O/T - Music: PC to Home Stereo

[Drifter]

So my 60 disc CD changer is on it's last legs. Don't guess I'm gonna replace it. Tired of messing with CD's anyway. Got most of my music on the hard drive, and it's a real shame to have to listen to all those great tunes through the computer speakers.

Considering a wireless router with a stereo hookup. Sure would be nice to use the Windows Media Player or iTunes through the stereo...

Any experience/thoughts/suggestions?

[jclaudii]

There are several ways it can be done, mainly depends on how much money you want to spend.

Here are some things I don't know:

1. how far is the pc from the stereo?
2. do you have a xbox?
3. do you want to have the ability to change songs remotely? in room with stereo? or in room with pc?

The most simplest and cheapest way is to wire it directly to you pc. This method requires running a patch cable between the stereo and pc. Disadvantages is the physically running of wire and you have no remote. Now you can add a RF remote for a few bucks ~$30 so it can work through walls. You could also move you pc into where your stereo is and hook it up to the tv and have a "media center" so you can watch downloaded movies, kayaking videos, etc on your regular tv instead of your monitor. This option however usually requires a special tv, advanced video cards and a computer designed for the "media center" functionality.

The next way would be if you already have a wireless network or want to go wireless. Get a wireless media adapter. This allows you to hook up your stereo wirelessly to you pc via a wireless router. Here is an example of that product.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellit ... 2640536B12
about ~30 bucks on ebay. You don't have to run wires now, but you still have to either get a remote or manually control it.

The next method is to get an xbox or xbox360. The regular old xbox has a 10 gig hard drive in it. That is quite a bit of music already. The hard drive is upgradeable as well as "mods" that will make it more useful as a media center (remotes, usb ports, lcd displays, run a version of linux on it, etc). The xbox360 will find your music on your network and play it that way with no additional mods. With a wireless remote or controller and your tv on you can navigate your entire collection on multiple pc's. xbox 360's run about 200-250 bucks.

There are probably other ways to do it besides those listed. The method I have used in the past is physically wiring it to pc and manual control of the music collection. I have also loaded several songs on my xbox and used it, but it was not attached to my network. If I had the money, I would probably get a xbox360 and a wireless network. This would allow my xbox to talk to my computer wirelessly and I could use it to play games or watch dvd's.

Good Luck

[Drifter]

Thanks, man. That's the kinda info I'm looking for.

We do have a media center PC, and another one too. Definitely going to go with a wireless router (Linksys G) for the internet connectivity, and so figured might as well go ahead and try the wireless music deal as well.

Done a little homework since the post yesterday and the Linksys G Music Bridge looks like the ticket.

This wireless networking looks like it's gonna be fun. Cool new project (toys) to play with.

[jclaudii]

If you have a laptop, then wireless is awesome! We have a desktop we leave on with a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) that has the "backup and storage" drives on it along with a all in one printer. This lets me be in front of the tv with my laptop and press print and it sends it to the upstairs printer...no need to plug any cords in. I also keep all my music and video files on the upstairs desktop and I access via a network storage icon on my laptop. For the music to come through my stereo I have a 12ft rca to head phone jack cord that goes from my laptop to the stereo. I then play my songs on my laptop to get them to go through my stereo. Then when I'm not listening to music I just roll the chord up and tuck it behind the tv. \

Well hope it all works. Linksys is a good brand and there is lots of information on the internet about how to work it. Just make sure you secure your wireless network once you get it all setup and working. I'll keep an eye on this thread to see how you like your music adapter.

[Drifter]

No laptop, but kids (twentysomethings) coming over that have them. They can just hop on our wireless connection (and hopefully stay OFF our pc's... )

Got good deals on both the Wireless G Router (packaged opened but never installed - per seller $31.00) and Wireless G PCI card (30 bucks - new in box) on eBay. Got a bid in right now on the music bridge. We'll see how that one goes.

I'll post when I get the bridge purchased, shipped and all configurated up and let you know how it's working out.

Meanwhile, if anyone else has had any experience with this type of thing, please post...

[robkanraft]

Explain me something... with the wireless bridge device attached to my stereo,
I can select music on my laptop and play it? Does it have to be in MP3 format? I've been thinking of getting a dedicated laptop with a back-up external hardrives for my music collection, somewhere about 350 CD's and a couple of hundred vinyl, but I think I want to use Exact Copy (free download, btw) and not loose any of the data in an open source like FLAC for playback. I know most say you can't tell the difference but I'd like to keep it all if I can. My original plan was to get a high-end sound card with RCA jacks to input to my amplifier, but wireless would surely be awesome!

