I've been reading your nas.pdf, this is definitely what I need. I'll read up and do some experimenting on my Pi before I buy anything for my dad. Is L-space in reference to genteel black holes that know how to read? My Pi is named OctarineMy dad is a huge music nerd, but not a huge computer nerd. He's got several hundred CDs in his collection that he's downloaded onto his laptop, plus a large digital library on top of that, but that laptop is getting old and full. I want to build him a NAS so that a) he has a backup of the files on his laptop, and b) he can access those files from his phone.
I would also like the Pi to be able to play the music directly to his hifi audio setup.
I'm thinking I would need a Pi4, a DAC Hat, and something like a Seagate HDD, but I don't know where to go from there. Especially as far as software is concerned. Are there music players that can be run on the pi and controlled via the TV with the remote? Are there phone apps that can stream his music on the phone from his collection stored on the HDD at home?
A DAC is not necessary but will provide better quality sound than the onboard analogue jack does. Whether that's important or not to your Dad depends on how the audio has been converted and stored (lossy vs lossless) and how much of an audiophile he is. Even then a USB sound card may be a simpler and cheaper option.
For the NAS part, applications like owncloud, nextclound, etc are only really required if you want/need the front end GUI they provide. If you don't it's extra overhead, unneeded functionality, and something else that can break.
[shameless self promotion]
There's much more info in my guide to Building A Pi Based NAS
[/shameless self promotion]
For audio playback on the Pi, I use mpd and an mpd client on whatever device I happen to be using whether it's running Windows, Linux, Android, or something else. If I want local playback on the device I use DLNA, Samba/CIFS/SMB, or NFS to access files on the NAS.
As to the TV question, that depends on the TV. I'd expect a smart TV to be able to connect to and play media from a DLNA server running on the Pi. A dumb TV will require additional hardware. Or connect the HDMI of the NAS to the TV and run something suitable on it though that may complicate things if you want audio out to both the TV and the HiFi. The Pi's hardware does support HDMI CEC but in order for that to eb sueful both the TV and the application running on the Pi need to support it too.
On the storage front, brand isn't really a major issue. Traditional HDDs still give more TB per $ than SSDs. Any bare drive will need an additional USB/SATA adapter. Avoid ones with Jmicron chipsets as those can be problematic under Linux. 3.5" drives will need their own power supply as the Pi cannot supply the 12v feed they require. And remember there is relatively little current available to bus powered USB devices from the Pi - a combined total of 1.2A across all devices. A poor choice of drive could consume all of that leaving nothing for the DAC and other USB devices.
Statistics: Posted by CSENG — Mon Sep 30, 2024 12:20 am