What media player to go for ?
- Thread starter Jams4znik03
- Start date
Jams4znik03
Active Member
yes it plays from usb, also plays from the network, but only from dlna servers..it has two usb ports, I have tried upto 500 gb hdd formatted in ntfs, works without any problem whatsoever. Haven't tried my 2 tb powered hdd, will try it and let you know..
now there are many ways to get great quality music in that 15-20k but it will need a bit of research and tweaking..
Option 1 - use any old laptop that is lying around and add a usb dac, there are many options, odac being one of the cheapest (6-7k) but still one of the best in my opinion...then install foobar/xbmc and use wasapi to play music..you can control it with your smartphone, there are great remote apps are available...for the blu ray, you buy any sub 10k player of your choice all of them are equally good...your total expense would not exceed 15k...downside of this option the PC will take time to boot, which maybe annoying to some people, also I dont know what is your comfort level in configuring the smartphone apps to connect to your pc and using them as remotes, everything works beautifully after you set it up, but till then needs tweaking..one way to deal with the boot issue is installing openelec and booting or add a ssd maybe..
option 2 - another way would be again get a sub 10k blu ray player from sony; just make sure it plays all formats like flac etc. and add an optical DAC...this option is redundant in my view, as this option will go up to 25k (at least) and the Oppo 93 is 500 USD anyway...i dont know of any decent optical DAC below 20k..
option 3 - Another way to get great music (hopefully) and I am going to do this little project for my bedroom, is using the raspberry pi+USB dac, the only issue seems to be the availability of the raspberry pi, I have ordered it, and it should reach in maybe in 3-4 weeks..it will boot fast, consumes very little power (about as much as a phone) and you can sit back and control your music through your smartphone again...no downsides...but i think people have reported some kinks in getting USB DACs to perfectly work with the Raspbrry Pi...I am sure it will get sorted, the platform is developing quite fast in the open source community..this in my opinion is one of the best solutions for getting music out... cost - 3k for the raspberry, 6k for the odac and whichever blu ray player you buy add to that...again as far as controlling this system goes you can use a smartphone, and you don't even have to turn on the TV for listening to music as you can see your collection in the smartphone and simply play from their...
I am personally sold on the raspberry Pi option as u can understand..
i have been using option 1 (old laptop) for some time in my bedroom, and frankly not very happy with the result, keeping the laptop always on means unnecessary power consumption and risk of ruining the laptop..starting is every time is annoying because of the boot time, i tried openelec for sometime but the overall experience wasn't as fluid as i wanted (u know opening the lid of the laptop, start it etc. etc....)...I am a very impatient guy...there are again ways to get around this with some tweaking...like openelec, wake-on-LAN for turning on the comp etc, but again too much hassle..
hope that helps!
Thanks a Ton ! That's useful. I am pretty comfortable using the Smartphone as a remote device. If the USB ODAC outputs quality sound Opt1 one seems good but agree that using a Laptop can be tedious.
The 3rd option seems interesting. Do share you experience on implementing it.
BTW my samsung smart TV plays most video formats - upto mkv (no blue ray of course). The only thing which tempts me to go in for the likes of a media player is becos it does not play lossless audio files like FLAC which is extremely imp to me. Moreover navigation control is restricted. Wont using a smart phone may also limit that functionality as well?
If you can wait for a month or two, then Popcorn A-400 will be released. It's with the latest sigma chip. But more importantly, it has the VXP that they acquired from Gennum's video processing business. That itself will sets it apart from other media players.
As for Raspberri Pi, I am also looking at it. It has the ethernet and USB bus on shared path. All the media is stored either on ethernet or USB. So, you can forget about using USB dac's because of that. If you do want to use it, best way is to use HDMI out. It's a very nice little device with XBMC.
As for Raspberri Pi, I am also looking at it. It has the ethernet and USB bus on shared path. All the media is stored either on ethernet or USB. So, you can forget about using USB dac's because of that. If you do want to use it, best way is to use HDMI out. It's a very nice little device with XBMC.
Jams4znik03
Active Member
views on Amkette EVO..anybody?
Plenty of people are already using the raspberry pi with rasbian and usb dac manoj...can you please elaborate on your point?
As far as the a-400 goes, I am sure it will be great for video as all their previous ones, my problem remains with the audio quality..i don't think that's gonna change...finally the availability and pricing of popcorn hour products are obnoxious in india, plus no support....that's why I was swayed away from it when I bought my oppo...one has to go through the same set of problems when trying to get an oppo, but given the overall performance in both audio and video quality I think its worth it..
