Tag Archives: streaming

#50by50ish #38a – Share my music on mobile and home devices

The PolyBlog
November 11 2018

I’ve blogged before about a desire I have to be able to listen to any of my music anywhere in the house. My network-attached-storage (NAS) options didn’t really work out (The joys of network attached storage or not) and although my needs aren’t that complicated (Articles I Like: Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time), they have shifted a bit. As have the options available to me.

Here is what I want:

  • All of our (Andrea and I, and eventually Jacob) music available to all of us all the time;
  • Available in our bedroom (i.e. the nightstand);
  • Available in J’s room (likely the nightstand or at least near his desk);
  • Available in the office on our computers (likely a desktop app of some sort);
  • Available in our playroom/kitchen area (likely through the stereo system, or not, as the case may be);
  • Available on any of our mobile devices (A’s iPhone, my Android phone, my Android tablet with LTE, J’s iPad on wifi, possibly an old iTouch, iPhone, Android tablet, and a Sony MP3 player); and,
  • Ability to stream new songs and old songs, and even store them offline.

If possible, I’d like to have podcasts, audio books, and DJ-based radio.

Yeah, I know, it’s a big wish list.

A. Eliminating home solutions

So I thought I had a plausible working solution. I was going to buy Amazon Kindle tablets, 7 or 8″, and put them in the various locations around the house. Then I would upload all my music to the Amazon servers to be able to stream, while also copying the various music files over to a series of SD cards that I could plug in to the Kindle tablets, and every location in the house would have its own little media centre to kick music out to external speakers or as LINE-INs on existing devices. I would plug them in permanently (rather than charge them occasionally), and I would be good to go.

Except I would want to be able to occasionally use the Kindle tablets for other things. Like maybe playing a networked version of Ticket to Ride. However, I found out that the Kindle tablets are NOT running stock Android and thus the Google Play Store is not available, just Amazon Apps. Most of the time that wouldn’t be a problem, I’ve used both in the past, but here’s the kicker. The games I wanted to play? They’re not available on Amazon Apps. So if I go this way, I’m limited to mostly just the music functionality I was looking for. Okay, no problem, just music. Except the sound from a tablet isn’t awesome, particularly those ones. Oh, and none of the stock Google apps are available, including Google Play Music. Okay, I’ll just use Amazon Music.

Except it won’t let me upload all my music to the cloud anymore (it used to do so). Okayyyy…so maybe I’ll go with just existing devices, some MP3 players, I’ll manually load them. Except that doesn’t help Andrea at all since her phone is already maxed out on her storage and iPhones don’t take external SD cards. For the love of…

Okay, that’s out. What’s next?

Plan B. Focusing on streaming

So back in March of last year, I narrowly averted disaster using iTunes (Averting disaster with my music files). Which means it wouldn’t normally be at the top of my list. Except I need a solution that works well for Andrea and Jacob (both of whom are iFans) and nothing integrates better with iPhones than iTunes. Nothing.

Now, I know it will create a lot of extra work for me if I go that route, and not only because I’ll need to create a super secure backup of all my existing music that iTunes WILL NEVER BE ALLOWED TO MANAGE, and then a second copy that iTunes can do what it wants with. Yep, I’ll have two complete sets of my music. Good thing storage is relatively cheap in the abstract. I haven’t worked out yet how much space there is in the iCloud setup, but it will let you upload your music, more or less. I suspect it copies over the version from the iTunes library still, but that’s good enough for now.

Apple Music is known for having a fairly large library with some brand name gaps who hate Apple, limited discoverability for algorithm suggestions, decent curated playlists to try, and Apple Music Canada has a Canadian artists section. It has a radio section, but I haven’t tried it yet. The only real CON is that it is Apple and therefore like Ford making an Edsel…you can have it in any colour you want, as long as it’s black. You don’t get to tweak the setup for Apple or storage or app interfaces. You get what you get and you don’t get upset. Or you find another system. And while LOTS of devices out there work with Apple, not all of them do. Apparently it is hard to integrate Apple Music with certain streaming devices like XBox or Google Home. However, it apparently has released a new version of the Android App that makes it viable to use now. Pricing seems the same for most of the major offerings, $10 for an individual account per month, $15 for a family account.

As I mentioned above, Amazon was out because of their limited options, and that is a big surprise to me since I’m already an Amazon Prime member, which would suggest AM would be a no brainer to try. Particularly if I could get it all to work seamlessly with an Amazon device like Alexa or the Echo.

Instead, my likely preferred second choice is Google Play Music. It’s the same price as Apple Music, so no issue there, and it allows me to upload 50K songs to the cloud for free. The library isn’t as extensive as Apple Music though and the app is almost too simplistic. Nevertheless, I want to give it a try, and the first month is free for the family plan, so I’ll give it a go.

Those are the major two contenders partly as they are so popular with device manufacturers. Either one will have at least one viable streaming device that I can use it with, no problem. It may narrow the choices, but that’s okay. Both are also default options for future car systems too (with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto).

