Integrate MP3s into Home Theater (1 Viewer)

[confusedxx]

I have loads of MP3s that I have burned to my PC. Now the CDs are stored deep in the cellar and I do not want to have to clutter the living room with CDs again, since they are all on the PC.

I am pretty new to Home Theaters and Hifi and I am trying to build a home cinema now. Is there a way to connect my PC to the home theater system so I can play all the music via the hi-fi system?

A single box would be preferred if it can serve as SAT HD receiver, PVR, MP3 player and stream music and videos. Even playing DVDs to the home theater would be good as well. Then I can reduce the number of boxes sitting in the living room which would make the wife happy too

 

[Robert_J]

The DirecTV HR20/HR21 DVR's cover your satellite/DVR/music and picture streaming requirement. It will not stream video from a network though. There are dozens of boxes that will though. D-Link and Buffalo are two manufacturers that build networked video players.

And if you want to make the wife happy, get a Harmony remote. It will simplify even the most complex system. Better yet, move all of the equipment to another room and use the Harmony 890's RF ability to control it all. Depending on your equipment and the layout of your home, it could be as simple as running a few wires. Or you could be like me and have almost 1,000 feet of cable between two rooms.

-Robert

 

[nolesrule]

I can't recommend anything as an overall HTPC component, but if you are looking for something to control your music, a PC running SqueezeOS (slimserver) and a Squeezebox client can do what you want and be used on the same PC with other media software (the server is multi-platform and will run on Windows, Mac and Linux). If you have wireless networking, then there are no issues with running cat5 cable from one computer to another.

Check out Transporter & Squeezebox Wireless Network Music Players - Every room deserves a soundtrack

Note, the Duet on their front page is a new product, but the standard squeezebox will work with any learning universal remote...and Harmony Remotes already have it in their setup program so no need to learn anything.