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Airport Express Question

D

Dr Strangelove

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 24, 2008
205
0
I have been searching high and low for this answer and cannot seem to find it. If I purchase an Airport Express for streaming music from iTunes, is it it's own dedicated music receiver in that I can choose different music to play on it than what is playing on another airport or itunes directly?

Or do the airport extremes simply only stream what is playing iTunes and not their own stream?
 
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They stream what is playing in iTunes. You have to select which speakers to output to inside of iTunes. It will only let you output the sound to one set of speakers at a time.
 
Damn, then this does not server my purpose... I guess I do need to look at getting an Apple TV then.
 
kornyboy said:
It will only let you output the sound to one set of speakers at a time.
Click to expand...

I can output sound to my iMac and my Airport Express at the same time without any issue. I don't think there is an issue streaming to more than one Airtunes device at a time - though I only own the one Airport Express so I can't really test this.

You are correct that it only streams what is currently playing on the host iTunes and doesn't allow for different "streams" to be sent to different locations.

However, will the AppleTV actually solve this problem? Can the AppleTV be streaming music from your iTunes library and playing it locally on the AppleTV while the host machine plays something different and possibly sends it out to another airtunes device?
 
teiresias said:
I don't think there is an issue streaming to more than one Airtunes device at a time - though I only own the one Airport Express so I can't really test this.
Click to expand...

Unless something changed, there is absolutely no problem streaming to more than one at a time.

I've streamed music to three different Airport Expresses (in addition to the computer speakers) at the same time. Very convenient to walk around from room to room with seamless music playing everywhere.
 
teiresias said:
However, will the AppleTV actually solve this problem? Can the AppleTV be streaming music from your iTunes library and playing it locally on the AppleTV while the host machine plays something different and possibly sends it out to another airtunes device?
Click to expand...

Should be able to. You can do so from shared iTunes libraries...
 
So wait a second, I could make multiple libraries that are shared and stream different stuff to my airport express stations?
 
Dr Strangelove said:
So wait a second, I could make multiple libraries that are shared and stream different stuff to my airport express stations?
Click to expand...
Not from the same Mac. You can only play one iTunes song at a time on a Mac, so that is what would be streamed via Airport Express to speakers.
 
ggjstudios said:
Not from the same Mac. You can only play one iTunes song at a time on a Mac, so that is what would be streamed via Airport Express to speakers.
Click to expand...

What about if you have two log in accounts on a single Mac? Then you can have two copies of iTunes running, each one pointing at a different Airport Express.
 
statik13 said:
What about if you have two log in accounts on a single Mac? Then you can have two copies of iTunes running, each one pointing at a different Airport Express.
Click to expand...
You can only have one account logged in at a time. As soon as you log in to one account, the music from the other account stops.
 
statik13 said:
What about if you have two log in accounts on a single Mac? Then you can have two copies of iTunes running, each one pointing at a different Airport Express.
Click to expand...
That totally works as long as you enable Fast User Switching. I just tested the theory.

Another solution would be to buy AirFoil and then use VLC or Quicktime itself to playback as many songs as you'd like. AirFoil can stream music to multiple Airport Expresses from multiple audio sources on your Mac.
 
QuarterSwede said:
That totally works as long as you enable Fast User Switching. I just tested the theory.

Another solution would be to buy AirFoil and then use VLC or Quicktime itself to playback as many songs as you'd like. AirFoil can stream music to multiple Airport Expresses from multiple audio sources on your Mac.
Click to expand...
I just tested it. If you're using the computer speakers, the music stops as soon as you log into the 2nd account. If you're streaming via Airport Express, it keeps playing, but won't allow the 2nd user to stream to the same AE. So if you have multiple AEs, it would work.
 
ggjstudios said:
I just tested it. If you're using the computer speakers, the music stops as soon as you log into the 2nd account. If you're streaming via Airport Express, it keeps playing, but won't allow the 2nd user to stream to the same AE. So if you have multiple AEs, it would work.
Click to expand...
Exactly. He could also stream music to the APX and play music through the computer speakers at the same time if he wants to use his Mac's speakers (or line out) as the second audio source.

Cheaper & harder solution:
Stream music from iTunes to APX, use Fast User Switching to switch to other account and play music through iTunes to computer speakers.

More Expensive & Easier solution:
Buy AirFoil. Done.

In either case you can always buy multiple APX's to stream to.
 
Not sure if this even matters but the itunes server is Windows Vista not Mac.

I m am still just considering going with an Apple Tv instead for the living room, I just don't know....lol.
 
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