music on harddisk - speaker without cable: possible?
All my music is stored on a harddisk, about 1TB of data in total (high quality).
I like a very limited interior design: few low furniture you can look under and am looking for a way to get music from that disk to a speaker in the same room, without cable and on a budget. That includes subscriptions for any music services. Plus the music I like is generally not available on streaming services, and I have limited internet data and could not upload 1TB somewhere with less than 5GB available in total per day. I only own a small notebook with a fairly full disk. Not keen to have the disk connected to my computer as I'm super clumsy and because the notebook is usually on my lap. I use my phone as wifimodem, thus basically mobile data at home.
Thus how do I do this? As my disk is nearly full I need a bigger one anyway. Would a wireless enabled disk help somehow? Then I'd probably need a phone app/windows software to look into this disk and select full albums (I don't do random) and somehow get it to a speaker about 4m away. Any idea if this is possible at all?
I like a very limited interior design: few low furniture you can look under and am looking for a way to get music from that disk to a speaker in the same room, without cable and on a budget. That includes subscriptions for any music services. Plus the music I like is generally not available on streaming services, and I have limited internet data and could not upload 1TB somewhere with less than 5GB available in total per day. I only own a small notebook with a fairly full disk. Not keen to have the disk connected to my computer as I'm super clumsy and because the notebook is usually on my lap. I use my phone as wifimodem, thus basically mobile data at home.
Thus how do I do this? As my disk is nearly full I need a bigger one anyway. Would a wireless enabled disk help somehow? Then I'd probably need a phone app/windows software to look into this disk and select full albums (I don't do random) and somehow get it to a speaker about 4m away. Any idea if this is possible at all?
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What type of connections does the HD have?0
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Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »you need a wireless hard drive
from there, you can use you laptop to connect to your hard drive wirelessly, and then , assuming its blue tooth enabled, connect to an external speaker, unless you are running speakers with wires
Yeah, that's what I was hoping would work.
Wireless harddrive and connect to it with computer or phone.. and then use bluetooth for example to speaker (my laptop has bluetooth, and so has my phone). This setup seems to be so rare that I can't really find out whether this works at all, and if there are apps/software that help with selecting specific albums (in folders) and sending them to a speaker.
The disk would ideally be standing in a shelf behind my sofa, plugging it in there is possible and the cable out of sight. Speaker would be about 4m away on a small table on the opposite wall. There's also a socket for electricity.0 -
What type of connections does the HD have?
I'm intending to buy a new one as it's nearly full. Just a usb drive at the moment. But I don't want to connect it to my computer as: extreme clumsiness (I pull out the charging cable so often. One more cable won't work) and I don't want to have the drive on the sofa/my lap.0 -
If you're buying a new one, then just do what Will suggested.0
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Does this help? I don't know if this is correct or not.
https://youtu.be/uOhMxPTyWMk
Wow..... Good answer.
quote="Will_Workout_for_food;c-43121412"]you need a wireless hard drive
from there, you can use you laptop to connect to your hard drive wirelessly, and then , assuming its blue tooth enabled, connect to an external speaker, unless you are running speakers with wires
but judging from your post of not wanting to connect the HD to your laptop, your only other option is connecting the HD to a external component that accepts HD's plugged in, which will allow it to play to a connected speaker [/quote]
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Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »you need a wireless hard drive
from there, you can use you laptop to connect to your hard drive wirelessly, and then , assuming its blue tooth enabled, connect to an external speaker, unless you are running speakers with wires
Yeah, that's what I was hoping would work.
Wireless harddrive and connect to it with computer or phone.. and then use bluetooth for example to speaker (my laptop has bluetooth, and so has my phone). This setup seems to be so rare that I can't really find out whether this works at all, and if there are apps/software that help with selecting specific albums (in folders) and sending them to a speaker.
The disk would ideally be standing in a shelf behind my sofa, plugging it in there is possible and the cable out of sight. Speaker would be about 4m away on a small table on the opposite wall. There's also a socket for electricity.
i imagine you will need some wires either way. the HD needs a source for power.
you can get a really slim, portable hard drive for cheap, and comes with a short usb cable, and just plug it into your laptop and tuck it away. imo that's the best and cheapest option
you can also connect the hard drive to other components as long as it has a usb port to play music, like a playstation, a tv, receiver, etc etc.
Well, the laptop is on my lap most of the time. And I make a mess out of the charging cable already, pulling it out, throwing the laptop down by getting entangled into the cable, etc. That's reason enough to try to avoid more cables.
I have no other home electronics. Just the laptop and my phone. All the rest is analogue. I don't even have a tv. So the options are limited. But sockets for the disk and speaker are no problem. There are sockets where I would like to pace them.0 -
I hope this helps!
