how to play APE music file on av receiver?

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reekydesert

61 posts

Master Geek

#99138 13-Mar-2012 13:30

I've got big collection of APE and FLAC files - love the uncompressed sound quality.
Currectly I have my av receiver, tv and computer all connected in my study via hdmi, but am planning to move the receiver and speakers to living room. I don't want to move my gaming pc to living room. Then here's this problem: how do I play my APE files through the receiver?
My tv in living room is a samsung which plays most media files, but not ape. Planning to get a appletv to connect to my imac but itunes doesn't play ape either. i don't want to get another htpc specificly for playing ape purpose.
Any suggestions?

also tried to convert ape to ALAC but couldn't find a good tool to do it. downloaded some convertors but lost in their crazy setup tabs...

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246 posts

Master Geek

#594558 13-Mar-2012 13:45

You can try a wireless/wired streamer like the WD Live TV to stream from your htpc . This device supports FLAC but not sure if it support APE, has HDMI. I have this device myself and really happy with it.

reekydesert

61 posts

Master Geek

#594564 13-Mar-2012 14:20

hi thanks kiwipixter.
didn't know WD live tv supports FLAC... any other NAS supports both flac and ape?
converting one to the other format is still a pain to do... :)

Kiwipixter

246 posts

Master Geek

#594572 13-Mar-2012 14:48

the only other streamer i considered was the AC Ryan PlayOn, i am not sure if it supports APE format but it does support FLAC.

MG1976

43 posts

Geek

#594628 13-Mar-2012 16:10

If you end up getting an appleTV, you can jailbreak it and install XBMC. I imagine that would have support for APE files (it handles any format I've been able to throw at it).

reekydesert

61 posts

Master Geek

#594652 13-Mar-2012 16:50

just did a quick google, xbmc does support ape. jb is the issue then, currently it's not working on ios 5. if i buy an atv now, i'll have to wait to jb solution comes out :/
it is a valid solution, thanks for that.

reekydesert

61 posts

Master Geek

#594654 13-Mar-2012 16:51

Kiwipixter: the only other streamer i considered was the AC Ryan PlayOn, i am not sure if it supports APE format but it does support FLAC.

i'll need to do some more research on streamers on the market, plug and play will be the ultimate goal. thanks!

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#594684 13-Mar-2012 17:30

Ulitmatly - I'd convert your APE files.
Why?
Well, let's face it, they're simply not particularly common and will no doubt cause you issues in the long run when you want to play them across other devices.
I have JB'd my ATV2 in the past, but one of the builds featured a FLAC replay bug - so who knows what the future may hold for both you?

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Ragnor

8219 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#594899 14-Mar-2012 04:05

DLNA streaming/server software like Mezzmo can transcode from APE to a format that your receiver can handle.

http://www.conceiva.com/products/mezzmo/

reekydesert

61 posts

Master Geek

#595018 14-Mar-2012 12:07

Dunnersfella: Ulitmatly - I'd convert your APE files.
Why?
Well, let's face it, they're simply not particularly common and will no doubt cause you issues in the long run when you want to play them across other devices.
I have JB'd my ATV2 in the past, but one of the builds featured a FLAC replay bug - so who knows what the future may hold for both you?

I also feel JB isn't a long term solution.
Is there a good convertor you'd recommend?

reekydesert

61 posts

Master Geek

#595019 14-Mar-2012 12:07

Ragnor: DLNA streaming/server software like Mezzmo can transcode from APE to a format that your receiver can handle.

http://www.conceiva.com/products/mezzmo/

will have a look at home. thanks.

lchiu7

6470 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#595024 14-Mar-2012 12:11

The Popcorn Hour A200 and later models can do APE natively. I have a A200 but no music in that format so I might see if I can find some or encode some to test. It also does multichannel FLAC.

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reekydesert

61 posts

Master Geek

#595100 14-Mar-2012 14:29

I am thinking about buying a Synology DS212j. It supports FLAC but not APE. Then on its website I realised the actual playback depends on the end device, not the NAS:
http://www.synology.com/products/spec.php?product_name=DS212j&lang=enu#p_submenu

Don't really want to buy a separated media player as it's gonna be one extra device I have to manage which only has limited purpose since my TV playes most of media types.

Conversion... final solution eh?

geekiegeek

2513 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#595182 14-Mar-2012 16:21

DBPoweramp is great solution for converting lossless audio file types. I use it to convert FLAC to ALAC so I can play stuff on my i devices.

Personally I use a Logitech Squeezebox touch for all of my music streaming (Does FLAC, ALAC, APE and many more. This plugs into a Beresford Caiman DAC via coax which is then fed to my amp via Kimber Kable interconnects. Makes for a sweet sounding system.

reekydesert

61 posts

Master Geek

#595983 16-Mar-2012 09:53

geekiegeek: DBPoweramp is great solution for converting lossless audio file types. I use it to convert FLAC to ALAC so I can play stuff on my i devices.

Personally I use a Logitech Squeezebox touch for all of my music streaming (Does FLAC, ALAC, APE and many more. This plugs into a Beresford Caiman DAC via coax which is then fed to my amp via Kimber Kable interconnects. Makes for a sweet sounding system.

thanks for the suggestion, i will check out the DBPoweramp later.
would it be safe to say that once i convert ape to ALAC, itunes should stream it seamlessly with ATV?

Why would you need to use a DAC - wouldn't it be better feeding music digitally to amp through optical or hdmi than analog? (I don't know too much about DAC, only understand it as digital-to-analog convertor, maybe it has other purposes?)

lchiu7

6470 posts

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Trusted

#595997 16-Mar-2012 10:16

Maybe because he thinks the external DAC does a better job than the one in the AVR. And for most AVR's if the input is digital, then you cannot always apply sound processing effects to the signal such as Dolby Pro Logic Music etc. Of course one could argue that this not music in its purist form but many people like the soundfield enhancements they provide.

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