My new music server.

[Gazjam]

Will do guys...
Ali I'll dropbox it.

Brian, get yersel' on Dropbox!

[brian2957]

:rolleyes:

[Gazjam]

Download it from Here Brian, can take it from there.
Been meaning to get you up and running on this for a while...

*EDIT* Download link might help? :doh:
https://www.dropbox.com/

[brian2957]

Download it from Here Brian, can take it from there.
Been meaning to get you up and running on this for a while...

Nothing coming up mate , no link showing up .

[Ali Tait]

Cheers mate, I'll have a look when I get a chance.

[brian2957]

Boy oh boy are you in for an experience once you've stopped playing with it etc.....;)

Flamin eck Bob you were right , the picture on this is outstanding :eek:

[bobbasrah]

Flamin eck Bob you were right , the picture on this is outstanding :eek:

.....and there it was all the time awaiting discovery ;)
What did you watch out of curiosity?

I got the BBC Planet Earth pack a while back and got them each converted to mkv (Each episode is about 2.3Gb, hence taking up less space on the HDD. :D) As they also have Romanian subtitles, it has entertained quite a few of the kids in care here. Their faces are a picture plonked in front of the plasma, wide eyed, open mouthed, and unusually..... silent.... :eek:

Although I realise that it may tread on the sensibilities of music purists, but if you can use the machine for video without affecting the music quality, you have the ideal media centre, and with modern kit that is entirely possible. :eyebrows:

Enjoy Brian, enjoy.....:cool:

[brian2957]

Cheers Bob , I watched Star Wars The Phantom Menace last night in Hi Def and was totally gobsmacked with the quality of the picture on my excellent Panasonic 37 inch plasma. This,however , seems to take it into another league . :D

[Gazjam]

good innit? :)

[bobbasrah]

good innit? :)

Sounds as if you have made christmas come early for Brian in more ways than one Gary... Excellent stuff... I would add that as a thread on file audio, it has been a welcome change from the complicated/Degree in computing/unnatural/non-tactile/how-do-I-solve type threads....:D

I really must get off my butt to investigate this JRiver setup though, and overcome the reluctance to change from the existing Mediaportal setup. It has worked flawlessy from day one, but curiosity is really getting to me now.... :scratch:

Might just get round to trying the wireless remote before I do though, as it is the only thing I never finished on this machine....:rolleyes:

[Canetoad]

Last Friday I took out my laptop running Vista (the reason I don't use it much) and installed JRiver on it, configured it for WASAPI output using the optical SPDIF output plug, and plugged it into my Bushmaster using a cheap plastic optical cable. The sound? Good enough to give my Touch a real scare! In some ways it actually sounded a lot better. There seemed to be more instrument separation happening with the laptop and it just sounded easier to listen to. Sorry for the vague description. :doh:

Next I installed My River on the wife's iPad and played with that for about an hour. Works a treat! I'll install Gismo on my phone and try that at some time too, since I have to compete with the wife and son for the iPad.

The reason for doing this? Proof of concept before I go ahead and build a dedicated HTPC. If I can get that quality of sound from a bodged setup then a dedicated server should be rather special. :eyebrows:

This thread has been very useful to me too. Special thanks should go to Gaz as well, as he's been very helpful to me behind the scenes!

Now I just have to finalise all the components for my HTPC. :)

[Gazjam]

Sounds as if you have made christmas come early for Brian in more ways than one Gary... Excellent stuff... I would add that as a thread on file audio, it has been a welcome change from the complicated/Degree in computing/unnatural/non-tactile/how-do-I-solve type threads....:D

I really must get off my butt to investigate this JRiver setup though, and overcome the reluctance to change from the existing Mediaportal setup. It has worked flawlessy from day one, but curiosity is really getting to me now.... :scratch:

Might just get round to trying the wireless remote before I do though, as it is the only thing I never finished on this machine....:rolleyes:

Think you've hit the nail on the head Bob of what makes this approach to music a good one...it just works.
Brian doesn't always give himself enough credit about picking up what for him was a completely new way to listen to music, but he's right in that he came to it completely fresh.
He didn't want to have to "learn computer", he just wanted to get back to his music and as it turns out he has in a big way.

