Wanting to stream music to my Home Theater

E

ECLIPSEONYA

Junior Audioholic
I own a Onkyo PR-SC886. My router is in another room and I wanna be able to stream music to my home theater from my PC. Any suggestions?
 
agarwalro

agarwalro

Audioholic Ninja
E

ECLIPSEONYA

Junior Audioholic
With the wireless bridge will I be able to play anythign from my computer? Or will it need to be internet based?
 
jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
That is depending on all the functions of the bridge type device. Bridges are an awfully wide field feature set wide.

Everything from Apples Airport Express to Logitech's Squeeze Box line up. What is your budget?

For my Wife's office I am putting in a used laptop mine and going from the Headphone out to the AUX in on her Pioneer mini-component system. The laptop is wireless and she will even have an MS MCE (green button) remote for it.
 
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jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
With the wireless bridge will I be able to play anythign from my computer? Or will it need to be internet based?

***I don't believe you can stream over the SC886's Ethernet. It is there for integration with automation systems like Crestron/AMX/Control4.

You will need to feed the beast either SPDIF/TOSLINK/Analog
 
sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
There are a couple of ways of doing this. Assuming that you have a wireless router than a wireless bridge like agarwalro suggested will take the place of running cables from the router to your PC. I own the model that he suggested and it's a good unit once you get it setup (plan to set it up manually because auto setup didn't work). But it simply takes the place of running a cable and isn't a media player. It's a good choice if you want to connect up to 4 devices in your entertainment center to the network and the bandwidth requirements aren't huge.

Another option is a wireless network media player like the newest version of the Western Digital TV Live (~$90). The WDTV Live connects to your system via HDMI and uses your TV as the display. I had the older non-wireless version and it does a pretty good job. As long as you have a TV at that location to act as the display it's a good solution and supports most audio formats although FLAC files are limited to 16bits/44.1khz (CD quality) and supports most video and photo formats. It does not require setting up anything on your computer other than a network share.

There is at lease one media player on the market that has it's own display but I have no experience with it.

The other and I think better option is to run cabling from the router to your entertainment center. It's a pain in the butt but you only have to do it once. The reason that it's better is that it provides more bandwidth should you decide to play Blu-Ray quality video across the network. Wireless just doesn't have the ability to handle the 10-12GB/hour needed for Blu-Ray. What I've done is run a cable to a switch in my family room and connected a Netgear NeoTV550. I chose that model because it supports 24bit and multichannel FLACs - but it does not have built-in wireless.
 
agarwalro

agarwalro

Audioholic Ninja
I assumed the Onkyo is Internet ready, consequently I miss spoke.

What you need is a streaming audio player, so something like a Logitech Squeezebox (only plays music off your networked PC or Internet radio) or Roku (an Internet connected media streaming device for Netflix and more). Also, there is the Western Digital product called WD TV and last but not the least Apple TV.

For something low tech, you may get away with the Audioengine W1.

If you have a PS3 or Xbox360, and they will also stream media from your PC if it is set up as a media server (just a check box in Windows Media Player).
 
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sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
I assumed the Onkyo is Internet ready, consequently I miss spoke.

What you need is a streaming audio player, so something like a Logitech Squeezebox (only plays music off your networked PC or Internet radio) or Roku
Just for the record while the Roku is excellent for streaming movies and podcasts from Internet services it's extremely limited as a network media player.

The two things that we really need to know is budget and what formats (MP3? FLAC? AAC? DVD and Blu-Ray ISO?) that the OP wishes to play.
 
H

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
AFAIK, a Roku won't stream from a computer but the Sony Network Streaming devices can if the computer uses Windows 7 or is otherwise DLNA enabled. It has the capability of connecting to the network wired or wireless. I have been using the SMP-N100 recently and it worked OK. The Roku I had was more consistent WRT streaming without pausing- wired or wirelessly, with the unit placed directly under the router. The other think I didn't like, which I had read before, is the GUI- the icons are kind of small if the TV is smaller than ~42".

