HTPC for CD storage?

[Rudy81]

Do any of you use a HTPC for storing your music collection. I am looking for a way to store all my CD music in one place. I am wondering if a HTPC would do the job. My big question, is what kind of sound quality could I expect vs. playing a CD on my Denon?

[DrWho]

Sound quality will be identical.

And the conenience of having music on your computer is priceless. Will

you have the computer in an adjacent room? If not, then getting a quiet

computer will be vital.

You might also consider using your computer for movie playback as well (storing your dvds).

[Rudy81]

Mike;

Thanks for answering. I can build the HTPC. What sound card do you recommend, or is it just a matter of getting a sound card that has a good digital out so I can use my HALO DAC. I need to research this stuff.

[DrWho]

Any cheapy card's digital output will do just fine and should take full advantage of your Halo DAC.

Does your Halo decode Dolby/DTS as well? Or is your system going to be strictly 2-channel?

[Rudy81]

The HALO C2 decodes DTS and Dolby.

What format did you use to store your cd files? I have time, I do want a perfect copy of the file on the CD.

[DrWho]

I personally just rip straight to .wav files. For CD (redbook audio)

it's 44.1kHz, 16-Bit, stereo-interleaved. Exact Audio Copy is a good

program for doing this as it verifies that every bit was read correctly.

If you want to save a bit of disc space you can store your CDs in the

FLAC format. It is a lossless compression which means no data is being

thrown away - it's just being orgranized in a better way to take up

less disc space.

For DVD's I use Alcohol 120% to create image files of the dvd on my

computer. I can then mount these images in Alcohol where it just looks

like a dvd rom to the computer.

You will probably find this site extremely helpful (both for video and audio information):

http://www.videohelp.com/

Take your time, there is tons of info buried on that site.

[Rudy81]

Outstanding, thank you.

[DrWho]

As far as actual data storage, I would highly recommend using external

harddrives (preferably firewire, but USB2.0 is good too). This makes

backing up a much easier process not to mention gives you the

flexibility of moving your data around without moving your entire

computer.

I personally am a HUGE fan of the Lacie drives:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822154081

And at 54 cents per GB this is a great deal.

(This is what we're using in the recording studio - quiet and fast).

Think of it as 35 cents for every CD and $5 for every DVD. You can

make the DVDs incredibly cheaper if you only store the video and audio

resolutions that you will be using (aka, the best ones on the dvd).

[KungFuNat]

Personally, i encode with FLAC which is a lossless encoding technology which compresses the original .wav files down to almost 50% size with 0 loss in sound quality... the absolute best part? it will create metadata for you which can be searchable when used in programs like winamp and foobar.

for a sound-card, the best bang for your buck without the headaches of windows kmixer for bit-perfect digital output is the chaintech av-710. follow this guide to properly set it up:

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=98588

You can store the files anywhere, but external drives offer no data protection. the absolute best way would be to set up a raid1(mirrored) drive array on another computer somewhere else in the house, and accessing the files via the network.

i dont like the noise associated with hard drives, and the fewer hard drives in your listening room the better

[Rudy81]

Great stuff guys, thanks. I currently have network in the house, both wireless and wired, and will look into the options.

[Rudy81]

I am well on my way to finishing my first HTPC build. This thing has worked out extremely well. Just ran some listening tests vs. my Denon and I cannot tell the differance.

I am using J. River Media Center to play my sound fiesl, ripped and stored in .flac and played via ASIO for bit perfect transfer. My HALO gear is getting the digital stream and decoding everything properly . This was a very steep learing curve, but well worth it.

Build was an Asus M2N-SLI with an AMD 4800+, Chaintech AV-710 audio card, two Samsung SATA drives and a Gigabyte 8500 video card. So far I have only worked on the audio storage and playback issue. I have been able to get things working well with the dbpoweramp ripper and JRMC.

I love this stuff.