[Drifter]

Rob,

That question could probably be better answered by someone other than me because I am a real newbie when it comes to this wireless stuff. But - I will try to explain what I know - or think I know.

As far as the laptop goes, reading jclauddi's post he said he was using the RCA plugs into his stereo to listen to his music. I would think that you would have to have a wireless router hooked up to your laptop to transmit to the bridge for stereo playback - wirelessly. I'm sure there are a few network techies that frequent this board that could expand upon this and offer a little insight. I'm hoping they will anyway.

Now I have been running my 30gig iPod through my stereo with RCA plugs for quite some time now; (mp3) but still not as easy as running it straight from the PC. I would not think the media would have to be in mp3 format to play through the stereo; the format would depend upon what the software on the pc or laptop, I would think.

What I am going to attempt, (and from what I have been reading - it should work) is to install the router on the pc with the cable internet hookup, then put a PCI card in the other PC to get internet to it that way (without having to pay for an additional line) Then for the music, using the same router on the first pc, transmit wirelessly to the stereo through the music bridge. Linksys makes compatible hardware and software for all these applications. I have not tested any of it yet, but I have ordered some of the stuff and plan on hooking it up soon.

I'm thinking there will be other uses for this wireless stuff as well, like sharing a printer (as claudii said) plus maybe some other uses I haven't considered yet.

Like I said, new toys. I would be very interested in what you might come up with for the laptop thing, and having a "dedicated music PC sounds pretty cool, although you could have a dedicated big hard drive just for that (maybe an external USB drive or something).

Unreal where all this technology is going. Quite a long ways from transistor AM only radios and vinyl to reel to reels, 8 tracks (quadrasonic - remember them?), etc. Hell, I remember when cassettes were just coming on line - the cool thing of the day. Then CD's. Now the CD's seem like dinosaurs.

I'll be glad when you can just plug a flash drive into the "car stereo" and listen to music that way. Why haven't they made one of those yet?

Or have they??? :shock:

[jclaudii]

Hey Rob,

The wireless device basically just takes the place of the physical wire that would connect to your stereo's rca's. So whatever format you want to play, it will send that "over the air" to your stereo. Actually, whatever sounds your computer makes will be played on the stereo. So when you shut your computer down and you have the shutdown sound, it will come through your stereo. The wireless device will not allow you to select which songs you want your computer to play from the stereo. It is just a virtual wire between your pc and stereo. You can control the music from the computer.

As far as what format to keep your music in, it is a matter of preference and storage space. To keep your true cd format, it will take up at least 650-700 mb per cd. The compression you select will help out tremendously when it comes time to cram lots of cd's and records onto a hard drive/s. For records, I'm sure mp3 format would work and still keep the crackle of your vinyl. I have windows media player and I usually rip my cd's in mp3 format at somewhere between 196 and 256 bit rate. This is below cd quality to right at quality. It puts each cd around 115 mb for 256kbps (near cd quality). The Windows Media Format does compress better, there lossless version is around 470-940kbps which makes it about 200-400 mb per cd. The variable bit rate in the Windows Media Format is about 125mb per cd at 240-355kbps. I'm including a link to Windows website (can't believe I'm doing this for windows) This will see i f you can tell the difference between the two formats. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... locale=409#
You'll want to keep in mind that it will be easier to manage the smaller files and it will increase your flexability of where you can put your music (ex burn an mp3 or wma cd for your car, load your mp3 player up (limited space), or perform backups of your collection on monthly basis). You have to remember you have the originals in storage, if you ever want the real thing, just go get it or if you lost some files, just re-rip it.


Drifter,

They do make a several stereos for your car where you can plug in a SD card or an usb drive with music on it and you can select and play it. They seem to run pretty reasonable at the cheapest around 130 bucks. This would be a great solution to all those skipping cd's on the back roads.
You don't want to forget those multi-player games that will let you battle it out with multiple computers of your network. We play an oldie, but goodie....Age of Empires age of kings. We all build up armies and try to kill each other, it's been known to last several hours on those days we get snowed in or when it's too cold to go outside.

Basically the reason for the "network" in the media adapter's name is because it actually goes through your wireless router. This would let you play music from multiple computers in the house as long as it has the software installed on that particular computer. Hope it works out for both you.

Cheers!

[Drifter]

Very cool; thanks a bunch. Gonna for sure check into one of those new car stereos - tired of shuffling through all those old CD's especially while driving.

[Drifter]

Update:

Hooked up the Router to the PC and the Music Bridge to the home stereo and it all worked like a charm.

Using the Media Center PC with it makes it all the better. Just kick back in the easy chair and aim the remote at the PC and out comes the music from the stereo.

Dry times; but life is good...