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In iTunes, turn on Home Sharing, And then I believe it shows up in the shared section (at work, and can't verify). As for adding things to the library on the NAS, I put my whole library on the NAS, and set that up as the location iTunes looks for when opening up, and where it rips to when copying/creating files.
Are you saying that the NAS and your client computer both point to the same folder of audio files? How does the NAS update its iTunes xml database files? The client updates its file as you rip. Does the NAS do a periodic scan or something?
Are you saying that the NAS and your client computer both point to the same folder of audio files? How does the NAS update its iTunes xml database files? The client updates its file as you rip. Does the NAS do a periodic scan or something?
Not sure what you are asking. The NAS has my media on it. It shows up in iTunes as a shared library.
But you said you add to it via the client iTunes, yes? So does the media then show up on both the shared library and the client's own library?
ah. I will have to double check that it's not adding it to the laptop. But I'm 98% sure, it only adds the files to the NAS drive.
The mp3 files would be added only to the NAS. My question is about the library xml files. I'm not explaining my question very well, am I?
And I suspect you know more than I do, so that's not helping.
Not sure about the xml file. Where would I look for that?
I think I'm going to go with the all Synology method of dealing with music. I've loaded the media server packages and the Synology app is streaming the music well. I'm going to use a bluetooth receiver to stream to the stereo. We'll have a dedicated device in the living room to control the music (my Dad's old iPhone). Total cost: $30 for the bluetooth receiver.
Everyone can also stream to their own devices with either private or public playlists. Plus we can all have private music collections that merge with the public one. I think it should be pretty cool. The only downside is that playlists can only be created via the web interface.
On my setup, the library files (xml metadata and the .itl main library) are all on the NAS as well. I just have to make sure the NAS is mounted as a share before I start up iTunes on my laptop so it will read the correct library.
I have no idea how the iTunes sever works on my NAS, just that it's available. It sounds a lot more complicated than the Synology media server, but I imagine it would be great with an Apple TV unit.
Jessica -- It sounds like you're not using an iTunes server on the NAS; you're simply storing all your files (including the metadata) on it. So, you couldn't have more than one person connected to it at a time?
Gudanov -- Are you saying that the old iPhone will be the bluetooth transmitter for the living room? Cool idea! Please report back on how the Synology solution works for you. I've done some googling and a common thread seems to be that iTunes servers are very frustrating and don't really do what people would like them to do. It would be cool to know of an alternate superior solution to a central server with many clients.
