Help! Mac Mini screen sharing/remote drive confusion

[baldy38]

I am thinking of buying a Mac Mini to use as an audio server but am not completely clear with regards to options as to how to get my files on to it.

I have a MacBook Pro with an optical drive. Can I use screen sharing and remote disc to access the mac Mini through the MB Pro, using the optical drive in the Pro to rip CDs remotely to the Mini?

I know I can screen share and I know I can use remote disc this way. What I'm not clear about is whether I can do both at the same time - ie link to the Mac Mini through screen sharing, load CDs into the optical drive and download them on to the Mini using only the Pro?

thanks

 

[baldy38]

I am thinking of buying a Mac Mini to use as an audio server but am not completely clear with regards to options as to how to get my files on to it.

I have a MacBook Pro with an optical drive. Can I use screen sharing and remote disc to access the mac Mini through the MB Pro, using the optical drive in the Pro to rip CDs remotely to the Mini?

I know I can screen share and I know I can use remote disc this way. What I'm not clear about is whether I can do both at the same time - ie link to the Mac Mini through screen sharing, load CDs into the optical drive and download them on to the Mini using only the Pro?

thanks

anyone?

 

[BowserWilkens]

Hi there, I've gone the same route & bought a mac mini to serve as a music server. (see my thread Mac mini to 4311)

If I were you, I'd just invest in a new drive for your mac mini. You could go for the Apple SuperDrive which is rather pricey... or just buy a decent third party dvd or blu ray drive. I bought a Samsung dvd drive with which to rip all my cd's. It cost about 40euros & is white & sexy.

I have around 700 cd's to rip & I'm currently at 221cd's ripped with the rest to be done soon & my little Samsung drive hasn't let me down once. Quite a few cd's were rather neglected; scratched & ugly, but the Samsung has read all but one disc (it's got a huge crack).

Just my reaction to your predicament - it would be much easier just to hook up a drive to the mini rather than trying to remotely rip your collection.

By the way, does anybody know whether there is any way to hook up multiple drives to the mini & rip 3 or 4 cd's into Itunes simultaneously? It would cut the time it takes ripping a collection by so much if it were possible.

 

[Gelli]

Have you tried either AirDrop or Migration Manager to move your files from your MBP to MacMini?? AirDrop is a no brainer is your system supports it.

Air Drop

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4783

Migration Manager

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5872

or look here for ideas on moving music to another mac(if you are using iTunes)

https://discussions.apple.com/article/HT4527

 

[MajorFubar]

I am thinking of buying a Mac Mini to use as an audio server but am not completely clear with regards to options as to how to get my files on to it.

I have a MacBook Pro with an optical drive. Can I use screen sharing and remote disc to access the mac Mini through the MB Pro, using the optical drive in the Pro to rip CDs remotely to the Mini?

I know I can screen share and I know I can use remote disc this way. What I'm not clear about is whether I can do both at the same time - ie link to the Mac Mini through screen sharing, load CDs into the optical drive and download them on to the Mini using only the Pro?

thanks

You can screen share but you can't use Remote Disc to rip them. Do what I did and buy a cheap £15 USB CD ROM drive from eBay and plug it into your Mini. Even if Remote Disc worked this way, you don't really want to wear out the drive in your MBP by ripping three million CDs from it.

 

[AnotherJoe]

Why dont you just buy a NAS?

I fail to see what a mac-mini will do for you.

 

[The_Lhc]

I am thinking of buying a Mac Mini to use as an audio server but am not completely clear with regards to options as to how to get my files on to it.

I have a MacBook Pro with an optical drive. Can I use screen sharing and remote disc to access the mac Mini through the MB Pro, using the optical drive in the Pro to rip CDs remotely to the Mini?

I know I can screen share and I know I can use remote disc this way. What I'm not clear about is whether I can do both at the same time - ie link to the Mac Mini through screen sharing, load CDs into the optical drive and download them on to the Mini using only the Pro?

thanks

Can't you just share a disc on the Mini and then mount it as a network volume on the Macbook and point the ripping software to that drive, same as you would if using a NAS? That's how I'd do it.

 

[baldy38]

The mini I can plug permanently into my hifi and not need anything else to play it with- I can just operate itunes/Audirvana with my iPhone. I can't do that with a NAS; I still need a way to play the stuff.

re remote disc - I can't use that to rip music to the mini? Why not?

thanks

 

[28marcus]

Can't see why this shouldn't work, have you tried it? If so what problems have you encountered. I have similar equipment and can try it out for you tomorrow if you need a methodology.

 

[baldy38]

I haven't tried it yet - not least because I want to be sure I can do the disc sharing thing before I buy a Mini.

The key question is: can I, while operating the mini remotely from the MBP using screen sharing, rip CDs to the Mini using the optical drive in the MacBook?

thanks

 

[Overdose]

I haven't tried it yet - not least because I want to be sure I can do the disc sharing thing before I buy a Mini.

The key question is: can I, while operating the mini remotely from the MBP using screen sharing, rip CDs to the Mini using the optical drive in the MacBook?

thanks

I haven't tried it that way, but in any case you will be transferring files from the MBP to the Mini, so why not simply rip to MBP and then copy to the Mini?

The options as I see them are:

1. Use drive share to rip to Mac mini

2. Rip to MBP and then copy to Mini

3. Rip on MBP, but make the destination a folder on the Mini.

Whichever way you achieve this, screen sharing allows you to fully control media playback on the Mac mini. I usually use my Macbook, but can also use my iPad in screenshare mode or iTunes remote. The Mini also acts as a media server for anyone else on the network to access.

It works well.

 

[professorhat]

re remote disc - I can't use that to rip music to the mini? Why not?

thanks

I seem to remember trying it once to rip something to my MacBook Air from my Mini (so the reverse of what you want, but the same principle) and it wouldn't let you rip the disc remotely - as I remember it just said it wasn't designed to do that.

EDIT - and here's the confirmation from Apple that it won't work. Note the section at the bottom:

Note: These types of discs or activities are not supported by DVD or CD sharing:

- DVD movies.

- Audio CDs.

- Copy protected discs such as game discs.

- Install discs for an operating system such as Microsoft Windows (for use with Boot Camp), or Mac OS X.

- Burn a CD or DVD

To use the above mentioned discs with a computer without an optical drive, use the MacBook Air SuperDrive or the Apple USB SuperDrive.

 

[wilro15]

I used a beat-up old Windows PC that had iTunes installed to rip all my CDs to Apple Lossless. Then copied the files over to the Mac Mini. I had to replace the PC's CD drive part way through the ripping process. It took me about 3-4 months to rip all the CDs, but is great now!

 

[MajorFubar]

Not sure what was wrong wih my (ignored) suggestion to buy a £15 USB DVD drive and plug it in to the Mini. You can still screen-share. And as I also said, it saves the drive in the MBP from getting undue wear and tear. If the USB drive waves its white flag and dies after ripping a full CD collection, what have you lost.