Hello experts !
I was wondering whether I could borrow your vast array of knowledge to help me set up my first music / entertainment system at home.
Currently I have my entire music collection on mp3 (some wma / flac format), all stored on my Western Digital external Hard drive. At the moment I'm playing the music off of my playstation 3, and browsing via my TV.. the major problem I have with that is
a) The sound quality is not so good (I currently have no home cinema system or fancy speakers)
b) The software on the ps3 is not the ideal music player; though it lets me browse all the folders, it does not allow me to browse other music whilst playing a song for instance.
c) I don't really like browsing on my tv
What I would like is the following:
1) A complete sound system which I'd attach to my tv+ps3+music library.
2) The music library would be played off a stand alone system connected to the home cinema.
3) The Music System would play music directly off of my Western Digital External Hard Drive.
4) The Music System would show me the folder and file structure directly as it is on my harddrive, as I would see it on my computer. (imperitive)
5) The Music System would have a remote to browse through this file system, the browsing could either be on an LCD on the system, or on the remote, or both.
6) It would be nice to have more than 5 file lines per screen shot of the folder structure (I have over 1500 albums folders etc)
7) A search function would be nice, to search for songs I own within the folder (album) structure
I currently have a home cinema system in mind (the LG HT903TA LG HT903TA Reviews and Best Price Guarantee: 5.1 Surround Sound DVD LG Home Cinema System) in mind, so number is sort of taken care of. It has a HDMI port, I presume I'd connect that to the telly and ergo the ps3, and whatever sound system I'd have I'd connect via the optical cable.
Now I've looked around and the two names which keep cropping up are:
1) Sonos
2) Logitech Squeezebox touch.
Now what I'm wondering is..
1) I don't think the Sonos has a USB port...
2) I've had a look at the Logitech, and whilst it looks sweet, I've been told it only plays stereo on 2 speakers (not utilising the 5.1 home cinema I've got in mind effectively), but more so than that, that the remote on it is not so good, and even if I were to get the Logitech Duet remote, thats not very good either. I've been told that you could get an application on the iphone called the ipeng, but I don't have an iphone and not really a fan of ipod/iphone/apple products in general. I wonder, could one use an Archos as a remote ?
If you guys have any idea how to help me I would greatly appreciate it, be it
a sound system you would recommend that fits my requests
or answers to any of the questions I have above.
thank you every so much in advance for any help or knowledge you could bestow !
SwissLoki
I was wondering whether I could borrow your vast array of knowledge to help me set up my first music / entertainment system at home.
Currently I have my entire music collection on mp3 (some wma / flac format), all stored on my Western Digital external Hard drive. At the moment I'm playing the music off of my playstation 3, and browsing via my TV.. the major problem I have with that is
a) The sound quality is not so good (I currently have no home cinema system or fancy speakers)
b) The software on the ps3 is not the ideal music player; though it lets me browse all the folders, it does not allow me to browse other music whilst playing a song for instance.
c) I don't really like browsing on my tv
What I would like is the following:
1) A complete sound system which I'd attach to my tv+ps3+music library.
2) The music library would be played off a stand alone system connected to the home cinema.
3) The Music System would play music directly off of my Western Digital External Hard Drive.
4) The Music System would show me the folder and file structure directly as it is on my harddrive, as I would see it on my computer. (imperitive)
5) The Music System would have a remote to browse through this file system, the browsing could either be on an LCD on the system, or on the remote, or both.
6) It would be nice to have more than 5 file lines per screen shot of the folder structure (I have over 1500 albums folders etc)
7) A search function would be nice, to search for songs I own within the folder (album) structure
I currently have a home cinema system in mind (the LG HT903TA LG HT903TA Reviews and Best Price Guarantee: 5.1 Surround Sound DVD LG Home Cinema System) in mind, so number is sort of taken care of. It has a HDMI port, I presume I'd connect that to the telly and ergo the ps3, and whatever sound system I'd have I'd connect via the optical cable.
Now I've looked around and the two names which keep cropping up are:
1) Sonos
2) Logitech Squeezebox touch.
Now what I'm wondering is..
1) I don't think the Sonos has a USB port...
2) I've had a look at the Logitech, and whilst it looks sweet, I've been told it only plays stereo on 2 speakers (not utilising the 5.1 home cinema I've got in mind effectively), but more so than that, that the remote on it is not so good, and even if I were to get the Logitech Duet remote, thats not very good either. I've been told that you could get an application on the iphone called the ipeng, but I don't have an iphone and not really a fan of ipod/iphone/apple products in general. I wonder, could one use an Archos as a remote ?
If you guys have any idea how to help me I would greatly appreciate it, be it
a sound system you would recommend that fits my requests
or answers to any of the questions I have above.
thank you every so much in advance for any help or knowledge you could bestow !
SwissLoki