Topic: networked receivers w/ flac playback?

[Gordon]

anyone have any experience with these?  I'll be honest and say I didn't even know about them   I built my friend a windows home server machine to act as a media server.  our original thoughts were to get him a squeezebox (music) and wdtv live (video).  he needs a receiver as well.  I now see that there are receivers that play flacs over the network.  read about one that is onsale at newegg and some folks had trouble getting flac playback working.  if we could find a good option then we could do away with the squeezebox.

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

I have a classic SB you can have for very cheap if you cahnge your mind...

Terry

[Gordon]

pm sent

[H₂O]

I use a DVR-3808ci and it works pretty well but is not gapless and only supports 16bit FLACs - You can hook up a hdd right to it.

The newer Denon's support upto 24bit 96Khz.

I am in the process of building a HTPC for around $300 and use the HDMI/Optical out to support multi channel FLAC, and higher resolutions.

IMO building a small HTPC is the way to go because you can get alot more playback options than with a FLAC playback reciever.  You mentions streaming from the network so I would assume this is via the users laptop or an existing PC.

[Gordon]

I built him a 5tb home server/htpc.  it's headless and will just be used to serve up music/video.  he doesn't want to have to remote desktop etc to it to play the files so we're doing a squeezebox or something for music and a wdtv live for video.

[H₂O]

I built him a 5tb home server/htpc.  it's headless and will just be used to serve up music/video.  he doesn't want to have to remote desktop etc to it to play the files so we're doing a squeezebox or something for music and a wdtv live for video.

You can install XMBC and still be headless - you can control it through a web browser or Andriod or iOS app.

http://xbmc.org/

[Gordon]

hmm.  would need a video card but could be an option.  how straight forward is it?  I need to keep this as simple as I can for him.  does it play mkv and hd mkv Ok?  The wiki says about mkv "Experimental, unfinished, unstable, buggy and/or limited. "  I assume flax playback is gapless?   I already bought and installed windows home server v1 on the pc.  They say its not supported but folks are using it.

[dnsacks]

can a jailbroken apple tv2 running xbmc be run headless from an ios/android phone? 

[H₂O]

can a jailbroken apple tv2 running xbmc be run headless from an ios/android phone?

Yes - but the Apple TV 2 does not allow direct attachment of storage

Here is a andriod remote app:
http://code.google.com/p/android-xbmcremote/

About gapless - I don't know for sure as I have not used it a ton yet.  From some of the documentation I have read is that it may not because uPNP doesn't fully support this - at least this is what the following link states.  Also I am reading that 24bit support was not in place as of Jan of this year - so this may not work for me either.

http://www.streamiumcafe.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?p=112833

XBMC is a opensource and free so you code just give it a try and see if it works.

[H₂O]

I guess what I am getting at is there is a ton of FREE software out there nowadays that does alot of the same stuff you are looking for.

VLC is another good playback tool (not as slick as XBMC) but supports 24bit FLAC playback and is gapless

Here is a $5 remote app for andriod and iOS that can remote control VLC.
http://hobbyistsoftware.com/VLC-more.php

[rastasean]

David has recommended hippo remote to use with xmbc. I tried it on a laptop and its pretty easy to use.

I have recently become a fan of the linux action show on jupiterbroadcasting.com
this one discusses XMBC:
http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/10821/media-centers-pt2-las-s17e10/

[H₂O]

It looks like there is remote's for the iphone/android for Foobar2000 as well (which for many is the premier Windows based playback tool for audio - supports most all formats and bitperfect output).

http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_upnp

http://www.head-fi.org/t/406838/ipod-touch-iphone-as-a-remote-for-foobar

[OFOTD]

I'm confused by some of these complicated replies.   

If i'm reading things right the OP built a home server for a friend.  Said friend needs to access different content (i.e. video, audio, etc.).  Does he go with an external box to a receiver or does he go with a receiver that has the built in ability to stream.


Without hesitation go with an ATV2.  Jailbreak it, install XBMC and you're golden.

Plays gapless 24bit audio (wave or FLAC), 24bit multichannel FLAC is coming with the next major XBMC release this December (already in the nighty builds).  Damn near any video format you want to throw at it it will play.   Use it wireless or wired.  Pass-through audio.   