No ..... probably won't help. Giggles.
https://youtu.be/aW2LvQUcwqc 0 -
upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.1 -
upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
Can't. It's one of those ultralight things for travelling. I don't think the disk is glued in but it's a real nightmare to take apart, and I don't have the skills to install a new disk and somehow get windows on this.
I currently don't own speakers, thus I'd start completely from scratch with this (basically my ex took the stereo, all cds and the record player. I only have the stuff we digitized over the years).0 -
Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »you need a wireless hard drive
from there, you can use you laptop to connect to your hard drive wirelessly, and then , assuming its blue tooth enabled, connect to an external speaker, unless you are running speakers with wires
Yeah, that's what I was hoping would work.
Wireless harddrive and connect to it with computer or phone.. and then use bluetooth for example to speaker (my laptop has bluetooth, and so has my phone). This setup seems to be so rare that I can't really find out whether this works at all, and if there are apps/software that help with selecting specific albums (in folders) and sending them to a speaker.
The disk would ideally be standing in a shelf behind my sofa, plugging it in there is possible and the cable out of sight. Speaker would be about 4m away on a small table on the opposite wall. There's also a socket for electricity.
i imagine you will need some wires either way. the HD needs a source for power.
you can get a really slim, portable hard drive for cheap, and comes with a short usb cable, and just plug it into your laptop and tuck it away. imo that's the best and cheapest option
you can also connect the hard drive to other components as long as it has a usb port to play music, like a playstation, a tv, receiver, etc etc.
Well, the laptop is on my lap most of the time. And I make a mess out of the charging cable already, pulling it out, throwing the laptop down by getting entangled into the cable, etc. That's reason enough to try to avoid more cables.
I have no other home electronics. Just the laptop and my phone. All the rest is analogue. I don't even have a tv. So the options are limited. But sockets for the disk and speaker are no problem. There are sockets where I would like to pace them.
you also need to take in consideration that if your laptop is wifi'ed into the hard drive, chances are you cant surf the web or use internet
but if your aware of that, then:
buy wireless HD. tuck it away connected to a power source
buy bluetooth enabled speakers. lots of those are rechargeable so you can be cable free
use laptop and wifi into HD.
use laptop and Bluetooth into external speakers ( if your laptop doesn't have blue tooth, u can purchase a dongle )
voila.
Yeah, that's one of the worries I have. I can watch tv on my laptop and surf the net simultaneously. I mean, I have 4G, just not endless data. Listening to a cd every now and then should be fine for my data, for example during a workout.0 -
Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
good idea, but i imagine any 1tb+ hd for a laptop is not cheap, especially if its an older laptop. also, it will require a reinstall of the laptop, since i assume the laptop only has room for 1 HD.
Yep, that's it. There's certainly only space for one disk. And if it works properly with the other components, needs BIOS adjustments, etc...? I certainly know that I need two special screwdrivers that I don't own. No idea to be honest. It's been ages since I built my last computer, and everything was a bit easier back then (and a lot bigger
) 0 -
upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
Can't. It's one of those ultralight things for travelling. I don't think the disk is glued in but it's a real nightmare to take apart, and I don't have the skills to install a new disk and somehow get windows on this.
I currently don't own speakers, thus I'd start completely from scratch with this (basically my ex took the stereo, all cds and the record player. I only have the stuff we digitized over the years).Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
good idea, but i imagine any 1tb+ hd for a laptop is not cheap, especially if its an older laptop. also, it will require a reinstall of the laptop, since i assume the laptop only has room for 1 HD.
not necessarily a nightmare- does the laptop have a cd/dvd drive in it? and if it does, do you actually use it?
if not you can just remove the optical drive, and buy a slimline optical bay HD caddy, put another HD in it, then slide it in the port where the optical bay was. then boom you got another HD that windows will detect just like its an external drive
if you ain't got an optical disk tray in it though, or otherwise aren't willing to try and remove it and do the above, then yeah sorry you're back to square one0 -
upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
Can't. It's one of those ultralight things for travelling. I don't think the disk is glued in but it's a real nightmare to take apart, and I don't have the skills to install a new disk and somehow get windows on this.
