I'm looking to start streaming music around the house and have a few questions about iTunes and NAS drives I'm hoping someone with experience will be able to help me with. I use windows vista and have 2 iTunes libraries, one for lossy files and one for lossless. I want to be able to stream from both libraries ideally, but for some reason I can't name the libraries differently in itunes on the pc. When I use the apple remote app on my iphone it can only see 1 library, and that is the library that is currently open in itunes on the pc. Is it possible to have these 2 libraries named differently? What I'd like to do is install a NAS drive so I don't have to have the pc on all the time and store the 2 itunes libraries on the NAS drive. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to go the airplay or sonos route, but either way the intention is the same whereby using the iphone as a remote I should be able to access both lossless and lossy libraries without the pc being on. Is this possible? Does anyone have any recommendations for a NAS drive. Ideally I'd like the NAS drive to do the following: allow remote access to the NAS drive via iphone, a wireless back up function, run iTunes (with 2 libraries if possible), it must have a simple user interface too. Also I have no idea what bittorrent certified means which appears in a number of these devices.
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NAS drives and iTunes
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Hi, over the last month I've went down the NAS route myself. Previously I had my music library (only 1) stored on RAID discs in my PC. This streamed over an airport express to my Cyrus DAC XP. For iTunes I used the Apple Remote App, for Spotify a combination of Airfoil for the streaming and Remotless for the iPhone control.
First stage was a Synology NAS, it offers iPhone apps, iTunes support and USB backup. I went for a DS411j, but a 210 or 211j is all you need if you only have 1 or 2 drives. Piece of cake to get setup although building the RAID drives takes a bit of time.
Second and final stage was a Sonos Zoneplayer in the living room (replacing the airport express) and a S5 Zoneplayer in the bedroom.
Now I have music in 2 rooms via my iTunes Library, Spotify & LastFM with one (fantastic) iPhone app controlling it all. Best of all, the PC is OFF.
First stage was a Synology NAS, it offers iPhone apps, iTunes support and USB backup. I went for a DS411j, but a 210 or 211j is all you need if you only have 1 or 2 drives. Piece of cake to get setup although building the RAID drives takes a bit of time.
Second and final stage was a Sonos Zoneplayer in the living room (replacing the airport express) and a S5 Zoneplayer in the bedroom.
Now I have music in 2 rooms via my iTunes Library, Spotify & LastFM with one (fantastic) iPhone app controlling it all. Best of all, the PC is OFF.
professorhat
Well-known member
mv:I use windows vista and have 2 iTunes libraries, one for lossy files and one for lossless.
I want to be able to stream from both libraries ideally, but for some reason I can't name the libraries differently in itunes on the pc. When I use the apple remote app on my iphone it can only see 1 library, and that is the library that is currently open in itunes on the pc. Is it possible to have these 2 libraries named differently?The problem you have is, the Remote app only connects to the running instance of iTunes, it doesn't connect directly to the library files on your PC. This is why you can only connect to the library currently open in iTunes. To be able to access both simultaneously, you'd need another PC running another copy of iTunes with the other library open.
mv:What I'd like to do is install a NAS drive so I don't have to have the pc on all the time and store the 2 itunes libraries on the NAS drive.
I'm not sure yet if I'm going to go the airplay or sonos route, but either way the intention is the same whereby using the iphone as a remote I should be able to access both lossless and lossy libraries without the pc being on. Is this possible?
Yes, but it doesn't involve iTunes - as ramsyn has pointed out, you can use one of the Sonos systems which will allow you to connect to files directly on the NAS and has an iPhone app available to control it. The other option is an older Apple TV with a hard drive (you can get 40GB or 160GB models) - you then sync this with your iTunes so all the music is available without the PC being on and can control with your iPhone Remote app. In this case therefore, you wouldn't need the NAS.
