I'm hoping someone else has been down this road and can point me in the right direction. I've finally ripped all my CDs to mp3 and want to stream them to the living room stereo. Can anyone recommend any products for doing so?

I need to set up a new wifi network, so involving the purchase of a specific type of wifi router shouldn't be a problem. Being able to control it with a remote would be a bonus. My pc's running XP pro (in case someone's recommendation requires mac-only software).

Apple's AirPort Express looks like it'll do the job (no remote though). I buy music from iTunes so the solution would have to support protected aac files - which quite likely will limit me to the airport express as I don't know if Apple has licensed anyone to decode protected aac files.

The ones I've looked at:

Logitech's Squeezebox doesn't support aac protected files according to some reviews I've found.

Roku's Soundbridge also doesn't play protected aac files.

As for budget, I'm not wanting to spend more than a few hundred bucks.

im sure god created something to do this around 6000 years ago

pray to god for a solution to pop out of thin air

im sure god created something to do this around 6000 years ago

No doubt, but I don't have the necessary clearance level to get my hands on that technology.

If your living room has a TV, XBox 360.

If your living room has a TV, XBox 360

Could I finally have an excuse to buy a console without totally abandoning my pc-only-gaming-fan-boy belief system?

*edit: Maybe not. Quoting from the Xbox media sharing page:

Play all your audio CD's or unprotected music files on your sound system through the Xbox 360

last edited by eu4ia at 14:07:05 14/Dec/08

apple tv does that and more
thats pretty much all my apple tv does

also you can just buy the cheaper 40gb one and put a 250gb drive in it
or stream from the network, whatever suits you

it has 802.11g and hdmi output

Thanks, I was just reading up on apple tv. It does look like it's a better option. I heard a rumour that they run really hot though?

Can't you burn your music to a cd-rw and then re-rip it to remove the protection? windows media player allows you to do just this, which I find quite odd really but the ability is there. I don't know about AAC though only know it works for WMA's.

There are better ways around Apple's DRM if you're not running iTunes 8.0.2.

Can't you burn your music to a cd-rw and then re-rip it to remove the protection? windows media player allows you to do just this, which I find quite odd really but the ability is there. I don't know about AAC though only know it works for WMA's.

Yeah I could do that, but it's a hassle. I'd prefer to find a way to avoid the extra step. At least more and more labels are allowing non-protected titles to be sold on itunes.

Can't you burn your music to a cd-rw and then re-rip it to remove the protection? windows media player allows you to do just this, which I find quite odd really but the ability is there. I don't know about AAC though only know it works for WMA's

Try doing that for like 30-40 cds that have been ripped with the protection!
Theres a program that rips it to an image and then you have to re-rip back. But AFAIK theres no automated program that does it all at once. You have to sit through the whole process :| Stuff that!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairPlay#Requiem