Apple Lifestyle: MBP 17" + iPhone + MacMini + tv

[ipedro]

I've been putting together a great eco-system of Apple products to work for my life, both personal and at work.

Apple distinguishes that really well: iLife + iWork. Commercial computers and Pro computers.

The experience has been amazing: tv has saved me hundreds of $$$ in cable subscription fees and I only watch what I want. The iPhone has made the Mac experience truly mobile.

I recently purchased a 17" MacBookPro for work (I'm a photographer and graphic designer). That has allowed me to move my office to a local coffee house without sacrificing the power of a real workstation.

One more component is needed -- the personal life element -- so I decided to pick up a MacMini which will hold all my personal photos (in iPhoto; my pro photos will reside in Aperture on the 17"MBP) personal data, music, TV shows and Movies, etc.

Now comes the conundrum: music is both personal and professional.

It makes sense to me to have music on the MacMini which will act as the media hub that syncs to tv. It'll also be hooked up to an EyeTV which will record TV shows and put them on the tv.

The iPhone is also both professional and personal.

So my problem here is: if I keep iTunes on the MBP, I'll maintain all my iPhone functionality (as an iPod, and a photo viewer to show my clients my work). But in that case, the MacMini couldn't work as the media hub because music wouldn't be on it. If I put the music library on the MacMini and sync my iPhone with the MacMini, I won't get Aperture photos on it to show clients.

The problem could be resolved if it were possible to sync iTunes libraries between both Mac's. Is that possible? Are there tools for that?

Suggestions? Tell us about your own setup...

 

[Prabz26]

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nice thread makin me jealous lol



im currently mac-less

until june



untill thenill rock my 5 yr old chunky as PC runnin on XP with only 200 MB of free space and a filled 500GB external

and not to mention my sick 5 iPods

two 2g ipod touches

two ipod nanos 1st gen

and original ipod shuffle



but iMac soon

brap brap!

 

[ipedro]

No intention on making anybody jealous ...lol.

I'm just trying to figure out how to set this up so that my system can separate Life from Work but that iTunes library is getting in the way.

 

[flopticalcube]

Ha Ha!

3 iMacs, a mini, a MacBook, two iPod touchs, two 3g Nanos, a 1g Shuffle, an Airport Extreme Base Station. Its all a big pain.

Syncing itunes: http://theappleblog.com/2008/10/13/one-itunes-library-on-multiple-computers/

 

[mickbab]

Aluminium iMac, white iMac, white MacBook, 2 iPhones, 2 iPod Minis, iPod Photo, iPod Nano 2G, iPod Shuffle 2G, 1TB Time Capsule.

Not all mine but they are in my house.

 

[ipedro]

Ha Ha!

3 iMacs, a mini, a MacBook, two iPod touchs, two 3g Nanos, a 1g Shuffle, an Airport Extreme Base Station. Its all a big pain.

Syncing itunes: http://theappleblog.com/2008/10/13/one-itunes-library-on-multiple-computers/

Thanks for the link. I did a quick look over the method and it seems like this is what I'm looking for. Gonna go read it more in depth.

 

[Theclamshell]

my macs


santa rosa 2.2 mb
2.0 cd mbp
Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
512k
ibook g3 clam
emac 800 mhz
imac g3 snow 600 mhz
powerbook g4 500 mhz
ipods:
8g 1st get itouch
8g 4th gen nano
gold mini


im 14 and im a mac lol

 

[ipedro]

So that link has a great solution but it wouldn't allow me to carry music on my MBP, and it would have a high probability of corrupting if at any point, 2 libraries were open simultaneously.

After much mental gymnastics, I've come up with a solution: 2 Separate libraries. One specializing in Video, the other in Music.

iTunes Music Library - MacBookPro
iTunes Video Library - MacMini

Because the MacMini is always on, it can stream video over wireless N to tv.

The Music library on the MBP will sync with the tv so that I won't need to have the MBP and iTunes open to listen to music on tv. The added bonus here –– and one of the major reasons why I need a media server -- is that video won't fill up my MBP's 320GB hard drive. Music is a lot tamer at a pretty steady 40GB.

The MacMini will still be able to record TV shows with EyeTV and make them available to the tv via streaming.

I'll sync the iPhone with the MBP which makes most sense since I have my contacts and my work portfolio on the MBP. Music will also sync to the iPhone and any new songs I buy on the iPhone or tv will sync back to the Music library on the MBP.

The two downsides are:
1) When I purchase video on the tv, it will sync to the MBP's Music library. I'll see if I can put together an Automator script that will find new movies and move them to the MacMini video library.
2) Because the MacMini is streaming, it won't sync iPhoto to the tv. I can sort of remediate that by posting my favorite iPhoto events to Flickr, which in turn is accessible from the tv.

Both computers will automatically back up to my 1TB Time Capsule, a single consolidated backup of all my media and data from both computers.

 

[Prabz26]

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Well I Own a Apple Store so ha i beat you all ... lol

i wish i just cant compare to you all

i should start a foundation to donate to prabz for apple products

 

[ipedro]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11a Safari/525.20)

Well I Own a Apple Store so ha i beat you all ... lol

i wish i just cant compare to you all

i should start a foundation to donate to prabz for apple products

How did this turn into a vanity thread? :S

In retrospect this thread would have been better posted to the iTunes forum.

 

[Drewsky87]

I have a MacBook and a Mac Mini and what I do everytime I import or purchase new songs for my library is i remotely access my other computer, whether it be my MB or Mini, from Finder and copy the newly imported songs into the /Music/iTunes/ folder that way then the next time I'm on the other computer I just add them to my iTunes.

It's not exactly the most efficient way of sharing libraries but it allows my to keep identical libraries on both my MacBook and my Mac Mini. It's not THAT much of a hassle if you know what you're doing I guess, not that it's complicated or anything.

 

[michael.lauden]

I have a MacBook and a Mac Mini and what I do everytime I import or purchase new songs for my library is i remotely access my other computer, whether it be my MB or Mini, from Finder and copy the newly imported songs into the /Music/iTunes/ folder that way then the next time I'm on the other computer I just add them to my iTunes.

It's not exactly the most efficient way of sharing libraries but it allows my to keep identical libraries on both my MacBook and my Mac Mini. It's not THAT much of a hassle if you know what you're doing I guess, not that it's complicated or anything.

you could just enable sharing in iTunes preferences. who cares if the files aren't actually on the computer itself. especially if both are in the house.

 

[ipedro]

^ If you're keeping in mind an tv is in the loop, it does matter. An tv can only sync from one computer and stream from others that must have iTunes open.

Trying to keep work and personal life on 2 separate machines, yet still share a music library on the go, and then finally having to have specific work related items on a sync'd iPhone.... the setup gets pretty complicated very quickly.

 

[ipedro]

Ideally, the MacMini would be the syncing computer to the tv but having the music library on the MBP complicates things. I'm still trying to find a way to sync my music library from the MBP into the MacMini's iTunes library.

One option would be to set up a Smart Playlist with music added in the last 1 day. Then set up an Automator script that nightly goes to iTunes and takes all the songs in that Smart Playlist and copies them into the Mac Mini.

I'll be able to play with these ideas better once I have the MacMini next week.