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I've been reading about Asset UPnP for the past hour or so and I think this could help me out in several ways.
First of all, I'm planning on creating a multiroom audio distribution system. Central is a custom built WHS with 5 TB storage and that server is on 24/7. With WHS I also use SageTV for video's & TV via extenders in a multiroom setup. Also I own a 360, PS3 and Pioneer TV that have DLNA/UPnP. However this is less than optimal for music, as all these require to switch on a TV as it does not have remotes with a screen (except to some extent PSP to PS3). I manage my music library on a desktop with J River Media Center (JRMC) and then copy any updated music files to my WHS.
Therefore I'm looking at hardware solutions optimized for music like Sonos, Squeezecenter and Philips NP-players that offer interactive screens and controls for music playback on the device and/or remote control. My listening is very playlist centric (I hardly ever listen to albums, but spent _a lot_ of time creating playlists of tracks for all occassions) so a quick and intuitive way of accessing playlist will be key. Having devices available with speakers and amp is nice, as you don't need to walk over if you're amp happens to be switched off.
So based on your experience, what is the best/most compatible music player for Asset on WHS?
Second question: I like sitting down behind my desk to do music management (inserting cover art, adding metadata/tags, creating playlists) using mouse and keyboard. JRMC is great for this and can store all stuff from its library in the mp3 tags itself. However playlists need to be exported manually, so whenever a playlist is updated, I need to export it to be available on WHS. This annoying, especially as smart playlists evolve continuously based on ratings, number of times played etcetera.
I assume Asset will find all the metadata in the music files itself, and use m3u to server as playlists to players/controls. So my 2nd question is if you guys know desktop software that may be more suitable for music library management (files, directories, tags/metadata, cover art, playlists), with a seamless way of working with WHS and Asset.
3rd question is actually more of a thought/dream - a very economic and attractive method would be to just put an Airport Express in every room, hook it up to active speakers, control playback on that every APX via an Iphone/Ipod Touch app (or other sexy, affordable devices with a touchscreen) and to stream music with multizone and realtime sync capabilities via WHS and Asset to all rooms. Any chance this would be possible? Seems to combine the best WHS, Sonos and Iphone have to offer at a much lower pricepoint for hardware.
I'll try to experiment with some setups of Asset on WHS this weekend but any suggestions are much appreciated.
First of all, I'm planning on creating a multiroom audio distribution system. Central is a custom built WHS with 5 TB storage and that server is on 24/7. With WHS I also use SageTV for video's & TV via extenders in a multiroom setup. Also I own a 360, PS3 and Pioneer TV that have DLNA/UPnP. However this is less than optimal for music, as all these require to switch on a TV as it does not have remotes with a screen (except to some extent PSP to PS3). I manage my music library on a desktop with J River Media Center (JRMC) and then copy any updated music files to my WHS.
Therefore I'm looking at hardware solutions optimized for music like Sonos, Squeezecenter and Philips NP-players that offer interactive screens and controls for music playback on the device and/or remote control. My listening is very playlist centric (I hardly ever listen to albums, but spent _a lot_ of time creating playlists of tracks for all occassions) so a quick and intuitive way of accessing playlist will be key. Having devices available with speakers and amp is nice, as you don't need to walk over if you're amp happens to be switched off.
So based on your experience, what is the best/most compatible music player for Asset on WHS?
Second question: I like sitting down behind my desk to do music management (inserting cover art, adding metadata/tags, creating playlists) using mouse and keyboard. JRMC is great for this and can store all stuff from its library in the mp3 tags itself. However playlists need to be exported manually, so whenever a playlist is updated, I need to export it to be available on WHS. This annoying, especially as smart playlists evolve continuously based on ratings, number of times played etcetera.
I assume Asset will find all the metadata in the music files itself, and use m3u to server as playlists to players/controls. So my 2nd question is if you guys know desktop software that may be more suitable for music library management (files, directories, tags/metadata, cover art, playlists), with a seamless way of working with WHS and Asset.
3rd question is actually more of a thought/dream - a very economic and attractive method would be to just put an Airport Express in every room, hook it up to active speakers, control playback on that every APX via an Iphone/Ipod Touch app (or other sexy, affordable devices with a touchscreen) and to stream music with multizone and realtime sync capabilities via WHS and Asset to all rooms. Any chance this would be possible? Seems to combine the best WHS, Sonos and Iphone have to offer at a much lower pricepoint for hardware.
I'll try to experiment with some setups of Asset on WHS this weekend but any suggestions are much appreciated.
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