wireless media player to my main system so that I can stream these music files wirelessly and use the player to add internet radio playback to my main system. 

I thought about the Squeezebox, but I'm a bit concerned about the tiny display on the device itself and don't know how well that device would function with a NAS rather than a PC hosting the server files. I put my components inside of an audio rack that allows me to remotely control the devices with the door closed, so a video display option would be very useful for me. 

Seems that other media players don't rate very well for their audio playback, but having a video display output seems very useful for quickly sorting through music files and internet radio playlists. 

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!


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## Otto (May 18, 2006)

Hi Wooch!

I worry about the display of the Squeezebox as well, and it's the only reason I haven't been that interested in them.

Sounds like Sonos is the way for you, assuming you don't mind the $7-800 price tag. It gives you a handheld remote that works similar to an iPod (but larger than the 60 G iPod my wife has).

On the other hand, depending on how your PCs are set up, etc, you could get a UMPC and just Remote Desktop to you HTPC that's then connected to your main system. That's pretty much how I'm doing it right now, just using an old laptop instead of the UMPC.


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## Mitch G (Sep 8, 2006)

I personally love my squeezebox. I sit 10-12 feet away and have the display text set to large and can read it easily. In fact, I have a plugin loaded which displays the weather when the squeezebox is idle and so it's important to be able to see it clearly.

Furthermore, if you are like me and have laptop in the room, you can control the player via the webinterface. Or, if you have a PDA, there are some skins designed for a PDA-sized screen for controlling the system. 

As far as using a NAS with it, I think there maybe direct support for some NAS boxes out there as well. You would have to check out the slimdevices.com forums. I just run it on my old Dell in the basement and don't worry too much about it.


Mitch


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