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Post by SticknStones on Jul 17, 2014 12:13:13 GMT -5
Just for the record this thread is yet one more example of where the power of a forum shows its might. Nice job everyone this is going to be a fun ride!  |
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Post by Andrew Robinson on Jul 17, 2014 12:19:35 GMT -5
If you're at all familiar with Plex (https://plex.tv/) it too is completely Chromecast enabled. This should work for all you with extensive music and movie libraries stored locally on a NAS drive or elsewhere that is network accessible.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2014 12:26:15 GMT -5
FWIW: I picked up one of the little Intel NUC's ( www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html )and turned it into a HTPC. Running XBMC ( xbmc.org/ ) it's a great little box and lets me play old school arcade video games on my sofa to boot  I think when the wife saw super mario brothers boot up on the 65" it's about as happy as I've ever seen her LOL. It runs almost silent and has enough video grunt to handle full 1080P 3D streams and full surround sound.. XMBC will also run on the little $35 Raspberry Pi as well if you want to have a play with it cheaper. There are also liveCD's for most platforms if you want to try it out. |
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Post by jmilton on Jul 17, 2014 12:45:32 GMT -5
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Post by petes on Jul 17, 2014 13:01:38 GMT -5
Another, and very cheap, option is to use a Pi. There's a pre-configured XBMC image these days for the Pi, which works very nicely. Or, if you're a Squeezebox user as I still am, you can use PiCorePlayer, which I use and is great. The Pi has HDMI output, which I use at the moment with the UMC-200, and also of course has USB, so with XMC-1 that becomes and option as well. |
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Post by ÈlTwo on Jul 17, 2014 13:03:07 GMT -5
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Post by SticknStones on Jul 17, 2014 13:05:56 GMT -5
I ordered the google dongle. It will get here before my XMC which I figure will be delivered by Thursday next week once they get the upgrade card I mailed in today.
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Post by cwt on Jul 17, 2014 13:08:01 GMT -5
Solidstate was suggesting in another thread that PC Toslink and SPDIF leave a lot to be desired with HDMI being a big improvement. Hopefully he can chime in with some reasons and suggestions. One thing is for sure hifiaudio sp/dif coax /optical wont accept any 24/96 5.1 pcm from dvd-a sources . Some pc's muck around with sampling rates like 44.1 being changed to 48khz . Considering the xmc1 has asynchronous rate control on its c media chipset theoretically I would use the usb-b to minimize the jitter ; have a look at the jitter j tests in this link and even though its only one example it shows that all usb inputs are not equal  thewelltemperedcomputer.com/Intro/SQ/USB_SPDIF.htmA circuit diagram would help to determine whether streaming from a NAS or network would pass through the c media chip but I would only be guessing ;the xmc1 has comprehensive asrc elsewhere in any case |
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Post by hifiaudio2 on Jul 17, 2014 13:34:55 GMT -5
Another, and very cheap, option is to use a Pi. There's a pre-configured XBMC image these days for the Pi, which works very nicely. Or, if you're a Squeezebox user as I still am, you can use PiCorePlayer, which I use and is great. The Pi has HDMI output, which I use at the moment with the UMC-200, and also of course has USB, so with XMC-1 that becomes and option as well. I have a Pi but basically quit using it for anything. Is there a tablet app to give coverart and use with the Pi and XBMC? If so that sounds like a good option that would cost me no out of pocket. A close second is getting the Chromcast and using Plex as Andrew said. I can run Plex server on my Synology and the Plex app is on sale for $1.99 right now. Like I said earlier, what I want is to mimic the functionality and quality that I get from the Sonos I just bought while saving the $350 it cost me. Keep the ideas coming. Great stuff! |
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Post by jlafrenz on Jul 17, 2014 14:08:53 GMT -5
I did successfully used the USB-B connection on the back of the unit as a DAC from my HTPC. I faced some issues using WASAPI and ASIO. With that said, I was using the generic driver that Windows found. It seems to be an issue on the HTPC side, not the XMC-1. I am going to try and load the C-Media driver that the DC-1 uses and see if that corrects the issue. I also plan to test out multi-channel and high-rez tracks via USB. For HDMI, I am having some issues as well, which I believe to be on the HTPC side. For some reason I can not select HDMI as my sound card (which I have done and used with the UMC-200). This is strange to me as the video from my HTPC is connected to the XMC-1 and clearly passing video. If any of you computer wiz's out there have any suggestions, I have open ears. Is the HDMI option simply not showing up, or will it not let you connect audio through the option? If the HDMI option is there for the XMC, highlight the option and click "Set default" instead of "ok" If this still doesn't work Make sure you have the XMC as "Set default" and restart your computer. Check your audio device manager and confirm that the XMC is still selected as default. At that point now try and see if you get music. Edit: I have 4 home built HTPCs and there is one that my UMC-1 just won't play with well. Video works, but there is no audio. The steps I gave you work for me 100% of the time on the particular build. Hope it helps It won't let me even select the HDMI as it is grayed out. I can go into the properties and it states that everything is working properly. I found a thread online that recommended finding the manufacturer driver instead of the one from Windows it may be using. |
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Post by petes on Jul 17, 2014 14:18:51 GMT -5
Another, and very cheap, option is to use a Pi. There's a pre-configured XBMC image these days for the Pi, which works very nicely. Or, if you're a Squeezebox user as I still am, you can use PiCorePlayer, which I use and is great. The Pi has HDMI output, which I use at the moment with the UMC-200, and also of course has USB, so with XMC-1 that becomes and option as well. I have a Pi but basically quit using it for anything. Is there a tablet app to give coverart and use with the Pi and XBMC? If so that sounds like a good option that would cost me no out of pocket. A close second is getting the Chromcast and using Plex as Andrew said. I can run Plex server on my Synology and the Plex app is on sale for $1.99 right now. Like I said earlier, what I want is to mimic the functionality and quality that I get from the Sonos I just bought while saving the $350 it cost me. Keep the ideas coming. Great stuff! Well, if you use Synology, you could run LMS on that, use PiCorePlayer on your Pi and then use one of the many iOS, Android or Windows remote apps for remote control. I use iPeng on iOS, OrangeSqueeze on Android. PiCorePlayer can use HDMI for audio output, but doesn't output any meaningful video - basically it's just audio. There are conversations about trying to get JiveLite working to give a Jive display - i.e. to look at the same as a Touch - but it's not clear if that's possible at the moment. |
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Post by hifiaudio2 on Jul 17, 2014 14:19:58 GMT -5
Hmm .. grayed out but always present? Try disconnecting the HDMI from the XMC while it is on and turned to that HDMI input and plugging back in. Maybe forcing another handshake will help. I assume you have disconnected the monitor out as well already?
