Gosh this is tough... media streaming questions :)

[admin_exported]

Phew. Head hurts after a day of intensive web trawling and nowhere near the answer. Hope you can help!

- my music is on my Mac running OS 10.4, iTunes 9, encoded mostly in Apple lossless .m4a, and stored on a WD My Passport 320GB external HDD

- I'd like to get this music to a new amp and home cinema system I'm buying

- I don't need the HDD for my Mac's daily use, so would like to plug it into my streamer. I'm considering the Popcorn Hour A-210 and the AC Ryan Playon HD Mini.

This is the tough bit for me. Questions:

- will these players play Apple lossless .m4a or do I need to convert to e.g. FLAC? I have downloaded Switch to do this - right choice?

- if I need to convert to FLAC, it looks like I lose my artwork/tags? If so, is there a way to auto batch grab them back? Doing it manually for 3000 tracks doesn't appeal... :/

- any way to get these players wirelessly controlled from their remotes or an iPhone? This is the primary appeal of going the all Apple route (Apple TV controlled from iPhone) but I have read poor reviews on Apple music quality - what are your experiences vs. the above units in this respect?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cheers from Warsaw

Adam

 

[John Duncan]

How much space does the music take up? I'd be looking at a first-gen Apple TV...

 

[Anonymous]

Not much - maybe 30GB? I would be looking at ripping all my DVDs as well, though...

 

[John Duncan]

That's a different matter then. If it had been just music I'd have said get a refurb or second hand Apple TV and put your music on it - once you plug that into the DAC in your receiver, the music quality will be down to the receiver and not the @TV. This was how I ran my music for ages and it was fabulous sound quality when put through a proper DAC and amp.

Video is another matter. I'm presuming that ripping DVDs is legal for personal use in your country...

I've found ripping DVDs to a hard drive and *then* playing them on an apple TV (for research purposes, obviously) rather more bother than it was worth, but if I wanted to do it again, I would probably get an Apple TV again and install atvflash - this would give you both the ability to use a big external hard drive as the @TV's storage (this does not use the internal hard drive, so you could make do with the 40gig one), and the ability to play native VOB files, which the vanilla @TV cannot do.

If this sounds like a bit of a hassle, you'd be right, and the eg Popcorn Hour will play VOBs straight out of the box. On the other hand, as you point out you'll need to convert your music to FLAC for it to support it. Depends on which feels like more grief...

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, thanks for being so helpful

Clearing our way through the info minefield, just a bit more clarification please:

- DAC/receiver/amp: argh! Recoil from tech-speak!

I'm buying an Onkyo TXSR608 based on your reviews - please, please tell me this one box has all the stuff you mention above?

- can I connect my external HDD to the @TV? And, when this is done (and this is key) - can I control what I play from the @TV from an iPhone or remote, i.e. do I need to keep my Mac switched on?

- the idea was to get rid of all my DVD boxes and have everything stored on a hard drive. Installing atvflash doesn't seem like hassle - when you say Popcorn Hour plays out of the box, I would still need to have those DVDs ripped anyway, so if the choice is between:

1. installing a bit of software onto @TV, or

2. converting 3000 tracks into FLAC and then worrying about artwork etc

then it would seem @TV is the way to go - especially if I understand you right that this DAC thingy inside the amp means that it is the DAC and amp that matters not the @TV itself? But if so - why the reviews saying 'music from the @TV is poor'... what does that mean if it is down to the DAC/amp?

Deep breaths, keep it simple - thanks again for your patience

Adam

 

[John Duncan]

Sorry, will get to this in a little while, lots to talk about...

 

[John Duncan]

Right...

Firstly, let me just point out again that I'm talking about the older generation apple TV, not the new black one:

mcchazza:
Wow, thanks for being so helpful

Clearing our way through the info minefield, just a bit more clarification please:
- DAC/receiver/amp: argh! Recoil from tech-speak!

I'm buying an Onkyo TXSR608 based on your reviews - please, please tell me this one box has all the stuff you mention above?