I currently don't own speakers, thus I'd start completely from scratch with this (basically my ex took the stereo, all cds and the record player. I only have the stuff we digitized over the years).Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
good idea, but i imagine any 1tb+ hd for a laptop is not cheap, especially if its an older laptop. also, it will require a reinstall of the laptop, since i assume the laptop only has room for 1 HD.
not necessarily a nightmare- does the laptop have a cd/dvd drive in it? and if it does, do you actually use it?
if not you can just remove the optical drive, and buy a slimline optical bay HD caddy, put another HD in it, then slide it in the port where the optical bay was. then boom you got another HD that windows will detect just like its an external drive
if you ain't got an optical disk tray in it though, or otherwise aren't willing to try and remove it and do the above, then yeah sorry you're back to square one
It's an ultrabook. Thus no space for a second disk and no optical drive. I know you can do things with bootable usb sticks and the likes, but I'm not sure I would like to go down that route. If I mess up my computer then I'm completely without one until a repair shop has time. And I need it for work for the coming 3-4 months if I don't want to spent my evenings at the office.1 -
upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
Can't. It's one of those ultralight things for travelling. I don't think the disk is glued in but it's a real nightmare to take apart, and I don't have the skills to install a new disk and somehow get windows on this.
I currently don't own speakers, thus I'd start completely from scratch with this (basically my ex took the stereo, all cds and the record player. I only have the stuff we digitized over the years).Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
good idea, but i imagine any 1tb+ hd for a laptop is not cheap, especially if its an older laptop. also, it will require a reinstall of the laptop, since i assume the laptop only has room for 1 HD.
not necessarily a nightmare- does the laptop have a cd/dvd drive in it? and if it does, do you actually use it?
if not you can just remove the optical drive, and buy a slimline optical bay HD caddy, put another HD in it, then slide it in the port where the optical bay was. then boom you got another HD that windows will detect just like its an external drive
if you ain't got an optical disk tray in it though, or otherwise aren't willing to try and remove it and do the above, then yeah sorry you're back to square one
It's an ultrabook. Thus no space for a second disk and no optical drive. I know you can do things with bootable usb sticks and the likes, but I'm not sure I would like to go down that route. If I mess up my computer then I'm completely without one until a repair shop has time. And I need it for work as well.
yep sounds like a wireless drive and some kind of bluetooth adapter/streaming schmozz is gonna be your best bet at this point then. unless you just decide to upgrade laptops entirely of course.0 -
Ok, before we get carried away: thus my idea would in theory work. Just need an interface between the disk and speaker.0
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LittleLionHeart1 wrote: »I hope this helps!
No ..... probably won't help. Giggles.https://youtu.be/aW2LvQUcwqc
can't watch it from work, but I'm giggling just looking at the starting image
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upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
Can't. It's one of those ultralight things for travelling. I don't think the disk is glued in but it's a real nightmare to take apart, and I don't have the skills to install a new disk and somehow get windows on this.
I currently don't own speakers, thus I'd start completely from scratch with this (basically my ex took the stereo, all cds and the record player. I only have the stuff we digitized over the years).Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »upgrade the harddrive directly in your laptop?
put all the music on there and forget the external drive all together if you can. then just use bluetooth to stream your music to whatever speaker you have.
if the speaker doesn't have bluetooth capabilities, you can get an adapter of some kind i'm sure, or upgrade the speaker to one with bluetooth.
good idea, but i imagine any 1tb+ hd for a laptop is not cheap, especially if its an older laptop. also, it will require a reinstall of the laptop, since i assume the laptop only has room for 1 HD.
not necessarily a nightmare- does the laptop have a cd/dvd drive in it? and if it does, do you actually use it?
if not you can just remove the optical drive, and buy a slimline optical bay HD caddy, put another HD in it, then slide it in the port where the optical bay was. then boom you got another HD that windows will detect just like its an external drive
if you ain't got an optical disk tray in it though, or otherwise aren't willing to try and remove it and do the above, then yeah sorry you're back to square one
It's an ultrabook. Thus no space for a second disk and no optical drive. I know you can do things with bootable usb sticks and the likes, but I'm not sure I would like to go down that route. If I mess up my computer then I'm completely without one until a repair shop has time. And I need it for work as well.
yep sounds like a wireless drive and some kind of bluetooth adapter/streaming schmozz is gonna be your best bet at this point then. unless you just decide to upgrade laptops entirely of course.
thanks No, i don't intend to upgrade because I travel a lot and need a small, light notebook (to satisfy geeky needs 
). And to sit comfortably on my couch. 2 -
Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »
Oh? why not? Bugger. So I can't do this at the same time? Back to square one I guess
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Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »Will_Workout_for_food wrote: »
Oh? why not? Bugger. So I can't do this at the same time? Back to square one I guess
You can’t be connected to multiple Wi-Fi devices at the same time you have to pick only one so if your device is connected to the hard drive you can’t connect to your router at home
makes sense. This wouldn't work with my phone either as I need it as wifispot and I can't do wifi and provide wifi at the same time. Argh! I might still have an old android tablet somewhere, unless I kicked it out with the last move as I never used it... time to go digging.0 -
It all doesn't look that easy. I've looked at Sonos but am not sure if I can connect the speaker to my phone (my hotspot) and a wireless harddisk and then play music that way with their app. And to be honest, even their smallest speaker is a too big for what I'm looking for.0
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CookingWithCumin wrote: »What are you actually looking to play the music on? Do you have an existing sound system, tv, etc. or is this part of the budget?
