40
Operating the Streaming Client
General Information on the
Streaming Client
The
K8
includes what is known as a 'Streaming Client'. This is a new
class of playback devices for media content, providing a means of playing
music which is stored on a vast variety of sources. These sources may be an
iPod or a USB hard disc connected directly to the
K8
, but they may also be
thousands of miles away (e.g. Internet radio station). The Streaming Client can
access such remote sources via a home network and the Internet.
The Streaming Client must be registered to your network before it can receive
music data via your home network and the Internet. To accomplish this you
have to enter some data relating to your home network. The process for setting
up the network connection is explained later in the chapter entitled
'Network
configuration'
.
The
K8
Streaming Client can access the following sources:
Local sources
(direct connection)
Remote sources
(via home network or Internet)
USB memory sticks and
USB hard discs
Internet radio
iPod, connected to the USB IN socket
'USB-A2 (iPod)'
(plays audio files only)
NAS server (with UPnP-AV server)
PC (with UPnP-AV server)
The media content formats which the
K8
can reproduce are very wide-ranging,
and extend from compressed formats such as MP3, WMA, AAC and OGG
Vorbis to high-quality non-compressed data formats such as FLAC and WAV,
which are thoroughly audiophile in nature. A full listing of all possible data and
playlist formats is included in the Specification, which you will find in the
Appendix to these instructions.
Since virtually no read or data errors occur when electronic memory media are
accessed, the potential reproduction quality is even higher than that of CD. The
quality level may even exceed that of SACD and DVD-Audio.
Audio data can be played back digitally from an iPod connected to the USB A1 /
USB-A2 (iPod) socket, i.e. the high-quality D/A converters of the
K8
are used
for the digital / analogue conversion of the music signals. This guarantees
highest possible reproduction quality of the audio files stored on the iPod.
If you wish to play video files stored on an iPod, please use the analogue AV
iPod input (Audio IN / iPod), and control the iPod as described in the Chapter
entitled ‘Operating the iPod’.
Digital audio output is supported by the following iPod models:
iPod nano
(all models)
iPod classic
(all models)
iPod touch
(all models)
iPhone
(all models)
iPod 5G
Earlier models of iPod only generate analogue audio output, and must be
connected to the analogue AV iPod input (Audio IN / iPod).
Select Lists
The music content to be played is chosen from Select Lists. These lists are
operated using the navigation buttons (cursor buttons) which you will find on the
remote control handset and on the front panel. All content can be accessed via
the main menu. Internet Radio in particular offers a huge number of stations,
which can result in long searches or periods of navigation. We therefore
recommend that you store your preferred stations in a
Favourites List
, as this
makes them easy and fast to access, with no protracted searching.
The media content can be listed according to various criteria - Internet radio
stations e.g. by country of origin, genre or alphabetical, music from media
servers e.g. by artiste, album, track, genre, etc.
The exact form of the displayed list and the preparation of the content also
depend to a large extent on the capabilities of the server, i.e. the full facilities of
the
K8
cannot be exploited with all servers or media. You may therefore find
that in many cases not all the functions described in these instructions can be
used.
