Inexpensive UPNP streamer

Posted by: DQ on 18 July 2011

Hello all,

Any ideas for a simple low cost streamer that can deal with a UPNP server. Thinking in the 100s of dollars, so the discontinued Roku Soundbridge, Netgear MP101, Play station etc. Needs to have a dig out, pref sp/dif.

This will likely be working with a Asset server.

Any ideas would be much appreciated,

David

Posted on: 18 July 2011 by pcstockton

Check out "The Id" by J River.

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/J._River_Id

It functions like an Airport Express sans digital out.

$100

Posted on: 22 July 2011 by DavidDever

No FLAC, no Apple Lossless

Posted on: 23 July 2011 by pcstockton

well yeah... it is $100.

Do you know of something similar for the same outlay?

Isn't everyone all about transcoding to WAV anyway?

Posted on: 23 July 2011 by likesmusic

A Logitech Touch will deal with any number of UPnP servers as well as it's own Squeezecenter server and has optical and coax s/pdif out. Or maybe you could stick a cheap apple Touch into a digital dock like the Pure i20 and use PlugPlayer if the lack of gapless playback doesn't concern you.

Posted on: 23 July 2011 by likesmusic

.. and possibly a WesternDigital TV Live will work too - claims to support most formats and seems to have an optical out. Cheap!

Posted on: 25 July 2011 by DQ

WesternDigital TV looks like the trick. Seems simple and sounds like it works. Have you heard one by any chance? Even better, any idea how well the ap works?

Have to say, at the price it is worth a flier....

Posted on: 26 July 2011 by likesmusic

If you buy it from somewhere with a reasonable returns policy you have very little to lose - and as you have an nDAC you would expect the nDACs buffering and reclocking to be advantagous. If the nDAC can get sync I would have thought it would be well worth the money. I haven't used a WD Live, but there are loads of favourable reviews online, albeit from folk far less critical than on this forum!

Posted on: 27 July 2011 by Salmon Dave

Cambridge Audio NP30 just out about £399 looks pretty good.

Posted on: 27 July 2011 by DQ

Dave,

I saw that one but some of the user reviews are pretty horrific!

Cheers, David

Posted on: 27 July 2011 by garyi

Appe tv 2. 100 quid

Posted on: 27 July 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk

I agree with Gary, Apple TV 2 not bad, ok it up samples everything to 16bit/48kHz but it can sound quite good into a DAC, certainly better than Apple's other efforts such as AirportExpress.
Simon

Posted on: 27 July 2011 by pcstockton

Apple TV does not answer the OPs question.

They are looking for:

"Any ideas for a simple low cost streamer that can deal with a UPNP server."

Unless I am missing something, Apple TV wont do that.

-p

Posted on: 27 July 2011 by DQ

Yes, already tried apple tv and it is causing some issues despite changing out router etc. It is via wifi which is not desirable and in any case there is some desire to get away from apple library management. Have to say the WD live tv sounds like fun to play with.

Posted on: 30 July 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Patrick, no you are not missing anything, the apple tv and airport products do not support uPNP and only Apples proprietary software... So would not be suitable to use with Asset etc
Simon

Posted on: 30 July 2011 by garyi

The atv2 most certainly does support upnp. Just don't use apples restrictive software.

Its dead easy to hack, and is reversable. Stick xbmc on it and you have a fully fledged media server, capable of streaming practically every known audio and video format currently in use. Plus plenty of ios apps tp control it, or control from another computer

Posted on: 30 July 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Gary, ok perhaps more accurately, 'can be easily modified to provide uPnP'. But I think it's fair to say that Apple does not support uPNP on AppleTV2?
Simon

Posted on: 30 July 2011 by pcstockton

Originally Posted by garyi:

The atv2 most certainly does support upnp. Just don't use apples restrictive software.

Stick xbmc on it and you have a fully fledged media server, capable of streaming practically every known audio and video format currently in use.

Really? I did not know this.

It will stream FLACs and AVI files via UPNP from J River????? If so I am heading to buy two of them tomorrow.

thx,

patrick

Posted on: 30 July 2011 by garyi

Patrick. I cannot comment specifically on jriver, but if jriver is broadcasting UPNP on your PC then yes, or for more stability simply add the PC you are using as a source via samba. Better still if you have NAS add that as a source then you don't need the PC on.

XBMC on ATV2 is a work in progress I am playing on the bleeding edge with nightlies but there is a stable version out which is perfectly usable.

And yes FLAC, AVI etc is all supported.

Posted on: 30 July 2011 by DavidDever

XBMC requires a jailbroken AppleTV2 - not officially supported by Apple, use at your own risk. For tinkering, I have an original AppleTV which is Intel-based (and as close to a general-purpose device as it gets). If I recall correctly, these devices used a slimmed-down version of OS X, whereas the AppleTV2 uses an iOS build on an ARM-based platform (just like an iPhone 4). If you have a predilection toward hacked Intel-based platforms, go for AppleTV (original model). The verdict is still out on sample-accurate bit-perfect playback on either device at various sample rates, but give it a try if you have nothing better to do!

Posted on: 30 July 2011 by pcstockton

Originally Posted by DavidDever:

The verdict is still out on sample-accurate bit-perfect playback on either device at various sample rates, but give it a try if you have nothing better to do!

i do have better things to do, but moving the PC off of the hifi mains and out of the room should be on that list.

If it isn't straightforward though (i.e. requires jailbreaking) im probably not in.

I didnt know you could us an ATV with anything other than iTunes, which I cannot use.

I will keep waiting for an amp-less Qute.

Cheers!

Patrick

Posted on: 30 July 2011 by garyi

The latest audio branch of XBMC will take over the audio output device of the host and deliver bit perfect.

There is a thread on the XBMC forums regarding this.

In terms of the difficulty of jailbreaking, you download the jailbreaking app. Plug your ATV2 into the computer and click ok.

If this is considered difficult then fair enough.

Posted on: 30 July 2011 by Guido Fawkes

Originally Posted by Salmon Dave:

Cambridge Audio NP30 just out about £399 looks pretty good.

I read it was not very good and kept locking up or simply crashing - mind you they guy that wrote that then gave it 5 stars.

Posted on: 31 July 2011 by DQ

Just tried the plug player solution via ipod touch. Unfortunately I am getting a lot of stuttering. Have to figure out if it is on flac tracks or wav tracks. Something odd going on.

Posted on: 31 July 2011 by likesmusic

Originally Posted by DQ:

Just tried the plug player solution via ipod touch. Unfortunately I am getting a lot of stuttering. Have to figure out if it is on flac tracks or wav tracks. Something odd going on.

plugplayer works ok for me on a Touch, though not if I move around my (largish) apartment, so it feels like it doesn't buffer very much so can't cope with network issues. But, the iPeng app with the Playback extension works very well (and does gapless playback) and has a much nicer UI. It only costs a few $ - you need to install Squeeecenter too on your pc, rather than a UPnP server, but that's free.

Posted on: 02 August 2011 by PureHifi

I had a customer bring in his jailbroken apple TV (original ver) and we used a chord optichord into a rega dac and new rega brio R and rega rs3's....the sound was dire Using his iPhone4, which had the same music collection on it via a cambridge id100 into the same system was much better.... Our conclusion was that the digital output of the apple TV was to blame....he could not quite rap his head around the reason despite being an apple technician - so is bit perfect audio all there is to quality playback ? No it would seem...