Recipe for a budget digital media streaming server

[aquapiranha]

I hd looked at the Rasberri Pi as a streamer, but it is a lot of messing and has limited usb etc. I have just sold my WDTV Live and will be replacing it with this..

https://www.lenovo.com/products/us/d...q-series/q190/



More info here..

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=157563

I will also be using XBMC which i have been testing on the PC using Linux Mint for a while..

[Rothchild]

Bit rich for my tastes (partly because it include MS Tax), looks nice though. Limited messing about potential ;-) and has a fan apparently.

I think as a solution the Pi is playing in a different pond.

[aquapiranha]

Yes, I will be binning the M$ offering and usine XBMCbuntu or Open elec probably. There are ways to control fan speed, which as far as I can tell is not as intrusive as some would have you beleive. I do like the Pi for various reasons but i just prefer the idea of an 'out of the box' solution. The Pi has a great following and a great community behind it. I can see an advanced Pi being released with a few more i/o options and maybe ehnanhed usability in the future, and I hope it is successful, it certainly deserves succes.

[Rothchild]

A fatal design flaw? Problems revolve around USB/ethernet on same bus, ie. no proper ethernet. USB Audio at 16bit/44.1KHz is apparently fine. This site says the Hiface2 XMOS based device works OK at red book res, so that implies USB audio class 2 can function.

http://www.raspyfi.com/supported-dacs/

Only other question is about the appropriate power supply for the Pi to match overall USB power drain. Hence people using power USB hubs in some cases.

Just in case anyone had been put of the prospect of a high quality low budget digital media solution it appears that there is now a fix working which enables the the Pi to play hi rez files (should that sort of thing float your boat) http://www.raspyfi.com/raspberry-pi-usb-audio-fix/ lots of folk reporting successes with a whole range of both esoteric and more common or garden converters.

[Gazjam]

I'm working on a Linux based Pi streamer atm, never thought I'd entertain anything non Win/Jriver...but it's surprised me have to say.

[Tim]

I have looked at it as a small lower power streamer and it would seem pretty good, but the issue of the shared bus will degrade the sound quality, but for most people its fantastic and perfect. I posted this earlier and this is great for a Pi
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...music-streamer

I am going to get one, just to satisfy my curiosity and it would be perfect for a second system in the bedroom or kitchen and I will try to wring the best out of it as an audiophile server, but even the folks at Raspyfi admit its sound quality is only reasonable, so I doubt it would satisfy me, but I will still buy it.

"The RaspyFi distro is designed to achieve reasonable sound quality from your PI without needing to configure it. It’s ready to play and in 10 minutes you’ll be able to listen to your music library"

Source

It it doesn't make the cut, it will perform media duties running XBMC to play movies from my NAS. I can stick it to the back of my TV with double sided tape and power it from the Panasonic USB ports. Attach an HDMI and Ethernet cable and Bobs' your uncle. Control it all with an app on a tablet or smartphone and you have a very capable HD movie streamer for under 30 quid.



I'm playing with Voyage MPD at the moment, but when I have perfected an audio Linux box, I will move onto the PI

[Tim]

I'm working on a Linux based Pi streamer atm, never thought I'd entertain anything non Win/Jriver...but it's surprised me have to say.

- I have just ordered an ALIX board Gary for Voyage MPD.

[keiths]

Still very happy here with my little Atom-based MPD server.

MPD clients for Android are a bit basic - MPDroid is by far the best of the lot but has a few small bugs and is missing a couple of features that I would like to see. Hopefully it will develop over time. The source code is available from Github - I may well do some customisation myself if I get some spare time over the coming months.

[Tim]

Still very happy here with my little Atom-based MPD server.

Funnily enough I had some issues getting MPD to run on my two atom boards Kieth, the Asus AT510NT-i and Intel DN2800. Tried everything, SSD's, mechanical drives, just didn't like it. Odd really as all my other Linux boot discs work with them fine. I even formatted them ahead of the install with ext2 file systems, but they still refused to play. I dug out an old (very old) Pentium 4 board with a single core CPU and 512MB RAM and bingo, straight in first time. I played around with that for a bit then thought, 'yep, I like this' and ordered an ALIX board. I plan to power it from a SLA battery and from what I have heard so far, it looks very promising

[Rothchild]

I have looked at it as a small lower power streamer and it would seem pretty good, but the issue of the shared bus will degrade the sound quality, but for most people its fantastic and perfect. I posted this earlier and this is great for a Pi
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...music-streamer

Yes, it was your post that prompted me to check what was going on in raspyfi world (I'm very happy with mine running madsonic server as per the original post in this thread). I think the solution that they're working towards (using an i2s interface on the GPIO pins) will bypass the contention / bandwidth issues of the shared usb ethernet port and deliver a very credible solution.

Incidently, I have mine as a dual boot with OpenElec for XBMC and it's great for watching BBC Iplayer and the like + all works really well using the TV remote through the HDMI cable etc, very impressive!