Streaming FLAC files from NAS to LG Smart TV

[FurtiveFreddy]

I've got a large collection of hi-res music, mainly in .flac or .wav format 16bit/44 up to 24bit/192 sitting on a Synology NAS DS716 +II.

I keep all my video on the same NAS and use Plex to stream it to my LG B6 TV and on the whole that works fairly well, even for 4k video.

The TV and NAS are connected on a cabled LAN and all switches are 100/1000Mbps.

I added the music folder to Plex on the TV a couple of days ago, but performance is so sluggish when navigating or trying to play music files that it's just not usable as a client to browse and play music, plus the Plex interface isn't really suited to that task, so I'm looking for a better way, but there's not exactly a big choice of apps on the LG.

So should I be looking at a Fire TV stick or Chromecast? Is there another device or app which will work with the B6 and give me good performance with a nice interface and be able to handle HI-Res music files?

[legzr1]

Can't you use the DS Audio app on the NAS to 'push' to the TV?

[FurtiveFreddy]

What do I use as a client on the TV though?

[davek_964]

My music is also on a NAS (and also FLAC), but never tried to access it from my LG TV.

I'd recommend a firestick or fire TV - costs peanuts, and Kodi is very good for browsing films etc. on the NAS - really nice UI - and does well for the music too. (I have streamed to the fire TV so know it works fine, but generally stream to proper hi-fi stuff).

[FurtiveFreddy]

I'm looking at the Nvidia Shield. More expensive but seems to be capable of running Kodi and has Gig Ethernet and can play 24bit 192k audio files.

Anyone here have experience of them?

[clockworks]

My nephew has a Shield. He says it's great - when it's working!

[legzr1]

FurtiveFreddy said:

What do I use as a client on the TV though?

Ah, fair question - just tried plex and it's a pain but nothing compared to LGS own effort - horrendous!

I don't use the TV when listening and browsing music - far better to use apps designed for it on a tablet / iPad using specific audio streamers (especially if music quality matters).

Is it the idea of a big display listing the albums that attracts you?

[Bullett]

Are you using separate speaker/amps for audio, it seems a bit silly to have HD audio and then attempt to play it via TV speakers.

Any device needs to support the format, so check that before buying (a quick check looks like Fire TV supports flac). You then need a dlna player app.

[FurtiveFreddy]

Yes, I'm basically using the TV as the display to choose the music and play it through my AV amp and 5.1 system.

The AV amp has a built in player app which is completely bobbins. The LG music player app is terrible. The Plex or X app on the LG is just too clunky and slow. Whether that's transcoding happening on the NAS I'm not sure.

They all seem to have issues playing certain file formats or resolutions.

The shield seems to be the most powerful streaming device so although I won't use the gaming functions, it looks like it should handle virtually any video or audio format. Haven't found anything better so far.