david1997

I must have just struck lucky with my Harmony One. 'Menu', 'OK' and the up, down, left, right buttons cover all my ATV functions although volume is split. Volume for Music vids, tv, movies etc comes under the control of my Sony a.v. amp (hdmi from the atv) so the volume control (to the left of the 'OK' button) is used. When listening to music from my iTunes library - NAS - atv - Toslink - ADM9.1's, then the arrows between the 'Menu' and 'Info' buttons are on volume control duty. As I've mentioned (many times!) before, I am a complete technophobe but at least on matters 'Harmony One' I seem to be doing OK. All my activities (12 devices including a Lindy hdmi switch!!) are all performed via the Harmony. Apart from no Bluetooth, my only gripe are the slightly dated icons - still have a VCR symbol but no blu-ray. Hey-Ho.

I do hope we are not heading in the direction of green marker pens and frozen CD's. If, and this is a big if, if a power supply upgrade was likely to improve things, then, as Chris has just pointed out, we would come across an external bolt-on by now.

In fact Gaz for me it is getting better and better. The Touch re-awakened my love of all things music, the ADM's have now taken that pleasure up a couple of notches, 5 more cd's have just landed on my mat from amazon to help fill my, still very empty, NAS and next week my Humax Foxsat PVR arrives so no more Rupert Murdoch......or will I just wake up and find it was all just a dream?

Hey Chris!. Spot on, as always. Both Touch and Atv took on updates 3 days ago but only now am I trying both together. Works a treat. Thankyou.

You have to hand it to Ashley. Although he sometimes sounds like he is an Apple majority shareholder, when it comes to removing a lot of the dross that has been written about, and served up, in the name of HiFi - Russ Andrews and Kimber being classic examples, then he is definitely the man. I'll have to give that Simplify Media app a try. The one minor problem I have with my Touch remote is that it only shows the artwork for 1 in 6 tracks when using appletv in the front room. The tv shows the pics no problem but not the Touch, yet when I use it directly with my Mac Mini in the bedroom it works a treat. I'm Lossless (and at a loss!) rather than AIFF but I can't think that this could be the reason. I'd still be interested in anybody else's views re. long term listening. I am also tempted to ignore advice and audition the AVI 10". Being SW London, the problem will be finding one to try out.

Tim I was so relieved to hear you eventually bought the Touch. A Logitech Duet controller for £180, a Sonos controller for £280 - let's face it you are never going walk down the high street listening to either of those. Not much good on the video content either. The Touch and 'One to One' (if you live near an apple store) are two of the best things to have come out of the House of Jobs lately. Hope you celebrated with an iPint !! I was under strict instructions from Ashley and Martin not to even consider their sub until after Christmas. I've been told I have to give the ADM's a chance for the first two or three months so I will be a good little boy and sit on my - albeit empty wallet. I do miss the ooomph factor. Help me Darren. Interesting point though. If we listened long enough to something we felt did not sound quite right, if eventually we were satisfied with the sound does that mean our ears have become educated to appreciate the 'better' sound or more tolerant of the 'worse' one ? Hey Ho! David

If I could add another question into the mix, is it possible to link the NAS, MacMini and AppleTV using an ethernet interface (Homeplugs) rather than WiFi?

Thanks Chris for your feedback. The problem was that I could find no reviews for this model - only the older + version. There was a degree of panic setting in - I had narrowed the search down to the Thecus (is the 'c' soft or hard?) and the QNAP TS 409 but then the exchange rate on this side of the pond has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. Tech prices have started to go UP! A lot of Far Eastern countries' currency is linked to, or shadows, the US Dollar. A dealer has been holding his prices on the Thecus so I have now placed my order (£370 inc tax and delivery). From my limited observation of the market, NAS drives have risen 10-15% so Hard Drives may follow. The NAS is the next stage in this amazing tech journey I now find myself on. ADM 9.1's next week!! Thanks again. Oh, before I go, have you checked out www.mpcclub.com? Came across it by accident a few days ago. Regards David

A totally unfair question, and I shall say sorry right at the start, but can anyone out there recommend this Thecus?. I've seen a few reviews of the older 4100+ which were so so, and this later Pro model is supposed to be twice as fast. I want to store and stream both audio (iTunes) and video (including around 60 blu-ray DVD's). I know the QNAP TS 409 has many fans, but I just wondered whether this Thecus is also up there. Also, do I need to download TwonkyMedia in order for a NAS to become a media server? Thanks and apologies in advance.

