The $6.35 alternative to Apple's AirPort Express

Last week my wife through threw me a 30th birthday party at our home. While I helped out with all of the preparations my main concern was getting the music ready. 

For a while I've been using TiVo Desktop to stream music to my home stereo system via my wireless network.  I love this feature of the TiVo Series 2 as well as being able to view our digital photos on our TV.  The downsides of the Music feature is that it can't play music files with DRM and it can't play playlists (as far as I know). Since I purchase music from the iTunes Music Store fairly often this is kind of a hassle.

So I was considering getting the $129 Apple AirPort Express so I could stream all my music from iTunes and set up exactly the playlist I wanted for this party and others. I hesitated because I didn't really want to run the wire to my stereo and I kept thinking this was an overkill solution for our two-bedroom apartment.

And then it dawned on  me.  Why not just plug my iPod directly into my stereo?  This would have also required getting back behind my stereo for wiring except my VCR has RCA inputs in the front!  This way I could just set my VCR to the AUX input and set my stereo to play the audio from the VCR. So I went to Radio Shack and bought a 1/8" to RCA cable (specifically packaged for connecting portable music players to stereos) for $6.35.  The whole thing worked like a charm (see photo at left) and I played my party playlist straight from the iPod.  My wife was extremely glad she didn't buy me the Airport Express.

Technorati tag: iPod

Comments

[Jim]

Your wife "threw" you a party.

[Krioni]

Heh, that wrong word threw me for a moment, too. I thought he was about to said that his wife did something using him as a proxy... :-)

Anyway, Dan, I do something similar, but have my old Tibook sitting on the entertainment center, plugged into the MD input of my stereo. That way, I can either grab the output jack from it to use with the iPod or put the iPod into the dock, which stays connected to the TiBook.

Also, the Tibook is plugged into the phone line so that when it is asleep and I'm not at home and want to SSH/VNc to it, I can give the home a single phone ring to wake up the TiBook. It would be even easier if the TiBook would just spin down the hard-drive when it is not in use, but that feature appears to no longer work, even after a clean re-install of Tiger. Burned out the drive I had Panther on, so I let it go to actual sleep and use the phone trick to wake it up when needed.

[Krioni]

um, that should be "about to say" - changed my mind on the phrase and never fixed it... heh heh

[mmmmark]

Since you were buying a cable, you might have considered getting a cable that does the same thing DIRECTLY into your stereo (surely you have an extra jack).

This will cut your distortion more than half, just based on less connections, nevermind the total harmonic distortion of the VCR's audio inputs (probably double it again).

But if you are happy.....rock on! ;-)

[Dan Entin]

Hey mmmmark. I know I could use the same cable to plug directly into my stereo. I just didn't want the hassle of pulling out my receiver to plug the cable in the back - such of mess of wires! Easier to use front-side jacks on my VCR. But you're right that I'm losing sound quality. Thanks for stopping by!

[Jack]

Good catch Jim!

God forbid someone actually read that as "through" and didn't realize the mistake. It's great seeing the gram-nazi's out in full force in the blogosphere!

You people with your absolute perfection! Let me guess, your gas smells like roses??

Dan - cool idea. I've done the same in the past (inputs via the front of the VCR) - works like a charm. However, one nice advantage to wireless is the party-goers do not have access to the actual iPod.

I've had parties where someone realizes the set up and suddenly goes through the iPod trying to find something to play. While I've set up a nice playlist strictly for the party, there are other songs I never intended to be played (at least in public settings) - Imagine me, when I'm hanging out and hearing a song come on, that even I'm ashamed to admit I own (which I'm not!)

:)

[jack]

(which I'm not going to say!)

I have no clue why I ended that line early? I guess I was thinking faster than I was typing. Weird. Tends to hap

:P

[chris]

You are retarted. I cant belive you even felt this is worth writing about . I thought Everyone already did this, I have never heard of anyone who didnt know that you could use one of those cables. You been under a rock?

Most people carry that cable with them in their laptop bag so they can hook up anywhere. As well as a tape adapter or an airtrip.

Dude write about something interesting, I cant belive stories like this make it to macsurfer these days. I wish boring blogs could come with a warning :).

[R g]

This is one of the worst solutions for a non existent problems ever! Going through your VCR??????

[Matt]

Yeah dude. You're a farking genius. Nice blog.

[rubyinthedust]

cable? what is that?

[Dan Entin]

Yes, a 1/8" to RCA cable from Radio Shack. You can click on the small picture to see a larger one.

[jakdfj]

that's retarded: "instead of wireless music streaming i just used a cable", duhhh

[Dwils7]

I get this was originally posted in 2005, but I still agree with @jakdfj.