I want to rip all my music lossless for hi fi use (may get into tv and movies too if I can work out how) and will need a new bigger HD.

Currenj plan is to use itunes, an airport express (older one) and my android phone or ipod touch ap a remote.

My pc is IDE, I was thinking of just getting a usb HD to plug in and putting all the files on that…should work ok, or is there significant benefits to going for NAS? 3 light wifi users off the router.

or is there significant benefits to going for NAS?

Pc doesn’t need to be on if everything is on the NAS.

Will a Sony TV recognise these NAS thingys?

Jam bo +1
NAS’s have significantly more secure than a portable hdd, especially if you have mirroring (raid 1) setup. Portable Hdd’s are obviously more vunerable to physical damage (due to there small portable size) and potential theft.
NAS can be setup to access through the internet (not stream though, unless you have a major internet connection), so you should be able to access it anywhere with internet access.

if you are going down the route of putting all your stuff on a NAS, so that your computer can be off, then be aware that this won’t work with an airport express.

You can host your music on an ‘itunes server’ on a NAS, but this is little more than a shared repository; you still need to have a computer on in order to play music out of an airport express.

Have a look at the various logitech squeezebox devices. They can stream internet radio (including bbc stations) straight from the web, or your music from your NAS with no computers turned on.

I’ve got a netgear readyNAS and a squeezebox touch (plugged into my living room amp); I’ve also got a sony bluray player which can stream videos by DLNA from my NAS. Very impressed with both, and I think I’m going to get a squeezebox radio for the kitchen, and maybe another for our bedroom.

Dave

Thanks Alfabus, I thought that you be the case and that the above advice was incomplete 🙄

I’m on a budget so will prob just go for HD for now.