Moving house - streaming music/video (new setup)

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Deleted member 11679

Deleted member 11679

Hello,

Looking for some advice on the best route to take when setting up my new house. I've broken this down by Audio/Visual requirements:

Audio

I have a NAS drive (as a backup) and laptop which holds all my music on (stored in iTunes file format). In my living room I have a basic, but good, Denon Amp and two Mission speakers.

I'd like to be able to have all my music in one place (say on the NAS drive) and broadcast the music, over WiFi to different parts of the house. I want to be able to play music in my main bedroom and also play music in my living room. Would I be looking to buy something like Apple Air and have this input into another amp/speaker setup upstairs in my home? Don't really know much about this type of technology but am quick to learn. Some suggestions on the best setup would be great.

Visual

I currently have Sky in my living room and use an AV sender/receiver to broadcast the image upstairs so I can watch the same channel on both TVs. I don't really like the AV sender/receiver boxes as they are quite large and if anything gets between the sender/receivers there is interference. Is it possible to get a device that will stream the output from the Sky box and broadcast it to a TV upstairs - again over WiFi if possible?

I'm really keen to hear what people have to say. Budget is not set, but I am prepared to buy equipment that meets these solutions if they're effective.

Thanks,

Tom
 
Hi bud.

Concerning Audio, probably an easy suggestion, but I would recommend going with something like Sonos kit if you can afford it, since it does exactly what you are talking about.

Otherwise, IIm not entirely sure what would be the best way by using existing speaker kit in all honesty.

Concerning broadcasting from one room to another, hontestly nothing will be laying extra cable from one room to another if you can, I know sometimes this isn't possible, but I genuinely believe it beats the hassle of alternatives.

Not familiar with WiFi based senders since AV senders typically use the same 2.4GHz frequency range I believe and hence cause interference potentially with WiFi networks?
 
Spent a good few hours trying to work out how to wirelessly transmit hdmi output (from sky hd box to tv) to an adjacent room. Ive read about doing it over wifi and powerlines.

Read loads of treads on the av form and random reviews online. The outcome: either method may work (for a period) and possibly not. Handy huh?

If youve got the money, the best answer was just to run a cable, be it hdmi or cat5/6. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but probably cheaper than spending £200+ on tech that seems at best only to work some of the time (depending on your house construction etc).
 
Thank you both for the replies. I will have a look at the Sonos kits and may come back with some more questions.

Regarding the cabling, I'm prepared to do this if it's going to deliver the best outcome. My only concern with laying HDMI or Cat5 cable is how to change channel if I'm upstairs. Can I integrate a magic eye type device somehow or is the mobile phone app best for changing the channels in this scenario with Sky?
 
Is SONOS still really the best option on the market?

Also looking to outfit my new house to be able to play Spotify throughout - really looks like nothing else comes close... Everyone that bought it happy with theirs?
 
I'm implementing a DIY squeezebox multi room audio setup. Cheaper than Sonos and after setting up it's just as good.

I use a HP microserver to store run the Logitech media server, it also has plugins for every internet service I would think.

For players I use pc's, raspberry pi's, a O2 Joggler, loads of possibilities.

For £50-£60 you could easily have a player headless or touch screen connected to your amps.


http://www.gerrelt.nl/RaspberryPi/wordpress/ covers a lot of raspberry pi squeezebox stuff, very handy.
 
Hank_Marvin said:
I'm implementing a DIY squeezebox multi room audio setup. Cheaper than Sonos and after setting up it's just as good.

I use a HP microserver to store run the Logitech media server, it also has plugins for every internet service I would think.

For players I use pc's, raspberry pi's, a O2 Joggler, loads of possibilities.

For £50-£60 you could easily have a player headless or touch screen connected to your amps.


http://www.gerrelt.nl/RaspberryPi/wordpress/ covers a lot of raspberry pi squeezebox stuff, very handy.
Click to expand...

This has been my issue with every other system I've looked as especially home brews that take ages to setup and are quirky in use, Sonos just works and you can give the controller to any od half wit and it still works!
 
Hank_Marvin said:
I'm implementing a DIY squeezebox multi room audio setup. Cheaper than Sonos and after setting up it's just as good.

I use a HP microserver to store run the Logitech media server, it also has plugins for every internet service I would think.

For players I use pc's, raspberry pi's, a O2 Joggler, loads of possibilities.

For £50-£60 you could easily have a player headless or touch screen connected to your amps.


http://www.gerrelt.nl/RaspberryPi/wordpress/ covers a lot of raspberry pi squeezebox stuff, very handy.
Click to expand...

