[JLM]

remember the Oppo will not play gapless through the USB input.

"gapless"  huh??  (remember - computer novice)   

[JLM]

The Oppo will support drives up to 2TB, they need to be formatted in FAT32 or NTFS. You can hook it up directly using USB or eSATA, or stream from a PC/Mac using a DLNA server. It won't play Apple Lossless, it will play just about any other codec. For Mac, Playback is a good, inexpensive DLNA server if you want to go that route. 
If hooked up directly, it shows up under Music on the home page. Streaming is under network.
You can use "GOTO" to navigate a little easier. If connected directly, you can set up a play list. The green button will put tracks in the playlist.
There's a huge thread on AVS with tons of information and the regulars there are very helpful.

Huh?? (bolded)   

[Bob in St. Louis]

Good information about the remotes (keyboards).
I'm essencially using a $500 tablet as a wireless touch screen remote. Not the wisest buying choice on my part. 

EDIT: The FAT and NTFS are file systems that harddrives ("HDD") use. THink of it as a language the HDD uses.
Some programs can't "see" what's on a HDD if the drive is storing things in the wrong "language".
If you go to you Windows explorer and right click on yout C: drive, select properties, you'll see that's it's in NTFS.
That's my novice take on the way it works anyway. 

Bob

[ted_b]

"gapless"  huh??  (remember - computer novice)   

Gapless playback is important on music that flows without stopping (gaps) from one track to another.  Think medley on Side 2 of Abbey Road, Dark Side of the Moon, many classical albums, etc.  Without gapless playback there is a 4 second silence between Polythene Pam and She Came In Through The Bathroom window....doesn't work. 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Exactly. And when listening to a live concert at higher volume, it's pretty annoying when a song ends, the cheering gets loud, then the track number changes and there's dead scilence for a few senconds, then the cheering picks back up....loudly. 

[saeyedoc]

Digital Living Network Alliance i.e. DLNA is a guideline for sharing media between devices using UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). The Oppo 93 and 95 are DLNA clients as are other devices like Xbox, PS3, some TVs. The device with the media on it (your computer usually) has to have a DLNA compliant server, such as Windows media center, Twonky, JRiver, etc.

[adydula]

I used this with my Oppo BD83SE when I was experimenting with Flacs via the Oppo interface:

http://dbpoweramp.com/asset-upnp-dlna.htm

Alex

[gregroe]

I sprung for the BDP-95. Love it as a disc player but, I've got all these digital files. Unfortunately most in Apple lossless. Guess I'm back to looking for a Mac-Mini. Thanks for all the responses

[simon wagstaff]

I sprung for the BDP-95. Love it as a disc player but, I've got all these digital files. Unfortunately most in Apple lossless. Guess I'm back to looking for a Mac-Mini. Thanks for all the responses

I tried posting before but it didn't seem to take. yes, I think a mac mini makes a great music server. I don't understand the "value of one of the stand alone servers, and see no reason to use a pc based system when a mac mini works so well. I use the toslink output, and decibel as my playback software. It will decode apple lossless as well as just about everything else I throw at it. i have three external drives with a total of about 2 TB of storage. I also like having a 50" monitor... 

[gregroe]

So, the big question is, which MacMini? I've seen post about the older units running Snow Leopard, I've read arguments for the newer. Enough that I'm still confused. Which is why the Oppo solution seemed promising. 

[simon wagstaff]

I have a very old mac mini, single core Intel running snow leopard (I think). I have to remember what it is compatible with. I did install 2 gigs of ram. The newer Mac Minis are supposed to have a better toslink output but I will say, there are lots of posts about better power supplies and all these mods and I am not sure if they make much difference. i am very pleased with the sound that I get, especially with 24/96 files.

So, if you are just going to use it as a music server probably the least expensive one will be fine, whatever specs it has will be much better than what I use.

I will put in a plug for the refurb section on the Apple store, it is a good way to save a few bucks on something that is not usually discounted. Used prices on mac products are so high that you might as well get a new one. Lots of different playback programs, I like Decibel because it plays all the codecs I use. it is 33 bucks but well worth it in my opinion.

