Music Storage Device with a bit more.

[Robof83]

I'm looking for a way to store all my music(All my music from my ipod + a collection of CDs) on a single device that can plug into my receiver and be controlled from a comfortable location. I have looked into items such as the squeezebox which just streams(which is fine if it works), but my only problem with that is the remote control seems rather small and and I feel it would be hard to see.

Also would there be any difference in SQ between wirelessly streaming from my computer and then sending via wire to my receiver, and having a hard drive that stores the music and outputs it directly via wire to my receiver? I have a feeling any differences would be inaudible, however, I know very little about this topic. Basically I want something a little more convenient than going and popping in a cd or plugging my ipod directly into the receiver and navigating with the ipod itself.

I'm not quite sure how much these things go for, but generally I'm not to big on spending huge $$$ on electronics.

BTW, sorry if my post seems slightly incoherent at times, I'm falling asleep as I'm typing this

 

[highfigh]

You could install a better sound card, store only music on a separate hard drive using iTunes, connect the sound card to your stereo either directly or by using an Apple Airport Express (wireless or wired) and control iTunes with a laptop or iPod Touch. If you connect the Airport directly to the stereo, you can use either analog stereo audio or TosLink.

 

[engtaz]

Does your AVR have usb inputs? If so get a usb HD dock and play your music that way.

 

[BMXTRIX]

If you are a fan of iPods in general then you may be pretty happy with AppleTV. The remote is typically Apple smooth to work with and it can sync with iTunes, no problem.

What I like most is the built in youtube functions which let me pull up some great family and friends videos anytime I want a good laugh or off-base entertainment. But, the music is there, and there are ways you can put your own videos on it as well using Handbrake to do the encoding.

It has component and HDMI output with digital and analog audio outputs.

 

[Nemo128]

Both good suggestions. One more.

What receiver? Many receivers today have integrated Ethernet ports. You can share your music on your local network, and add it as a media source in your receiver. The receivers are built to recognize uPnP storage, so a standard share in Windows, Mac OSX (which shares the same as Linux with NFS), or Linux will do just fine.

I feel that is the second best option, since it typically requires no additional hardware beyond a cheap Cat5e cable. If you desire wireless, there are devices (not-so-cheap) that will convert your standard ethernet connection into a Wifi signal. These adaptors join your network via DHCP just like your laptop or computer would, so it's invisible to your receiver and computer and will work the same as hardwired networking.

I would suggest media streamers and AppleTV-types, but for the money, it's not worth it if you're only streaming audio. That's like buying a Ferrari just to commute to work 5 miles away in urban traffic.

Hope that helps.

 

[cjsiv]

What I did was use my ps3. I replaced my internal hard drive with a 320gig since the ps3 uses a standard 2.5 laptop hard drive. This gives 3 options. You can copy your music files to the intenal hard drive. This did not work too great for me because the ps3 does not organize files nicely in aac format which is what most of my files are. MP3 works great though. I use a mac computer at home which has all 106gig of my music stored on an external drive. I downloaded Nullrivers medialink for mac ($19) and can stream all music, movies, and photos wirelessly to my ps3. This also works for windows using windows media player 11. The third option is to connect an external drive containing your music directly to the ps3 usb port. Any of these options will let you play music through your receiver and control via onscreen ps3 menu. I would look at this before you spend money on a standalone unit like a squeezebox. PS3's can be had from Dell for about $330 with online coupon and free shipping. You also get bluray, upconvert dvd, mp4 and divx playback. I use it as my total media center and am kinda lost without it. My movie backups (kids' flicks) I rip and compress to avi keeping full dolby digital intact with a final file size of about 1.5 gig and store on the harddrive. Just fire it up and pic a flick. Keeps kids entertained.