How do I connect a USB or HD to my AV receiver to play MP3's?

[jroughgarden]

Like lots of people, I have several hundred CDs that contain music I really like. Pandora is great, but not as good as my CDs. Recently, my old Sony ES amplifier died after 30 years, and I bought a Sony STR-DN1030 to replace it. My problem is to figure out how to be able to play the CDs and playlists based on the CDs using reasonably friendly software.

 

I know I can get the CDs ripped and converted to mp3's, and then put on an external HD or a USB flash drive. But after that, I am at a loss.

 

The new AV receiver supports connecting to my iPhone via Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay, but the software is terrible. The new AVR also supports connecting to my notebook computers (via wireless or wire) and I can play music in folders or in playlists. But, again the GUI on the TV is just terrible. I can't read the titles or artists, and the song durations and playlist contents are not shown. The GUI that is so terrible seems to be part of the software that comes with the Sony STR-DN1030 AV receiver. It is just unacceptable.

 

If I had an extra computer with an HDMI port, I could connect it to the receiver, open up iTunes or Window Media Player, and push what it was putting out into the receiver, which would then send the video to the TV and the sound to the speakers. I suppose if I got a wireless mouse and keyboard, I could control it all remotely, i.e. from the couch or dining room.

 

Is there simple (cheap) hardware dedicated for this purpose? It just needs an OS, a hard drive, and HDMI port, and the ability to run music playback software.

 

Any advice to this newbie is much appreciated.

[Kal Rubinson]

Like lots of people, I have several hundred CDs that contain music I really like. Pandora is great, but not as good as my CDs. Recently, my old Sony ES amplifier died after 30 years, and I bought a Sony STR-DN1030 to replace it. My problem is to figure out how to be able to play the CDs and playlists based on the CDs using reasonably friendly software.

 

I know I can get the CDs ripped and converted to mp3's, and then put on an external HD or a USB flash drive. But after that, I am at a loss.

 

The new AV receiver supports connecting to my iPhone via Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay, but the software is terrible. The new AVR also supports connecting to my notebook computers (via wireless or wire) and I can play music in folders or in playlists. But, again the GUI on the TV is just terrible. I can't read the titles or artists, and the song durations and playlist contents are not shown. The GUI that is so terrible seems to be part of the software that comes with the Sony STR-DN1030 AV receiver. It is just unacceptable.

 

If I had an extra computer with an HDMI port, I could connect it to the receiver, open up iTunes or Window Media Player, and push what it was putting out into the receiver, which would then send the video to the TV and the sound to the speakers. I suppose if I got a wireless mouse and keyboard, I could control it all remotely, i.e. from the couch or dining room.

 

Is there simple (cheap) hardware dedicated for this purpose? It just needs an OS, a hard drive, and HDMI port, and the ability to run music playback software.

 

Any advice to this newbie is much appreciated.

Roku3?

[jroughgarden]

I have Roku 3 already. How would that help?

[Kal Rubinson]

I have Roku 3 already. How would that help?

 

Get the HD connected to something that will put it on the network and the Roku will out put the music via HDMI via a nice gui.

[realhifi]

Like lots of people, I have several hundred CDs that contain music I really like. Pandora is great, but not as good as my CDs. Recently, my old Sony ES amplifier died after 30 years, and I bought a Sony STR-DN1030 to replace it. My problem is to figure out how to be able to play the CDs and playlists based on the CDs using reasonably friendly software.

 

I know I can get the CDs ripped and converted to mp3's, and then put on an external HD or a USB flash drive. But after that, I am at a loss.

 

The new AV receiver supports connecting to my iPhone via Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay, but the software is terrible. The new AVR also supports connecting to my notebook computers (via wireless or wire) and I can play music in folders or in playlists. But, again the GUI on the TV is just terrible. I can't read the titles or artists, and the song durations and playlist contents are not shown. The GUI that is so terrible seems to be part of the software that comes with the Sony STR-DN1030 AV receiver. It is just unacceptable.

 

If I had an extra computer with an HDMI port, I could connect it to the receiver, open up iTunes or Window Media Player, and push what it was putting out into the receiver, which would then send the video to the TV and the sound to the speakers. I suppose if I got a wireless mouse and keyboard, I could control it all remotely, i.e. from the couch or dining room.

 

Is there simple (cheap) hardware dedicated for this purpose? It just needs an OS, a hard drive, and HDMI port, and the ability to run music playback software.

 

Any advice to this newbie is much appreciated.

 

These work well although you will need a cd ripper (cheap at Best Buy) to rip your CDs.

 

 

HP Pavilion Mini Desktop - 300-020 | HP® Official Store

 

http://www.amazon.com/HP-K5G62AA-ABA-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B00RH6BIF6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1443697743&sr=8-4&keywords=small+form+factor+pc

[maelob]

For my av receiver i just bought an apple tv- it will connect to your itunes in your computer and easy day- you can controll it directly from the tv or if you have an iphone you can use that too. For me thats the easiest solution and quality is not bad. You can rip your collection with itunes. recommend lossless highest quality. depending the size of you library you can get an affordable external hard drive connected to your computer and all you have to do is point the itunes library to the Hd.

[gmgraves]

Like lots of people, I have several hundred CDs that contain music I really like. Pandora is great, but not as good as my CDs. Recently, my old Sony ES amplifier died after 30 years, and I bought a Sony STR-DN1030 to replace it. My problem is to figure out how to be able to play the CDs and playlists based on the CDs using reasonably friendly software.

 

I know I can get the CDs ripped and converted to mp3's, and then put on an external HD or a USB flash drive. But after that, I am at a loss.

 

The new AV receiver supports connecting to my iPhone via Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay, but the software is terrible. The new AVR also supports connecting to my notebook computers (via wireless or wire) and I can play music in folders or in playlists. But, again the GUI on the TV is just terrible. I can't read the titles or artists, and the song durations and playlist contents are not shown. The GUI that is so terrible seems to be part of the software that comes with the Sony STR-DN1030 AV receiver. It is just unacceptable.

 

If I had an extra computer with an HDMI port, I could connect it to the receiver, open up iTunes or Window Media Player, and push what it was putting out into the receiver, which would then send the video to the TV and the sound to the speakers. I suppose if I got a wireless mouse and keyboard, I could control it all remotely, i.e. from the couch or dining room.

 

Is there simple (cheap) hardware dedicated for this purpose? It just needs an OS, a hard drive, and HDMI port, and the ability to run music playback software.

 

Any advice to this newbie is much appreciated.

 

 

Buy a SanDisk Sensa-Clip+ from Amazon ($35 refurbished) and a 1/8" (3.5 mm) mini phone plug to RCA plug cable. You will then be able to connect the RCAs to a line-level input on your receiver and the mini-phone plug to the SanDisk player. Rip all of your CDs to either MP3 files or Wave files (you might have to add some storage to the player, which you can do via a micro SD card) and then connect the SanDisk player to your computer via the supplied USB cable and copy all the files you ripped to the player. Connect the player to your receiver via one of the receiver's unused sets of line-level inputs and play back your music. The SanDisk sounds excellent and it's cheap. What more could one ask (just don't expect it to support high-resolution audio. 16-bit/44.1 (CD quality) is the best you can expect.).