Using an NDX for the first time.

Posted by: Jasom on 30 March 2013

Hi there,

 

I was wondering if anyone on the forums could help me. I'm thinking of moving into steaming music.

 

I have perhaps three hundred compact discs that I have ripped to FLAC.

 

With the NDS or NDX, how exactly does it work? I know this sounds stupid but it's really not clear to me.

 

I'm assuming that I can use perhaps a Macbook Air with the flac files on an external usb drive or something.

 

How do I play these files? Do I just run an ethernet cable from my Macbook to the NDX?

 

How do I control what I want to listen to? I'm really unsure how uPnP works.

 

Could anyone explain the procedures I would need to follow if I was setting this up for the first time?


Kind Regards,

 

Jason

Posted on: 30 March 2013 by Ian P

Hi Jason,

 

Having been through all this recently I'll try to give you some pointers - but I'm not the expert!

 

You'll need something to run as a UPnP server (and one of a few available UPnP server software options). This can be a NAS drive (essentially a hard disk in a small box that is also a simple server running software such as Linux), or a PC or Mac computer.

 

I'm running with the NAS option for the moment, but if you see my own related thread here you can see it's not 100% perfect. The software that runs as UPnP server in this instance is often TwonkyMedia - but others exist.

 

If you choose to run a PC or Mac you can either store the FLAC files locally (e.g. on the machines C:/ drive if a PC), or on an external drive (which could be via USB - or a NAS!).

 

The advantage or running a small PC (Simon-in-Suffolk has one I've asked him to identify) is that the Asset UPnP server software would be available to you and it would appear to be one of the best available - apparently.

 

Make sense?

Posted on: 30 March 2013 by Jasom

Would it be possible to use my Macbook Air as the UPnP server with an external USB hard drive attached to it?

 

Do I just then run an ethernet cable from the laptop to the NDX?

 

Obviously, with the cost of the NDX, I need to know if this is the best way to go about it, in terms of performance.

 

Regards

Posted on: 30 March 2013 by Ian P

Hi Jasom,

 

Again I must stress I'm no expert, so get official confirmation before committing to any course of action!

 

That said, I think the answer is yes to the Macbook as UPnP server, and no to the way they are connected. Rather than a direct connection you would have them both connected to your router (via Ethernet cable, or, in theory at least, wirelessly - I say in theory simply because of reliability issues you may experience with a wireless network connection)

Posted on: 30 March 2013 by Mak
Originally Posted by Jasom:

Would it be possible to use my Macbook Air as the UPnP server with an external USB hard drive attached to it?

 

Do I just then run an ethernet cable from the laptop to the NDX?

 

Obviously, with the cost of the NDX, I need to know if this is the best way to go about it, in terms of performance.

 

Regards

Hi jasom,

 

theres a upnp software called playback (yazsoft). Had this running as upnp server on my mac mini before i got my unitiserve. Works pretty well, imho a very good upnp server for mac..... Its easy to del with, u can add an external drive to your macbook, indicating this drive as source.

 

as ian said, you have to connect both (ndx, mavbook) to your router, better would be using a dedicated switch (Switch conncted to your router, ndx and macbook connected to the switch using dhcp or better fixed ips).

 

regards, mak