It found my laptop without me needing to do anything when I set up a SMP-N200 but the N100 doesn't have DLNA. I didn't try it with iTunes and I doubt it will work with that. Windows Media Player tends to be one of the common players for DLNA and other network-enabled receivers.
 
E

ECLIPSEONYA

Junior Audioholic
I do have a PS3. The set-up is in the living room with the home theater. Computer is in another room with the wireless router. Budget isnt really an issue but I'd like for it to stay under $300.
 
zhimbo

zhimbo

Audioholic General
I would just like to make a general comment that it's kind of astonishing how complicated and confusing this general topic is. It's such an obvious need, I sure wish there would be some sort of standardization for such a seemingly simple task - stream a computer's output to the HT. That's it. Why must that be so hard?

Technically it is possible to do this with ROKU, but in practice it doesn't really work. OR rather, it's maddeningly cumbersome in use.

You can connect a USB drive to a ROKU, but the media player is pretty dang primitive.
 
avnetguy

avnetguy

Audioholic Chief
I do have a PS3. The set-up is in the living room with the home theater. Computer is in another room with the wireless router. Budget isnt really an issue but I'd like for it to stay under $300.
Why not just use the PS3?

Two options available,

1> Use the PS3 to access a DLNA server setup on the computer (e.g. WMP sharing)

2> Copy the audio files to the PS3 (via USB) or just access them from a USB stick.

Steve
 
sholling

sholling

Audioholic Ninja
I would just like to make a general comment that it's kind of astonishing how complicated and confusing this general topic is. It's such an obvious need, I sure wish there would be some sort of standardization for such a seemingly simple task - stream a computer's output to the HT. That's it. Why must that be so hard?
The problem is three fold, 1) it's an immature technology and consumer requirements haven't yet gelled, and 2) there is more that one way to skin the cat and each has their proponents. Some people like to push content to multiple receivers so that every room is playing the same thing. Some like DLNA - I have no idea why now that most dedicated players can access shares. Personally I hate it as an unnecessary complication. And some of us like connecting via network shares for maximum simplicity and flexibility. 3) On top of those you have manufacturers putting their interests above the consumer. Two examples are Sony and Apple. Sony has never been willing to support the popular FLAC format because Sony Entertainment doesn't want them to and Sony won't even publish a list of supported formats. And Apple is too busy trying to sell you content to provide access to competing formats.

So far we still have to make choices between best of breed at individual functions or a pretty competent master of all trades but master of none device like the WDTV Live. In other words a device that's pretty good at internet content but not the most flexible, and pretty good at network music playback but not the most flexible, and pretty good at network video playback.
 
indulger

indulger

Audioholic
I racked my brains on this last year and went with the logictech squeezebox duet. However, I think until manufacturers actually come out with something which supports all formats, the overall best solution is to just get a small form factor computer w/hdmi connection and run it as a HTPC/musicplayer/video player/netflix/etc... and be done with it. I gave my squeezebox duet to my son for his setup but since he has an xbox, the duet just sits in the closet. So just my opinion, run a network cable from the router to the entertainment center, by a switch and hook it up to your PS3 or get a small computer for everything.;)
 
avnetguy

avnetguy

Audioholic Chief
Maybe because of limited format support?
That could be a problem, don't think the OP stated what format the audio files are in. Would be possible to convert if needed, providing the audio library isn't too large.

Steve
 
B

bikemig

Audioholic Chief
The squeezebox touch works very well and sounds great via its analog outputs. It's pretty easy to set up and makes using internet radio easy. It is a really good device and fits within the OP's budget.
 
adwilk

adwilk

Audioholic Ninja
I have three WDTV Live(s) and each time I've needed another one I've shopped around and its been the clear choice. The ONLY drawback has been bandwidth on the network. I'll give up a format or two for convenience.
 

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