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If your samsung tv is already taking care of the video need, and if you have a budget of 30k and want solid audio quality you should look at some of the networked audio players from marantz, decent blu ray players nowadays are available very cheap, it is the decent all in one solutions (both great audio and video quality) that costs money...
As far as navigation goes, I find the smartphones to be far better for navigating music libraries..do try them out with your pc to see..even with video, the official xbmc remote for android is really good..on the iphone too they have are some great apps...plus with the raspberry pi a range of ir based remotes are already supported in many distros...
As I said before...needs a lot of tweaking...not everybody's cup of tea...
...i can give all this gyan because I am researching on this past 1 week...just waiting for rpi to try them out for real...Cheers!
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Jams4znik03
Active Member
If your samsung tv is already taking care of the video need, and if you have a budget of 30k and want solid audio quality you should look at some of the networked audio players from marantz, decent blu ray players nowadays are available very cheap, it is the decent all in one solutions (both great audio and video quality) that costs money...
As far as navigation goes, I find the smartphones to be far better for navigating music libraries..do try them out with your pc to see..even with video, the official xbmc remote for android is really good..on the iphone too they have are some great apps...plus with the raspberry pi a range of ir based remotes are already supported in many distros...
As I said before...needs a lot of tweaking...not everybody's cup of tea...
Cheers!
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Just installed the samsung Remote app on my S2 and also the serviio server on my PC since allshare had its 'share' of issues.. this one's working.. and it sure seems interesting. yes I agree navigation seems a whole lotta better.. that sure was useful! cheers.. I plan to do some more experimentation until i decide to go for a media server now
Thanks buddy.
Jams4znik03
Active Member
Just wanted to share my experience of the PC based media servers which i tried over the past 2 days and also compare with the smart TV's DLNA capabilities
On reading Kaushik's last post, I got intrigued into venturing into this arena in the absence of any hardware based media servers for playing on my Samsung smart TV. The poor focus on D/A in these media players especially got me thinking.
All this time, I was using either the Samsung Smart TV's smart hub for playing video and audio files either through a local USB disk or thru Allshare on the PC. The Allshare functionality though was inhibiting a lot of capabilities of media sharing and forced me to duplicate content on the hard disk needed for sharing. More over, it was rather slow to refresh resulting in frequent disconnections (though my home network running perfectly fine). Though DLNA supports FLAC, the tv would not play these files reporting "unsupporting file format". As I have an integrated AMP, the only option was to output the audio through the 'headphone out' of the TV in the absence of any other analog audio /RCA outputs. The sound was decent and was able to reproduce the bass better on my Maranatz-Monitor7 combi better than when played via the Phillips DVD player's USB port. I noticed this with multiple iterations of playing the same number from KD lang (constant craving) repeatedly. However, failed to notice too much of difference with other louder songs.
For media streaming from PC, when I was finally fed up with Allshare, I resorted to looking for other DLNA compliant media servers and found Serviio. It just took one attempt to set it up and it showed up fine on the TV. File sharing was also smooth and quality of streaming was good .i.e..without any disruptions. Navigation was better. I then also installed Samsungs remote app on my S2 to make things smoother. I agree that the mobile navigations works good and faster. With a little more practice I am sure it will be even better. Incidently, it also features a mobile remote app for android "serviidroid" which gives me remote access tothe media server's admin controls for managing shares and tweaking while watching the TV from another room. You could also try imedia share on the mobile for managing both the media server and the TV's content - all from your mobile's touch screen.. I can see that there a number of other applications availabe for media streaming in the android world ..I especially found XBMC's interface and navigation particulary interesting but this will mean upgrading the PC 9and more cost!) and also installing from good DAC to get it going well.
Now I can sit back and relax I will wait for the Rasbery PI reviews/experiences.. until then..
BTW a question :
My audio setup is barely 10 days old. Can anyone tell how long will the burning in take for the Marantz 6004 AMP and the monitor 7 speakers to arrive at their real capabilities..?
On reading Kaushik's last post, I got intrigued into venturing into this arena in the absence of any hardware based media servers for playing on my Samsung smart TV. The poor focus on D/A in these media players especially got me thinking.
