Advice on simple distributed music setup

[Jumpy Guy]

After finally ripping all the old CDs to a NAS, I need some simple, cheap way to distribute them.

At present, I have a NAS box full of stuff, and play video/audio via my laptop and HDMI cable to the TV.

I want something more permanent, so how best to do;

- Play video to TV, audio via existing amp. All in living room
- Play audio to bedroom, preferably some small bedside unit

I dont mind running cat5 to the rooms, and I dont mind building a PC as a media server.

Assuming I built a small PC in the living room, what to use in the bedroom?

[danyeates]

If you have iTunes and/or an iPhone, consider Apple TV and Airport Express. Very simple, effective and cheap solution. Can work wirelessly too.

[Jumpy Guy]

I had looked at this as a possibility, but it's not quite what I want.

Ideally, the player in the bedroom would have all of the controls to access the music on the NAS

I dont use an iphone for music etc, and would want other people to be able to access music when Im not home

Although I wouldnt object to running itunes on the media pc in the living room, it bring it back to the question of how to acccess from the bedrooms

[Bullett]

Squeezebox Touch/Radio/Boom in the bedroom, running squeeze-server on the PC.
HTPC in the lounge to act as a server running something like Plex or XBMC.

I have my server in the office and use a Roku in the lounge for video and SB Touch for music(so I don't need the TV on for music). Both go via the Denon amp for the Audio. I have a SB Radio in the Kitchen and run MonkeyMedia on my PC's taking the music from the server. The server also runs Plex so I can get playback on my ipad which can also be used as a controller for SB or Roku.

[danyeates]

You can actually use the iPhone/iPad/iPod to control the Airport Express when it's streaming from a computer/iTunes server.

Music doesn't need to be streaming from the phone, you simply use the phone as a remote control using the Apple Remote app. It streams from the computer/server. You can of course stream from the phone if you want to.

Works really well in our house. Airports and Apple TV's in various rooms, all computers have Home Sharing setup so I can stream from any computer using any iOS device as a remote control.

[Jumpy Guy]

Bullet,

that sounds ideal. Just had a look at the squeezbox radio. Perfect.

Next question- what pc to use as a media server? any quiet recommendations? and do I need specific software to serve to the SB radio, or can I do direct from XBMC?

thanks!

[Bullett]

I've got a HP MicroServer but pretty much anything will do the job for music. You'll need to get the Squeezebox server application (d/l from Logitech), some NAS boxes come with it built in.

Get something more powerful if you will want to do video though not for the basic functions but for things like real-time transcoding.

[Mr E]

Jumpy Guy said:

Bullet,

that sounds ideal. Just had a look at the squeezbox radio. Perfect.

Next question- what pc to use as a media server? any quiet recommendations? and do I need specific software to serve to the SB radio, or can I do direct from XBMC?

thanks!

Squeeze server will probably run on the NAS (it runs on mine), so you may not need a PC.

[Jumpy Guy]

hmm, just checked, and my NAS is and Iomega ix2-200 cloud edition

which apparently has no way to run Squeezebox server..

[Jumpy Guy]

Final question - assuming I'm building a micro PC media server, and want to play HD films, how good a graphics card do I need?

any small form factor recommendations?

[Mr E]

Jumpy Guy said:

Final question - assuming I'm building a micro PC media server, and want to play HD films, how good a graphics card do I need?

any small form factor recommendations?

I run a 4 year old ATI 3600 HD and that manages 1080p with no apparent issue.

[Pixelpeep]

Considered Sonos ?

great kit, very easy to set up, will stream all music over the network, also supports spotify and internet radio. each unit even has a line in so you can distribute the line in on one unit (tv maybe?) through out the other zones as well..

each zone can have seperate tracks playing or you can group the zones together (party mode) and have same tracks/playlists playing throughout.

very sexy kit,

scrap that - just read the OP properly... saw video.. sorry...

• hangs head in shame*

[Bullett]

For a media server you don't need a video card at all. The only connection mine has is power and network.

For a htpc directly connected to your tv, I can't help. Plenty of guides on the net though.

[stargazer30]

WDTV live are cheap and small and can play pretty much anything. Good for the bedroom. For the main room if you have a good stereo amp I'd say something with a good front end like a PS3 and then an external DAC.