Networking a Non-network Receiver

[RunnerInPeoria]

Hi All:

First of all, thank you taking the time to read my post.

I am a music lover and thoroughly enjoy playing music throughout our home. I have three HTR's: Yamaha RX-v671 (network ready) in our great room, Yamaha RX-1800 for our game room and an Onkyo TX-8522 which is attached to our patio speakers. I currently have three RF-Link analog devices connected in a manner where I can play custom made CD's or DVD's from the game room receiver and stream the music to the other receivers. Creating custom CD's or DVD's is kind of pain (and very 20th century) and would rather stream the music from my PC which holds all of the music yet still enjoy digital stereo sound, a feature missing from the analog RF-Link units.

My question is: is there a way of enabling the non-network ready HTR (yamaha rx-1800 and onkyo tx-8522) so I can stream audio from my Windows 7 machine to all three receivers? My Windows 7 machine has an Asus DG Sound card with Digital S/PDIF Output. Like all projects for married men, budget is an issue and the option of buying new network receivers was immediately shot down by the boss - aka wife

Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Actran]

So, from your post, it looks like you were able to make the RX-1800 a "master" of sorts through your connections. I'm assuming you used a mixture of Pre-outs and input sources to accomplish that. Is there an option to simply have the RX-v671 act as the master by switching your connections around so that it's pre-outs are driving the other two receivers? If its network ready, does it support DLNA or any other media server type communication? If you're able to make it the master and stream from your PC to the networked receiver, you may be set.

Alternatively, you may have to find a wifi streaming box with RCA or other outputs that would serve as your media server interface and plug that into your RX-1800.

I'm just jealous that you were able to get approval for 3 receivers. I lost a leg over my single refurb Denon.

 

[bikemig]

You could get an apple airport express and use iTunes to control the AE; you'll want to connect the AE with a mini toslink to toslink cable and allow the AV receiver do the D to A work. https://www.apple.com/airportexpress/ The downside is that you are stuck in Apple's walled garden but iTunes is a pretty good garden to get stuck in. Sonos is a very good alternative and has some advantages over the AE but it costs more.

 

[1104blake]

Sonos Connect!

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[RunnerInPeoria]

So, from your post, it looks like you were able to make the RX-1800 a "master" of sorts through your connections. I'm assuming you used a mixture of Pre-outs and input sources to accomplish that. Is there an option to simply have the RX-v671 act as the master by switching your connections around so that it's pre-outs are driving the other two receivers? If its network ready, does it support DLNA or any other media server type communication? If you're able to make it the master and stream from your PC to the networked receiver, you may be set.

Alternatively, you may have to find a wifi streaming box with RCA or other outputs that would serve as your media server interface and plug that into your RX-1800.

I'm just jealous that you were able to get approval for 3 receivers. I lost a leg over my single refurb Denon.

Hi:

Thanks for the response and the idea. I contacted Yamaha customer support and they suggested a workaround which has worked perfectly. I used the RX-V671 as the master (mostly because it is the only network ready HTR i have ), and connected a Netgear WiFi adapter to the unit. I then connected the existing RF-Link unit 'transmitter' unit to the line out port in the RX-V671 and was able to broadcast to the other Audio Receivers through the RF-Link receiver modules. I can now create custom playlists from my Windows 7 box and stream 2-channel stereo throughout the house. This was an inexpensive solution and the only additional cost was $45 for the Netgear WiFi unit.

Again, thanks for all of the help!

 

[mpompey]

I have a Rasberry Pi with XBMC on it, that I've been playing with for the past couple of weeks.

In the past I've run a linux media server with mediatomb in combination with my PS3 and its worked great of movies and TV shows.

I don't listen to music that much, but the XBMC box has access to my NAS and playlists and has worked fine for me.