I want to be able to stream from both libraries ideally, but for some reason I can't name the libraries differently in itunes on the pc. When I use the apple remote app on my iphone it can only see 1 library, and that is the library that is currently open in itunes on the pc. Is it possible to have these 2 libraries named differently?The problem you have is, the Remote app only connects to the running instance of iTunes, it doesn't connect directly to the library files on your PC. This is why you can only connect to the library currently open in iTunes. To be able to access both simultaneously, you'd need another PC running another copy of iTunes with the other library open.
mv:What I'd like to do is install a NAS drive so I don't have to have the pc on all the time and store the 2 itunes libraries on the NAS drive.
I'm not sure yet if I'm going to go the airplay or sonos route, but either way the intention is the same whereby using the iphone as a remote I should be able to access both lossless and lossy libraries without the pc being on. Is this possible?
Yes, but it doesn't involve iTunes - as ramsyn has pointed out, you can use one of the Sonos systems which will allow you to connect to files directly on the NAS and has an iPhone app available to control it. The other option is an older Apple TV with a hard drive (you can get 40GB or 160GB models) - you then sync this with your iTunes so all the music is available without the PC being on and can control with your iPhone Remote app. In this case therefore, you wouldn't need the NAS.
ramsayn:
Hi, over the last month I've went down the NAS route myself. Previously I had my music library (only 1) stored on RAID discs in my PC. This streamed over an airport express to my Cyrus DAC XP. For iTunes I used the Apple Remote App, for Spotify a combination of Airfoil for the streaming and Remotless for the iPhone control.
First stage was a Synology NAS, it offers iPhone apps, iTunes support and USB backup. I went for a DS411j, but a 210 or 211j is all you need if you only have 1 or 2 drives. Piece of cake to get setup although building the RAID drives takes a bit of time.
Second and final stage was a Sonos Zoneplayer in the living room (replacing the airport express) and a S5 Zoneplayer in the bedroom.
Now I have music in 2 rooms via my iTunes Library, Spotify & LastFM with one (fantastic) iPhone app controlling it all. Best of all, the PC is OFF.
Is this a first? NAS actually being able to incorporate a 'proper' iTunes Server!
John Duncan are you aware of this?
Hi, over the last month I've went down the NAS route myself. Previously I had my music library (only 1) stored on RAID discs in my PC. This streamed over an airport express to my Cyrus DAC XP. For iTunes I used the Apple Remote App, for Spotify a combination of Airfoil for the streaming and Remotless for the iPhone control.
First stage was a Synology NAS, it offers iPhone apps, iTunes support and USB backup. I went for a DS411j, but a 210 or 211j is all you need if you only have 1 or 2 drives. Piece of cake to get setup although building the RAID drives takes a bit of time.
Second and final stage was a Sonos Zoneplayer in the living room (replacing the airport express) and a S5 Zoneplayer in the bedroom.
Now I have music in 2 rooms via my iTunes Library, Spotify & LastFM with one (fantastic) iPhone app controlling it all. Best of all, the PC is OFF.
Is this a first? NAS actually being able to incorporate a 'proper' iTunes Server!
John Duncan are you aware of this?
professorhat
Well-known member
I don't think it is - essentially it'll be the Sonos system accessing the iTunes library on the NAS - this doesn't need iTunes to be running.
The prof is correct (again) on this. The Sonos is just accessing some music folders on the NAS that also happen to be used by the the i-Tunes porogram on the computer. If you have any DRM i-Tunes downloads you will notice that they are missing from the Sonos set up. I use the Sonos appon my Touch as well as a CR100 and CR200 controller. They all connect to the same files-obviously.
Thanks for your help chaps. Sonos also confirmed that their hardware can access multiple itunes libraries, even if they're named the same, from either a pc or NAS drive.
Hello there,
I would like to reactivate this great topic and have follow up question about the Apple TV option.
The apple TV scenario above sounds far cheaper than the Sonos option. Would it accept the remote app from an ipod (instead of iphone) ?
I don't know much about Apple TV, can it act like a NAS ? i.e. can I manage my music library/add my new music there directly from my pc ?
Alternatively is there any other solution out there that could solve my need : ie. search/play my mp3 in a fast + graphical + easy interface without turning on TV or a PC ?
Thanks a lot
Sylvain
I would like to reactivate this great topic and have follow up question about the Apple TV option.