So good result, happy with that. :)

Its a bit of a step change I think going from the CD playback you've used for years to something quite different, its always like that though...
Throw in the fact that a lot of folk "don't do computer" it can put them off making the jump to file based music.
But if you can get the same (or better) sound quality than your high end CD player with instant access to all your music displayed on your big telly...with all the computer stuff hidden...cool.
Also, most folk nowadays have an Iphone or Android and its a touchscreen remote control for music - also cool.

Its a real shame the Squeezebox line is apparently being discontinued. I loved my SB Touch. Its sound quality through a dac was great and fact I could access my music so easily (handy with nearly 4k albums!) made it fantastic.
I loved the simplicity of it. There was a load of "techy" stuff going on in the background but it was hidden behind the interface.
I guess Logitech decided it was too technical and the Dr Dre crowd wouldn't buy into that. (no offense!)

Shame really as it was an easy way for non computer folk to get the convenience of accessing their tunes.

..or just stick a cd in - wha hey! :)

[Gazjam]

Last Friday I took out my laptop running Vista (the reason I don't use it much) and installed JRiver on it, configured it for WASAPI output using the optical SPDIF output plug, and plugged it into my Bushmaster using a cheap plastic optical cable. The sound? Good enough to give my Touch a real scare! In some ways it actually sounded a lot better. There seemed to be more instrument separation happening with the laptop and it just sounded easier to listen to. Sorry for the vague description. :doh:

Next I installed My River on the wife's iPad and played with that for about an hour. Works a treat! I'll install Gismo on my phone and try that at some time too, since I have to compete with the wife and son for the iPad.

The reason for doing this? Proof of concept before I go ahead and build a dedicated HTPC. If I can get that quality of sound from a bodged setup then a dedicated server should be rather special. :eyebrows:

This thread has been very useful to me too. Special thanks should go to Gaz as well, as he's been very helpful to me behind the scenes!

Now I just have to finalise all the components for my HTPC. :)

Go for it Bernie :)
I use Gizmo on my android and its great.
Had a play with Ali's Ipad app (Jremote I think?) when I was over at his and it was fantastic.

Need to ask Santa for an Ipad though!

[Martinh]

Go for it Bernie :)
I use Gizmo on my android and its great.
Had a play with Ali's Ipad app (Jremote I think?) when I was over at his and it was fantastic.

Need to ask Santa for an Ipad though!

There's a new update out for JRemote (iPad) that puts it way ahead of My River in terms of looks, usability and reliability.

jremote was always a better app IMHO (I have both) but now there's no comparison. JRemote is a bit more to buy though.

[Canetoad]

Thanks Martin, I'll keep that in mind. One thing I have to address with the HTPC is it has to be as easy to use as the Touch. Otherwise the wife will be complaining that it's too hard to use. :)

[Gazjam]

Once you have Jriver set up Bernie it'll be no problem.

Simple on the surface but when you dig a bit deeper there's all sorts of good stuff.
Expression based Scripting language, DNLA pushing of media to other PC's in the house (a la squeezebox), custom plug-ins...but thats all in the background.

I just use Jriver something like this: THEATRE VIEW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf1cQJ0KAHo

I get this view on my plasma controlled by wireless keyboard/mouse or use Gizmo on my Android mobile.

Theres also the more Itunes like STANDARD VIEW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=VG0UZulxt2g&feature=endscreen
Sometimes use it that way too, depending what I'm doing.


The bulk of the effort is the initial scanning your library in and I've found it to be a LOT more stable than Squeezebox Server and a lot less work.

This is fact was the main reason I sold my Touch, fed up fixing network issues.

I just wanted something that worked.

[Martinh]

As Gazjam said.

