How to play my MusicBee files via my (future) TV?

[WimYogya]

Hi,

At the moment I have my MB library and files installed on my pc: the library on an internal drive, the music files on an external harddisk.
It means I only play them in my 'office' space, with a good but still limited speaker set.

In the future I want to play the same music in my living room as well, most likely (and if possible) via a new tv that I plan to buy.
I know that I can copy all my music to a new separate external usb disk (and repeat that from time to time to keep the collection updated).
But then?

I am absolutely not aware of the hundreds of options to connect devices with devices.
Friends so far suggest me:
1. Buy a new tv with minimum 1 and perhaps more HDMI access points.
2. Buy a separate mediaplayer that can handle audio via an external usb harddrive (and can record video as well).
3. Those who know that a smart tv combines 1+2 do NOT recommend such smart tv - it can quickly outdate. Better to buy separate devices.

Is this correct?
And then?
Most curious: how can I use my tv screen to see the main track panel of MusicBee and how do I browse, search, select, play from there? With my tv remote? Or?

Curious...
Thanks for guiding me.

Wim

[captain_paranoia]

It sounds like you want to centralise you music collection, so it is available to devices all through your home, not just on the PC.

In which case, you probably want to start looking for a file server; either a NAS, or check to see if your router will provide a file server for a USB HDD connected to it.

Once you have your music on a file server, you can get MusicBee to access it on your office PC. Or any other devices that can access the file server.

Then you might start thinking about using the server to provide a media server function, specifically serving media, say, using the DLNA protocol.

Note that your PC could be made to work as a file server (using Windows sharing), and a media server (MusicBee will provide a DLNA media server). You would need to leave the PC on all the time, though.

Once you have a file server and media server running, you can stream media to devices all around the house, controlling them from any number of devices.

There are three components to a digital media system:

A Digital Media Server (DMS) stores your media, catalogues it (using metadata) into a database, and streams it to devices when instructed to do so.

A Digital Media Renderer (DMR) takes a digital stream sent to it, and converts that stream into audio, or still or moving images.

A Digital Media Controller (DMC) interrogates the database held by the DMS, and allows the user to instruct the DMS to stream selected media to one or more DMRs.

Things get complicated by Digital Media Players (DMP), which can combine DMC & DMR, or sometimes all three DMS/DMC/DMR. One can think of an MP3 player as a DMP of all three parts, but very closely integrated. MusicBee will provide all three components.

Most network-enabled digital media devices these days will operate as a DMR; smart TV, DVD player, Blu-Ray player, etc.

I use a NAS. I access my music on the NAS, using Kodi, MediaMonkey and MusicBee (running on two PCs and a Windows tablet), accessing the NAS file server.
The NAS also provides a DLNA media server. I access this using UPnP/DLNA media clients (BubbleUPnP) on a number of Android devices. I can use any of these devices to control the streaming of music to any of the DLNA DMRs in the house. MM and MB will also stream DLNA to any of these DMRs...

I have a dumb TV, and a cheap Android box, that connects via HDMI to the TV. I run Kodi and BubbleUPnP on this Android box. Kodi accesses the NAS file server. Bubble accesses the NAS DLNA media server. The TV audio is connected via optical SPDIF to a surround sound receiver. I can get this copy of Bubble to play music via the TV, using the DMC built in to this copy of Bubble, or from _any_ of the DMC tools running on any of my DLNA-capable apps (MM, MB, Bubble, etc), running on _any_ device in the house; I simply select the relevant output device in those apps.

If you want a 'MusicBee experience' on your TV, you'll have to run MusicBee on something connected to the TV; a cheap Windows box, or tablet, connecting via HDMI.

There are a huge number of choices, but, fundamentally, they are all based around a central DMS, and a number of DMRs in the house, controlled by one or more DMCs. The rest is just detail...

[frankz]

You can use your existing PC in place of a NAS with network shares, by the way.  This won't require new hardware (besides the TV).