Keep reading...1 -
NAS. Gonna run $150+ though.0
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CookingWithCumin wrote: »CookingWithCumin wrote: »What are you actually looking to play the music on? Do you have an existing sound system, tv, etc. or is this part of the budget?
Keep reading...
The first post says there is a speaker and then later it says there isn't. This is the type of nightmare scenario that people who gather requirements shudder at everywhere. But thanks for your input, bud.
I mean on second glance there doesn't even seem to be a dollar value for a budget here. How can anyone suggest anything without the constraints?
Here you go...I have no other home electronics. Just the laptop and my phone. All the rest is analogue. I don't even have a tv. So the options are limited. But sockets for the disk and speaker are no problem. There are sockets where I would like to pace them.2 -
This content has been removed.
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CookingWithCumin wrote: »CookingWithCumin wrote: »CookingWithCumin wrote: »What are you actually looking to play the music on? Do you have an existing sound system, tv, etc. or is this part of the budget?
Keep reading...
The first post says there is a speaker and then later it says there isn't. This is the type of nightmare scenario that people who gather requirements shudder at everywhere. But thanks for your input, bud.
I mean on second glance there doesn't even seem to be a dollar value for a budget here. How can anyone suggest anything without the constraints?
Here you go...I have no other home electronics. Just the laptop and my phone. All the rest is analogue. I don't even have a tv. So the options are limited. But sockets for the disk and speaker are no problem. There are sockets where I would like to pace them.
Again, first post mentioned having speakers. Later it says an ex took everything. The post you reference mentions "everything else is analog", which for speakers is a thing.
It's just confusing, I was trying to get OP to clarify what they have and what they want.
I don't think any amount of re-reading would have answered that.
ETA: sorry for trying to help, I'll drop it. You can all get back to suggesting multi hundred dollar speaker solutions to someone on a budget :-)
But but but... OP never mentioned a budget, so how do we know that multi hundred dollars isn't reasonable???
THERE'S NO WAY TO KNOW!!!!!!!1 -
CookingWithCumin wrote: »CookingWithCumin wrote: »What are you actually looking to play the music on? Do you have an existing sound system, tv, etc. or is this part of the budget?
Keep reading...
The first post says there is a speaker and then later it says there isn't. This is the type of nightmare scenario that people who gather requirements shudder at everywhere. But thanks for your input, bud.
I mean on second glance there doesn't even seem to be a dollar value for a budget here. How can anyone suggest anything without the constraints?
No, I said I'd consider connecting it to a speaker. I wrote I only own a notebook, iphone and possibly an old android tablet. I have nothing else. That means I'd buy whatever I need. Such a Sonos thing would be too expensive, but I figured if this is the only thing that works, as it's supposed to be a wifi speaker so be it. But apparently it doesn't work either as my phone hotspot apparently isn't considered to be wifi even though I can connect other devices to it, also a wireless printer (used to have a *kitten* thing that I kicked out before the last move) and print from my notebook.0 -
CookingWithCumin wrote: »CookingWithCumin wrote: »What are you actually looking to play the music on? Do you have an existing sound system, tv, etc. or is this part of the budget?
Keep reading...
The first post says there is a speaker and then later it says there isn't. This is the type of nightmare scenario that people who gather requirements shudder at everywhere. But thanks for your input, bud.
I mean on second glance there doesn't even seem to be a dollar value for a budget here. How can anyone suggest anything without the constraints?
I have to agree with you.0 -
CookingWithCumin wrote: »CookingWithCumin wrote: »What are you actually looking to play the music on? Do you have an existing sound system, tv, etc. or is this part of the budget?
Keep reading...
The first post says there is a speaker and then later it says there isn't. This is the type of nightmare scenario that people who gather requirements shudder at everywhere. But thanks for your input, bud.
I mean on second glance there doesn't even seem to be a dollar value for a budget here. How can anyone suggest anything without the constraints?
No, I said I'd consider connecting it to a speaker. I wrote I only own a notebook, iphone and possibly an old android tablet. I have nothing else. That means I'd buy whatever I need. Such a Sonos thing would be too expensive, but I figured if this is the only thing that works, as it's supposed to be a wifi speaker so be it. But apparently it doesn't work either as my phone hotspot apparently isn't considered to be wifi even though I can connect other devices to it, also a wireless printer (used to have a *kitten* thing that I kicked out before the last move) and print from my notebook.
Oh oh.
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This discussion has been closed.
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