Trying to play music files from extermal drive to receiver?

[Budabear]

I need desperate help trying to solve how to play audio files from an external hardrive to my receiver. I haven't decided what form the files will be but I have been using high quality MP3's. My receivers are Denon with USB inputs but that didn't work.

I'd like to rip ALL of my CD's to a couple of drives, in a Thermaltake external adapter, and play the music directly from my drives. I've already figured out I'm going about this the wrong way because neither USB or USB to RCA connected to the receiver will work.

Please let me know what my options are to get my task accomplished without having to spend a ton of $$$. I have a lot of CD's and I never touch any of them, just the files on my computer. I want to be able to play all my music in an easier format to access all of it at one time.

Thanks in Advance!

 

[3db]

Do either the receiver or the storage device have wifi or networking capabilities?

 

[Budabear]

Do either the receiver or the storage device have wifi or networking capabilities?

Both of my Denon's, 4308CI & 4310CI, have USB and networking. Both are currently set up to my home network.

 

[jp_over]

I currently use an HTPC directly connected via HDMI to my AVR. However, I also have networking capability so I checked into how this is done with my receiver. A few things to do:

1) Your AVRs should have an source input called "network", "media server" or something like this. You'll need to select it as the "source"
2) If you can view the AVR in your network, see if you can go to the "device home page" - this is how I was able to navigate to my music collection on one of my PCs - in other words, use a PC on your network to identify your AVR/s through network management
3) Ensure you have set Windows to allow media streaming for the AVR
4) Also, make sure you have the latest firmware update for your AVRs

In all, streaming via the AVR interface is painful (after using a dedicated HTPC for so long) but workable. Let me know if any of these helped.

 

[PENG]

Both of my Denon's, 4308CI & 4310CI, have USB and networking. Both are currently set up to my home network.

You should be able to play your files from USB, external hard drive, or stream from your computers. I had the 4308, I know it worked fine, but you can't stream flac files to them.

 

[lsiberian]

How are you powering the usb devices?

 

[Budabear]

I currently use an HTPC directly connected via HDMI to my AVR. However, I also have networking capability so I checked into how this is done with my receiver. A few things to do:

1) Your AVRs should have an source input called "network", "media server" or something like this. You'll need to select it as the "source"
2) If you can view the AVR in your network, see if you can go to the "device home page" - this is how I was able to navigate to my music collection on one of my PCs - in other words, use a PC on your network to identify your AVR/s through network management
3) Ensure you have set Windows to allow media streaming for the AVR
4) Also, make sure you have the latest firmware update for your AVRs

In all, streaming via the AVR interface is painful (after using a dedicated HTPC for so long) but workable. Let me know if any of these helped.

Thanks for the info Joe. Can u please tell me what HTPC refers to? I will check to see if the AVR can be seen on the network. I do know that my computer is seen from the AVR but it isn't accessible. My receivers do have the latest updates and firmware.

 

[Budabear]

You should be able to play your files from USB, external hard drive, or stream from your computers. I had the 4308, I know it worked fine, but you can't stream flac files to them.

My 4308 & 4310 do both have usb inputs. I've tried connecting my hardrive in my external hard rive adapter via USB and via rca and neither worked.

 

[Budabear]

How are you powering the usb devices?

I tried connecting an internal hard rive in an external USB adapter with its own power cord. I don't know I'd there is a difference between this type of drive unit and a real external drive but I got nothing out of it.

 

[Grador]

How are the drives formatted? I'd bet they're formated with a file system the receiver doesn't like. PENG, do you know if they support NTFS disk drives? Budabear, what OS is the system you used to fill the drives with?

 

[PENG]

How are the drives formatted? I'd bet they're formated with a file system the receiver doesn't like. PENG, do you know if they support NTFS disk drives? Budabear, what OS is the system you used to fill the drives with?

