zambini

So you have a Control Point in both the Onkyo and the TV, eh? Can the TV go get vido the way the Onkyo can get audio? My own "search" for an audio solution got sidetracked by the search for a video solution, one that might blend well with an audio solution... And yet because my research had indicated that Squeezebox could be a pretty thorough audio solution, I wonder if I should just bag it and address them separately. When I was shopping for my TV, the BestBuy salesguy pointed me to a quite costly TV, which he said had a pretty decent processor, much more capable than the others, but it was more than reflected in the price, and when pressed, he said it was a bit like a computer, but not really... I'm thinking if the future is a PC inside your TV, why not just hook one up to it... And then he shows me the Acer Revo 1600, which "can do almost everything" (excpet play HD, as I find out when I come home and start researching, because it's a little weak). And I discovered the XBMC site, and they're talking about dual-core Atom (1600 is single) outfitted with the NVidia Ion, which DOES allow it to play HD, which is about to hit the market (the Revo 3610). All this has happened to me just since about Christmas-time, and I'm a bit dizzy from all the possibilities. Let's go back to your original posts, you talk about no FLAC support, and then the delightfulness of 96/24 under Asset. When I go back to the Squeezebox site, I see that their Touch is the only one of their products that mentions 96/24, and it isn't even clear if the Touch alone is sufficient to play ("You should choose it if you already own a Duet and want to add more zones". Sheesh and WTF, just spell it out in English already!) I guess that's half the fun in life, wading through the BS and bloated promises of the marketers. Charly- again, thanks, this has been a helpful exchange. I think you've drawn out some of my goals.

Charly, I thank you for your reply, it was very informative, and there was a lot to digest. I actually missed that you posted the very first reply to your original post, and I think it highlights some of my issues - I might have asked questions a bit differently had I caught that. So you had the PC as server, and could have used WMP or Twonky to "Play To" the Onkyo, but you wanted to use the Onkyo's player capabilities to find, and "Get" the music (from the PC) itself. And then discovered that it either couldn't find, or couldn't properly open, the FLAC files that you had already decided are the format-of-choice for you. And within a day you had found Asset, which (somehow) allowed the Onkyo to see/open/play the files, and life is good. Is that right? If so, then you are plowing the field that I'm so curious about. Especially because I've already decided on Onkyo and FLAC, and am wondering about those networking capabilities that are all the rage this year. I had already "decided" that because the Onkyo would (pretty much) have to use the TV screen anyway, as the visual part of the UI, perhaps just use the VGA input on my TV, and attach an HTPC, where maybe the sophisticated features of WMP/Twonky would outshine the DLNA-networking ability of the Onkyo. After wading through the material on the DLNA site, I agree that it's in its infancy, and holds great promise, but it's probably a bit bleeding-edge for me! Now to be truthful, I've never even toured the networking features of the Onkyo at a store, only read about it online, and wondered whether it was really the correct approach to take. Instead of asserting that the Onkyo DLNA UI has issues, I really ought to have asked you if it does, or if it's okay for me to ask you to compare its form/fit/function capabilities against a PC. Do you find it a PITA to use in this way? Do you think you might be tempted to "revert" to using a PC (assuming you had one adjacent to your Onkyo) because it just works better that way? I just bought the fancy-schmancy TV (so far its my only component, and I'm famous for researching something to DEATH), this because my son invited me to his house to see his new TV and new BluRay. I hate over-used cliche's, but I was truly "blown away" and decided I had to get me some of that good stuff!! He shows me how he can use the TV's remote to surf YouTube, and Netflix, and I had to agree with him that while it was kinda cool, it was overall pretty underwhelming. Once they stick a real PC into the TV (and maybe a hard drive too!) it'll be snazzy, but until then, just hang a real PC off the back of the TV instead (sarcasm intended, I personally prefer a Garmin to a car's built-in Nav system at 10x the cost - a friend of mine bought a Mini w/ Nav, in Germany, and when he brought it back to the states, he had to shell out $750 for the maps!). I'm frankly intrigued by the potential to use something else as a DM Controller altogether. Don't know if it exists, but use of an iPhone to get to the PC, play out music, and maybe even a slideshow at the same time, would be sweet. A few months ago, I didn't even know what Squeezebox was, and fell in love with the coolness of their Touch, and I was sold. And then discovered that it's currently, umm, vaporware, and maybe if it lives up to its hype, post-delivery, it will be cool. And that by itself, it isn't sufficient to play music, as it's only a controller (I think). I do like the idea that you could have a color-screen sitting on your coffee table, that's both small, and yet large enough to navigate through and subsequently control, your entertainment options. Logitech has this stupendously cool looking Harmony all-in-one remote controller, and yet it's widely vilified because it's so painful to get set up. So what's next with your system, now that you have your audio where you want it, are you all digital with your HD video content now too?

Greetings, I'm a first-time poster, great site, one I hope to spend a lot of time on. As one about to pull the trigger on an "integrated" HT/music system, this topic is one that is core to the confusion swirling in my mind. I nearly bought a networked Onkyo, and then heard that it wasn't nearly as good at playing networked content (stuck with klunky/slow UI, not recognizing filetypes, etc). This caused me to think that maybe a less capable AVR might be in order. And yet for some of the other features available on this line, I may yet buy one and then not even use the networking capability. My on-topic question is this, was the 807 unable to find/play FLAC files (allow me to call this a "pull-from" function), and are you saying that use of another application like Asset could reside on the network and then successfully "push-to" the 807 on the LAN? I can't wrap my mind around the 807 pulling from Asset. I'm not even certain that my insistence on identifying the push/pull is necessary, but it sure seems that way to me! More broadly, assuming the AVR's DAC is sufficiently good-enough, there are several ways to get the digital data to it, including the LAN, HDMI through an intermediary (HTPC that can do audio or video), or a digital input, or heck, even use of outboard conversion (somebody else's "better" DAC) and input to the AVR in analog form. I'm starting from scratch, and sold on the Audyssey track, and want great audio without the joys of finding/playing the individual CD's. I'm also liking the Vortexbox as a plu-and-play (FLAC for audiophile, MP3 for portable player) music ingest/store platform, and am also liking the Acer Revo as an HD-via-HDMI server. Loving the idea that with wireless keyboard/mouse I can surf internet on the big-screen. Loving the idea that I might be able to use HDMI for the audio wiring solution. And so if I have these two elements, and the Acer is a genuine small PC, I could use Win7 (and Asset or something like) to get super-music over to the Onkyo without using the DLNA feature, correct? And never miss that functionality on the Onkyo. I have many other, even broader questions, but will find or create a better thread. Thanks, Eric