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[porthacking]

Hi All,

I am very new to this. I was not sure where to put this post, or exactly what questions to ask: I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I have a MacBook Pro laptop running Lion.
I also have a W7 PC I built with 10TB of media on it.

Ultimately, I'd like a Mac OSX version of MC. This doesn't look like it will happen, so I am wondering what other options I have.

I am happy to run JRiver on the Windows PC, but it would be nice to control it from my Mac.
I gather there are iPhone/iPad apps that can control JRiv. Are there any in particular I should look at?
Can you install these on a Mac laptop and control JRiv in the same way?
Alternately, does anyone know a good way to run JRiv on a Mac. I have heard of programs like VMware Fusion. Has anyone had success with these?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[JimH]

There is a Mac topic on our Wiki.  User glynor reported success.

You could use WebRemote (part of MC) on the mac with a browser.

[khollister]

One approach is to use a VNC client on your MBP to run a remote desktop of the Windows HTPC. I use Chicken of the VNC on my MacPro and MacbookPro to control a Mac Mini I use as a dedicated audiophile music server for my high-end headphone rig. I plan to do the same when I complete my MC16 HTPC setup.

I use Jump Desktop as a VNC client on my iPad.

There is a thread here about running MC16 successfully in a virtual Windows system on a Mac using Parallels (if I recall correctly). VMWare Fusion is an equivalent product. However, I fail to see the real advantage in doing so for one major reason - HD audio. Even running Windows natively on a Mac, it is not currently possible to get DTS-Master or Dolby TrueHD via HDMI bit streamed to your AVR. So you are either looking at decoding and sending LPCM or accepting DD or DTS. In that case, you could just use XBMC or Plex natively on a Mac. The only possible advantage IMHO would be slightly better video quality in MC16 due to the Red October HQ suite versus whatever XBMC or Plex offers.

I'm a Mac guy and really wanted to use a new Mini (with HDMI) as a HTPC, but the lack of bit streaming HD audio and no good option to upscale DVD material was the deal killer. MadVR in ROHQ in MC16 does a pretty good job with SD material (in MKV containers) compared to good upscaling blu-ray players.

Once I get this Win7 HTPC setup and installed, I might pick up a new Mini and fool with XBMC to see what I can get out of it for grins.

[porthacking]

Thanks for all the help. I like the idea of the VNC client/remote desktop. So do you use MC16 for your high end audio and movies/TV? Or do you run your audio through the mini and other media through the remote desktop?
How do you find those clients? Will you use the same ones when you switch over to the MC16HTPC setup?

As another option, is it possible to get JRiver (lets say I'm either sitting at the Windows computer or controlling it with an iPhone app or something similar) to stream to the MacBook Pro (which will then send the signal via HDMI to my amp and screen)? The computers are on a gigabit network.

Thanks again.

[brossmac]

I just installed BlueStacks for Windows on my PC.  It lets you run Android apps on a Windows machine.  I got Gizmo working perfectly.  (I did this just for testing purposes to see if it would work.)

They seem to be working on a Mac version.  I`m assuming you`d then be able to use Gizmo from your Mac.

http://www.bluestacks.com/download.html

[glynor]

MC runs AWESOME under the current version of Parallels Desktop with Win7 x64 on my Macbook Pro.

I use it every day.