I'd appreciate some advice.
Currently I have a WDTV (original) with a USB HD holding all my CD rips in FLAC format. I'd like to make rips of my small DVD-A collection as well in multichannel FLAC format. Of course my WDTV doesn't support multichannel FLAC files, so I'm considering a replacement. Obviously I'm looking for something that can play hires (at least 24bit/96KHz, preferably 24/192) multichannel FLAC (at least 5.1, preferably 7.1), outputting it as PCM over HDMI. You'd think this would be a trivial thing to do these days, but it seems that a number of media players don't support anything more than 2-channel music. Or at least you can't assume they do. Support for discrete power on/off remote codes would be a big plus in my book as well.
These are the least expensive models I found that seem to meet those requirements:
Are there any other players I should consider? What are the main pros/cons of the units for music duty?
Note that I do have my music organized the way I like, so just a directory view would be fine for an interface, as long as there's nothing broken about it. Album art and the like would be a nice bonus, though.
Thanks for any help,
-- Dave
Currently I have a WDTV (original) with a USB HD holding all my CD rips in FLAC format. I'd like to make rips of my small DVD-A collection as well in multichannel FLAC format. Of course my WDTV doesn't support multichannel FLAC files, so I'm considering a replacement. Obviously I'm looking for something that can play hires (at least 24bit/96KHz, preferably 24/192) multichannel FLAC (at least 5.1, preferably 7.1), outputting it as PCM over HDMI. You'd think this would be a trivial thing to do these days, but it seems that a number of media players don't support anything more than 2-channel music. Or at least you can't assume they do. Support for discrete power on/off remote codes would be a big plus in my book as well.
These are the least expensive models I found that seem to meet those requirements:
- Dune HD TV-101 (approx $150 with shipping)
- PopBox V8 (approx $140 with shipping)
- WD TV Live (newest version) ($65 on eBay)
no discrete power codes
not 100% sure about hires multichannel FLAC support - can anyone confirm? - NeoTV 550 (approx $160)
discontinued, looks like it might have been $85 on clearance recently
Are there any other players I should consider? What are the main pros/cons of the units for music duty?
Note that I do have my music organized the way I like, so just a directory view would be fine for an interface, as long as there's nothing broken about it. Album art and the like would be a nice bonus, though.
Thanks for any help,
-- Dave