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Help with a simple music media player

post #1 of 16
3/30/12 at 4:52pm
Thread Starter 
I have a Sony CDP-CX300 300 CD changer that is getting long in tooth and takes up a lot of room in my space limited home entertainment cabinet. I plan to convert all my CDs to MP3 or whatever format and play music with a dedicated player. I've been looking at the thousands of players sold on eBay or Aliexpress under the general heading of media player and I find players in the $100 to $200 range that play lots of audio/video format types in addition to MP3. I want a small black colored box about the size of an external 3.5 disk drive that looks like a piece of stereo equipment. The part I am having trouble finding is one with a built in display that can tell me the folder name (album name) and track number or something similar. I am trying to avoid turning on my TV to view that information because it's in a different location. ( BTW I posted in this part of the forum because I wouldn't mind being able to occasionally store and play HD video if possible). Any ideas? Thanks, Jim
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post #2 of 16
3/30/12 at 8:28pm
Do you have any Apple devices Like a Iphone or Ipod touch?
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post #3 of 16
3/31/12 at 12:56am
Take a look at these 2;

Sonos for music. or

Netgear NeoTV 550 for music (mp3 & gapless flac support) & video.
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post #4 of 16
3/31/12 at 8:33am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by kneedragger View Post

Do you have any Apple devices Like a Iphone or Ipod touch?

My wife has an iPhone and I have a Sansa MP3 player, but I'm looking for a device that looks less portable.
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post #5 of 16
3/31/12 at 8:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nysteelo View Post

Take a look at these 2;

Sonos for music. or

Netgear NeoTV 550 for music (mp3 & gapless flac support) & video.

The Netgear box is the look I'm after, bit it doesn't have a built in display. (that I could see).
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post #6 of 16
3/31/12 at 10:07am
What I think you need to research is the right multimedia external drive that meets your needs. I don’t have one so I wouldn’t make a recommendation and it’s not something that I need. But I’ve seen multimedia external drives that can operate as stand alone units. Some have really nice in/out connections (USB, HDMI, etc.), built in LCD display and fancy remotes. BTW many/most are black units close to the size you're looking for that look like a piece of “stereo” equipment as you stated.

On another note, if you are getting ready to convert your CD collection to digital I would do some reading to save time before you just rip to MP3 and later wish you had a perfect audio archive. For example I would recommend ripping to FLAC for archive purpose and possibly home listening if you have the HD space (regardless storage is cheap now). From FLAC you can easily & quickly convert to acceptable high quality Mp3 files for portable use, even batch conversions are very fast. I listed some links in this post and this post that should provide you some good information to start ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Good luck and let us know what you end up buying and how you like it
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post #7 of 16
3/31/12 at 10:46am
I Googled 'internet radio receiver' and there are lots of them out there, many of which can also play either local or networked media. You might also look at 'network radio receiver' and see what's out there.
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post #8 of 16
3/31/12 at 1:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HJim View Post

My wife has an iPhone and I have a Sansa MP3 player, but I'm looking for a device that looks less portable.

Well since a lot of people either have a ipod touch or Iphone I was going to suggest Apple's Airplay stuff. Basically the music is stored on a computer with itunes then you hook up either a Apple TV or Airport express base station to a receiver with a 3.5 mm cable or mini optical cable. After doing that you can control the music with the Iphone or Ipod touch. It works pretty good.

You also might want to let us know if you prefer having the music on a computer serving the music up to a player or have the music loaded onto a media player with a internal HD.
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post #9 of 16
3/31/12 at 1:51pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Walk_Good View Post

What I think you need to research is the right multimedia external drive that meets your needs. I don't have one so I wouldn't make a recommendation and it's not something that I need. But I've seen multimedia external drives that can operate as stand alone units. Some have really nice in/out connections (USB, HDMI, etc.), built in LCD display and fancy remotes. BTW many/most are black units close to the size you're looking for that look like a piece of stereo equipment as you stated.

On another note, if you are getting ready to convert your CD collection to digital I would do some reading to save time before you just rip to MP3 and later wish you had a perfect audio archive. For example I would recommend ripping to FLAC for archive purpose and possibly home listening if you have the HD space (regardless storage is cheap now). From FLAC you can easily & quickly convert to acceptable high quality Mp3 files for portable use, even batch conversions are very fast. I listed some links in this post and this post that should provide you some good information to start ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Good luck and let us know what you end up buying and how you like it

Thanks for the FLAC tip. I was thinking from years past, that lossless encoding was going to use too much disk space, but I did the math and assuming 50% reduction my entire 250 CD collection will fit in 60-80GB on a 1GB drive! In fact I just bought Winamp pro for $20 and it works fine for making FLAC files.
I'm still looking for the best player solution. My wife doesn't want anything that is even slightly complicated or buggy, just something as easy to use as the Sony CD changer.
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post #10 of 16
3/31/12 at 2:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Walk_Good View Post

What I think you need to research is the right multimedia external drive that meets your needs. I don't have one so I wouldn't make a recommendation and it's not something that I need. But I've seen multimedia external drives that can operate as stand alone units. Some have really nice in/out connections (USB, HDMI, etc.), built in LCD display and fancy remotes. BTW many/most are black units close to the size you're looking for that look like a piece of stereo equipment as you stated.

