Stream Box DS2 T

To use TIDAL music service a TIDAL Hifi or TIDAL Premium account is required. Install the latest version of the Box Control App and update the firmware of your Stream Box.

Please avoid the percent symbol (%) in your password.

To use Spotify Connect a Spotify premium account of Spotify is necessary. A free Spotify account does not support Spotify Connect. Install the latest free firmware for the Stream Box.

To use Spotify Connect a premium account of Spotify is necessary. A free Spotify account does not support Spotify Connect. Install the latest free firmware for the Stream Box.

Some Internet Provider have slow DNS-Servers and therefore you get a timeout when you want to access vTuner. Change the DNS-Server of your Internet-Router to an alternative free DNS-Server (eg. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). This DNS-Servers are provided by Google and are very fast.

The maximum size of a hard disk (or USB-Stick) connected on the USB-Port of the Streamer can be up to 8 Terabyte. A single music file cannot be larger than 4 Gigabyte.

Make sure that media sharing in Windows Media Player is enabled. Go to “Streaming” – “Turn on media streaming” (Windows 7) or “Library” – “Media Sharing”.

Check whether it is formatted FAT32 and not exFAT or NTFS. With a larger Storage than 32GB you need a special tool to format it as FAT32 (eg. <a href="http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/" target="_blank">Fat32Formatter</a>).

From the main menu of the Stream Box DS2 T choose "Settings" - "General" - "Software Update".

FAT32 is the standard filesystem for all music players, digital cams, printers etc. and therefore the best compatible filesystem for all devices. NTFS support more features e.g. security info and therefore it can make troubles. FAT32 has no disadvantages compared to NTFS which are relevant in the audio world.

The GAPLESS playback between 2 tracks works when the music is played from an USB storage device. If the music is played from an UPnP Server (eg. Twonky) GAPLESS only works with the remote control or with our Box Control App over NetAPI. To use NetAPI you have to upgrade your Stream Box DS to DS net. With a normal UPnP-Control-App (eg. PlugPlayer) GAPLESS is not possible.

For music files with high data rates (even WAV files) a LAN connection is necessary because WiFi-G has too less bandwidth. Further necessary is a powerful NAS-System or a fast USB storage. Avoid retranscoding music by the server, because this can also cause dropouts.

You can use either wireless (WLAN) or wired (LAN) connection, but by principle LAN connections are more reliable than WLAN. If wireless is your choice, use at least Wifi „G“ or mixed “G/N”routers and channels 1 to 11. If you face speed problems on specific channels, switch to another.

Our App and Stream Boxes are designed for advanced gigabit routers and switches to guarantee best possible datatransfers and communications, therefore they are recommended for optimum performance and results. A well set up network and server (avoid high datasets) are prerequisite for best results. Also it is recommended to connect the Stream Box via Ethernet cable into the network, since that guarantees maximum stability.

Twonky media server or Asset UPnP will give perfect results. Many DLNA servers can be enabled for transcoding of the original signal to another file format. This changes the integrity of original signal and requires a lot of processing power in NAS systems. Transcoding may lead to drop-outs in playback, so please make sure transcoding is not enabled!

Main CPU of network attached storage device should have at least 1GHz for playback of HD music without dropouts (QNAP-NAS consistently have reliable quality with Twonky pre-installed).

HD music files (24 bit/88,2 - 192kHz) have audio quality like in the recording studio and are available from diverse online sources. Second best are uncompressed file formats created from CD source. WAV is a 1:1 copy of CD‘s audio with best sound quality, but no tag information or album art will be displayed. Lossless audio formats like FLAC & ALAC offer the same audio quality as WAV, but need only 60% of hard-disk space and show album art plus track/artist information. PLEASE NOTE: FLAC offers 8 levels of lossless compression, levels 4 to 8 give best results. With compression levels 1 to 3 you will get NO playback, because of excessively high data rates (please use WAV instead)! Please also make sure that album cover art graphic is smaller than 800kbyte, bigger files will not be displayed! ALAC does need Twonky or Asset UPnP as server for playback. Please avoid lossy compressed file formats, like MP3 or AAC, if you are forced to use these, select highest bitrate (320 kbit/sec) to get playback quality near CD. All suggested ripping formats (except WAV) are able to display cover art and metadata, if these information is available from online data base (CDDB, Gracenote,…), when ripping.

We strongly recommend to use high quality ripping programs and the best available audio formats to store music onto computer or network. There are many different programs for download, which can be used as ripping and playback software (iTunes, Windows media player, foobar2000, EAC…). If you want to be sure to get a bit-perfect copy, please activate “Ripping Security” in foobar2000, dBpoweramp or Exact Audio Copy (EAC).

If you record your own files from vinyl or analogue tape, you are able to transfer the original quality by using 24bit depth and higher sampling rate (96 to 192kHz). High quality recording software needs not to be expensive, we recommend Audacity combined with high quality audio interface like <a href="http://www.project-audio.biz/en/produkt/phono-box-usb-v/">Phono Box USB V</a>.

WAV-Files (Fileextension .wav) or MPEG-4 Audio (Fileextension .m4a) are container formats and can be played. WAV-Files contains LPCM-Audio files and M4a-Files can contain AAC- and ALAC audio files.