Squeezebox
 

I think the best you can do is go from the optical out on the laptop to an optical in on the receiver.

BTW, wouldn't use the phono inputs. They're at a lot lower (higher?) input level, and the sound is likely to get distorted.

Squeezebox
 

If you've got a laptop with an optical out. Hell, even my eight month old Powerbook doesn't have one of those. (But the bigger ones came with one.)
I hook to the stereo the same way, although I'm looking for a cleaner solution.

Woot was selling these a while back, but I was not yet ready to do streaming music:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

Squeezebox
 

Mac mini
Airportexpress

both have optical out.

I'm thinking the latter for you, the former for slave. He can add on a ministack for extra capacity, and stream the audio. Hook up to the TV for an interface.

Squeezebox
 

I've been considering the Airport Express, although the Sqeezebox thing looks like a pretty cool option, because even though it's twice the price, you get a box that can be controlled away from the computer, and a digital readout. So the computer can stay out of the living room. Same with the Omnifi thing.

Although the MacMini idea has been bandied about.

Squeezebox
 

Depends on your circumstances. The AE would be good if you always have your laptop in your music room and you're in a small place. IN a larger place, with plenty of money, I'd get a squeezebox and amplified speakers for every room i wanted music, hooked to a computer with my music (Mini or otherwise)

BTW, there's another product by Roku Labs, that's similar to the squeezebox. Doesn't look as easy to read, but it doesn't need any software. Same limit on playing iTMS songs (it can't). But if you're slave, your libarary is already bigger than iTMS.

Soundbridge

Battle of the Titans begins
 

High-def DVD beats Blu-ray to market
Toshiba to begin selling next-generation players in U.S. next month.

TOKYO - Toshiba began selling the first players using the next-generation HD DVD video format Friday, beating the rival Blu-ray disc format to market in a high-stakes competition to deliver theater-quality movies to living rooms.

Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said its HD-XA1, priced at about 110,000 yen ($936) is the world's first commercially available HD DVD player. The product, which has no recording function, is being promised for the United States in April at about $799.

The HD DVD format, also backed by NEC Corp. of Japan, competes against the Blu-ray disc format, supported by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, and Sony Corp.

Of course anything with Sony's backing is doomed to failure. With the exception of 8mm, Sony's selection of format is the kiss of death. Nice pairing with Panasonic, whose selection of VHS-C was its kiss of death.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/ap/tok10...55.hmedium.jpg

Battle of the Titans begins
 

Don't count on it. Delays aside - once PS3 is launched, blu-ray will dominate the platform.

FWIW - my upconverter DVD player looks pretty damn good on our 1080i Toshiba DLP.

DVDs in true HD can wait.

Battle of the Titans begins
 

What example other than beta can you point to? (And I'll note Beta is still used professionally).

Minidisc doesn't count, because it was a new format that didn't catch on (and actualy is still used a number of places), not a losing format.

And DAT got screwed by the record labels. It was 10 years ahead of its time, until recordable CDs finally came along.

Battle of the Titans begins
 

MemoryStick (with that bonus bullshit DRM special MemoryStick)

I don't know why the Minidisc shouldn't count. Or DAT. They both got screwed by the rest of the industry; like Beta, both are still used professionally.

Jury's still out on the PSP format for anything but games.

Battle of the Titans begins
 

Dude, those are 3 rather large formats. Can you think of any other company that buried 3 rather large formats? And don't forget memory stick and UMD. And was there C cassette?

Battle of the Titans begins
 

They count for something, but not NFH's point. NFH says bet against the Sony alternative on formats. That's fine, but it's based on one data point--Beta.

Minidisc wasn't competing with another format, it was a new format. Memory stick is still in use, and there are 4 or 5 (or more) formats (I have an 8-in-1 reader).

Battle of the Titans begins
 

The fact that they're large format suggests they didn't fail.

It's like predicting the success of the iPod on the basis of the Newton. What's the relevance?

Battle of the Titans begins
 

As a commercial venture. Saying that Beta and DAT are still used professionally (not Beta per se, but Super Beta) is like saying that records are still a success. There was a time when DAT and mini-disc were available in every electronics store in 50 states. They were wave of the future. DAT lasted about 3 years and mini disc a little longer than that.

I'm just saying that's their rep in the business. I didn't invent it.

Battle of the Titans begins
 

So, what you're saying is that sony has introduced a lot of products that have flopped.

Do you think Beta would have flopped in the absence of VHS? Because that would be the more interesting question. although it wouldn't shed light on whether blue ray will win out.

Battle of the Titans begins
 

I disagree on Minidisc: like Beta, it was a new format when it came out. Like Beta, it was used initially by early adopters, and almost got to the cusp of widespread acceptance as prices were coming down. Like Beta, it is technologically superior in many ways (in particular, smaller) to the subsequent format which pounded it into being used only in specialty circumstances. Like Beta, the alternate formats (CD-RW, and more recently, USB flash drives) are cheaper and more universally supported, but completely technologically incompatible.

The only things that use MemorySticks are Sony products. For much the same reason as Beta: it's more expensive and less universal than the alternative. You might as well stick them into an 8 in 1 reader (since Sony seems to be okay with that from a licensing perspective), but SD and CF cards are cheaper and smaller. If you were a random manufacturer about to launch a small electronic device in need of expandable memory, would you put in a MemoryStick or and SD card?

So yes, there are several formats that Sony has come up with that are still being used by some people, somewhere, but Sony has also NEVER been responsible for a ubiquitous standard.