On another note, if you are getting ready to convert your CD collection to digital I would do some reading to save time before you just rip to MP3 and later wish you had a perfect audio archive. For example I would recommend ripping to FLAC for archive purpose and possibly home listening if you have the HD space (regardless storage is cheap now). From FLAC you can easily & quickly convert to acceptable high quality Mp3 files for portable use, even batch conversions are very fast. I listed some links in this post and this post that should provide you some good information to start ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Good luck and let us know what you end up buying and how you like it

Thanks for the FLAC tip. I was thinking from years past, that lossless encoding was going to use too much disk space, but I did the math and assuming 50% reduction my entire 250 CD collection will fit in 60-80GB on a 1TB drive! In fact I just bought Winamp pro for $20 and it works fine for making FLAC files.
I'm still looking for the best player solution. My wife doesn't want anything that is even slightly complicated or buggy, just something as easy to use as the Sony CD changer.
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post #11 of 16
3/31/12 at 3:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HJim View Post

The Netgear box is the look I'm after, bit it doesn't have a built in display. (that I could see).

Your right it doesn't have a built in display....I suggested it because of it's ability to play gapless flac files (which seems to escape most media players) and play videos as well which is what you were looking for. I figured 2 out of 3 wasn't bad

The Sonos, from what I understand, has a hand held device that interfaces with the main unit that can display album art, track info etc... It's beautiful interface is what it's known for.
The only drawback is it only does music. Your research could turn up additional capabilities.

Good luck & let us know what you decide on.
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post #12 of 16
3/31/12 at 6:12pm
Given your needs and budget, the Apple TV for $99 sounds like the perfect option. You control it with the iPhone by using the REMOTE app and other than initial setup, you won't have to turn on your TV again. You will have to transfer your collection to an iTunes friendly format such as apple lossless or mp3 but for ease of use and reliability, the Apple solution can't be beat for the price.
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post #13 of 16
4/2/12 at 8:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mayhem13 View Post

Given your needs and budget, the Apple TV for $99 sounds like the perfect option. You control it with the iPhone by using the REMOTE app and other than initial setup, you won't have to turn on your TV again. You will have to transfer your collection to an iTunes friendly format such as apple lossless or mp3 but for ease of use and reliability, the Apple solution can't be beat for the price.

Cool little box, but if my wife leaves the house with her iPhone, I'm stuck without a display other than my TV, which is inconvenient to use for music.
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post #14 of 16
4/2/12 at 9:11am
Thread Starter 
OK Here is my latest, perhaps lame brained thinking:

First an Android-based multimedia player box such as this (this is only an example):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Android-2-2-...item336c8d5d31

Nextand this is a quite strange idea a 4.3 inch automotive backup monitor. These things are widely available on eBay for about $20US and have two inputs, one reverses the image left to right to simulate a rear view mirror and the other is a standard composite display I would use. (again, this is an example)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-3-TFT-LCD-...item43a728f507

I have a 12v adapter for the monitor. I download my music to a 2TB internal drive ( which are back to previous low prices of about $100) from my desktop PC and install the drive into the player. I hook up the monitor to the media box with a composite video connection and connect the Toslink optical cable that was previously connected to my Sony changer to the media box. I can then see what's playing on the media box and select music to play and have digital audio sent to my receiver.

Comments? Suggestions?
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post #15 of 16
4/2/12 at 12:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HJim View Post

Comments? Suggestions?

Hi Jim,

Two comments, having done something similar with an old MediaGate MG-35 and a 7 inch monitor.

First, if you are using composite-video, then you may find the image to be soft and hard to read. At only around 3.5mHz of video bandwidth, NTSC doesn't allow for better than approximately 300 pixel across. I eventually abandoned the composite monitor and switched to an old 13" computer monitor. I later switched to Audiotrons.

Second, Android players still seem to be a bit immature. You may want to get one with a good return policy, like what Amazon offers.

But you may be on the right track . . .
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post #16 of 16
4/26/12 at 10:27am
Thread Starter 
I took Mark's advice and stayed away from Android based players.
I bought a Pivos Aios Media Center Player and a 4.3 inch inexpensive monitor on eBay for $22. I put an old 3.5 inch 500GB SATA drive in the player and I'm in business. The monitor has enough resolution for my needs. I FLACed my CD collection and so I can play FLAC format directly and get rid of my CD changer.
The Aios box is very powerful, though not something you could give your aunt Louise for a birthday present. This worked fine for my needs!
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