Also note, this will require extensive use of the DLNA plugin for MusicBee, which, although it mostly works, is no longer supported or updated.  If you have problems with it you're basically on your own.

[WimYogya]

Thanks for your extensive explanations.
Must honestly say: it sounds VERY complicated to me - I don't think I have the skills to set this up. Will have to ask a local expert to do it - when the time has come...

What I still do NOT understand:
In my pc the pc screen shows the contents, tracks, searches etc.
How to do that with tv screen?

Thanks, regards,
Wim

[frankz]

In DLNA, there is a server (in your scenario this is your computer with MusicBee), there is a controller (the software within your TV) and there is a renderer (your TV speakers).

Your controller will dictate the interface you use to interact with your server.  My Samsung (2014 version) is useless for this, for example, because MusicBee points it to the wrong top-level folder and there is no way around this and no support is or will ever again be offered to work around it.

On my phone, however, I can set the top-level folder manually and successfully use DLNA to play from my library.

You will most likely need to go around MusicBee as captain_paranoia suggests using some third-party solution to do this in any easy way.  MusicBee is, unfortunately, not set up for next generation playback (away from a computer screen) and indications are it likely never will be.  It's just not its focus.  It's focus is library and tag management, and playback over anything you can't directly connect to the computer that's running it is not considered a priority.  Fact of life.

What you want to do is entirely doable.  It's just a bear of a task that's not guaranteed to work correctly or to be fixed when it doesn't if you choose to do it within the MusicBee ecosystem.

[captain_paranoia]

Thanks for your extensive explanations.
Must honestly say: it sounds VERY complicated to me - I don't think I have the skills to set this up. Will have to ask a local expert to do it - when the time has come...

What I still do NOT understand:
In my pc the pc screen shows the contents, tracks, searches etc.
How to do that with tv screen?

Thanks, regards,
Wim

It is quite involved, but you can do it bit by bit (in the sequence I suggested), and become familiar with each stage before you progress to the next.

As for your question, well, it's my turn not to understand.

If you want to run MusicBee on your PC, and simply show the display on your TV, then you will have to connect the PC's video to the TV. If you have a modern-ish PC with a DVI or HDMI output, you can connect it to the TV, either directly, or using a cheap DVI-to-HDMI converter.

If you want to run MusicBee on the smart TV, then you cannot; MusicBee runs only on Windows, and I have not seen a single smart TV running Windows. You could buy a cheap Windows box, and run MusicBee on that, connected to the TV via HDMI. I have seen these things as cheaply as £55, e.g.

https://www.banggood.com/VOYO-Smart-Mini-PC-Intel-Bay-Trail-T-CR-Z3735-Windows-8_1-Quad-Core-p-966824.html?rmmds=buy&cur_warehouse=CN

Otherwise, you will have to use some other (DLNA) media client app running on a smart TV, and access the media or file server. It won't be MusicBee, but it will provide similar access to your NAS-hosted media library (artist/album/track contents, searches, playlists, etc.). That's what we have described in the posts above.

An alternative route would be jump ship to Apple, and use their ecosystem, with Airplay (DLNA equivalent), and an Apple file server (TimeCapsule, IIRC) and Apple TV. But, again, it would not be MusicBee.

[WimYogya]

Captain and Frankz: thanks both of you!
Connecting my pc with my tv through HDMI will be impossible: both rooms are way to far apart...

How if I 'simplify'(?) my desires in this way:
1. I keep using my pc as the base for my collection and tagged library.
2. I copy all the music files from there to a separate external usb hard disk (and make updates every few months)
3. I connect the usb disk to my (new) tv
4. I use some extra device to browse through the tracks and select what I want to hear
5. Could the tracks and playlists be displayed in the tv in any way?

If this would be possible, what device do I need as the 'player' for audio (speakers) and 'video' (tracks titles on tv screen)?

Apple is more than one bridge to far...