I don't have the 4308 with me right now but if it works on my AV7005 it will for sure work on the 4308 and 4310. I will try my WD portable HD on the AV7005 in a minute. That is really academic because USB's are FAT32, not NTFS anyway and he said USBs wouldn't work.

 

[Grador]

I believe the Denon supports NTFS. I don't have the 4308 with me right now but if it works on my AV7005 it will for sure work on the 4308 and 4310. I will try my WD portable HD on the AV7005 in a minute. That is really academic because USB's are FAT32, not NTFS anyway and he said USBs wouldn't work.

It sounds like he's just tried USB hard drives, though this brings up a good point. Using a standard FAT formatted flash drive would be an excellent troubleshooting step (asuming I'm not reading the posts wrong and he hasn't already tried this).

 

[PENG]

I just tried, USB hard drive (NTFS anyway) would not work, in fact it caused the AVR network to lock up. USB stick works fine, even with Flac files. Streaming from PC works fine also but Flac files won't.

 

[PENG]

It sounds like he's just tried USB hard drives, though this brings up a good point. Using a standard FAT formatted flash drive would be an excellent troubleshooting step (asuming I'm not reading the posts wrong and he hasn't already tried this).

I think you are right, I thought he meant USB thumb drive/stick but he must have meant USB hard drives.

 

[PENG]

My 4308 & 4310 do both have usb inputs. I've tried connecting my hardrive in my external hard rive adapter via USB and via rca and neither worked.

Sorry I wasn't paying attention and somehow thought you meant usb thumb drive but you did say hard drive. It would appear that it won't work with usb hard drive formatted in NTFS but I have not tried one that is formatted FAT32. I normally connect my 1TB hard drives to my BDP-S590, S380 and Oppo but use only usb thumb drive and/or streaming from PC with the AVR. For streaming, you need to follow jp_over's instructions especially step 3). Again, try doing everything he said in his post and let us know how it goes.

 

[adwilk]

Few things have cause me more headaches than streaming directly to a receiver. Its certainly not that it can't be done and I understand that it can be done. Since using external devices that are accessible via phone app/tablet/PC to control music/playlists/etc I would never go back to using the AVR as the exclusive method of streaming unless the interface and simplicity improved by a good amount. If your drives are just in the dock, they aren't on the network at all anyways and I believe your receiver wants FAT32 or exFAT.

Simple solution is to configure your sharing settings on your PC and see if the Denon can play nicely with it. (WIN7) "Control Panel- Network and Sharing- Advanced Sharing in left pane- Streaming options about halfway down... Turn streaming on and (I usually manually share the folder as well) see if the AVR can "see" it.

 

[3db]

I dont understand the device he's trying to use. Is it a portable USB hard drive? My thinking is to plug whatever the device is into a network streaming device and have the receivers pick it up over the network.

 

[PENG]

I dont understand the device he's trying to use. Is it a portable USB hard drive? My thinking is to plug whatever the device is into a network streaming device and have the receivers pick it up over the network.

Agree, that's what we are trying to get him to do, use the DLNA feature of his AVRs to stream all his music files via network. I have no trouble getting the AVR and all my other devices to stream from any of my PCs (desktop and laptops). The only limit I encounter is that Flac files don't work this way but will work via USB thumb drive.

 

[Budabear]

How are the drives formatted? I'd bet they're formated with a file system the receiver doesn't like. PENG, do you know if they support NTFS disk drives? Budabear, what OS is the system you used to fill the drives with?

The drive I have used is a 2Tb drive formatted with with NTFS and was formatted within windows 7.

 

[Budabear]

It sounds like he's just tried USB hard drives, though this brings up a good point. Using a standard FAT formatted flash drive would be an excellent troubleshooting step (asuming I'm not reading the posts wrong and he hasn't already tried this).

I have thrived the same thing using a USB flash drive with music through a blu-ray player and it played the music. The hard drive would not work. I have not as of yet tried the flash drive on the AVR.

I had not thought of that till now. Lol