Ok, so I've got Amazon Fire TV's in pretty much every room of the house.

With Squeezebox can I install an app on my iPhone that lets play music from Spotify simultaneously to all the AFTV's in the house?
 
a1ex2001 said:
This has been my issue with every other system I've looked as especially home brews that take ages to setup and are quirky in use, Sonos just works and you can give the controller to any od half wit and it still works!
Click to expand...

As soon as it's setup it's exactly that, a phone app to control all units and all units can control the other units.

There are official and loads of 3rd party apps, it's all very easy.
 
RoyMi6 said:
Ok, so I've got Amazon Fire TV's in pretty much every room of the house.

With Squeezebox can I install an app on my iPhone that lets play music from Spotify simultaneously to all the AFTV's in the house?
Click to expand...

Yes as long as you have a paid spotify account you can use it with squeeze and yep you can sync all players or have them play independently.
 
Hank_Marvin said:
Have you got logitech media server installed on your network and any players on?
Click to expand...

No... on lunch at work - just thought I'd try quickly creating an account and logging into the app.

Put in username and password and press login and nothing happens - no "incorrect username/password" no "cannot connect to devices" nothing.

I'll try when I get home and set some stuff up properly.
 
You're too eager ;)

Wait until home and you have your bits up and running.

you can sign up here though http://mysqueezebox.com/index/Home you can then enter your details into your server when it's installed.

http://mysqueezebox.com/download can get the server from there, various OS's or beta versions http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.8 / http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.9

I run 7.8.


And if you want to setup a quick player on a windows machine for testing or continued use you can install https://code.google.com/p/squeezesl...name=SqueezePlay-setup-7.8.0r328.exe&can=2&q= it's a software based player/controller
 
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Ugh, not impressed so far - server won't let me sign in to my account now...

Seems to be all over the internet people having the same problem though - seems to be quite common, just not sure how to fix it...

EDIT: Ok, so turns out I don't need the server part because I don't have any local music.

So skipping that I'm able to connect directly to "mysqueezebox.com". Can play BBC radio fine and dandy, however whenever I try to play Spotify it comes up with "unable to play file type".

This is why SONOS gets so many people... everyone else is so shockingly, annoyingly, hard.

EDIT2: Right, sack that - such a promising application spoiled by unenthusiastic implementation. This shouldn't be this hard. Looks like I'm having to install 3rd party plugins to get Spotify started because licensing issues mean the offical app isn't working - and no clue from developers as to when it will. Even the 3rd party app is throwing the same errors left right and centre. Still can't even log in to the server side, even with port forwarding in place and firewall down. Had the iPhone app crash on me twice and the android one lock up the entire Fire TV.

At least if I spent the money on SONOS I'd be happier returning it to get my money back - with this I'm just down an hour of my life and nothing to show for it. Well, apart from another nail in the "just buy a SONOS" coffin.
 
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If you install LMS, when in the server web interface all you have to do is go to the plugin section and press install to the Spotify plugins, bandcamp, deezer, last fm etc, airplay plugin, etc, from memory regarding Spotify there is a Logitech version and a 3rd party plugin from triode, I think most people use the latter.

and add your own media location paths.


Saving how ever many hundred £ per zone is enough encouragement for most but you can't go wrong either way, both work and its a very nice luxury to have around your house.

In it's simplest form its a matter of installing three programs, server, a player and a phone app and adding some media paths to the server.

On android I use squeezer, works great, Orange squeeze is another big one, I haven't used the Logitech one. and on iPhone I think every one uses iPeng.


I think its all covered, might be handy for someone else if not for you, good luck with your multiroom setup.
 
As I can't see a budget mentioned there are other far better sounding brands than Sonos.... Just depends on what people are after and what the priority is really..... plus where you place the importance.... cost? performance? easy of use? looks? dealer support?
 
Just doing some more research tonight - what are people's thoughts on using a device like slingbox to broadcast sky to other TVs in the home?
 
Hank_Marvin said:
As soon as it's setup it's exactly that, a phone app to control all units and all units can control the other units.

There are official and loads of 3rd party apps, it's all very easy.
Click to expand...

This was my problem I tried a few times to get it all working how I wanted and to find a controller that was really easy but it was never quite right there was always a tweak or an update needed! Believe me I didn't want to pay for Sonos as really it is a right rip off but in the end the seamless easy setup and operation have made it a no brainer!
 
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