AUDIO, TECHNOLOGY, ENTERTAINMENT, IOS, WINDOWS
Introduction
For a while now, we've had a Samsung LCD TV, Samsung Blueray player and Palsonic PVR in our lounge room, as well as an old 2005 notebook running Windows 7 connected to the TV for watching video files, media on the web, etc. I've recently made some major enhancements to this setup. I think they're pretty cool, cost effective and don't require lots of different devices, so I thought I'd document them here.
Decent Audio
TV speakers really suck. For a while now, we've wanted to be able to listen to audio, particularly music, in decent quality. So, after my usual several months of research and deliberation, I bought a set of Audioengine A5+ powered bookshelf speakers. They cost around AU$400 and we're very much loving them. They're quite small and the amp is built into the left speaker, which suits well given the limited space on the TV cabinet. They have dual inputs, enabling both the notebook and TV to be connected simultaneously.
Music
I've used foobar2000 as my audio player for years and saw no reason to diverge from that here. Our music library is now on the notebook and added to foobar2000. In addition, I'm gradually building playlists for various occasions/moods.
Remote Control
Having to interact with the notebook to control music sucks, so I installed the TouchRemote plugin for foobar2000. This enables us to control everything, including browsing and searching the entire library, from our iPhones and iPad using the Remote iOS app. (I could have used iTunes for this, but I despise iTunes. :))
Radio
We don't own a digital radio. However, we mostly listen to ABC radio stations, which all have internet streams. I added all of these internet streams to a separate "Radio Stations" playlist in foobar2000. This shows up in Remote, so listening to radio can be controlled from there too.
AirPlay
Although our music library is on the notebook, there are times when we might have audio on one of our iOS devices which we want to hear on the lounge room speakers. Of course, we could connect the device to the speakers, but that's inconvenient and sooo 20th century. Apple AirPlay allows media from iOS devices to be streamed wirelessly to a compatible receiver. I installed Shairport4w on the notebook, which enables it to be used as an AirPlay audio receiver.
This has already been useful in a way I didn't initially consider. Michael and Nicole were over for dinner and Michael wanted to play us an album he had on his iPhone. He was able to simply stream it using AirPlay without even getting up from the couch and his glass of red wine. Facilitating laziness is awesome. :)
Video Files
For video files, we use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema. We don't watch too many of these, so a proper library, etc. isn't important. However, we can't currently control it remotely, which is a minor annoyance. There are several ways we could do this such as the RemoteX Premium iOS app or a web server plugin, but requiring yet another app or web browser is ugly. I wish there were a way to control this using the iOS Remote app. :(
AirPrint
This isn't entertainment, but it hardly warranted a separate post. We own a Canon MP560 printer/scanner, which we're very happy with. It has built-in Wi-Fi, which is nice because it means the printer can live in a separate room and we can print from anywhere in the house. Unfortunately, it doesn't support Apple AirPrint, which means Jen, who primarily uses her iPad, can't print to it. To solve this, I set up the printer on the notebook, shared the printer and installed AirPrint for Windows. It works very nicely.