The apple TV scenario above sounds far cheaper than the Sonos option. Would it accept the remote app from an ipod (instead of iphone) ?
I don't know much about Apple TV, can it act like a NAS ? i.e. can I manage my music library/add my new music there directly from my pc ?
Alternatively is there any other solution out there that could solve my need : ie. search/play my mp3 in a fast + graphical + easy interface without turning on TV or a PC ?
Thanks a lot
Sylvain
Yes, you can control the Apple TV from an iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone, but no, the current Apple TV - the £100 one - has no onboard hard-drive storage: there's just 8GB of flash memory for buffering the content it streams. It acts merely as a streaming client for content stored elsewhere, be it on a local device or over t'Interweb.
The old Apple TV did have internal hard-drive capacity - 40GB when launched, and 160GB in later models - but it's now discontinued.
The old Apple TV did have internal hard-drive capacity - 40GB when launched, and 160GB in later models - but it's now discontinued.
Thanks Andrew,
It could well be my solution then. Assuming I can add an external hard drive to the Apple TV ? (160Gb would be short). Will investigate around this.
Thanks a lot
It could well be my solution then. Assuming I can add an external hard drive to the Apple TV ? (160Gb would be short). Will investigate around this.
Thanks a lot
I'd appreciate some advice on this subject too please.
I'm looking to stream the (highest quality I can obtain from my set up) music from a WD Book World NAS to a WD TV Live. (The bookworld is part of a PC based network).
I currently have 1 library on itunes but the music's in a lossy format as the WD does not handle Apple Lossless.
What shoud I do to improve the quality? I've read that FLAC is the format to use but would this entail creating a second library on the NAS which I would have to sync with the PC manually?
Cheers for any advice.
I'm looking to stream the (highest quality I can obtain from my set up) music from a WD Book World NAS to a WD TV Live. (The bookworld is part of a PC based network).
I currently have 1 library on itunes but the music's in a lossy format as the WD does not handle Apple Lossless.
What shoud I do to improve the quality? I've read that FLAC is the format to use but would this entail creating a second library on the NAS which I would have to sync with the PC manually?
Cheers for any advice.
Wovian, re-ripping in Flac is gonna give u the best quality for your wd stuff without having to have ur pc on.
You can get flac players for your Iphone, Ipad etc and a flac plugin for Itunes if u like - though if ur using windows I'd suggest ditching Itunes for Winamp or similar.
I dont see Itunes as a good choice if ur running on a non-mac computer - there are better alternatives (imo of course).
You can get flac players for your Iphone, Ipad etc and a flac plugin for Itunes if u like - though if ur using windows I'd suggest ditching Itunes for Winamp or similar.
I dont see Itunes as a good choice if ur running on a non-mac computer - there are better alternatives (imo of course).
Thanks for this Tech.
Do you mind if I ask some more questions?
I bet this sounds dumb!!!
Cheers
Do you mind if I ask some more questions?
- Does Windows Media Player fit into the equation at all?
- I do have an ipod so would I need an i tunes library and a FLAC Winamp library with the same contents? (I've never heard of Winamp so I'm going to google it and have a read up on it)
- Would I have to re-rip everything all over again or can I convert my itunes library somehow?
I bet this sounds dumb!!!
Cheers
Its tricky if u have an Ipod. You are probably going to need 2 versions of your music library, you cant really make the Ipod play FLAC (without re-flashing it).
The WDLive will access and play the music or video on the BookWorld directly, without your pc being on.
If your music is in a lossless format like ALAC u can just use something like dbpoweramp to convert it to FLAC, if its in a lossy format then u need to re-rip.
Its a hassle - but if u want the best quality at home and to use your WD stuff then FLAC it has to be.
The WDLive will access and play the music or video on the BookWorld directly, without your pc being on.
If your music is in a lossless format like ALAC u can just use something like dbpoweramp to convert it to FLAC, if its in a lossy format then u need to re-rip.
Its a hassle - but if u want the best quality at home and to use your WD stuff then FLAC it has to be.
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