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(Decent) Network Media Player : does it even exist ?

F

fonkydevil

n00b
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Messages
9
Hi all,

This is both a request for help and a gripe post.

I am moving to a house where I will have my PC, NAS and TV/Hi-Fi in different rooms. I planned on buying a simple network device that could receive the uPnP/DLNA data from the NAS server (available 24/7) and play video/music/photos into the TV/Hi-Fi.
It sounded like the perfect solution, as it didn't need to have built-in drives (optical or HDD), so no redundancy with my existing stuff. Of course I'd need a LCD display so I don't have to turn on my TV to play music through the Hi-Fi, and a remote controller.

I figured by now (2011 !!!) the market would have plenty of solutions to offer, especially given that people have been playing video/music with their PCs for 10 years, NAS have popularized the last 2-3 years, and LCD/touch screens have spread so much.

Well guess what, all I can find are AT BEST devices with a lousy 10-characters digital display from the 80's, or HTPC cases that are stupidly expensive (that is, 10 times the cost of a high end PC case), in adition to being empty. Most solutions don't even sport a display at all, which totally disqualifies them for playing music only.

SO (sorry for the rant) apart from the gripe, am I missing something ? Does that convenient product exist ?

And most important, how do YOU do it ?

(I apologize also if there is a existing thread about this, I couldn't find it. Please kindly redirect.)
 
Receiver with AirPlay + your iPhone/iPad as the controller. NMP for everything else..
 
The most common devices are probably squeezebox and Sonos. I use squeezebox with an android phone as my remote. Pretty slick setup, allowing access to pretty much any local or online music content I want. I can use my AVR to play content in my living room or in my back yard as well as having stand alone squeezebox radios in my bedroom and kitchen. I can either synchronize them, or play different content on each one.

Most new AVR's have built in streaming as well as IP control, but they are still a little rough as far as implementation and user interface via iphone/ipad/android. I'm surprised Logitech or Sonos has not offered to license their product to Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, etc... Apple seems to be making some inroads in this area with airplay.
 
Thanks a lot for the Squeezebox hint. This is exactly what I need for music. I guess I'll just get a WD TV Live or something similar for video, and I'll be all set.

Can you browse network files along directories with the squeezebox (I don't like the Artist/Album/Genre browsing) ?

(and what is an AVR ? an Android mobile phone ?)
 
Third on the Squeezebox, I just got a Touch. Use our iPhones with iPeng to control it. The GF even likes it. I have ripped our CD collection to the server, so the whole music library is at our fingers.
 
After getting a bit more info, it appears that the Squeezebox is neither uPnP nor DLNA.
AND I'm afraid that the SqueezeBox Server doesn't work properly on my Qnap TS-209 :'(

What kind of server do you use SB with ? I guess it's not NAS ?
 
90% of the time, I listen to online content (Napster, Pandora, Internet Radio, etc) and that pulls directly from the net, so no local server is required. When I play from my library, I run squeezebox server on a PC and it serves music from my NAS. My NAS is old and slow, so until I upgrade that, my PC is required. I believe QNAP does support squeezeserver, but the 209 may be a little slow.

AVR = Audio Video Receiver. I have an Onkyo RC-180, which can perform many of the functions the SB can do, but it's clunky, has many limitations and the interface sucks. SB is so smooth and easy, even my wife loves it.
 
I'm was in a similair boat albiet I watch more news and stream shows from my NAS than listening to music. My setup is the PC/NAS for media storage, HTPC with 7WMC with a tuner to watch TV, and an XBox 360 as an extender. I've also got an iPad 2 with AirVideo hosted from the NAS so I can watch all my movies and shows anywhere via live conversion and steaming with the ability to watch it on any one of my HDTV's through the HDMI hookup. As a bonus, I can actually steam via Air Video to wherever I am so it made my last drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco much better.

I think your problem is that you just aren't using 2011 technology because everything you need is here. I mean, come on, one of your problems are ugly HTPC's because there are a ton of nice looking ones for reasonable prices if you actually look. Your Qnap is 4 years old so you may want to build a whitebox NAS which is starting to get incrediably cheap.
 
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