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[godavego]

I've been a MediaCenter user for many years now, and it's always worked great.  I have a library server installed serving two audio zones plus UPnP and two other PCs.  I'm in process of replacing my PCs with Macs, and I'm wondering if it is possible to use iTunes to access my library server.  My library is too large (and it is in WMA Lossless) to import into iTunes.  I was hoping to be able to make use of UPnP and the Library servers ability to convert the format.

Anyway I can access my library server from a Mac?

Note, believe it or not, I do not have an iPod.  My wife does, but rarely have the occasion to use one. I'm always at the computer.

Thanks

[JimH]

Not with Library Server.  It's possible you might find a UPnP client for a MAC that would work with our UPnP server.  Twonkyvision?

[John Gateley]

You can try Bootcamp or Parallels (see http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Using_Media_Center_on_OSX/Apple for more info)

j

[godavego]

Seems a little overkill to run Windows just for a UPnP client.  Besides, Bootcamp is not an option because then I can't access the Mac, and I don't think Parallels and Mac can both access the audio drivers at the same time.

I'll keep looking around.  In the meantime, I guess I will be converting a subset of my files to be loaded onto my Macs.  iTunes is not an options for my server because I need Media Center's multiple zones and remote capability.

[John Gateley]

It is overkill, but you get more too (Media Center instead of just a client).

Let us know what you find, please. I'm interested in switching my laptop to a Mac, and Media Center's one of the sticking points.

j

[InflatableMouse]

I've switched to OS X a couple of weeks ago.

I got so tired of dual booting (never liked it) I installed Vmware Fusion (beta is free, use it while you can just make sure you turn off debugging) and I'm running XP with Media Center and one or two other apps.

I do daily playing of audio and syncing the ipod with itunes (don't mean to curse here, sorry) but all media management with MC.

I would use MC to play if vmware had better support for audio hardware. Right now I get skips or dropouts when the PC is under some load (not even heavy load).

I don't feel comfortable enough in OS X to experiment with Darwine or Crossover. The system is *very* stable and fast and I don't want to screw that up right now.

[dons]

I replaced two of my Windowz Shuttle computers last year with an iMac.  I run windowz XP under Parallels and I run MC under that.  It works great.  I get great performance.  I even run the upnp server and connect to it from my Roku radios in my bedroom.   It would be great to have MC native on the mac, but Parallels runs great.

[ThoBar]

Anyone given this a shot? (note I know nothing about it other than it exists)

http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=69890

C.

[godavego]

I've tried a few UPnP clients on the Mac, but none seem to work.  I have absolutely no desire to install Parallels and Windows just to run the MediaCenter client.  Even when I had a PC for my client computer, all I did was run MC as a client.  All my real MC work and magic happens on the server, and that machine will stay Windows with MC for the duration.

My research has come down to the simple fact that UPnP is a Windows thing, and Apple will probably never support it because it considers Bonjour to be the same thing.  My thought is that if my two Rokus can support Bonjour and connect to iTunes on Mac, could the MC server support Bonjour so an iTunes client could talk to it?  With that, MC would truely be a universal server.

Outside of that, I continue to compile and try different UPnP clients on my two Macs.  In the meantime, I've been converting some of my music to transfer over.  I may end up adding another Roku in the office.  That is actually cheaper than being forced to buy Parallels and Windows.

[JimH]

I've tried a few UPnP clients on the Mac, but none seem to work. 

I'm not sure whether twonkyvision has a UPnP client.

[godavego]

I didn't see one that works, but that doesn't mean I didn't miss it.  I know twonkyvision has a server.

[godavego]

Still no luck finding a Mac UPnP client.  I see a lot of talk about porting MC to the Mac, but I think it would be a lot easier to make the library server support Bonjour.  If my Roku can see an iTunes or a UPnP server, it should be possible for MC server to be visible from iTunes.  There are other servers out there that do this, including some open source ones.

[John Gateley]

At the moment, there's not a lot of demand for a Bonjour server.

I'm very interested in the MC on Mac, but using UPnP or Bonjour isn't enough for me: I need to be able to take my music travelling, and the UPnP server is not sufficient for this.

Personally, I think Parallels is the way to go, though I haven't actually tried any of this yet.

j

[godavego]

I tried Parallels last night, but MC would not connect to the library server.  I could connect from another real Windows machine, and the Parallels instance has access to the library server machine.  MC seems to connect, but nothing comes down.  My local library is blank.

Regarding taking it with me, I already can't do that.  I have way too much (300+ Gig), so having a subset available to play with iTunes is plenty fine for me.  However, if I'm home and connected, I want to be able to access the whole thing.

[godavego]

I have a related question.  What if I ran both iTunes and MC on my server?  iTunes could handle my Macs, PCs, and Rokus, and MC could handle the two audio zones connected directly to my machine.  I have too much automation to switch from MC there.  Besides, iTunes doesn't handle multiple zones.  Would this work?  The only thing I could see as a problem is finding a lossless format that both MC and iTunes will support.  Right now, I have everything in WMA Lossless, but obviously that will not work in iTunes.  Out of the box, it doesn't look like I can convert to Apple Lossless easily, and iTunes doesn't support APE or Flac.  Any ideas?

Switching away from Lossless is not an option for me.  My system exposes all deficiencies in compressed formats.  I want all the bits of my music to stay intact.

[John Gateley]

I have the same problem for traveling: 100+gigs of APE music. However, I'm using the new library sync feature with conversion to create a travel library in lossy format, but still using the lossless format at home.

Can't help much with the iTunes conversion problem. WAV???

j

[godavego]

As I write this, I'm experimenting with Firefly.  Not a lot of testing yet, but I was able to play something on my Mac and my Roku.  Curious how well it will work.

Also, I need to check out the Library sync feature.  I missed that one.

[godavego]

BTW, I didn't have to convert anything.  FireFly will transcode, but everything just worked.

[godavego]

So far FireFly is working great.  iTunes is nowhere near as good as MC, but at least I have access to my full library on my Mac.  All I needed to install on the server was FireFly (http://www.fireflymediaserver.org/) and Apple's Bonjour for Windows (http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/bonjourforwindows.html).  On Windows, FireFly is still not released as a stable build, but it's been working for me so far.

On my server, I have:
MC 12
Firefly 1586
Apple Bonjour for Windows

Now I can:
Play two zones of audio via MC and my separate audio processor using MC and Girder.
Access my library from MC on my one remaining PC laptop.
Access my library from iTunes on Mac or PC.
Access my library from two UPnP servers (Firefly and MC). I have Rokus.

Note, FireFly does not give you any real control over transcoding.  Basically, it transcodes everything to WAV.  That's how it works from my WMA Lossless files to iTunes. At least it only transcodes if the client doesn't support the original format.

It would be awesome if the iTunes functionality could be rolled into MC as a plugin.  Given that the code is open source, it should be doable.  If I wasn't already starting a company, I would do it myself, but my time is very limited.