Thanks for any further suggestion!
Wim

[frankz]

That is entirely possible (usually without any additional "player" or "video" needed), although you are losing one of the main features of using a music library which is adding to / working with your play history.  Any listens to songs on the TV from USB will not be reflected in your play counts or last played date.

See here, for example, for instructions to do this with Samsung TVs and a list of file types (audio / video) you can play.  I'm sure each manufacturer has similar instructions and lists of compatible file types.

EDIT: Doesn't look like external playlists over USB are supported specifically on Samsung (a little googling shows you can create them from the TV but I haven't seen anything about importing / using external ones already on the USB), so if that is something important to you, you may want to add finding out whether there is that ability to your pre-purchase research.

[captain_paranoia]

How if I 'simplify'(?) my desires in this way:
1. I keep using my pc as the base for my collection and tagged library.
2. I copy all the music files from there to a separate external usb hard disk (and make updates every few months)
3. I connect the usb disk to my (new) tv
4. I use some extra device to browse through the tracks and select what I want to hear
5. Could the tracks and playlists be displayed in the tv in any way?

That doesn't sound very simple...

But a smart TV will usually provide a rudimentary USB media browser and player (actually, even my 'dumb' TV does that). If you got a really smart TV, you might be able to install a decent media tool (such as Kodi or BubbleUPnP), and it might even be able to access an HDD connected to the TV.

I would still recommend a file/media server solution, and progressing from moving your MusicBee library from your USB HDD to the file server (which will behave fairly seamlessly compared to your existing system; I bet MB has a mechanism for migrating its library), and then get to grips with a media server, and media clients running on different platforms.

You will not have to keep updating your copy, and any library changes will be rolled out automatically to the media server.

You can use your existing HDD as a backup drive; how are you currently backing up your media HDD...?

Or go down the always-on windows media box route, or a cheap tablet; I saw a secondhand win8.1 tablet for £20 the other day. I have a similar one I bought for £25 that runs MB and has an HDMI port and USB port. That could be kludged into doing what you want, with a powered USB HDD and hub, and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

[frankz]

Or go down the always-on windows media box route, or a cheap tablet; I saw a secondhand win8.1 tablet for £20 the other day. I have a similar one I bought for £25 that runs MB and has an HDMI port and USB port. That could be kludged into doing what you want, with a powered USB HDD and hub, and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

This would actually be an excellent solution.  You don't even need the USB hard drive portion if you store your music on an always-on Network Share somewhere.  The downside would be if the onboard audio was for crap, but you could get around that with a small USB DAC if it matters.

[captain_paranoia]

This would actually be an excellent solution.  You don't even need the USB hard drive portion if you store your music on an always-on Network Share somewhere.  The downside would be if the onboard audio was for crap, but you could get around that with a small USB DAC if it matters.

I connect my tablet to my mapped NAS shares...

But I was trying to think of ways of avoiding having to buy a server...

The audio can go out via HDMI to the TV, thence to some DAC or media receiver. That's what I do with my Android media box.

I usually use the tablet to stream to a DLNA renderer, but I have plugged the headphone output into my main hifi, and it's actually pretty good...

[captain_paranoia]

Or go down the always-on windows media box route, or a cheap tablet; I saw a secondhand win8.1 tablet for £20 the other day. I have a similar one I bought for £25 that runs MB and has an HDMI port and USB port. That could be kludged into doing what you want, with a powered USB HDD and hub, and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

I dug out the required micro HDMI to HDMI cable, connected my Linx7 tablet to my TV, and set the tablet to output the screen only to the TV. It automatically changed to the TV's FullHD resolution (1980*1080). Tablet screen is off. TV gives a very clear desktop image.

I connected a USB mouse, via an OTG adaptor cable.

I'm now running MusicBee on the tablet, displayed on the TV, playing output to the TV audio (identified as an output device in MB), and thence to the existing TV optical SPDIF output audio amp/speaker path.

I could enable Bluetooth on the tablet, and connect a mouse and keyboard, leaving the USB to power the tablet.

Could hardly have been easier. Took me a couple of minutes, once I'd found the cables.