I have to agree with much of what has been said. As an audio streamer and presenter the AppleTV really does do so many things well. As Ash points out, you can either have your TV on whilst using Front Row or maybe have a slide show of some of your favourite photos - I've downloaded some great images which I sometimes use as a montage when listening to some of my 'quieter' albums, or just us my Touch with the Remote app. (Best free app.?). I've not had my ATV long and, like so many people, bought it S/H. There are a lot of 'nearly new' units out there bought by Joe Public as a video streamer then realising that it falls short on video (take a bow Popcorn Hour, HDX 1000, eGreat and others) so at around £120 it is, IMO, a bit of a bargain.

Hi Phil. Your Google Image searches do indeed work but I found them really tedious. On the freebie side of things, I'd still go along with Chris and Amazon. You need to open up amazon.co.uk (music) but keep that as your back-up and open amazon.com as your 'first hit'. Don't sub to music - keep the search to the whole site. The reason for this is that amazon stateside sells MP3 downloads which do not fall under the music sub so the whole site search gives a greater chance of a 'hit', plus the download art is pukka quality. Another advantage of using the site of our friends across the water is that as you type in your search Mr Amazon pops up with a few suggestions which speeds things up - unlike amazon.co.uk which is very clunky and if you so much as miss out a colon it will announce item not found.

Just came across two more products from those busy people at Thecus. The M3800 which appears to be a NAS with media streaming abilities, and the 4100 PRO which, along with the QNAP TS_409, has certainly got my juices flowing. Neither has gone on sale yet (in the UK) but www.scan.co.uk have the spec sheets. The problem I have with the new Drobo is it seems to have attracted rather lukewarm reviews compared to when the original first hit the streets. I suppose it depends on how important FW800 is important to you.<br /> <br /> I just wish I knew which way to jump. I've got £400 (plus HDD budget) burning a hole in my pocket!!

My thinking is similar to yours, Darren re. Apple TV. I plan to hold out for an 'Apple HDTV' which hopefully will include a simplified O/S and do away with the internal drive - something that has affected sales recently. Asking £70 for an extra 120gb storage when you can now buy 1tb drives for not much more is hardly going to encourage queues to form. The video side of the Apple is also lacking compared to audio, DivX as you mentioned plus Xvid and WMV and not, as yet, HD friendly for streaming. I plan to store/back-up everything on a QNAP TS-209 or TS-409 which (fingers crossed) could be attached to the future Apple. By the way, and sorry if you have already mentioned this on another thread, how do you find your ADM9.1's compared to the previous 9's?

Hi Dan, best of luck!! It seemed to take me for ever to convert all my albums (6500 tracks) from AAC to Lossless but once done and backed up...... I was just wondering when you mentioned wanting to use MP3 or similar for your Touch, whether you really need to create both a Hi and Low Fi libraries? The reason for asking is that the 16gb I have available on my Touch is more than enough. By creating/deleting playlists and dipping in and out with the contents of those lists, I very rarely exceed 10 or 11gb, and of that about 50% is made up of video. Even allowing for a worse case 8gb scenario, unless you are likely to be away from your PC for long periods of time, I was wondering, with careful housekeeping, whether you might get away with keeping all your files lossy free?. Just a thought. I wonder, Bill, if you could let me know how you get on with your new Drobo. It has had luke warm reviews over here (UK) mainly on speed related issues, compared to the earlier model. I am very tempted by the QNAP TS-209 II although it would not be that hard to twist my arm up to a 4 bayer - all depends on when the Apple 'HDTV' makes a showing.

I had the same issue with a Mike Oldfield 'Tubular Bells' cd. I partly 'exorcised' the problem after reading an article on the history of freezing cd's to improve playback sound. The article concluded that it made no difference to sound quality - surprise, surprise! but did indicate that there was evidence of improved laser reading......don't ask!! I wrapped up said disc (not to prevent it catching a cold, but just to ensure it was dry - Mac Mini + ice = big disappointment) and after a couple of hours in the freezer I popped it into the MM with the result it recognized the cd and started to burn the first 3 or 4 tracks. Unfortunately it then fro... no I won't say it, so that was the end of that experiment. I subsequently bought a S/H copy on fleaBay and that loaded and burned without a problem. Before posting I've googled 'frozen cd's' but can't find the article so maybe I read it in a magazine. I hope this is not some sort of weird dream I'm having as I've just read Chris C's excellent NAS storage article featuring the QNAP and would hate to find out the knowledge that I've just burnt onto my Limited Storage Device eg my brain was all bunkum. White coats waiting?