Wyred 4 Sound Music Server

[erniejade]

Thanks. So because it says we recommend plugging the drive into a mac or pc, I am assuming the formatting is a standard format unlike Olive and Sony correct?

I almost pulled the trigger several times on an Olive. I liked that it had a built in cd drive and you could rip right from the unit but, when you format the drive, it was some special formatting that only an Olive unit could read. Same with the Sony. My concern was taking the time to rip all of my stuff on an Olive or Sony, and if I wanted to change, I would loose my music or have to re-rip the entire collection. This looks like it might be a better option.

[o0OBillO0o]

Originally Posted by erniejade

Thanks. So because it says we recommend plugging the drive into a mac or pc, I am assuming the formatting is a standard format unlike Olive and Sony correct?

I almost pulled the trigger several times on an Olive. I liked that it had a built in cd drive and you could rip right from the unit but, when you format the drive, it was some special formatting that only an Olive unit could read. Same with the Sony. My concern was taking the time to rip all of my stuff on an Olive or Sony, and if I wanted to change, I would loose my music or have to re-rip the entire collection. This looks like it might be a better option.

Dollars to donuts, the format *might be* ExFAT. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT

This format is universally accessible via Mac and PC, and, yes, the Sony HAPZ1ES uses ExFAT. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 also use ExFAT. It's quite popular.

File formats aren't a huge setback, you just have to know what your dealing with. While I can't say with certainty that any media server that you purchase will allow you to access and back up your files, there is almost always a way.

[erniejade]

There's a potentially big snag though: even though the Olive makes it easy to create a backup of its library via a USB port on the back, the hard drive will be formatted to an Olive-specific format andf the material is encoded so it cannot be read on any other computer. This is probably done to protect copyright of the encased music. But what if you decide a few years down the line, to switch to another kind of music server? Your only option is to rip all the music again. Once ripped to the Olive, the music belongs to the Olive.

Above is something i found on the web about the olive I was considering. This is why I was asking of the w4s keeps it in its basically native format so if later on I change, I won't have to re-rip all my cds.
"

[erniejade]

So its not just the formatting of the drive but how it encodes it.