whats the name of ...

I'm trying to find a 'thing' that will link my home network to my round sound so that I can play music through the hifi speakers instead of the crappy laptop speakers.

I would like something wireless as all my music is stored on a network drive I have attached to my wireless router.

Is there such a thing I can hide at the back of my hifi that can see my network and play my music?

Please help me o mighty org

[northwind]

I saw a very nifty thing- basically a small PC, but in a casing the size and shape of a hifi se[erate- in Richer Sounds a while back. It was well expensive but it'd look fine in any living room, had a nice LCD screen and remote etc. Phillips did a mini that was supposed to do all this, but the interface was hopeless supposedly, fine for a few gb of music but useless for a whole collection.

I just use my PC with a connection to my old hi fi when I want proper music. Or I could have got nicer speakers for the PC I suppose. If I wanted a living room music system now I'd get a decent amp and a small format PC, a wee shuttle or something, and a small screen for it, and just stick it in the corner

I thought that I might have to get a PC based thing to go under the TV that can then attach to my network drive and play my music and videos.

I was hoping there was just a link thing I could get.

never mind, long cable from laptop to round sound it is....

Wirelessly, this seems to be the sort of thing you seem to be describing: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Wir.../dp/B000BERQCU

or http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/87368...-sla5520i.html

Personally, I have my pc hooked up to my hifi using a stereo to phono lead, with a phono extention (depending on where my pc is).

Wired will be a lot cheaper obviously, and probably better quality, but then again, if you only have an inbuilt soundcard, it wont be amazing anyway.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the links, getting close to what I'm after.

To help this is my setup - All my music and videos are stored on a 500GB network drive and is connected directly to my wifi router via network cable.

Currently I access the music over wifi from my laptop and play the music on crappy laptop speakers, if I'm in the front room then I can plug cable from laptop to round sound.

I would like to NOT use the laptop at all and have a 'thing' that can stream the music direct from the network to the round sound.

Found This but a little more than what I'm after.

I have an Xbox 360 attached to my wireless router , it allows me to stream Music or videos from my PC to my Router , then down the Ethernet cable to my 360 , takes seconds to sort out and costs nothing if you already have a 360 ?

Just buy the apple airport adaptor. It's about £60 and will use wifi to a 3.5mm output.

One of these would do it

http://www-uk.linksys.com/servlet/Sa...=4218460635B01

£180 from Amazon

I got one of these about 12 months ago, and its been great. Its probably not going to do it for you because its not got many audio outs:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...pwww4a1cou-21/

Plays vids, music, etc from anywhere, and wirelessly the streaming is perfect (54g, not 11b) even at high framerates.

Probably overkill if you just want tunes.

My basic setup is a scart to the TV, but its probably scalable. I don't go behind the TV much to remember whats there.

Thanks for the links, I'll go and have a bit of research about them.


I don't have a 360 but I have seen that setup and you need to have your PC on and thats something I don't want to do, thanks anyway.