Beyond those, I start to get less comfortable with some of the other choices. I wasn’t a big fan of Spotify, wasn’t really using it enough, but Andrea liked it apparently. The discoverability algorithms are apparently first rate, but I’m a creature of habit, so not really an issue for me. It does have a free tier though, so I should make sure I reinstall the desktop version at least.

The other one I want to try is Tidal. It is hugely popular online, but it doesn’t appear to have options to upload your own songs. On the other hand, if you create a playlist of your own songs anyway, does it really matter? Tidal’s big claim to fame is that they have lossless audio quality, but that is just going to suck bandwidth for the month. Deezer is another one in the same realm, and it has a free option to try. And the iHeartRadio app has a free option to see if it adds anything re: radio stations to try. Oh, and Slacker Radio looks interesting. Maybe I’ll try a bunch again. Just for fun. I need a rabbit hole to distract me from some other stuff going on. 🙂

Regardless, I’ll be copying music over to my MP3 manually, so I’ll be keeping my Media Monkey app too. And with that, I can do whatever the apps don’t let me do directly.

I’ve signed up for a month of Google Play Music, let’s see how it goes. But I confess. I’m not totally convinced I shouldn’t just run a home server app (like Subsonic, Plex), and avoid any subscription fees.

Not in Canada – Cheap streaming options

The PolyBlog
September 12 2017

Anyone visiting my blog, or following me on Twitter, or even just (gasp!) knowing me in person knows pretty fast that I like serialized story telling — movies with sequels, books in series, and of course, TV shows. Just under two years ago, I decided it was time to cut the cord (Cutting the cord – Conclusion). It was a huge decision for me. I was a slave to my corporate overlords for media consumption for home telephone, cell phone, internet, mobile data, TV, etc. And it was costing me a small fortune, even with bundling. I made a huge change. But every few months, I get an itch to have MORE choice that would stop me from having to make such all-or-nothing types of decisions.

And then today, I tripped over an article at How-To Geek entitled simply “The Cheapest Way to Stream TV: Rotate Your Subscriptions”. I don’t want to bury the proverbial lede too far so let me state clearly that the article basically asks why pay for multiple streaming options all year round when you could have one or two “base” subscriptions and just pick up a few of the others if/when there is something worth watching on that network. Like Game of Thrones, for example. [Source: The Cheapest Way to Stream TV: Rotate Your Subscriptions].

Is that why I was gobsmacked? No. It was because his matter of fact way of explaining the options he has to draw upon is simply not even remotely close to what we (don’t) have available in Canada.

For a basic streaming package, he uses Netflix and Hulu for a total of $22 a month. Let’s start with Netflix.

We do have Netflix Canada, so sounds good, right? Except we don’t have the same content as regular Netflix. They have first run TV shows added due to deals with networks. Very few of those shows make it to Netflix Canada until the next season. Current year? Not available in Canada.

Take Hulu or Hulu Plus. Another great basic streaming option. Lots of first-run series matching regular network broadcast schedules. Which is industry speak for saying when it airs on CBS or NBC or ABC or Fox, it shows up either same day or same week on Hulu. You don’t get EVERYTHING, but you get a heck of a lot. Great, sign me up for $12 a month! Oh, wait, not available in Canada. At least not legally. Lots of people are buying Hulu gift cards on eBay, and I’ve looked at it long enough to figure out it would cost me $20 to try it. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. Still pretty shady though, on the black side of the grey zone of legality (yes, it completely violates their terms of service, but that’s not “law”, that’s a company’s ToS, not far off from removing mattress tags). Don’t get me wrong, there are very STRONG advocates that will and have told me that’s the slippery slope to cable Armageddon, although they haven’t yet told me why that’s a bad thing. But I digress.

We do have four other options in Canada to get basic service.

One option is to go with Crave TV. It’s meant to be like Netflix or Hulu, except its “first-run” show complement is somewhere around new episodes of The Beachcombers (for non-Canadian readers, it’s a home-grown show that has been off the air for years). If Netflix was Tier 1, Crave TV would clock in around Tier 3 or 4.

We do have Amazon Prime now, isn’t that exciting? Well, not really, as we don’t get the cable options in it, just the Prime shows. Another “Netflix-lite” style of Amazon Prime. No one would pay for it separately i.e. if it wasn’t included with the free shipping account we did pay for earlier.

A third option, although kind of defeats the whole purpose, would be to get basic cable or a satellite dish. The regulatory board forced Bell and Rogers and others to offer a “skinny” package of a handful of basic channels for $25, which is better than paying 50 or 100 bucks a month, but they also ding you with their add on costs for equipment and any “extras” like sports. Or in one case, a remote to work the set top box.

The final option sounds close to the article’s options: VMedia and it’s wannabe clone Zazeen TV. Less than the cable providers, more flex, and all through streaming. Sounds great, right? Well except they can only do it if you are connected with encryption boxes to their networks. Think of it kind of like people running a bar and having a whole bunch of licensing problems about what they can and can’t offer — so they skirt the rules by creating a “club” instead that you pay a nightly membership fee to enter. Problem solved, they’re not a bar open to the public, they’re a private club. Well, VMedia and Zazeen have special boxes that let you connect to their streams so it isn’t “open streaming” and they’re not broadcasters, so they bypass a bunch of the rules. Except to have that club status, you have to use their internet. And both their internet and their TV options are flaky for service. A friend’s husband is a sports nerd, and he had VMedia. It was so flaky that on the night of a big game, he went to the local bar to watch rather than stay home because he didn’t want to risk missing it. After he paid for the package so he could watch it at home.

