I have a MythTV backend running on Mythbuntu. Great for recording TV shows, watching videos and listening to music from the MythTV Frontend client. I want to be able to listen to my music from anywhere around the house. I prefer FLAC over MP3 and wanted a method to stream music to my stereo or any docking device. I have an iPhone, Touch and iPad; these should make nice clients given a decent application. I don't like the UPnP service that MythTV provides. After a little testing, I settled on miniDLNA on the server with the 8player app on my Apple devices.
MiniDLNA offers a search function for Artists or Albums. Other UPnP servers did not have the same extended capability (of the ones I tried). MiniDLNA also shows album art. 8player has a free version of the app to test drive. I'm still waiting to get a DLNA or UPnP service that can stream a DVD ISO (converting to MP4 stinks).
Update Oct 20, 2012: I've added a Micca EP600 G2 to my man cave. This device allows me watch my DVD ISO files and play FLAC music. It offers support for many formats. I also have some DTS DVD-Audio that it plays without any issue. The device offers HDMI connectivity. Installation is a snap. I'm using a Samba share on my Mythbuntu box to access the media with the Micca device. I'm not happy with the inability to auto-display album artwork. While the documentation reads as though the album artwork is displayed if found, I have yet to see the artwork unless I open it manually. Hopefully, just an operator malfunction and I'll sort that out. For now, I can live with that as the good outweighs the bad.
With the addition of the Micca device, I found that I don't use my Mythfrontend. For me, the main purpose of the Myth services was playback of videos and music. I never used the service to record television shows. If you've tried Mythmusic 0.25, maybe you're as pissed about the changes as I am. I hate it. This made my decision easier than it might have been otherwise. I'll stop my rant and move forward. I've decided to get rid of the Myth service entirely. With the removal of the Myth software, I will use my VMware ESXi server to host the services mentioned above. I already have a CentOS 5 guest running as a virtual machine. My plan is to move all the media data to the NAS device and create some mount points on the CentOS system for music and videos. I'm waiting for some hardware that I bought on the 'net. Once that arrives, It will take about a day to migrate the data from my physical Mythbuntu server to the CentOS VM (my music and video collection accounts for nearly 4TB of data). I'll update this once I complete the physical to virtual migration.
Update Dec 7, 2012: I moved my media server to a virtual machine. Settled on openSuSE for the OS on the virtual guest. The system has been running since I did the migration at the end of Oct. Still running a samba share as well as miniDLNA. All still working without any issues. My iPhone, Touch and iPad still accessing the audio files with 8player and miniDLNA. My Micca device is accessing the samba share grabbing the ISO images and FLAC audio. I could not be happier with the performance and the ease of this environment.
Update June 8, 2014: No real changes. I updated to openSuSE 13.1 recently and added a second NAS. I still like the layout and easy access to music and video material in any room of the house. I did add an antenna booster to my WiFi network allowing me to listen to music while cutting grass or working in the yard. One of my kids recently gave me their broken iPhone 4. After a replacement case from Zeetron, the device is excellent for around-the-house work or walking on the treadmill. I need a new hobby.
Update February 11, 2015: Still using and happy with the Micca EP600 devices. I put a television in the treadmill room and needed another media device. This time, I wanted to try a different solution and took a chance on the Western Digital WD TV Live (model WDBGXT0000NBK). It's only been a couple of weeks, but I believe the WD is more favorable. It does everything the Micca does but also includes services like NetFlix. For the treadmill room, the TV does not have app capabilities so the one device covers everything for me. I purchased the device on Amazon as a refurbished model for $64. The device handles Bluray and DVD ISO files along with nearly every possible format for those that rip the media down to something else. I can also play my music (FLAC, MP3, etc) and audio images (CUE/Wav, CUE/Flac). Artwork is also displayed while browsing and playing the audio as well. The only thing I don't like about this model; the time is always off. Not sure why. The only options for time are zone and daylight savings. No way to actually set the time or specify an NTP source.
MiniDLNA offers a search function for Artists or Albums. Other UPnP servers did not have the same extended capability (of the ones I tried). MiniDLNA also shows album art. 8player has a free version of the app to test drive. I'm still waiting to get a DLNA or UPnP service that can stream a DVD ISO (converting to MP4 stinks).
Update Oct 20, 2012: I've added a Micca EP600 G2 to my man cave. This device allows me watch my DVD ISO files and play FLAC music. It offers support for many formats. I also have some DTS DVD-Audio that it plays without any issue. The device offers HDMI connectivity. Installation is a snap. I'm using a Samba share on my Mythbuntu box to access the media with the Micca device. I'm not happy with the inability to auto-display album artwork. While the documentation reads as though the album artwork is displayed if found, I have yet to see the artwork unless I open it manually. Hopefully, just an operator malfunction and I'll sort that out. For now, I can live with that as the good outweighs the bad.
With the addition of the Micca device, I found that I don't use my Mythfrontend. For me, the main purpose of the Myth services was playback of videos and music. I never used the service to record television shows. If you've tried Mythmusic 0.25, maybe you're as pissed about the changes as I am. I hate it. This made my decision easier than it might have been otherwise. I'll stop my rant and move forward. I've decided to get rid of the Myth service entirely. With the removal of the Myth software, I will use my VMware ESXi server to host the services mentioned above. I already have a CentOS 5 guest running as a virtual machine. My plan is to move all the media data to the NAS device and create some mount points on the CentOS system for music and videos. I'm waiting for some hardware that I bought on the 'net. Once that arrives, It will take about a day to migrate the data from my physical Mythbuntu server to the CentOS VM (my music and video collection accounts for nearly 4TB of data). I'll update this once I complete the physical to virtual migration.
Update Dec 7, 2012: I moved my media server to a virtual machine. Settled on openSuSE for the OS on the virtual guest. The system has been running since I did the migration at the end of Oct. Still running a samba share as well as miniDLNA. All still working without any issues. My iPhone, Touch and iPad still accessing the audio files with 8player and miniDLNA. My Micca device is accessing the samba share grabbing the ISO images and FLAC audio. I could not be happier with the performance and the ease of this environment.
Update June 8, 2014: No real changes. I updated to openSuSE 13.1 recently and added a second NAS. I still like the layout and easy access to music and video material in any room of the house. I did add an antenna booster to my WiFi network allowing me to listen to music while cutting grass or working in the yard. One of my kids recently gave me their broken iPhone 4. After a replacement case from Zeetron, the device is excellent for around-the-house work or walking on the treadmill. I need a new hobby.
Update February 11, 2015: Still using and happy with the Micca EP600 devices. I put a television in the treadmill room and needed another media device. This time, I wanted to try a different solution and took a chance on the Western Digital WD TV Live (model WDBGXT0000NBK). It's only been a couple of weeks, but I believe the WD is more favorable. It does everything the Micca does but also includes services like NetFlix. For the treadmill room, the TV does not have app capabilities so the one device covers everything for me. I purchased the device on Amazon as a refurbished model for $64. The device handles Bluray and DVD ISO files along with nearly every possible format for those that rip the media down to something else. I can also play my music (FLAC, MP3, etc) and audio images (CUE/Wav, CUE/Flac). Artwork is also displayed while browsing and playing the audio as well. The only thing I don't like about this model; the time is always off. Not sure why. The only options for time are zone and daylight savings. No way to actually set the time or specify an NTP source.
