Recommendations for a home media player/server please

[The Excession]

A mate wants to get a media player that he can plug into his amp and copy all his CDs to. Then create playlists etc.

I'm not really up on the technology but I've suggested he'll need a cheap laptop then a media player and probably a NAS of some description.

He also has a set top satellite receiver that will play a video stream using VLC, so the option to store his music DVDs and play them this way would be good.

I appreciate he could just do this with a lap only solution but he wants a neat little box that can be hidden away and not require the lappy to be on to drive it.

I've seen a couple of media players that have a remote control that allows you to select tracks and play lists etc. Are these any good?

Others also have built in amps, but he doesn't need that.


Any ideas what to look at?

Costs need to be minimal about £500 max.

Thanks for any pointers.

[chris watton]

What about this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Boxee-Digital-Media...

And add an external HDD (connected to the Boxee) for the media he wants to save and play. Be aware that a lot of bog standard receivers will not be able to read the NTFS format, but only FAT32 - the media player above (and many other proper media players) will be able to read the file formats.

[14-7]

Popcorn hour stuff always gets good reviews and is what I'm currently looking at. Prices start from around £200.

[Ewan S]

Sonos Remote and Zone Player with a NAS attached to the zone player. This is what I did, I have my 300 odd cd's available through the remote and it is all going through the big separate amp and speakers.

Works brilliantly.

[dave_s13]

If It's just music then sonos plus nas is bestest from what research I've done.

Not cheap though.

Logitech duet is another one to look at.

I've got a wdtv live, great for video but pretty carp for music given very limited pkaylist functionality.

[PhilboSE]

The Excession said:

A mate wants to get a media player that he can plug into his amp and copy all his CDs to. Then create playlists etc.

I'm not really up on the technology but I've suggested he'll need a cheap laptop then a media player and probably a NAS of some description.

He also has a set top satellite receiver that will play a video stream using VLC, so the option to store his music DVDs and play them this way would be good.

I appreciate he could just do this with a lap only solution but he wants a neat little box that can be hidden away and not require the lappy to be on to drive it.

I've seen a couple of media players that have a remote control that allows you to select tracks and play lists etc. Are these any good?

Others also have built in amps, but he doesn't need that.


Any ideas what to look at?

Costs need to be minimal about £500 max.

Thanks for any pointers.

There are lots of options for this, it's where the mainstream is heading. Basically he will need a storage device and a media streaming device. Sometimes these will be all in one. However the all in ones that I know of at that price point I think will be unlikely to also add as a video server to his satellite streamer.

For a generic multi-box setup, he will need a DLNA-enabled NAS box. A 1Tb one should be about £60, but he'll need a network (probably wired) to connect the devices. Then a music streamer which can be plugged into the aux of an amp. I'm not completely up on these but something like the Cambridge Audio NP30 would fit the bill and budget. Logitech Squeezebox also worth a look.

If he can sacrifice the video streaming then there's the Brennan all-in-one music server which also rips CDs (somewhat contentiously), which would remove the need for a separate ripping/encoding laptop.

[Bullett]

Just music - Then that's Sonos or Squeezebox + a NAS.
add video and photos (does he have a games console?) then a DLNA server/NAS combo is a good choice(and can be combined with the above) many of the standalone NAS boxes run Linux and will also operate as a DLNA server or Squeezebox server.
The xbox360 or PS3 are both DLNA players. (be careful what formats video is in as not all work on the consoles)
Popcorn hour is another good choice.
The VLC player may be a false start as I believe that you need to run vlchelper to serve up the video.

I personally run a HP Micro server with 2x2tb raid arrays storing photos/video/music(flac) - £200ish, VLC helper for serving video to the ipad, DLNA server and a Squeezebox server plus backup and other bits and bobs.

Music is served up to Squeezebox in 3 rooms.

Video to the big TV is under review, PS3 via DLNA at the moment but as most of my stuff is in MKV I transcode and it's not great. I have a spare PC so I'm now looking at using that as an XMBC client.

Video stuff is via home plugs music via wifi.

[dave_s13]

Bullett said:

....

Video to the big TV is under review, PS3 via DLNA at the moment but as most of my stuff is in MKV I transcode and it's not great. I have a spare PC so I'm now looking at using that as an XMBC client.

Video stuff is via home plugs music via wifi.

WDTV Live is excellent for this. It'll play, well anything really. MKV's, iso's, all that jazz.

I have on hooked up to a lowly 40" LCD and it looks great. My brother has his feedin a 100" projector and it looks the bolloarks.

Passes through DTS to your amp as well.

For £60 odd quid you can't go wrong really.