[gibbie]

I don't use any sound card on my HTPC. I use the optical connection directly from the motherboard to my receiver. The receiver handles the surround decoding.

[SCOOTERDOG]

Personally, i encode with FLAC which is a lossless encoding technology which compresses the original .wav files down to almost 50% size with 0 loss in sound quality... the absolute best part? it will create metadata for you which can be searchable when used in programs like winamp and foobar.

for a sound-card, the best bang for your buck without the headaches of windows kmixer for bit-perfect digital output is the chaintech av-710. follow this guide to properly set it up:

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=98588

You can store the files anywhere, but external drives offer no data protection. the absolute best way would be to set up a raid1(mirrored) drive array on another computer somewhere else in the house, and accessing the files via the network.

i dont like the noise associated with hard drives, and the fewer hard drives in your listening room the better

I also use FLAC for my files and I have a dedicated HDD on my office PC just for my music. So far I have about 120 cd's on it. I also stream to my HTPC from it which as Nat said keeps it quite. I love my HTPC! For sound card I use the Creative Labs XtremeMusic 7.1 card. I have a seperate I/O box for it so I can go Optical or Digital Coax in/out. Besides DD and DTS the card also handles DVD Audio, Dolby PLII, DTS ES, and DD EX.

scooter

[Rudy81]

I don't know why I waited so long to do this. Thus far I have ripped and encoded in .flac about 350 cd's using dbPoweramp. I am testing out the lates J River Media Center and like the interface so far. I love being able to instantly play any track from any album. The sound is identical. I have done an A/B comparrison between the recorded flac file and the cd on my Denon player. No differance I can hear.

Another 300 or so cd's and I'll be done with the encoding....then to back up my hard drive.

[Rudy81]

Finall done with the first iteration of the HTPC....it has turned out just great. It took me a while to get dts, dts-es, and AC3 passthru to work with the setup, but finally got it to work. There was quite a bit of learning to do with all the software pieces that must be present to allow for bit perfect audio as well as playing DVD's. However, the time spent was well worth it. Now, all 6,000+ songs are one click away....instantly. This will make listeneing to various albums less of a chore...no loading one cd at a time.

Next on the agenda is to keep an eye out for an HD player that will play on the HTPC and send the HD video to the projector.

I am beginning to see the benefits offered by the HTPC as far as versatility goes. I can also see why this is not for everyone, particulary those not very familiar with pc operation and integration.

[DrWho]

How fast are you guys able to rip when going straight to FLAC? Have you

had any artifacts show up from buffer overrun when reading the CD? I'm

using Winamp to rip in FLAC so perhaps it's not as efficient, but it

seems I'm limited by my processing capability (as I rip at only 4x when

doing full compressed FLAC).

I think the other biggest downside to the HTPC route is the time it

takes to get everything ripped onto the computer - especially for those

with the larger music/movie collections...

[Guest " "]

"I think the other biggest downside to the HTPC route is the time it takes to get everything ripped onto the computer - especially for those with the larger music/movie collections..."

I've had an HTPC for 3 or 4 years and don't find ripping time to be a problem at all.  Maybe due to my collection being smaller than most.....8000 songs.

[Rudy81]

Dr. Who, I used dbPoweramp (Reference edition) to do the ripping. I did not compress the files and did go directly to .flac. The speed varied depending on cd. Sometimes I saw 17x but generally 7x was the norm. I have a 400Gid drive for the CD collection. I ripped cd's when I had a chance while going about my normal day. It took a while, but now it is done. I also purchased a $100 external 500Gig drive (fry's) and backed up all the files....just in case.

Now I really get to play with JRMC and set it up for my taste. I, at some point, would like to try Meedio, since I found a community that is currently working on the original product at www.meedios.com.

[jacksonbart]

how did you tackle the fan noise?

[Rudy81]

The video card has passive cooling. The cpu has a Zalman fan that is pretty darn quiet and the case has quiet fans that are MB controlled based on temperature. From my sitting position, the fan noise has not been a problem.