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Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
CV #284469 12/30/09 05:47 PM
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Just a quick off-the-cuff build idea:

Zotac IONITX-F-E motherboard; I love these boards, they're low power draw, but pack a lot of punch. This one has a 16x PCIe slot. Into that I'd put a SATA controller with at least 8 ports. What ever case and power supply you want. Even though that board is a mini-ITX, it's screw holes match up with ATX so it can be used in normal cases. I'd go with something which has 8 hot-swap SATA bays, and an open 5.25" bay for an optical drive. The onboard SATA would be for the optical drive, and I'd probably put one fast (SSD if you like) boot drive in for the OS, leave the hotswap bays for media. Add add the drives and some RAM, and you're done. That give you N WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI/DVI/VGA, sound over HDMI, optical S/PDIF, and 5.1 analog. Along with enough bays for 12 TB of storage today, 16 very soon.

The base system, with just the boot drive, DVD burner, and 2 GB of RAM, and OS could be had for about $700. Then about $100 for every 1 TB after that.


Pioneer PDP-5020FD, Marantz SR6011
Axiom M5HP, VP160HP, QS8
Sony PS4, surround backs
-Chris
Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
michael_d #284470 12/30/09 05:48 PM
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 Originally Posted By: michael_d
I went through this agony a year ago. Or maybe it was two years….. 900 CD’s ripped. It was a slow and painful process. If you are going to rip your collection, you might as well do it right the first time, get them on your hard drive, then you can screw them up at your leisure. Just make sure you keep the original rips somewhere that you can keep the folder unadulterated.

I would highly recommend you rip them to FLAC first. After trying several different programs, I sure wish I would have just used DB Poweramp first. It will rip to two different bit rates and dump them into two separate folders at the same time. You can set it up however you wish. Warning: be sure you have your options set up for tagging as you want them to be recognized the way YOU want them filed and not the software defaults first. If you don’t, you will forever be trying to fix them. Another plus for DBPoweramp is that it will grab album art as you rip. Many don’t, and it’s very, very difficult to find artwork after the fact unless you enjoy more pain to find each album one at a time. I’ve tried several batch gathering tools to find the art work, and none work. iTunes does, but it won’t share them with other programs……

So after you get them ripped, I would do as I did. Buy an HP smart media server and store all your music files on it. They are cheap now. I installed Squeeze Box onto the server and I use the Squeeze Box Duet to talk to my home stereo. I listen to the FLAC rips with the SB.

For my iPod, I have the 320K ripped songs that are in a separate folder. I point iTunes to that folder.

iTunes does not like to play with other programs, so you will always be wondering just what in the heck happened for one reason or another.

If you are interested in doing this, just let me know and I’ll go into more detail.

Yes we should talk more about this.
I've been eyeballing some solutions for sending audio to various other home stereo systems to alleviate the disc swapping thing.
I was contemplating a Sonos solution so i could also power some outdoor speakers in the gazebo but may also need to think about a solution for streaming satellite to another home office computer w/out a tuner card.


"Those who preach the myths of audio are ignorant of truth."
Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
ClubNeon #284471 12/30/09 05:49 PM
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What OS would you be using, and how much configuration would it require?

Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
CV #284475 12/30/09 05:58 PM
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Actually add another $75. I was thinking Windows 7 Home, but for its media abilities, Ultimate would be better. So, Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit for System Builders. Just fire up Media Player, and enable sharing. That'll give you basic DLNA streaming for MP's supported file types. If you want MKV and a few more exotics, you'll need to get 3rd party software, but that's not bad. Free gets you something OK, $30 gets you something easy to use (TVersity).

EDIT: Or you could go with the same Windows Home Server that HP uses for my original estimated price of $100 for the OS. But I'd still rather have Win7.

Last edited by ClubNeon; 12/30/09 06:00 PM.

Pioneer PDP-5020FD, Marantz SR6011
Axiom M5HP, VP160HP, QS8
Sony PS4, surround backs
-Chris
Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
ClubNeon #284499 12/30/09 07:28 PM
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Why not just a cheaper NAS solution like the Dlink 323? It works with iTunes, DLNA etc., offers gigabit connectivity, can act as a print server. I have yet to set mine up.


Jason
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PB13 Ultra
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Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
ClubNeon #284501 12/30/09 07:32 PM
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Related question: What would you do for a Media Center Extender?

Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
CV #284509 12/30/09 08:01 PM
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An Xbox 360. Otherwise, I'd not use MCE, and just make use of the standard DLNA.


Pioneer PDP-5020FD, Marantz SR6011
Axiom M5HP, VP160HP, QS8
Sony PS4, surround backs
-Chris
Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
ClubNeon #284578 12/31/09 06:09 AM
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DLNA through what device connected to my main system, though? PS3 when I get one again? I didn't really want to use my Xbox 360 for music streaming since it's converting everything to a Dolby Digital signal, right? At some point I'll have my main computer hooked up to my main system, but it will be a while. Thanks for all of the answers, by the way. If I get to be annoying, just tell me. \:\)

Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
CV #284585 12/31/09 07:39 AM
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The newest (beta) firmware for the Oppo does DLNA now too. But yeah, the PS3 does it, I'm pretty sure the 360 also.


Pioneer PDP-5020FD, Marantz SR6011
Axiom M5HP, VP160HP, QS8
Sony PS4, surround backs
-Chris
Re: Itunes, bitrate, and other questions...
ClubNeon #284586 12/31/09 07:44 AM
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I wonder if the Oppo will ever get Netflix, Youtube or similar streaming abilities?


Jason
M80 v2
VP160 v3
QS8 v2
PB13 Ultra
Denon 3808
Samsung 85" Q70
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