streaming music on network drive to AV receiver

[kpeter1]

I currently using Airport Express to stream my itunes music (stored on my laptop hard drive) to my AV receiver (Marantz receiver).

However, I am looking to move my music to a network drive (Western Digital My Book World Edition). I would like to stream music on itunes from the network drive (attached to the Airport Express) to the AV receiver. I also want to play video and display pictures stored on the network drive on my TV (through my LG blue-ray player).

How do I do this? I was thinking of buying an Airport Extreme, but it looks like the Extreme does not stream iTunes.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

What kind of AV receiver do you have? I'm not sure how you have your Airport connected to the receiver.

 

[kpeter1]

What kind of AV receiver do you have? I'm not sure how you have your Airport connected to the receiver.

sorry...i clarified by question above. In short, i currently have the Airport Express but was looking to upgrade to Airport Extreme so I can use a network drive to hold my music files.

 

[zhenya]

If you were to buy an Airport Extreme, you could just continue using the Airport Express for music only - they have two modes in their configuration. In fact you can add as many airport express modules as you like if you want to control music in multiple rooms. You could also buy a Time Capsule which is an airport extreme with a built in hard disk that works easily with Time Machine. I'm not ordinarily a fan of integration like this, but it makes it so easy to back up that I think the trade-off is worth it.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Technically you don't have to buy anything. Get a network drive, connect it to the Airport Express, connect to your network drive on your Mac, Start iTunes, stream music.

Or does an Airport Express not allow network drives?

 

[zhenya]

How would you connect it? The Airport Express only has a single Ethernet port. I suppose you could connect a network drive wirelessly (if you found one built in, or with a wireless bridge), but I'd prefer an Ethernet connection.

 

[aristobrat]

How would you connect it? The Airport Express only has a single Ethernet port. I suppose you could connect a network drive wirelessly (if you found one built in, or with a wireless bridge), but I'd prefer an Ethernet connection.

Right, no good way to make that config happen with just the Express.

If he bought an Extreme, he could use the Extreme as the router and since it has Ethernet LAN jacks, he could plug in that Western Digital My Book NAS/server thing he was talking about. Apparently it's a DNA server, so his Bluray player could stream movies and photos directly from it.

He could then take the old Express, and configure it just for the AirTunes feature (to stream music directly to the AV receiver). I don't have any personal experience with the My Book thing, so I'm not sure if it supports streaming via AirTunes though.

 

[zhenya]

Yeah, if he already has an external disk, he can attach it to the Airport Extreme and use that as network storage. If you first partition it, you could use part of it for storage and part of it for Time Machine backups. (I think this requires a partition).

To use the Airport Express to stream music you will still have to have iTunes running somewhere else on the network, although the music files can be stored on the network storage drive.

Another option is the Apple TV (if you can live with its limitations). That would allow you to play music, videos, and pictures on your tv without having to have another computer turned on.