There are several ways to play music wirelessly from your devices on decent speakers. One the best way might be one of the Sonos Wi-Fi speakers, but they costs a few hundred dollars. You could also use a ChromeCast or EZCast / Miracast / DLNA dongle, both of which are very cheap ($20 to $35), and would allow you to stream music to your TV from your Android or iOS mobile device, Windows PC or Mac OS computers, but these require you leave your TV on, unless you use a DLNA dongle with an AV port. Another option would be to use a dedicated Wi-Fi player such as Meetion MT-WF910 which can receive audio from mobile devices or computers via Wi-Fi, and output it to a 3.5 mm stereo jack or S/PDIF port.
Meetion Wi-Fi player specifications and key features:
- SoC – Qualcomm Atheros AR9331 processor for Wi-Fi and audio processing
- System Memory – 32MB DDR2
- Storage – 8MB Internal Flash + micro SD card
- Audio Output – 3.5mm stereo jack, optical S/PDIF
- Connectivity – 802.11b/g/n standard (Max 150Mbps) with WPA/WPA2 encryption
- Wireless Standards – DLNA and Airplay
- USB – 1x USB port for mass storage or 3G dongle, 1x micro USB for power
- Misc – Power and Wi-Fi LEDs, reset button
- Power – 5V DC, 0.5 to 2.1A
- Dimensions – 85mm x 85mm x 24.7mm.
- Weight – 40 grams
Devices running iOS such as iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, you simply stream audio using Airplay, but Android devices require WiFiPlayer app from Meetion, although I’d assume other DLNA apps might just work. To stream audio files using a Mac or PC, simply install iTunes, and select “WiFiPlayer” as external equipment. You can connect to the device either via Wi-Fi Direct or through your home’s Wi-Fi router, and both local and online music are supported. The device can also play music directly from a micro SD card or a USB flash drive.
Charbax interviewed the company, and they showcased their device in the video below.
Meetion sells the device for $15 in quantities (1K), but the retail price including shipping is close to $40 on Aliexpress [Update: $35 here]. You can find instructions explaining how to use the device on the Aliexpress link, or visit Meetion MT-WF910 for more details.
Thanks to Oliveira for the tip. Via armdevices.net.
[Update: More technical details are available on OpenWRT forums]
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Interesting device, sales at Aliexpress for 34$ includes shipping, worth a teardown, same WiSoC as the Arduino Yun, seems like a very hackable device, upgrading the RAM and flash should be easy (the hardware side, no idea about the software/bootloader).
This device should be hacked to run a squeezebox client for synchronized music clients.
List of devices with the Atheros AR9331 can be found at
https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Atheros_AR9331
Squeezebox hack should be quite easy because Atheros AR9331 is already support by openwrt and there is also a squeezeslave and squeezlive player on this system. It is what i am using on my TP-LINK TL-WR703N and it works well. 8MB for internal flash is great.
You absolutely do not need to leave your TV on if the DLNA stick is connected to the AVR via HDMI
@Someone from the other side
If you happen to have an AV receiver yes, but if you connect the HDMI port directly to your TV it won’t work 🙂