Yesterday we told you about a cool little project to build your very own Wireless Audio Streamer for under $100 bucks. So once you build your streamer, what do you listen to? You might want to check out this handy "wiki" at Wired.com that shows you how to stream your music online.
The tutorial starts out:
You've spent a lot of time and money collecting digital music. And by now, you have a pretty sweet library of MP3s and AACs to show for the effort.
But let's say you want to take that library to go? Before you start carrying around a huge hard drive, you might want to try streaming your tunes online instead. All it takes to start streaming your music over the internet is a playlist, a server with some storage space, and a software player that can open and play an internet stream.
The steps are:
Step 1: Host it somewhere
Step 2: Create a playlist
2.1 Extended M3U
2.2 XSPF
2.3 PLS
3 Download Software to Do It For You
4 Don't Feed the Lawyers
If you're not sure where to start when you want to stream your own music, this article is a good place to begin.
Need a wireless audio streamer for the house but you don't want to shell out $200 or $300 dollars. Maybe you have the money but you're looking for a cool weekend project?
Popular Science's website has a cool "how-to" that shows you how to assemble an audio media streamer starting with an old PC that you have lying around the house.
Some of the things you'll need to get started:
Salvaged PC (must have serial RS232 port, two USB ports, and one stereo line out jack; or, build your own, like our $72 PC
Streamzap PC remote control (Amazon.com; $30.24)
TRENDnet 54Mbps wireless G USB adapter (Amazon.com; $15.99)
This project made be a tad advanced for some, but it definitely looks like a project that might be fun to try. We here at NetworkingAudioVideo will give it a shot and let you know how it turns out.
Are you curious about the guts of the Netflix Player by Roku but you just don't what it takes to tear it apart? Well the good folks at TechRepublic.com have torn apart a Roku player, saying us the pain of doing it ourselves.
So for you geeky types who drool over disassembled hardware, be sure to stop by TechRepublic and see all of the images.
Installing a Harddrive on the Networked Media Tank from Popcorn Hour
When we here at NetworkingAudioVideo rolled out our review of Networked Media Tank from Popcorn Hour we didn't really talk about the ability to add a harddrive to the device.
Well, our sister site TVSnob.com has found a video on how to install a harddrive on the Networked media Tank. The nice thing is the 10 minute video also shows how to set up the device as a BitTorrent client. Be sure to check the video above out.
The other day we got an email asking how to hook up a computer monitor to an Xbox 360. Well there's actually a nice video out there that explains what parts you'll need and how to hook it up. Enjoy!
How To: Turn Your Xbox 360 into a Streaming Netflix Player
Looking for another way to get the most out of your Xbox 360? Well, if you're a Netflix subscriber you can stream "Watch Now" content over your Xbox 360. What makes this possible is a neat little add-in for Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center called vmcNetflix. Lifehacker.com has put together a nice tutorial on how to install vmcNetflix to your Xbox 360 and gives a rundown on what vmcNetflix does:
With vmcNetflix, you can watch, browse, and queue movies to your Netflix Watch Instantly queue all from your Xbox 360 or Vista Media Center. A highlight of the list of growing features listed on the vmcNetflix site include:
Stream WatchNow movies directly to the Media Center player.
Download WatchNow movies to a "Watch Later" gallery.
Support for Vista Extenders on both x86 and x64 platforms.
Support for Netflix Instant Queue.
Support for Episode listings.
Search for movies by keyword.
Browse DVD and WatchNow movies by genres.
Sort Gallery by Title, Year, or Star Rating.
View your queue, history, and recommendations.
Add, remove, move movies in your queue.
Supports DVD/Movie Parental Controls
Here's a nice little video from HackingNetflix.com that gives you more information about vmcNetflix:
Overall Lifehacker did a great job with the tutorial, so be sure to check out the link below if you want the complete details to stream Netflix over your Xbox 360.
How To Turn The 3G iPhone Into A Universal Remote from the Future
Steve Moore, a London-based networking audio video installer, has come up with a reasonably low-cost way to turn an iPhone into a universal remote. Using an application called AirRemote, which will be available via Apple's App Store after July 11 for $99, and a Global Cache communications box ($120-$150) that converts the iPhone's IP commands into infrared signals that can be read by home theater products. Moore says support for more devices is on the way, so keep your eyes peeled for this one.
We came across a pretty simple setup guide to get your PS3 streaming all of your media to your TV. There have been a lot of updates to the PS3 over the past couple of months and it has turned into a pretty full functioning media streamer. If you already own a PS3 then you might not need to go out and buy a pure media streamer at all. From the looks of it the PS3 can handle all of the streaming duties you throw at it.
It is nice to see the PS3 really catch up with the Xbox 360 in this area. It seems that all of the companies producing the next generation consoles realized the extra benefit of adding media streaming capability to their device. We know a lot of people that aren't geeky gadget owners and who aren't into the whole streaming thing, but once they found they could stream movies via their console they loved it and were converts. It seems that console streaming could be the gateway application to get a wider audience to realize the beauty of having all of your movies, music and pictures at your fingertips. Anyway, check out the simple guide to get the server and the PS3 working together here.