The Onkyo does have a built-in digital-to-analogue converter, yes. You can connect the Apple TV to it using a simple optical cable, thus avoiding the Apple TV's own analogue outs. This means that you can bypass the Apple TV's less good analogue output - the reason that some find the 'music from the @TV [on its own] is poor'

If you want to play music through it, however, I would audition other AV receivers as well, since to my mind Onkyo can make a bit of a hash of music in the wrong setup. Yamaha always get my vote in this regard. Note that this is from my experience of several Onkyos, but not the 608, so take that under advisement.

mcchazza:can I connect my external HDD to the @TV?

Only if you install ATVFlash or, if you fancy a bit of Unix command line, there are ways of doing it for free. Google is your friend. You need to do this before you load anything onto it though.

mcchazza:And, when this is done (and this is key) - can I control what I play from the @TV from an iPhone or remote

Yes, though I would warn you that you probably won't be able to see the VOB files at all on the iPhone, only by navigationg using the Apple TV Remote. This could be a dealbreaker in terms of navigation...

mcchazza:i.e. do I need to keep my Mac switched on?

No.

Hope that helps if you decide on the @TV. However, I will say again that if you want to make exact ISO/VOB copies of your DVDs and play them back, then the Popcorn Hour or AC Ryan (or even the little Western Digital WDTV Live) will probably give you a better user experience. And tbh, converting to FLAC is probably not that big a deal with something like dbPoweramp - though admittedly cover art may be a bit of a manual job.

cheers

JD

 

[Anonymous]

If u are looking to rip dvds ATV = avoid.

Video playback is poor, and format support practically non-existant.

 

[John Duncan]

TechMad:
If u are looking to rip dvds ATV = avoid.

Video playback is poor, and format support practically non-existant.

Disagree on your first point, agree on the second, but ATVFlash makes it much more flexible (though by no means perfect).

What would you recommend the OP do, TM?

 

[Anonymous]

John

Many thanks for taking all the time to respond. There's such a plethora of ways to do something which was once simple and involved some cabling...

I am assuming the reason few devices support ALAC is because Apple are not to keen to give out codec info? Otherwise, why make life so tough for the millions of customers out there who, like me, love iTunes but aren't necessarily keen to marry Jobs & Co.?

Re: cover art - I'm working on the assumption that streamers' remotes have some kind of display on them so I can 'cover flow' or 'video wall' my files and select by art rather than just text menu. If they usually don't do this, then putting cover art on my newly-converted FLACs is unnecessary and all I need is a day's worth of batch converting from ALAC to FLAC...

Ah - one more question as you're so patient

: you mention having to use a clean HDD with @TV before running ATV Flash. I assume this won't have to happen with Popcorn Hour, PlayOn HD, et al - i.e. I just plug my music-filled HDD into the USB slot of the streamer and away we go?

Thanks again, all the best

Adam

 

[Anonymous]

And an updated question as I trawl through the mass of info on this topic:

- in terms of WLAN-driven remotes, I like what I see in the Squeezebox Duet (which also plays ALAC - wonderful!). But there's no video support there

. What a shame that Logitech didn't take such a good base point and add video, surely not a massive step...

- so ideally what I'm looking for would appear to be a Squeezebox Duet with video support. What would be the best choice here, apart from the old @TV with ATV Flash as mentioned above?

Thanks again to all for your help

Adam

 

[Gerrardasnails]

mcchazza:
And an updated question as I trawl through the mass of info on this topic:

- in terms of WLAN-driven remotes, I like what I see in the Squeezebox Duet (which also plays ALAC - wonderful!). But there's no video support there

. What a shame that Logitech didn't take such a good base point and add video, surely not a massive step...

- so ideally what I'm looking for would appear to be a Squeezebox Duet with video support. What would be the best choice here, apart from the old @TV with ATV Flash as mentioned above?

Thanks again to all for your help

Adam

To get album artwork on the Popcorn Hour, all you need is an image file in the same folder as the music. So converting ALAC to FLAC using dBpoweramp should be fine. The PCH's interface is good but not Apple standard - however, everything else will be better.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again all - I bought the @TV as recommended and am getting round the movie question by getting the Sony BDP-S570 Blu-Ray - currently agonising over the massive choice of 3D TVs...

 

[John Duncan]

Congrats. Let me know when you want to hack it...