I have the same issues as you with my family needing to use it to listen to music.

If you just want to listen to your music files, the PC + tablet option is great and really easy to use. You don't need to have a TV or keyboard connected.

However, of you want to add Spotify or other functions, then it gets more complicated, as you'll need to see the screen and control the mouse.

I'm using the JRiver iPad app for music and then if I want to use spotify, I have to use another program (logmein) to do that. Apparently, there's an iPad remote for spotify, but I haven't tried this yet.

I'm not planning to use it for movies at the moment.

[brian2957]

As Gazjam said.

I have the same issues as you with my family needing to use it to listen to music.

If you just want to listen to your music files, the PC + tablet option is great and really easy to use. You don't need to have a TV or keyboard connected.

However, of you want to add Spotify or other functions, then it gets more complicated, as you'll need to see the screen and control the mouse.

I'm using the JRiver iPad app for music and then if I want to use spotify, I have to use another program (logmein) to do that. Apparently, there's an iPad remote for spotify, but I haven't tried this yet.

I'm not planning to use it for movies at the moment.

Hi Martin , JRiver is simplicity itself and can be controlled by a wireless mouse via your TV screen . As for films it didn't need any setting up at all in my system . I just installed a disc and away it went :D. If I were you I would give it a try , the picture is excellent.

[bobbasrah]

Hi Martin , JRiver is simplicity itself and can be controlled by a wireless mouse via your TV screen . As for films it didn't need any setting up at all in my system . I just installed a disc and away it went :D. If I were you I would give it a try , the picture is excellent.

Think you have a further surprise to come Brian..... Unless I am totally misunderstanding that you are watching DVD quality video...:scratch:
If you can get a converted Bluray onto a DVD or the hard-drive and see what 1080 looks like.....:stalks: you will see what that machine can really do.... :cool:

[Martinh]

Hi Martin , JRiver is simplicity itself and can be controlled by a wireless mouse via your TV screen . As for films it didn't need any setting up at all in my system . I just installed a disc and away it went :D. If I were you I would give it a try , the picture is excellent.

Cheers Brian,

For music, I prefer to use it headless I.e. without the screen, as my Panasonic plasma's fans are quite noisy and I never listen to music very loud :(

Gary, I've also loaded Gizmo onto my phone, so I can use that to control JRiver when the iPad is elsewhere. Great app.

Small problem playing DVDs : no optical drive! Oops.

I want to burn my DVD collection to the HDD but it's not easy, is it?

[Canetoad]

This would be a good starting point.

ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/)

[Gazjam]

Cheers Brian,

For music, I prefer to use it headless I.e. without the screen, as my Panasonic plasma's fans are quite noisy and I never listen to music very loud :(

Gary, I've also loaded Gizmo onto my phone, so I can use that to control JRiver when the iPad is elsewhere. Great app.

Small problem playing DVDs : no optical drive! Oops.

I want to burn my DVD collection to the HDD but it's not easy, is it?


Not without a drive it isn't! :ner:
You can set Jriver to rip your DVD and Blurays to your library automatically when you insert the disk - get one!

Something I'm playing around with is playback of DVD-Audio and SACD ISO rips...
So far so good, have a DSOM SACD rip which sounds fantastic playing back at 24/96.

[AlfaGTV]

Maybe off topic, but how do you do that? Do you need a SACD Player with a HDMI output?
Ripping SACD's is what i'm curious of...

Thanks!
/Mike

[Gazjam]

Hi Mike,
its a bit of a faff but it can be done.

You can make legal backups of your bought SACD's using a gen 1 or 2 Sony PS3, which can read SACD.
You use the following freeware on it which rips it to 1:1 uncompressed ISO files or DSD format, both of which can be read directly in Jriver.
https://code.google.com/p/sacd-ripper/

I'm not sure of a PC only solution, sorry.


Hope this helps, DVD-Audio is easy, SACD was hard!

[AlfaGTV]

Thanks Gary! I'll look into that!