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Post by hifiaudio2 on Jul 17, 2014 14:25:23 GMT -5
Well this is cool... I was messing around looking at Plex and my Synology and Chromecast and came across this link. Apparently the Synology supports Chromecast natively now with the Synology branded packages on the nas and free apps for the devices. blog.synology.com/blog/?p=2377 |
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Post by audiosyndrome on Jul 17, 2014 17:02:55 GMT -5
I currently stream AIFF music files from my mac mini using an ethernet connection to an Apple TV. I use the Apple's optical out into my UMC optical in. While optical is not very good when it comes to jitter, it should be better than the Apple's HDMI out (by two or three orders of magnitude). What has me drooling while I wait for the XMC is that the XMC has an ASRC (including the optical inputs) which should make any jitter a non-issue. I'm setup for home sharing so I can sit on the couch with my iPad and and can select from my complete music library with the tap of my finger. Works great; NO issues whatsoever. Try it you'll like it and never go back. Russ PS- did not know beforehand that the Apple TV converts 44.1 to 48 kHz. While I don't like that, I don't know if that makes a noticeable difference in sound quality. I understand that the Apple Airport Express leaves 44.1 as 44.1. May give that a try. |
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Post by hifiaudio2 on Jul 17, 2014 17:17:52 GMT -5
What is the consensus on if wifi (using Chromecast) does anything to the sound? Is it "just 1's and 0's" and neither wifi nor ethernet makes a difference as long as the bits reach the destination?
Audiosyndrome you reference HDMI as being a poor medium to deliver the sound. Is that a known Apple specific issue or something else?
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Post by solidstate on Jul 17, 2014 18:33:02 GMT -5
Is the HDMI option simply not showing up, or will it not let you connect audio through the option? If the HDMI option is there for the XMC, highlight the option and click "Set default" instead of "ok" If this still doesn't work Make sure you have the XMC as "Set default" and restart your computer. Check your audio device manager and confirm that the XMC is still selected as default. At that point now try and see if you get music. Edit: I have 4 home built HTPCs and there is one that my UMC-1 just won't play with well. Video works, but there is no audio. The steps I gave you work for me 100% of the time on the particular build. Hope it helps It won't let me even select the HDMI as it is grayed out. I can go into the properties and it states that everything is working properly. I found a thread online that recommended finding the manufacturer driver instead of the one from Windows it may be using. I can remote in with Teamviewer and try to fix it if you like. |
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Post by jlafrenz on Jul 17, 2014 19:13:33 GMT -5
Hmm .. grayed out but always present? Try disconnecting the HDMI from the XMC while it is on and turned to that HDMI input and plugging back in. Maybe forcing another handshake will help. I assume you have disconnected the monitor out as well already? Tried that. I have a few things to try from everyone's suggestions. I should have an update in a bit. |
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Post by SticknStones on Jul 17, 2014 19:39:42 GMT -5
If you're at all familiar with Plex (https://plex.tv/) it too is completely Chromecast enabled. This should work for all you with extensive music and movie libraries stored locally on a NAS drive or elsewhere that is network accessible. Is this the direction Emotiva is going where it will rely on third party achievements versus its own dongle and such? |
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Post by jlafrenz on Jul 17, 2014 21:15:02 GMT -5
I'm working on downloading and installing the ATI driver for my HDMI.
I have been looking for the DC-1 driver which is for the C-Media, but not having any luck. The driver is no longer on the Emotiva site and the web has been zero help. I can't believe that it isn't a simple Google search and download.
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Post by Andrew Robinson on Jul 17, 2014 21:21:33 GMT -5
If you're at all familiar with Plex (https://plex.tv/) it too is completely Chromecast enabled. This should work for all you with extensive music and movie libraries stored locally on a NAS drive or elsewhere that is network accessible. Is this the direction Emotiva is going where it will rely on third party achievements versus its own dongle and such? I cannot speak for the future of all products that Emotiva may or may not make in the future, but it's hard to compete with a $35 dongle from the likes of Google. Emotiva isn't in the media ecosystem business, meaning we don't deliver your content, we make the content delivered to you better. Google/Apple/Roku etc., they can sell a device like a Chromecast for pennies because of what they make elsewhere through the product's usage. With Emotiva, or any specialty AV company for that matter, the focus needs to be not on how they make a competing dongle, but how do you make a product that works with ALL dongles, and then makes that experience better. Believe me, we're all fans of devices like the Chromecast and AppleTV, most everyone in the office owns one or both, so we're well aware of the ins and outs. How that plays into future products has yet to be seen. |
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