iPod Several macs, music and a living room...

[camilletom]

Hello.
Me and my family currently have one single iMac that we share using different accounts.
However, we realized that it would be better if each one of us had its own mac.

The problem begins when we consider the fact that we would like to play music in the living room.
If everyone has its own itunes library with its own songs, what can we do in order to play music, depending on the mac? Cables? Wireless solution? But another computer ony for music that will be in the living room and synced with all macs?

Thanks for potential help! Good day.

 

[QCassidy352]

There are a lot of ways to do this. The key point for your question is that as long as all the macs are on the same wireless network, they can freely share each other's iTunes libraries. I'll offer a few options.

1) Have a "central mac" (the one in the living room, probably) with all of the music and never turn it off. (this is what I do. mini connected to HDTV with eyeTV. The mini is on 24/7; I just turn the TV off, which turns off the sound, too.) The other macs can connect to the mini and stream music from it at any time.

2) Have a Time Capsule serving as your router and your itunes library - all the macs could connect to it and stream whatever they wanted.

3) Connect an Airport Express to your stereo. Any mac can then stream music from its own itunes library to the Airport Express and it will be played through the stereo.

I'm sure there are more ways too, but that should give you a few things to think about. More information would help us help you, like:
- Do you play your music in the living room through a stereo or computer speakers?
- how many macs are you thinking about?
- do you already have a wireless network (and if not, do you want one)?

 

[camilletom]

There are a lot of ways to do this. The key point for your question is that as long as all the macs are on the same wireless network, they can freely share each other's iTunes libraries. I'll offer a few options.

1) Have a "central mac" (the one in the living room, probably) with all of the music and never turn it off. (this is what I do. mini connected to HDTV with eyeTV. The mini is on 24/7; I just turn the TV off, which turns off the sound, too.) The other macs can connect to the mini and stream music from it at any time.

2) Have a Time Capsule serving as your router and your itunes library - all the macs could connect to it and stream whatever they wanted.

3) Connect an Airport Express to your stereo. Any mac can then stream music from its own itunes library to the Airport Express and it will be played through the stereo.

I'm sure there are more ways too, but that should give you a few things to think about. More information would help us help you, like:
- Do you play your music in the living room through a stereo or computer speakers?
- how many macs are you thinking about?
- do you already have a wireless network (and if not, do you want one)?

Thanks you for your help

Well, we are a family of 4 so we would have 4 computers. We currently play our music, which is on one iMac in the living room, through a stereo and we don't have a wireless network (we don't want to have one because some say it's not healthy ^^).

 

[camilletom]

By reading my last post, could someone please help me decide what would be the best solution for us from the ones QCassidy352 posted so kindly, or suggest a new one?
Thank you very much for your time!

 

[duckmanjbr]

Best way to do it is with a central computer share. Just connect all the other computers to the new network share and make sure all the movies and music are stored on that share. This way you only have 1 database/computer with media to maintain and worry about. You don't even have to get a "super" computer to share it out with. Any old computer w/ a network connection and a file share will work. On the more robust side build yourself a NAS box and have everything in the house at a central storage point!