Yet when VMedia and Zazeen tried to ditch the encryption boxes and offer pure streaming (they don’t like them any more than the customers do), Bell and Rogers smacked them with legal proceedings and roomfuls of lawyers that they couldn’t afford to fight. So they folded their streaming-only tents and went back to the encryption boxes.

You can also do over the air (OTA) antennas, but not really the same technology. Still, an option in some cities.

Other options

After that, even though I can’t match his streaming options, and certainly nowhere near the price / options / reliability intersection point, things screech to a halt.

HBO Now? Nope, not in Canada.

Sling? Nope, not in Canada.

CBS All Access? Surely you jest.

But wait, you do have options. Like Microsoft / XBox or iTunes season subscriptions to shows, or Google purchases. No worries, just $15-20. Per season. Per show. Yikes. A viable option if you only want one show though.

So I love the article, even if I can’t do any of it.

Now if only the CRTC board would read the same article and say, “Hey, why can’t we do that in Canada?” rather than having so many people switch to Kodi, one of the few options to still get first-run shows after you cut the cable cord. Canadians are still willing to pay, it’s not that we suddenly embraced a pirate lifestyle like a virus, we just want a service that can give us what everyone already has for options in the U.S.

The joys of network attached storage or not

The PolyBlog
August 29 2017

So I had some fun awhile ago with my hard drives getting fried, and it looks like my Network Attached Storage went the same way. Not entirely sure, maybe it’s just a HomeGroup config problem with Andrea’s computer (the network doesn’t like me configuring homegroups, it only likes Andrea’s computer to do it). But I copied a bunch of stuff from Andrea’s computer over to the NAS before a computer tweak, and while the PC was in the shop, I tried to read the files on to my PC to process some photos. Nope, I could see them, but the NAS did not want to share.

Which means I can’t trust the NAS for the future.

Now, this presents a small but not insurmountable problem. I can simply get a new NAS. The question is if I want one or not. I have a 2TB and a 3TB regular HD that I use for backups. But I also like having a master that I can keep, just in case, on the NAS. It could be simply a third HD, but I prefer to think of it as a common resource. Plus I can copy any of my other PCs to it without tying up my computer, so kind of useful. But I’m not actually using the network functions on it.

Which means I’m at a small crossroads, with two needs:

  • a need for a third backup drive, preferably > 2TB; and,
  • a desire to stream music all over the house from a common source.

The third backup drive is REALLY simple, just over a $100, no muss, no fuss, done. The second element though is the one that creates a question, or at least some options to consider.

A. Keep the music on my main PC

While my main PC is usually on, I don’t know if I want it to be the source of streaming for any and every device. Mostly, I just don’t want it slowing things down if I’m working on something else. But, generally speaking, the person likely to be pulling things from the PC to elsewhere in the house is, well, me. I’m not able to be downstairs listening to music AND working on my machine upstairs, so maybe it’s not a real issue, but I don’t like the idea of having my PC being the main server.

B. Put the music on another PC

Jacob’s PC will not be stretched very far with his usage, and I could easily use it, but that’s a bit of a slippery slope to me, and in a few years if he’s gaming, that will change easily. Not a sustainable option.

C. Put everything in the cloud

I could, indeed, put the stuff in an internet-based cloud, but then everything I stream will be upload/download drains on my monthly usage. And really, it seems odd to stream stuff from the web when it is already on the network somewhere else.

D. Run my own server

Umm, how can I put this? No. 🙂

E. Copy the music to multiple locations

Most of the machines that I’m going to be streaming to have SD card slots, I could easily just make a bunch of copies and stream from the card. But if 3 backups is a pain to manage, 5 or 6 copies of the music library all over the house seems drastic overkill.

F. Repeat the network-attached storage

So I can go back to NAS options, but then I’m again facing a question mark:

  • Do I want a simple NAS that will allow me to stream about 250GB of data around the house?
  • Or do I want a more complex NAS that will hold all my current data, around 1 TB in total for active and some change for non-active?
  • Or do I want to go whole hog and get a full NAS with multiple drive bays for expandability, that will hold all my backups, can even create multiple copies of the backups with mirrored setups?

I’m leaning towards the simplest NAS storage I can do to put the music on it and leave the backups to straight drive copies. Not sure that’s the best solution, but it should work. The middle option is a good compromise but pushes me into the $200-$250 range pretty fast, and not really enough storage for the long-term. If I go the more complex route, I can easily push $300-400 for now, but with a huge amount of expandability for the future. But that seems like overkill.

Sigh. I know I’m obsessing over wanting to get it right, I just wish the “best” solution was obvious or that I was confident I was seeing the right variables.