Mac mini as a streamer

[JamesMellor]

Hi Guys ,

Have been seeing the basic Mini for £350 this week , I currently stream ( in house only, well a tiny bit of apple music which I think I'll sack ) from my MBP to an AEX , interface is good but and breaks up from time to time or I use eye connect to my sony BRP , nice and soild connection never a glitch but awful interface , no shufle etc and just skipping a single song is a PITA.

So I'm thinking the Mini , transfer all my music to that , USB to DAC ,use the TV and any K/B and mouse to set it up , then my ipad as a screen and k/b and get a apple remote for quick volume control and basic controls skip repeat etc .

Can anyone for see any problems with that plan ?

Thx

James

 

[MajorFubar]

Works for me. Being using one for about four years. Except I store the music on a NAS rather than the Mini's hard drive.

 

[ID.]

Works well for me.

 

[Gazzip]

I had this setup for a while and it is extremely versatile, opening up your options for different user interfaces. I used Squeezelite (headless squeezebox emulator) with iPeng as the App controller. All of the benefits of the wonderful squeezebox touch without the glitches.

One down side is that the iMac mini contains a cooling fan and, unless you got SSD for the storage, a spinning hard disk, both of which do make a noise. Be sure therefore that it isn't located too close to your listening position. Mine was right behind my head which eventually led to me disposing of the setup. A shame because as I say it works really, really well.

 

[JamesMellor]

Well it and afew other bits are ordered now , it's going to be about 3 meteres away on a rack , I was assuming that just playing music it wouldn't make so much noise , I guess I'll find out .

The Major mention a NAS drive , I have one and copied my itunes to it but as nothing I have would play apple lossless files I kinda forgot about it , it just does timemachine back ups now.

When everythign gets here and I get it set up I'll be back to report , or ask why I can't get it to work <S>

James

 

[Gazzip]

Well it and afew other bits are ordered now , it's going to be about 3 meteres away on a rack , I was assuming that just playing music it wouldn't make so much noise , I guess I'll find out .

The Major mention a NAS drive , I have one and copied my itunes to it but as nothing I have would play apple lossless files I kinda forgot about it , it just does timemachine back ups now.

When everythign gets here and I get it set up I'll be back to report , or ask why I can't get it to work <S>

James

3 metres will be fine. Mine was less than half a metre away and only just audible enough at low levels to annoy me.

 

[ID.]

I agree that 3 metres will be fine. Mine is on my desk right in front of me and it is pretty much silent almost all of the time.

 

[DCC]

...but using it headless would mean all control (ex. if you use it, the Apple remote control) is via another computer or as many imagine via the fab apps for our smart devices...and that has its drawbacks when playing content. Using a smart/remote app means that every time from rest one has to open device - enter pass word - connect - select app - etc. etc. For me primary control by app got real tiring, real fast.

 

[DCC]

I meant to add this to the prvious -

Apps are great for the immersive - window shopping thru libraries, creating playlists, other fun "lifestyle" tasks. Whatever, call it what you will, it's fun times! But Apps are not at all good for the reactive - like when it needs to be down NOW. Use the audio system remote, and one does of course. But remember in a setting where the mini is also connected to a TV/monitor, as is often, there's also control via wireless touchpad & keyboard. I find this direct control far more enjoyable and practical, plus to me three different remotes is one too many and so by default the Apps got shelved. This may or may not be a concern for others.

Perhaps foolishly I imagined an amazing new life with remote smart control by branded App. Now I feel so let down by the system. Anyone else have this reaction?

Regardless, the mini is tops as the command center; simple, powerful, flexible, & bullet proof (usually). Cheers

 

[ID.]

I meant to add this to the prvious -

Apps are great for the immersive - window shopping thru libraries, creating playlists, other fun "lifestyle" tasks. Whatever, call it what you will, it's fun times! But Apps are not at all good for the reactive - like when it needs to be down NOW. Use the audio system remote, and one does of course. But remember in a setting where the mini is also connected to a TV/monitor, as is often, there's also control via wireless touchpad & keyboard. I find this direct control far more enjoyable and practical, plus to me three different remotes is one too many and so by default the Apps got shelved. This may or may not be a concern for others.

Perhaps foolishly I imagined an amazing new life with remote smart control by branded App. Now I feel so let down by the system. Anyone else have this reaction?

Regardless, the mini is tops as the command center; simple, powerful, flexible, & bullet proof (usually). Cheers

Definitely. The app isn't as reliable as I'd like, and in fact I tend to use my Mini with my mouse and keyboard when I'm at my desk, or get it running so the music can be heard throughout the house. In the living room I find it much more convenient to just stream Apple Music from my phone to the ATV. It just works a bit better than trying to use the Mini headless.

I have only tried the official Apple app, so I don't know whether any of the other apps out there are any better.

 

[JamesMellor]

Hi All ,

Okay I've got everything set up, well a pile of cables on the living room floor and I've got all my music in a file called music on a HDD , I told itunes to export and organise it I then plugged the HDD into the mini and started itunes expecting it to copy every thing onto the mini , it didnt quite work out I ended up with download clouds next to everything , I then tried dumping the file music onto the itunes page , that started copying everything across but then I had two copies one with a cloud one with out .

Then I tired consolidating each album at a time, its a complete mess sometimes 3 copies on the mini.

I'm restoring to mini from the very first time machine back up and awaiting some advise

Thanks

 

[DCC]

I've moved a few itunes libraries recently, I transfer them without much fuss as follows -

Open itunes while at the same time pressing alt/option key, choose create library from window, name it & choose location in window, now your new library itunes is open - pull-down the File menu at top and select "add to library," choose what you want to add in Finder window (part of or the whole folder), move it. I move about 50 albums at a time then check for correct artwork/data.

Perhaps of interest - my experience was that existing artwork & tags which were added/edited using itunes are somewhat prone to fail when moving to new libraries - artwork disappears, genre changes, etc. Therefore all my digi files, when first obtained, are checked for tags & art - and if need be edited using Music Tag Editor, which attaches art/data to each individual music file. Now I get very few snags.

 

[DCC]

I should add - obvs you can use "create library" to create (and stream) multiple libraries via the mini.

 

[hybridauth_Google_103146132212077534654]

Random Tip but if you are not used to Mac OS go to Advanced setting in itunes and detick keep itunes media organised and copy files to itunes media folder. I found these not only destroy your organsiation of music but also end up duplicating your collection so mine was 60gb instead of 30gb for no reason. These settings are diabled in windows itunes by default.