Linking a Laptop to Hi-Fi

The WD player comes in two forms: the TV HD 1080P, and the less expensive TV HD Mini 1080i. The more expensive version is aimed at playing high-definition video from an attached hard-drive, and has HDMI and composite video plus stereo audio, the less expensive one no HDMI, and a choice of component video or composite video/stereo audio.

Either will suit your needs, Harnedy, but I'd suggest the less expensive Mini is really all you need. Both units come with a composite video/audio cable in the box: this connects to a mini-jack socket on the rear of the unit, and has red and white stereo audio out plugs, plus a yellow composite video plug, on the other end.

You can thus run the stereo audio to your existing amplifier, and the yellow one, perhaps using an extension cable if required, to your TV to give a display via which you can access the content on the USB drive plugged into the unit.

Hope that helps.

Firstly, apologies for the time it's taken me to get back to thank everybody for the replies to my original query - they're much appreciated. I now realise that the best solution for me is not, in fact, the 'wireless' route, but simply the WD Media Player suggested by Macsporran and Andrew. This really would seem to offer everything I need, with a simple method of getting the various recordings I have stored on my external hard disc played through my main system. Thanks again!

There is a tangential query I have around file formats - I don't know whether it's more appropriate to a new thread, but I'm somewhat confused with the plethora of formats around and the differences between them all. Again, is there a simple (?) guide to these anywhere? 

JKH 

Over a year ago, I started this thread and received much helpful advice. On Andrew Everard's recommendation, I used the WD HD mini for some time, but recently saw a Squeezebox Duet on sale for virtually half-price and so took the plunge.

It was easily the best audio move I've made for many many years - in my opinion it's a sensational piece of kit. For ease of use and set-up I can't imagine its being bettered. Using dBPoweramp to rip CDs to FLAC files (my knowledge of formats has expanded somewhat in the past year!) is a piece of cake and it has actually significantly changed the way I listen to music, both in terms of the sheer amount of music I'm now listening to and exploring those 'played only once' CDs which I'm sure we all have in our collections. The only (comparative) downside is the time it's going to take to rip a 2,000+ collection, but that's something I can easily live with.

All of this would have been of no use to me whatever without the audio quality being of a high enough standard, and I have to say that this, for me, is probably the most impressive aspect of the Squeezebox. The reproduction of CDs ripped to FLAC is superb, and in very many cases sounds better than the original CD - there is a definite increase in the 'airiness' and space on many recordings and the solidity of piano is extremely impressive indeed. 

I also have a fairly large libarry of home recordings of opera and concerts which I've been unable to access for some time, and the Squeezebox seems to cope with any file format one throws at it. 

The quality of reproduction on internet radio from the BBC 320kps feed (even, very surprisingly, on some stations with an apparently low-fi bit rate) is again something of an eye-opener.

I would not have bought the Squeezebox had it not been for Gramophone, both in the form of Andrew Everard's various articles on music storage and streaming and from information gleaned from the conributors to this forum, so I'd like to give a general thank you to all concerned.

JKH

Hi Andrew

If i was to use the Sitecom WL-060 (as it seems to be able to receive all music playing from my laptop) would I also need to connect a DAC and if so where in the 'set-up' is it plugged in?

Thanks in anticipation.

Much appreciated Andrew, thanks.