For $99 (ATV2) you just can't go wrong.   The only thing you are limited to is true 1080p of which the ATV2 does not do due to hardware limitations.  Although I have played 1080p .mkv files and they work fine.       

Go either HDMI out or optical if audio only to whatever receiver you have.  Done.

[Gordon]

thanks for the replies.  decided to go with the squeezebox from terry and a WDTV live for video.  about the same price as a video card, better soundcard (both on board on mobo and not the proper connections) and Apple tv would be.  actually maybe a bit cheaper.  plus it's the exact same setup I have to keep troubleshooting easy for me.  he's not much of a computer guy

[rastasean]

The reason I don't prefer the ATV is that you need to link it to an itunes account to download overpriced streaming stuff. Apple already does not like iphones to be jailbroken so who is to say future firmwares of the apple tv will be harder to crack. It will get done, yes, but there may be limits as to what can be done once it is jailbroken.

[OFOTD]

The reason I don't prefer the ATV is that you need to link it to an itunes account to download overpriced streaming stuff. Apple already does not like iphones to be jailbroken so who is to say future firmwares of the apple tv will be harder to crack. It will get done, yes, but there may be limits as to what can be done once it is jailbroken.

You don't have to link it if you don't want to.  Mine has no link to an Apple ID.   After unboxing mine immediately went into DFU mode and I ran one of the jailbreaks.   

As for the jailbreaks themselves they typically appear either right before or right after the official firmware goes live as those guys have the developer beta iOS versions beforehand anyway.   Those guys are almost always one or two steps ahead of Apple in most cases.

Additionally you are under no obligation to upgrade your device with new firmware if you don't want.   One of the more popular ATV2 jailbreak options installs NitoTV which allows you to turn off ANY and ALL communications with Apple.

With the only exception of the native 1080 hardware limitation it is extremely hard to beat for it's functionality and the price.       

[keytohwy]

I'll jump in as well. 

I'm surprised that the OP is building a PC and adding two (2!) devices to make the whole thing work.  As has been stated a $99, AppleTV does the trick.  Add AirFoil if you want to send packets from non-iTunes sources.  If you ever want to expand it, simply adding a Airport Express allows you to send music to a different destination.  Just 8 years ago I paid a crazy amount of money to have this infrastructure built into a home I was building.  Now, it's all wireless and extremely scalable.

I'm still not clear on why RastaSean is taking pot shots at "overpriced streaming stuff".  As has been pointed out, you can stick with your own content, and stream nothing, price-be-damned.

Last summer I streamed some live concerts to the AppleTV, and yes, it was free.

[rastasean]

yes, of course you can use your own content. It's nice to know the appleTV doesn't require an itunes account, that's really nice to hear actually.

I suppose streaming content from the appletv is no different than people purchasing one of the pay-per-view movies from cable or satellite providers. I just don't know why I would want to pay anywhere from 99 cents to $4-6 (seen that on amazon) for a stream.

[H₂O]

My point was you can do video and audio straight from the PC.  I am using a Z68 Micro ITX board and i3-2120T - this whole setup will do 1080p, multichannel 24 bit FLAC, etc all for a little over $300 and will peak at about 30W and run idle at under 5W.

[Jimna]

Mac users are getting like the religious people and their Jebus, always trying to cram it down our throat.....why is that?

[H₂O]

I'm a mac, windows, and linux user - all have there advantages and disadvantages

[adrianf74]

My point was you can do video and audio straight from the PC.  I am using a Z68 Micro ITX board and i3-2120T - this whole setup will do 1080p, multichannel 24 bit FLAC, etc all for a little over $300 and will peak at about 30W and run idle at under 5W.

+1.

I'd built something similar to this spec back in Ferbuary and it runs extremely quiet (quieter than my PVR) and it does multichannel 96/24 flac (as well as DD True HD, DTS-HD MA, etc.) and anything I can throw at it.  I'm running a Clarkdale CPU but last month added an AMD Radeon 6450HD in it to get rid of the 24fps issue with Intel CPUs and all is good in the world.