Advice on video and audio streaming

In My Humble Opinion
1

I currently have a 400-disc CD/DVD player that contains all the CDs I have through 3 or 4 years ago and all the movies I have through that same time period. It just seems silly to use something like that these days, and as I accumulate more CDs, they don’t end up in the player, and I already have too many DVDs to put in there.

My setup is that all sources plug into a single receiver and a single HDMI cable goes from the receiver to the television. The receiver has two zones so I can watch something on the TV (or play something in that room), while playing something else on the patio.

I’m looking for a way to replace that player. I’d like a system that could play music without having to turn on the television to search through directories before hitting play and could also play my DVDs that I will rip and place either on a nearby drive or a network drive.

The PS3 can do some of this, but the interface to play music is pretty awful – it doesn’t really look for ID3 tags, so I have to browse through folders, there’s no album art, etc. Also, I can’t find a way to rip DVDs that the PS3 will consistently play. Also, in order to navigate the PS3, the television has to be on.

Sonos will do some of this, but it only works for music and is very expensive. Roku apparently won’t read DVD files of any sort.

I can’t figure out if the Boxee Box will work, and whether the iOS and Android interfaces will work like the Sonos interface. Also, I can’t tell if it will play ripped DVDs – ideally, I’d like to rip an ISO so that it will play as though it had the actual DVD there, with menus, extra content, and so on.

Any advice? I’m willing to spend a couple of hundred dollars, I guess (enough for a Boxee and an external drive). I already have a NAS, which has enough room as well. I don’t really want a full blown multimedia PC, and that wouldn’t have a way to control it without having the TV on anyway.

Related – I only have some of my CDs ripped to iTunes, and none of the artwork shows up on my non-Apple players, so I’m thinking of ripping my entire CD catalog using some other software, like winlame or winamp – would the resulting files and artwork be properly read by iTunes? (Do they even show the album art?)

2

iOS has a free App called ‘Remote’ that will control iTunes from your iPad, iPod or iPhone - I use it with a used MacMini that I picked up to use as a Jukebox (didn’t want my main Win7 box on all the time).

I also think that Remote app will control an AppleTV, letting you use it to access music in iTunes - without turning on your video display.

I don’t rip videos to iTunes (which I don’t think will use ISO images) but I hear that MP4 will work. There is a Plex ‘channel’ for Roku boxes that works with a Plex server. I think there is a thread around here on that subject.

3

That seems like a pretty serious investment – MacMini and AppleTV, and I still don’t get the full DVD experience. I think Plex doesn’t work with ISOs, at least that’s what a chat person from Roku told me.

I also really despise iTunes (my own hang-up), so getting locked into that would be less than ideal. OK, I’ll keep searching around for ideas. Thanks anyway!

4

Ours has been the backbone of our media system for many years. Great device.

I’d rip all the CDs to high-bitrate MP3s, to start with, and sell or store the discs. That should leave you room to put all your DVDs in the unit. Since there isn’t quite yet a good digitizing system for video - not nearly as polished and simple as for audio, at least - that should buy you a few years until the ability to stuff DVD content into a digital player is more refined.

5

Yeah, maybe I’ll go that route. Then, I’ll think about getting a Sonos set up, because the Android/iOS remote apps are just beautiful.

Any advice on winlame vs. winamp vs. something else? I’m looking for something that will pull in the artwork in a way that will be visible to Apple and non-Apple devices. iTunes sticks all the artwork into some other folder rather than into the ID3 tags.

6

An alternative for music: use a subscription service like Spotify or Rdio for music. It’ll save you the trouble of ripping your existing CDs, and give you access to a great deal more music, for $5 or so a month. You might not like the idea but it’s worth considering if only as a comparison.

I use Rdio on my computer, with bluetooth speakers in the next room.

7

Quibble–for about 1/3d more space and just about the same amount of time spent, go with FLAC or APE lossless formats. There are two advantages.

  1. On my dad’s super-high end system, I could hear a difference between a 256 bit MP3 vs an APE file. Granted, it wasn’t much of a difference, and I’ve never been able to tell any difference on a normal system, …but still.

  2. Someday MP3 files might become obsolete (remember .IFF or .LHA files? If not, 15/20 years ago, you would. :slight_smile: ) . When MP3s eventually die out, it’ll be no problem to convert them, but each time you recompress/translate a lossy format you lose more data. When FLACs eventually die out, you’ll be able to transfer them with no data loss at all.

  3. You can make mp3 copies of your master lossless files for playing in the car, etc.

(Says the guy who got 1/3d of his way through his CDs before he realized this :wink: )

Seriously–1/3d to 1/2 more space (give or take) and no extra time. IMO, there’s no reason to not do lossless.

8

I know it’s silly, but I can’t get used to renting music or paying a subscription for it. No satellite radio either. Just my personal hangup.

Thanks for the idea, though.

RS

9

First of all, I would not get into ripping the dvds and streaming them yet. To do that, your best bet is an entertainment PC or Mac Mini. If you aren’t going there, I wouldn’t bother. But if you look up DLNA servers or XBMC servers, those will do what you are looking for. I am not sure what you will need to buy for your TV to use those, but you can stream from your computer.

With the music, I would stick with itunes and get an Apple TV. Or Roku with Spotify and Pandora.
Getting all the artwork into itunes isn’t bad. I currently have 1218 albums on my mac and ALL the artwork is there. I can get artwork for an album in less than 30secs. Most albums you won’t need to, but some you will. But if you don’t like itunes, that is understandable and that DLNA server will stream music too from whatever player you use I believe.

10

Spotify is free by the way, there is a commercial every once in a while. I would download it and take it for a spin. You might be surprised how good it is.

11

I found the Spotify ads quite jarring and intrusive. It left me with a negative opinion even though I know they’re not in the paid versions.

I felt the same till I tried it. I think what changed is that I realized it’s not renting music, it’s just listening. And the cost is so low compared with buying CDs or songs from iTunes that it’s negligible.