hi all,

i have a plan and i need a little advice. i'm new to the beo-mac forum because i am just now switching to mac from pc !

the plan is to have a imac to remplace my aging pc and a mac mini to become an always on music server. the imac would be in the living room and the mac mini would live in a tech closet with my beoport. this is very important for the waf because i'm trying to minimize cables in the visible part of the house.

i plan to leave the mac mini 'headless' and access it uniquely through a vnc client, like chicken vnc or back to my mac. the plan further calls for control of itunes on the mac mini for n.tunes via an iphone with the apple remote application. from what i have read, this should work though i would love to have any comments or suggestions.

for the plan to work the mac mini needs to be basically invisible for my wife. she will want to manipulate itunes on the imac in the living room - play songs, create playlists, ... i am curious to know if it is possible for the itunes client on the imac to 'use' the itunes data on the mac mini.

i know it would be easier to remotely connect to the mac mini, but waf demands that i find some sort of soultion to avoid this. thanks in advances for any help !

scott

Welcome the Mac world...

For start... you do not need Chicken of the VNC or any additional software to share your screen as it is already built into the operation system (From 10.5 Leopard).

 On the mac mini, in the control panel, go to the Share icon, and configure the screen sharing. You do not have to activate the VNC sharing if you only access from a Mac.

 On the iMac, in the finder, the Mac Mini will now appear in the Shared section on the left.

Select it and click on Share Screen in the bar at the top right of the window.

You need to enter a name and a password, the same you use to log in the Mac mini. You can store it so you do not need to re-enter it each time.

 p.

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hi,

here is my beo stuff :

* beocenter 1
* beocenter 6
* beolab 3500
* beoport
* beolink passive
* beocom 6000

when the beovision 7 goes blu-ray i will put one in the living romm with some speakers and move the beocenter 1 to the bedroom.

scott

Have you thought of getting an Apple TV rather than a Mac mini...

The Apple TV synchronise the music library of your iMac automatically. The Mac mini won't. There are now third party software that do this synchronisation but I have not tried them.

Apple TV is not used Via N.MUSIC, but via the screen, via STB-C. You'd need to flash your STB-C with new Apple Remote software or wait until you have the BV7.

A common problem with Apple TV is getting the signal to link rooms. It has been discussed here, but I have not read the outcome.

p.

hhhhmmm,

yes, i have been looking at the apple tv, but distributing link music is all i really need to do.

i have looked at syncing solutions (which maintain sperate copies of the itunes library) and simply directing itunes on my imac to look at the itunes directory on the mac mini.

a common problem seems to be that you can not have itunes open on both computers at the same time. does beoport require itunes to be open ? is so, has anyone found a workaround for this type of situation ?

thanks again,

scott

BMLink (the equivalent of Beoport) on the Mac does require itunes to be open.

You of course want to see the Beosound 5 before you make any purchase.

p.

wtlc2zpx:

You of course want to see the Beosound 5 before you make any purchase.

p.

You probably don't.......

Why do you say that?

I have a similar setup & requirements.

I have an Imac in my Kitchen and a notebook that I use day in day out. My Itunes linrary is shared on a NAS and an Apple TV is attached to the TV.

For one the Apple TV syncs only with one computer, not a library. 2 Computers cant open the same library. I havent really found anything that can sync  my Itunes library between computers.

I also run out of disk space on the ATV. Its the 160GB but that is not a whole lot of space when using Video and a high resolution ripped music collection.

The Apple TV cant connect to the NAS without beeing hacked. I also don't like the menu and the coverflow animation. 

If I were you I think I would leave the Imac in the living room always on and would not bother with the Mini Mac or ATV.

How much music and video are we talking? For music my favourite solution solution sofar was the Ipod that I carried around and placed wherever I was into a dock connected to my B&O. As a luxury I would consider the RIdax Beo4 dock.

You could also think about gettng Ipod touch and use those as a 2 way remote for your Imac and just stream to Airpot Express connected to your B&O.

In general there is no good solution to sync multiple Itunes libraries and sharing is a bit tricky.

I am still thinking about the Beosound 5, but am a bit dissapointed that it doesnt have a 2 way remote at start. 

I'd stick with the mini-mac+beoport+masterlink.  You already have the hardware (and I assume the ML wiring) so why not use it.  There doesn't seem to be any good way to synch libraries between mutiple macs.  I just copy music between libs.  Kind of clunky, but it works.  When I was distributing music via AE, it would often drop out when my wife talked on the wireless phone.  No such issues with ML.

 Stan 

Since by simply using iTunes sharing will not allow you to copy items to the remote Mac Mini.

So what I would do is have it sort of as a remote disk, so set iTunes on the iMac's library folder to the remote Mac Mini's folder. Then simply set it to copy all items that are dragged into it to the Mac Mini.. That way Cover flow will work and it would be as if the library was on the same computer.

ok,

that's interesting.

if i understand correctly, i need to define the itunes library on the imac as residing in the same place as the itunes library on the mac mini.

to add new music, i would manually drop the folder into a directory on the imac and then tell itunes on the imac to add it to it's library. this action would also have for effect to copy the folder to the directory on the mac mini.

is that what you are talking about, or have i missed something ? thanks for your help,

scott

You may try this (I haven't tried it myself):

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/209022

After trying differents systems: beoport+PC+Sconi, Airport Express+Macbook, PS3+PSP,.... I think the best solution is the combination of Macmini+Beoport+Ipod Touch.

Actually I use Macmini connected to BV3, the beoport allows to show the information in BC2 and control it, and I get full control with Ipod Touch (covers, search, rewind, wind,....).

I have selected a timer on macmini and It's "always already". I have modified an applescript, so when the macmini restart the coverflow appear in fullscreen.

Also, I have a Beo5 with mac xml to control Frontrow. I use Time Capsule to save movies, music,... I can access from my PC, macbook o macmini.

I didn't have a choice of Apple TV because I wanted to see and control the information on the display of BC2. Also.... I have a BV3.