>> All you would need is a streaming app that you can put on a networked computer somewhere.
This statement seems so trivial, but it confuses the heck out of me. I', a computer guy and I still don;t get it. Why do I need to "stream", what is "streaming"? Why can't I just have the ripped tracks appear as files? And if I'm streaming on my NAS, what do I need on the receiver to process the stream?
I've been playing with my little toy ReadyNAS Duo with no luck. I seem to have a server side streamer up, it seems tracks, but my FreeAgent Theater doesn't see the streaming. (It does see files; but the interface sucks; and it plays in mono.)
BTW, as far as iTunes joining tracks at rip time; I thought that once you did that you no longer saw them as multiple tracks, it becomes one track as far as iTunes is concerned.
Streaming is nothing more than playing or running a file that is located on one computer on another. You can stream media by doing nothing more than sharing a folder on one pc on your network and then accessing and playing it via another pc. Most people associate the word streaming with buffering. Buffering pre caches a certain amount of data so if there is a hiccup in the data transfer it is unnoticed.
I run a windows home server where I store all my data including music and movies. I have a client HTPC at each tv in the house so I can access my media anywhere. Windows home server also does some other cool stuff like performing daily backups of each pc on my network and allowing me to stream the files on my home server over the internet when I’m on travel. For not much more then the price of that logictec device you can build an entire HTPC.
Terry, if you abhor iTunes, I don't think you should use a Mac. Likewise, I don't think iTunes is all that friendly with FLAC.
Apple has there own version of flac its alac.