All this time, I was using either the Samsung Smart TV's smart hub for playing video and audio files either through a local USB disk or thru Allshare on the PC. The Allshare functionality though was inhibiting a lot of capabilities of media sharing and forced me to duplicate content on the hard disk needed for sharing. More over, it was rather slow to refresh resulting in frequent disconnections (though my home network running perfectly fine). Though DLNA supports FLAC, the tv would not play these files reporting "unsupporting file format". As I have an integrated AMP, the only option was to output the audio through the 'headphone out' of the TV in the absence of any other analog audio /RCA outputs. The sound was decent and was able to reproduce the bass better on my Maranatz-Monitor7 combi better than when played via the Phillips DVD player's USB port. I noticed this with multiple iterations of playing the same number from KD lang (constant craving) repeatedly. However, failed to notice too much of difference with other louder songs.
For media streaming from PC, when I was finally fed up with Allshare, I resorted to looking for other DLNA compliant media servers and found Serviio. It just took one attempt to set it up and it showed up fine on the TV. File sharing was also smooth and quality of streaming was good .i.e..without any disruptions. Navigation was better. I then also installed Samsungs remote app on my S2 to make things smoother. I agree that the mobile navigations works good and faster. With a little more practice I am sure it will be even better. Incidently, it also features a mobile remote app for android "serviidroid" which gives me remote access tothe media server's admin controls for managing shares and tweaking while watching the TV from another room. You could also try imedia share on the mobile for managing both the media server and the TV's content - all from your mobile's touch screen.. I can see that there a number of other applications availabe for media streaming in the android world ..I especially found XBMC's interface and navigation particulary interesting but this will mean upgrading the PC 9and more cost!) and also installing from good DAC to get it going well.
Now I can sit back and relax I will wait for the Rasbery PI reviews/experiences.. until then..
BTW a question :
My audio setup is barely 10 days old. Can anyone tell how long will the burning in take for the Marantz 6004 AMP and the monitor 7 speakers to arrive at their real capabilities..?
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Kaushik,
I don't have the raspberri Pi yet, so can't tell for sure. My understanding on this is totally based on various forums. But there are already lots of reports of issues with USB and network. AFAIK, the ethernet controller on Pi is connected to SoC through USB, its not dedicated. Moreover, the USB interface is from BroadComm and they are notorious for linux drivers. If you search for "raspberri Pi USB Ethernet issues", I am sure results will show up which discusses these in detail.
One thread that goes in detail is - Serious Problems With USB and Ethernet On the Raspberry Pi - Slashdot
About A400 and media players in general. These are single chip players and cater to the cheaper market. They do not focus on dac etc aspects. Best way is to get the digital/HDMI out from those and use external DAC or a receiver. It applies to all the players, including Raspberri Pi.
Yes manoj after your post I did find this thread also on looking, I guess a way to sidestep this problem is playing locally completely and using an powered usb hub. But I guess one has to try it out to be sure...mine is also on back order, will update in hfv when I receive mine
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Gerry_the_Merry
Well-Known Member
Look at Apple TV seriously. Available only in US and HK, but for US$99 only. Brilliant build quality to boot.
Jams4znik03
Active Member
Aren't there any limitations on proprietary controls as is there in all Apple products?
Gerry_the_Merry
Well-Known Member
You can't play flac files. But between SBt and Apple TV, Apple TV is more flexible in other ways. Cheaper. Flawless functioning with attached HDD unlike SBt which can play over wifi flawlessly but not from attached HDD without hiccups. On Apple TV you an watch live video streaming, with a 4mbps connection, you can practically watch anything on YouTube in HD hear days, too many good things. May not quite be audiophile grade, but for movies, quite good.
Yes, we can play everything from USB sources or even ethernet sources. That doesn't cause issue. Issue is when we are using USB itself for audio output. Then in that case, its all shared and cause dropping issues. People have already reported missing clicks on keyboards connected through USB.
I think the best way is to separate audio output from USB/ethernet. Use HDMI.
Element 14...i registered with a friend's company's vat registration number...anyway unless you need vat credit it doesn't matter..so you can use the same method..
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Jams4znik03
Active Member
I called up Element 14 cust care today. They mentioned that we can mention our PAN Card # and it will suffice for regn. Incidently RPI is agains out of stock..:sad: and it may take good time to replenish. They also mentioned new model with 4 GB ?
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Jams4znik03
Active Member
Meanwhile I ordered RPI from Element 14. it is again out of stock. Long wait for 3-4 weeks + Look forward to Koushik's experience on the new toy..
dheerajjotwani
Active Member
Rpi it's a good option. Best to use a good class 10 sd card. Run xbian 0.8.2 for xbmc... snappy yet stable. I have it running well
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