Life is Good

[ThreeDJ16]

JD' date=' are you using Tversity or PS3 Media server for streaming to your xbox?[/quote']

I used TVersity a bit before my computer crashed, now I tend to use PlayOn's local file streaming just for simplicity. To be honest, I haven't played with PlayOn to see if my WMV files are in 5.1 or not. Since I pretty much just have my legitimate DVDs that I've converted myself I'm OK with WMV format WMP requires, but if PlayOn starts acting up with Hulu again I may reinstall TVersity - TVersity's Hulu support is pretty poor quality, but seems to be a bit more reliable than PlayOn.

I mostly use PS3 Media Server now as it is extemely easy since there are no additional codec packs to install. My main use is streaming all my TV shows that I download as the DVRs get full quick and some shows are not available in my area. The nice part is I can download them in a high def format and PS3 Media Server can stream them that way. Unlike Windows Media server which can only handle H264, PS3 server can use x264 which is way more common to internet junkies.

It also handles most all of the lossless audio formats out there such as OGG/FLAC/MPC/APE.

[mguerra]

Sonos Installed

I set up Sonos and have it distributed to 5 zones, it's damn cool! And zero audio dropouts compared to using the Apple WiFi with Airport Express units. You can tap in to your Pandora account, or your iTunes library, or about eight jillion radio stations, your podcasts, an iPod or a CD player, or a stereo tuner, or...just about anything. Then send it all over the house wirelessly and reliably. You are not limited to the internet radio stations that are preloaded, all you need to do to listen to ANY station is add the URL to the radio list. Figure on it costing about $350 to $500 per zone, it ain't cheap. But oh so sweet! All you could want to know is on the Sonos website, but I will explain a thing or two. Each zone or room has audio signal distributed to it by a Zone Player. There are three kinds. One has no power amp, the Zone Player 90, and it feeds signal to any powered speaker, boombox or audio system you already have in that zone. The other player has a power amp, the Zone Player 120; you simply connect it to a pair of speakers. And the third player, the Zone Player S5, is a powered speaker system itself. To get access to internet content, Pandora, internet radio stations, Napster , Rhapsody, Last FM, and Sirius you connect a Zone Bridge to your router. You control the entire system in several different ways. There is a free desktop controller for your computer, Mac or PC; or you can download a free controller app to your iPod Touch or iPhone, or you can buy a Sonos handheld controller for $350.! Needless to say, I'm using the free Mac desktop controller as well as iPod Touch and iPhone controllers. Anyone in the house can control any zone independently with any handy controller. All zones can play the same content, or each zone can play it's own unique music. You can link any number of zones together. It is really quite spectacular, and you can keep adding zones from time to time as you see fit, to a max of 32 zones. All in all it's far superior to shooting audio around the house with wi-fi and the Airport Express. Highly, totally, unquestionably recommended! My install was atypical, so I needed a fair bit of support, which was prompt and thorough. You can phone, email, or live chat with the support folks; and I did all three. If you do a standard install, you will probably have the whole thing up and running in a few minutes. See the Sonos website for more info.

http://www.sonos.com/

[mguerra]

beautiful

BTW, if you want some beautiful Christmas music, go to Pandora, select Genres, and select "Classical Christmas". It's all beautiful chorales and choirs, super. And it's flowing all over my house right now! Sonos is the bomb.

[Fetzervalve]

Hey Doc, I'm glad you like it!

2 things, the Zone Bridge is only required if you don't have any Zone Players located near a network connection, (only one ZP or the Bridge needs to connect to the internet) and if you want to use the iPod/iPhone controller, you will also need a WiFi router. The new Sonos touch screen controller uses the SonosNet, not WiFi.

I'm aware of 2 advantages that the Sonos controller (CR200) has over the iPod app. (if you already own an iPod/Phone it's a no-brainer)

1. The Sonos controller is nearly instantly ready to control the system (if your iPod has gone to sleep, it needs to wake up and connect to the WiFi network before you can even adjust the volume)

2. The Sonos controller has hard buttons for the Volume and Mute

Doc, did you get an S5? Mine just arrived but haven't connected it yet.

[mguerra]

Sonos

There was a Bose Wave Radio in the kitchen, which I had connected to a ZonePlayer 90. My wife did not like the clutter of the two boxes and all the wires on the counter top, so I repaced all of that with a ZonePlayer S5. Simple, sleek, clean, and excellent sound!

Yes, either a ZonePlayer or a ZoneBridge can be connected to the router to get internet content. However, it is not necessary to connect to the router if you don't want internet content. You can connect a ZoneBridge directly to an ethernet port on your computer if you only want to distribute music that is stored on your computer. You would not have access to internet music content this way, but this is actually how I initially set my system up. You might think that you could access internet content on your computer, and then send it out to the Sonos network via this ZoneBridge that is connected to the ethernet port, but that does not work. To get internet content you must connect one Sonos device directly to the router. If you want music at the router's location, you connect a ZonePlayer, if you don't need music at that location, you connect a Zone Bridge, which is only $99. And you can only use an iPod or iPhone as a controller IF you have a Zonebridge or a Zoneplayer connected to the router. So ultimately I did connect a Zonebridge to the router. Here is the reason why you might want to connect a ZoneBridge directly to the ethernet port on your computer: if you are connected to your router wirelessly. In this scenario, you are using your computer's wi-fi to send signal to the router, which is connected to a Zone device, and that Zone device then sends Sonos all over the house. There is your weak link in the transmission chain, the wifi signal from your computer to your router. By connecting a Zone Bridge to your computer, you now have Sonos sending signal to the router, and it's Zone device. The Sonos network is much more robust and interference free than the wifi. If you pay all this cash for Sonos, you want absolute dropout free music. So you want your wifi out of the equation. Now if your computer is hard wired by ethernet cable to your router, none of this matters! This is the typical install that Sonos expects, your computer hard wired to your router. And if you have this set-up, your Sonos install will be a snap. But if your computer connects wirelessly to your router, you might want to use my method of connecting a ZoneBridge directly to your ethernet port. If all this sounds complicated, it's really not! Just buy Sonos and if you have trouble with the install, Sonos support will walk you through it in a heartbeat.

[Syzygies]

I recently attached a Mac mini to the monitor in "TV" position in my New York apartment. The cost was less than double that of a Zone setup. They're both interesting alternatives.

When I play music now, the LCD monitor shows track information and album art full screen. No dedicated music player offers such a stunning display.

Between the processor speed (twice e.g. an Apple TV, and -vs- a $40 DVD player? Don't ask) and the separate graphics circuitry (6x the integrated graphics on my MacBook), the Mac mini does a phenomenal job of putting 1080p video on the same LCD monitor. Even a Netflix streamed video looks as smooth as HD; only the lack of detail gives it away, and only then if one has ever seen a true HD picture.