I've had my current system for 10 years and for what I spent on it and in my small room I have been pretty happy with it. But I think it's time for an upgrade and I could really use some help / advice.
Current setup:
32 in Samsung dumb TV
Pioneer VSX-820 5.1 channel AVR 110 W / Channel
WD Live Hub Media Player with built in 1TB hard drive
Pioneer Andrew Jones series one floor standing speakers - Pioneer SP C-22 Center channel - Pioneer BS-41 bookshelf speakers (these are the larger bookshelf speakers which were only available for one year)
Bic 10 inch sub woofer
I run everything with a Harmony 665 universal remote.
None of the above were top end but I thought at the time it was a system that gave me the best bag for the buck. The fact that I haven't felt the need to upgrade for a decade tells me that some of my choices were wise.
But I would like to upgrade to a larger screen smart TV and I know that the WD live hub is going to die sooner rather than later. Also the Live Hub isn't compatible with modern video formats and the UI is starting to get unresponsive. While I've never been 100% happy with the Live Hub interface for the most part it's worked great and I never really understood why the concept of something like that wasn't more popular but they stopped making them years ago. In addition the Harmony remote is starting to become unresponsive after a decade of getting dropped on the floor and getting lost in the sofa cushions.
I have about 400 GB of music stored on the live hub internal drive 98% of which are in FLAC format along with various video files. My use is about 50/50 for music and watching movies, no real interest in gaming or streaming services although I do have Amazon Prime. I'm not looking for anything high end just decent sound and video and an upgrade that will play current files. I really want to stay with a system where I have internal file storage especially of my music and can access everything and transfer files on my home network via WIFI (that part is important). And just like before I'm looking for something on a pretty tight budget.
After just a bit of research on how much HT has changed I am leaning towards one of the new Amazon Omni series TV to replace the Samsung and a Nvidia Pro Shield media player to replace the Live Hub that I will connect to a external hard drive. I will probably get nothing larger than a 43 inch screen as my viewing room is rather small. Also not interested in running things through a PC based media server due to space restrictions. Total cost would be about $500.00
Questions I have that I can't seem to easily find answers to:
Is the Nvidia with an attached external drive going to let me access my music files and play them back at decent sound quality? It seems like it is more designed for video than music.
Is there a better option media player than the Nvidia? It seems like it might be a it of overkill for what I really need.
Will the Alexa voice commands on the Omni version allow me to run the entire system and replace my Harmony remote?
If not could I run everything via WIFI on a inexpensive tablet?
Am I missing what could be a much simpler way to do this by replacing the AVR with something I could plug an external hard drive into? Although I think I would still like to upgrade the TV.
Thanks in advance for any help steering me in the right direction or conformation that what I'm considering will give me what I'm looking for.
Current setup:
32 in Samsung dumb TV
Pioneer VSX-820 5.1 channel AVR 110 W / Channel
WD Live Hub Media Player with built in 1TB hard drive
Pioneer Andrew Jones series one floor standing speakers - Pioneer SP C-22 Center channel - Pioneer BS-41 bookshelf speakers (these are the larger bookshelf speakers which were only available for one year)
Bic 10 inch sub woofer
I run everything with a Harmony 665 universal remote.
None of the above were top end but I thought at the time it was a system that gave me the best bag for the buck. The fact that I haven't felt the need to upgrade for a decade tells me that some of my choices were wise.
But I would like to upgrade to a larger screen smart TV and I know that the WD live hub is going to die sooner rather than later. Also the Live Hub isn't compatible with modern video formats and the UI is starting to get unresponsive. While I've never been 100% happy with the Live Hub interface for the most part it's worked great and I never really understood why the concept of something like that wasn't more popular but they stopped making them years ago. In addition the Harmony remote is starting to become unresponsive after a decade of getting dropped on the floor and getting lost in the sofa cushions.
I have about 400 GB of music stored on the live hub internal drive 98% of which are in FLAC format along with various video files. My use is about 50/50 for music and watching movies, no real interest in gaming or streaming services although I do have Amazon Prime. I'm not looking for anything high end just decent sound and video and an upgrade that will play current files. I really want to stay with a system where I have internal file storage especially of my music and can access everything and transfer files on my home network via WIFI (that part is important). And just like before I'm looking for something on a pretty tight budget.
After just a bit of research on how much HT has changed I am leaning towards one of the new Amazon Omni series TV to replace the Samsung and a Nvidia Pro Shield media player to replace the Live Hub that I will connect to a external hard drive. I will probably get nothing larger than a 43 inch screen as my viewing room is rather small. Also not interested in running things through a PC based media server due to space restrictions. Total cost would be about $500.00
Questions I have that I can't seem to easily find answers to:
Is the Nvidia with an attached external drive going to let me access my music files and play them back at decent sound quality? It seems like it is more designed for video than music.
Is there a better option media player than the Nvidia? It seems like it might be a it of overkill for what I really need.
Will the Alexa voice commands on the Omni version allow me to run the entire system and replace my Harmony remote?
If not could I run everything via WIFI on a inexpensive tablet?
Am I missing what could be a much simpler way to do this by replacing the AVR with something I could plug an external hard drive into? Although I think I would still like to upgrade the TV.
Thanks in advance for any help steering me in the right direction or conformation that what I'm considering will give me what I'm looking for.