[this_is_vv]

I bought a used Celeron 512mb NO HARD DRIVE PC from ebay for 25$...

my entire storage is on a 5TB FREENAS server ...setup is

NAS->PC-> Peachtree USB DAC ->Speaker

i installed Puppy Linux  MPD on celeron which runs from USB and then run entirely on RAM and i have been able to play even a 24/96 180MB song from Network without any hiccup...


best and simple solution....

[JLM]

Just an update...

My 6 year old $170 Oppo 970 died (developed a glitch that I can't solve), 2nd CDP this year.  So I'm down to my last CDP (besides the DVD's for the TV's), a 12 year old Sony XA20ES, and one step closer to a music server (don't plan on buying another CDP).

[Andre2]

I can qualify as a computer audio server novice, as I have never done this... until today, that is!

I have an eastern electric minimax DAC plus that i bought last year, and finally, today, I got an USB cable and connected my Dell Latitude laptop to it.  Downloaded the files into the computer (from Easter Electric website) that helps the computer recognize the DAC, and...

Now I have a music server! I actually typed this message while the computer was driving my system to a nice Bob Dylan...

I have all my CDs on iTunes and I am really loving the flexibility of playing whatever I want without getting up and change CDs.

Boy, we (humans) are lazy, lazy, lazy, persons.

... the cable to the left is an usb cable to the EE Miinimax Plus:

     

[Andre2]

okay, now that this is working here is my question for experienced users, can iTunes play high resolution music?  - I am anxious to download some hi-rez music now 

Oh yeah, I have A/B the music from the computer to the pioneer CDP (see my system for details if interested), and, well, I cannot hear a difference in my room.

[ted_b]

Yes, iTunes can play higher resolution than cd/redbook (16/44), depending on what your DAC can accept.  You mentioned USB with your Minimax Plus so your DAC can accept up to 24/192 via that USB driver (made by M2Tech).  The issue you need to be aware of is that iTunes will not automatically change the sample rate if your choices of music change from, say, 16/44 to 24/96 to 24/192 and back again.  You have to do this manually with iTunes.

Frankly, for Windows I'd choose J River (free trial) as my player.  it will find all your music in your iTunes library, do all the sample rate changes, etc. 

[Andre2]

Thanks Ted, I guess I will try a hirez download of Norah Jones - I have the cd and I can compare the sound to see if it is worth/better.

Now, I'm telling you all: this IS really convenient.  And, with the EE Minimax DAC Plus it sounds wonderful through my tube amp.  Now, I guess I will have to buy a dedicated windows laptop for this, or better yet a mac-mini.

[glrtrgi]

I have an opportunity to buy a HP Netbook (HP Mini 110-4250nr) at an attractive price and I want to turn it into a mobile music server. I travel a lot and I want to be able to hook up the netbook to powered speakers and play music. I plan on loading JRiver, delete all unnecessary software on the HP, and start ripping/dowloading music to the machine. A few questions:

1) Can I control the volume of the speakers through JRiver? If so, will doing that compromise the sound?

2) Will Windows 7 Starter edition be sufficient for my needs?

3) What other steps do I need to take to optimize this machine for only music server responsibilities?

Appreciate the input.

[Hipper]

I have a Marantz CD6003 CD Player in my headphone system. This is a few years old now but it has a USB input. As a result I thought I'd use memory sticks (dongles or whatever else you want to call it). I bought some 16GB sticks which each hold 19 CDs worth of music stored as WAV files, so they only have basic text information about the tracks.

This seems to work fine for me as I just recorded tracks on my PC (using EAC) and transferred them to the sticks. It's not so flexible as proper media server systems but I've found I listen with the sticks more then with CDs.

My point is that some modern CD Players may well have suitable inputs and reading ability for digital music so it would be feasable to have the best of both worlds, unless you want disc covers and more flexibilty in music selection.