Great Example of why Everyone Should Backup Their Media All the Time
We are always preaching here about the importance of a good backup strategy for your media files. More times then we care to count we have lost files because of a drive that failed. In the end we went overboard and created a large RAID 5 storage system that will keep all of our data safe even with drive failure. Well, it seems that as much as we tell people that they should buy storage to back their files up they don't want to listen. A bunch of people we know over the past year have lost a lot of very important files because of a drive that failed. Even the simple act of buying an external USB drive can save you in case of a crash.
Well to hammer home the point a little further we would like to point you at a real world example of what can happen if you don't take a lot of care with your data. Baratunde Thurston writes an excellent blog over at baratunde.com and he has a very sad article about what happened to him one day when his hard drive crashed. If you think you've lost something important go check out his article and you will learn about how devastating it can be to lose your data. Losing some MP3s or some photos is one thing, but losing the last recording of your dead mothers voice puts it on a whole new level.
So once again, please, go out and buy an external hard drive and make sure you protect the files that are important to you.
Review: Elgato Turbo.264 - Video H.264 MP4 Encoder Hardware
We recently purchased the Elgato Turbo.264 - Video H.264 (MP4) Encoder Hardware because we have an older ailing mac-mini that takes forever when encoding anything for our iPhone or Apple TV. The Elgato Turbo.264 - Video H.264 (MP4) Encoder Hardware comes with software and a hardware dongle that plugs into your USB port. The hardware dongle basically has a processor that takes over the encoding of the video from the main processor - and from our tests it works.
You use the included software to convert your Mac videos one at a time or in a batch. The software application that comes with Elgato Turbo.264 offers an easy-to-use choice of five presets: iPod High, iPod Standard, Sony PSP, Apple TV, and iPhone. Turbo.264 converts standard definition television recordings without scaling so that recordings appear on Apple TV in the same resolution they were recorded.
You can adjust size, aspect ratio, overscan, frame rate, data rate, and AAC audio by creating custom settings. This enables you to:
convert widescreen DVD (VIDEO_TS) video files without black bars.
tweak video resolution and frame rate;
adjust the video settings so it plays on your smartphone;
pick the audio track you wish to go with the main feature when converting VIDEO_TS folders.
Turbo.264 supports 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios as well as widescreen content.
What used to take over 3+ hours on our older 1ghz Mac-Mini takes a little over an hour now. We love the size of the item, and also the software is drag and drop. If you have a ton of AVI or other formats you want converted, you simply drag them into the encoder software window and pick the output formats you want. The completed encoded movies not only look great, but also get added to iTunes automatically.
So we stumbled across this great article over at Linux Devices on one mans journey to build his own custom music streaming/music playing device. This is not for the faint of heart as you'll need to be fairly familiar with Linux and know your way around motherboards, heatsinks, etc.
In the end he has produced what looks like a very cool system for about $600. While you could go out and spend roughly that much on a base Sonos system or buy 2 Squeezeboxs, going this route allows you a lot more flexibility. You can use the device to record video as well as act as a web sever for the house among other things.
One of his main points is if you build it yourself you can have total control as to how it works and if there is something you don't like you won't hit a brick wall asking some random company for support. You just have to roll up your sleeves and hack around until it operates the way you want it to.
It is always fun to have a project like this that in the end can really be useful. Streaming your digital music around the house is big business now so its nice to see someone building their own custom device to make a product that does everything they want.
If we can the time and money we would love to give this a shot!
A huge issue for anyone serious about music is the room that they listen in. You could spend thousands of dollars on the best speakers and components, but if you listening room is too noisy and does not retain sound well then it may be all for not.
In searching the web we came across this site that explains how-to soundproof your room and not break the bank.
We realize this is a little much for most of you, but if you are either building a new house or remodeling your current one, this is a good how-to on getting your dream listening room. The guys that run this site are very serious about shutting out all external noise and have gone through great lengths to give you the all the information you need to achieve you dream music room.
And like Depeche Mode once said, "Enjoy the Silence".
So we covered ripping to mp3 in a previous article and now we are going to take our stab and the next level of ripping your music.
MP3's are great, and for most people it will be all they need, but there are some that don't want to settle for anything less then an exact digital copy of their CD. And once again when it comes to this there are people in many different camps that are all very serious that their way is the best and only way.
We are going to try and cut through some of the bull and give you some of our thoughts. We here are networkingaudiovideo.com are big fans of open source solutions so we will discuss getting your music converted to the FLAC standard.
OK so there you are, ready to jump on the networked music bandwagon. You have been eying one of the many players we have reviewed and have been looking into wireless routers and some nice external hard disks. You are all ready to start enjoying you amazing collection of CDs when you realize that your amazing collection of CDs is just that...CDs. You have yet to put them all onto your computer.
The thought of ripping 400+ CDs makes your head spin and you scrap the whole idea of piping your music to every room in the house wirelessly. Well there is an alternative. If you don't mind parting with your entire collection and some of your hard earned cash you can send your CDs off to one of many CD ripping services. They will take your CDs ,rip them, and then send them all back to you.
How To: Streaming Your Music Online 
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