Streaming from network drive to sound system: what's the best approach? - by Thirith
Thirith on 29/10/2015 at 05:53
I've got all of my music on a WD My Cloud on my home LAN, and I usually play it via iPhone or iPad and 8player. While I've got an okay portable Bluetooth speaker for the kitchen, though, I'd like to have an easy way of playing the music on my 5.1 livingroom sound system, which mainly serves as the audio component to my home cinema setup, with or without the help of a mobile or tablet.
Now, I've heard of a couple of options that should work, e.g. Chromecast Audio or an AirPort Express, but I have no idea which one would work best in this kind of situation. The Chromecast seems to be app-dependent, whereas an AirPort Express would probably be overkill just so that I can play music on my sound system. Or would an Apple TV make more sense? Any recommendations?
heywood on 30/10/2015 at 14:55
From what I was able to glean from the web, the WD My Cloud can't stream via iTunes Sharing to iOS devices. You can use the WD apps to access your media on iPad and iPhone, I assume that's what you're doing now, but you can't stream directly from WD My Cloud to Apple TV. Quite a few posts are saying this.
If you were to get an Apple TV anyway, you could probably use AirPlay to get it from the WD iPad/iPhone app to the Apple TV. Or you could stream from a computer running iTunes, with your iTunes library stored on the My Cloud. Same with AirPort Express. But neither of these solutions are particularly convenient. Apple is still stuck on promoting their big monolithic database (iTunes) running on a general purpose computer as the center of your media world.
Besides, the WD My Cloud has a DLNA server in it. A lot of Blu-Ray players and A/V receivers and some TVs have built-in DLNA capability these days. Maybe yours does already? If not, a logical choice might be the WD TV.
As an aside, some of these devices are DLNA "players" only, so you would have to use their on-screen menus or their own proprietary iPhone apps to play music streamed from a NAS. Others are DLNA "renderers" which are more flexible because they can be controlled via any DLNA "control point" of which there are many options. If you're going to be using DLNA to stream music to various devices of different brands all over the house (that is what I am doing) then it's best to use devices that are DLNA renderers. But if it's just for one system with a TV connected, it's not necessary.
Thirith on 30/10/2015 at 15:26
Thanks for your reply. I can definitely play music from my My Cloud via my TV, Blu-ray player or PS4, but none of them have a particularly flexible, easy-to-use media player by comparison, and having to have the TV on to select music isn't ideal, so doing it via my phone or tablet would definitely be easier.
However, I've also been thinking about getting a mini PC with external Blu-ray drive so I'd have an all-round media centre that can play BR disks (all regions - right now I have a US PS3 for American BRs and a European BR player for European disks), videos and music over the network, and, who knows, it might even work for Steam streaming to the living room. As soon as my BR player or PS3 gives up the ghost, that's what I think I'll be going for, so perhaps I'll just wait until then. As far as I can tell, if I went for that, it'd be relatively easy to remote desktop and use the tablet or phone as a remote of sorts - no need to have the TV on at the same time.
Unless, of course, I'm misinformed or it's more difficult/complicated than that. Perhaps my idea's silly to begin with. :)
heywood on 30/10/2015 at 16:07
Have you tried BubbleUPnP? It's my favorite "regular" control point app. If your Blu-ray or TV can function as a DLNA renderer then BubbleUPnP should be able to push music to it. Otherwise, this might be a good excuse to get an XBox One.
You might also check out the Sonos Connect. The control app is pretty nice and it supports a lot of streaming services. Sonos is a closed ecosystem, but it can access the library on your NAS.
I am probably going to buy an AURALiC Aries Mini for a second audio system. It's pricier but has all the features I want.
Thirith on 30/10/2015 at 16:10
Haven't heard of BubbleUPnP yet, but I'll check it out. No chance of an XBox One - I've already got enough consoles, there's no point in adding yet another one just for the media functionality. As far as the Sonos is concerned, it's a good idea, but again, I don't want to add even more devices unless they have a clear benefit over what I already have. For the price of some Sonos gear I could almost pay for a HTPC that I can then also use to play music via my existing sound system.
Zerker on 31/10/2015 at 10:59
Have you considered just getting a stereo miniplug to RCA cable and hooking up your iPhone/iPad to the stereo directly?
Thirith on 31/10/2015 at 11:09
It's definitely an option, but it's one that rather loses what's so great about smartphones and tablets, namely that they're portable. It's an extremely First World Problem, definitely, but what I'm looking for is something that lets me plonk down on the sofa, select a playlist from my iPad and play some music on my sound system while reading newspapers online or checking my mails. There are good solutions that require more hardware, there's just playing the damn music on my iPad and leave it at that, and there are less comfortable solutions, but I was hoping for one that combines ease, comfort and low costs.
