How to play CDs and playlists as MP3s on a home stereo.

[jeffrey.roughgarden]

Like many older folks, I have several hundred CDs that I still like. While I have a CD player, I'd rather convert all the CDs to MP3s and put them all on a hard drive, using a commercial service. Then from my home stereo, I'd like to be able to select and play (as MP3s) the original CDs or playlists (that I would create). Is there an appliance that connects to an A/V receiver and will accept (or comes with) an large hard drive for MP3 storage? I'd like something that has a GUI that can be displayed on a TV connected to the receiver so I can create and view playlists and play CDs and playlists. Ideally, this device would also connect to the internet (wirelessly or via Ethernet) so I could add music I bought online for streaming onto the hard drive.

mjslakeridge, thank you for your response. I have an entertainment center with a TV, DVD, CD changer, A/V receiver, satellite box, and Roku (for Pandora, Netflix, Amazon, etc.). All of it plays through wired speakers with a woofer. I want to hear the MP3s through my speakers not through a computer (for better fidelity and frequency response). So I am looking for a component that is a little like a private Pandora, where all my MP3s on my hard drive can be select by album or playlist, and I can view my options just like you can see your Pandora channels.

 

[mjslakeridge]

Does it have to be a TV connected to your receiver? I have ripped all of my CD's into MP3 files, using Windows Media Player. They reside on my secondary hard drive in my computer. All of the songs will be organized by artist, album or song title. And the album artwork will also be displayed on my computer screen (using Windows Media Player). I have ripped them into mp3 files using a pretty high bitrate setting, so the quality is very good. You can also create playlists in Media Player.

I used to use iTunes on my computer to accomplish the same thing, but uninstalled iTunes some time ago, as I didn't like certain things about it. A long time ago I had some Creative (brand) cd ripping software that came with a sound card I had, but the sound card only works on Windows XP or older.