Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?

Subject: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: Thompson
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 12:52 PM

Someone told me recently about an Apple hard drive that could supposedly be plugged into your stereo with a sound jack, and would also use wifi, so you could keep your music on the hard drive and play it to your stereo from your computer.

It would also serve as an external backup, wirelessly backing up your computer's hard drive regularly using Time Machine.

This sounds handy dandy, but the two Time Capsule devices that Apple offer don't seem to have any sound jack socket. Anyone know what the story is?

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 04:40 AM

Hmm. Well, I suppose I could get an Airport Extreme and plug in a hard drive by USB or FireWire, and the stereo through a sound jack.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: Thompson
Date: 06 Apr 08 - 04:58 PM

Um, anyone?

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Apr 08 - 05:21 PM

The Linkys Kiss 1600 HD Media Player is a DVD player you can plug a hard drive into and play stuff (or stream stuff direct from the computer by if you've got a wireless router). I haven't got one, but it sounds fun.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 06 Apr 08 - 05:53 PM

Could your friend be thinking of the Apple Mac Mini (a computer rather than just a hard drive)? It does have optical audio I/O which some more modern stereo kit could cope with. Or possibly the Apple TV? It does have both optical audio I/O and stereo RCA outputs

Are you expecting this device to work independent of your computer?

I got a LaCie harddrive for backup purposes last year. I seem to remember some of the alternatives I looked at then (USB/Firewire Hubs rather than hard drives) had additional outputs besides those (can't find details anymore).

I presume you could also use an iPod this way (ie as the hard drive). Various suppliers have leads that would link to your stereo system.

Ross

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: Thompson
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 04:53 AM

No, it's the Time Capsule. It's designed for wireless backup. It *should* be possible also to keep one's music on it and to plug it into one's stereo through a sound jack, but Apple have left out a sound jack socket, which they *do* provide on the Airport Express (not Extreme, as I first thought)>

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 11:44 PM

Griffin's iMic adapter Griffin iMic allows audio I/O via a USB plug. It's mainly sold as an input device, but also enables output to audio-jack type devices.

To play the music from a Time Capsule device (or any other external hard drive), you would still need a computer connected (albeit wirelessly) to be able to see the files and initiate play.

Ross

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 03:30 AM

Thanks, Ross. Yes, a wifi network is my thing.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: M.Ted
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 10:36 AM

Time Machine is really a wireless base station with a built in hard drive, (or maybe it is a hard drive with a built in wireless base station.;-))

You can store music on it, obviously, and play from on your computer, via iTunes--but you also need the Airport Express, at least if you want a wifi connection to your stereo or speaker system--of course, it would be possible to hard wire a stereo or speakers to your computer which is wifi-ed to your music library, though not a lot of people will want to spend extra money to be able to do that--no reason for it to have any sort of analog outputs on it, since it isn't a stand-alone wifi music player.

There is a third party system, called Squeezebox that sort of does what you want, though it's not really a stand-alone either--

You're best bet is probably to go with the Airport Express, which seems to really be a wifi base station, but with analog audio outputs, and forget the Time Machine, which is really designed to work with the OS 10.5 system backup utility. Or just wait for someone to market at stand-alone
wifi music player that stores music files.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: mattkeen
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 10:41 AM

A Mac mini cou;d easily perform this function though

The other option is Airport Express which does have stereo mini jack outs. You can use this to stream your iTunes library to your stereo. Thats what I use it for, its like having my own radio station. Use iTunes on shuffle, its great

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 12:23 PM

Hmm, on the other hand, the Time Capsule hard-drive-wifi thingy could be combined with an iMic to plug it into the stereo. Hmm.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hard drive to plug into stereo?
From: M.Ted
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 01:34 PM

What, particularly, are you trying to do?