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Droboshare + iTunes + Firefly

Bye Bye Baby

Bye Bye Baby

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 15, 2004
1,153
1
i(am in the)cloud
Anyone out there using Droboshare + the droboapp firefly?

I was wondering about streaming video, if there is any lag?

I was also wondering about DRM video content from iTunes if it works on an ATV?

Does anyone use superduper and if so do they have a bootable copy of their HD on their drobo? Can you boot from the firewire 800 connection?

Looking for feedback and set-up advice from those of you using the drobo
 
I'm using mt-daapd (Firefly) on my linux server to share my library and it works phenomenally. I am getting a drobo at the end of the month and I'm migrating my server roles to my new mac mini. I don't see the point in the droboshare when you can just share it from another computer with much more capabilities. Nearly anything that you would want to do with the droboshare (plus more) can be done if you attach the device to a computer and share it through there.

Right now, my server is being used as a;
BitTorrent Client
Usenet Client
NAS
Time Capsule
mt-daapd
and I have a few scripts running in the crontab.

Firefly works like a champ (and through ubuntu, a simple 'sudo apt-get install mt-daapd' does the trick) and I've never had a problem with it. The only thing I've had trouble with is setting up the actual share directory (there's some bug in the program). It's really not a problem though.

Firefly won't work to stream video that I'm aware of. The DAAP protocol just isn't made for it. I'm not sure how you would accomplish that with just a droboshare (which is why I deem them useless).
 
Apocrathia said:
I'm using mt-daapd (Firefly) on my linux server to share my library and it works phenomenally. I am getting a drobo at the end of the month and I'm migrating my server roles to my new mac mini. I don't see the point in the droboshare when you can just share it from another computer with much more capabilities. Nearly anything that you would want to do with the droboshare (plus more) can be done if you attach the device to a computer and share it through there.

Right now, my server is being used as a;
BitTorrent Client
Usenet Client
NAS
Time Capsule
mt-daapd
and I have a few scripts running in the crontab.

Firefly works like a champ (and through ubuntu, a simple 'sudo apt-get install mt-daapd' does the trick) and I've never had a problem with it. The only thing I've had trouble with is setting up the actual share directory (there's some bug in the program). It's really not a problem though.

Firefly won't work to stream video that I'm aware of. The DAAP protocol just isn't made for it. I'm not sure how you would accomplish that with just a droboshare (which is why I deem them useless).
Click to expand...

That's interesting. But I m sure you could stream video DRM content if you point your itunes library at the drobo. It would of course be the computer getting content from drobo and then sending it to the ATV or something else.

Any ideas if that would be too much of a stretch and cause stuttering?
 
Bye Bye Baby said:
That's interesting. But I m sure you could stream video DRM content if you point your itunes library at the drobo. It would of course be the computer getting content from drobo and then sending it to the ATV or something else.

Any ideas if that would be too much of a stretch and cause stuttering?
Click to expand...

the problem even with pointing a second client at a video library is that each system has it's individual drm 'token', and you just can't have two in the same spot without things blowing up. I'm not sure how well the appletv works with network shares either, otherwise I would just tell you to point the appletv itself to the drobo. You might want to try using xbmc on your atv and see if that works more for you. However, I don't know how well it would work with reading drm'd content. Unfortunately, Plex is the only worthwhile frontend that really can read apple's drm'd content, however it isn't supported on the appletv due to the hardware being so underpowered.
 
That is interesting that plex can read drm'd content. I didn't know that. I have tried plex and I have been particularly unimpresed with it. I didn't see why it would replace Frontrow for me.

I don't think the ATV can be pointed firectly at the Drobo. I think it must pass through a Mac (or PC).

If I could just get my computers and the ATV to point to the drobo and access the library as a media centre without passing through a MAc, that would be awesome.

Thanks for the tips.
 
as I mentioned, another option you might want to try is to load xbmc (or boxee even, although it's interface is god awful). I know for a fact that xbmc is capable of being pointed to network shares (as is boxee and plex, since they are both fork projects of xbmc).
I just don't believe that apple has allowed the xbmc team to playback fairplay drm'd content as they have for plex. so if you download a lot of stuff from the itunes store that isn't drm-free, you might be screwed.
does the content that the appletv plays have to be directly on the device, or can it be streamed over a network? because you might be able to find some sort of media server software, or you might be able to just leave itunes running 24/7 on the machine attached to the drobo.
 
Bye Bye Baby said:
That is interesting that plex can read drm'd content. I didn't know that. I have tried plex and I have been particularly unimpresed with it. I didn't see why it would replace Frontrow for me.

I don't think the ATV can be pointed firectly at the Drobo. I think it must pass through a Mac (or PC).

If I could just get my computers and the ATV to point to the drobo and access the library as a media centre without passing through a MAc, that would be awesome.

Thanks for the tips.
Click to expand...

Good Luck ... One thing that disappoints me with droboshare is its USB connection to the drobo. On a gigabit network, this appears to be limiting. Multiple user access via the droboshare sounds like it would be rather slow.
 
DELLsFan said:
Good Luck ... One thing that disappoints me with droboshare is its USB connection to the drobo. On a gigabit network, this appears to be limiting. Multiple user access via the droboshare sounds like it would be rather slow.
Click to expand...

You are dead right. Why on earth they would screw data throughput with USB over gigabit is beyond me. You pay a fortune for something that is less than optimal.

I only hope they upgrade the Drobo with dedicated gigabit ethernet.

What are the possibilities of Apple writing a program for NAS/ Drobo devices that would allow content streaming to Macs/ ATVs and the like? I have a tonne of iTunes store stuff and I must say that I cannot stand the impositions placed on users by movie compnaies. You buy the stuff and they want to screw you. No wonder piracy abounds.
 
Solution: buy drm content, delete drm content, download drm-free content, live drm free.

All I can really do is throw in my 2¢ on how i feel that the droboshare and appletv are useless compared to a mac mini. I wish I could be of more help, but there's not a whole lot you can do with underpowered hardware in the first place.
 
Bye Bye Baby said:
Any news on a new Drobo?

Rumours?
Click to expand...

it's doubtful. the only thing they could really do to up the attached speed is add esata, and even then, not much really is equipped with it as a stock feature. at least not in the market of users that data robotics aims for.

they released the drobopro with iscsi, which is kinda lame, kinda awesome, still not esata. firewire 800 isn't that bad though to be honest. i just have no idea why they haven't made a firewire 800 droboshare.

if an update will be coming, it will be next year, around the same time the drobopro was released, which is around the same time the fw800 drobo was released the previous year. i love my drobo, couldn't ask for more out if it. it's already saved my data a couple of times. i don't know where i'd be without it right now. i can live with it not being blindingly fast in exchange for the ability to sleep at night.
 
Apocrathia said:
I'm using mt-daapd (Firefly) on my linux server to share my library and it works phenomenally. I am getting a drobo at the end of the month and I'm migrating my server roles to my new mac mini. I don't see the point in the droboshare when you can just share it from another computer with much more capabilities. Nearly anything that you would want to do with the droboshare (plus more) can be done if you attach the device to a computer and share it through there.

Right now, my server is being used as a;
BitTorrent Client
Usenet Client
NAS
Time Capsule
mt-daapd
and I have a few scripts running in the crontab.

Firefly works like a champ (and through ubuntu, a simple 'sudo apt-get install mt-daapd' does the trick) and I've never had a problem with it. The only thing I've had trouble with is setting up the actual share directory (there's some bug in the program). It's really not a problem though.

Firefly won't work to stream video that I'm aware of. The DAAP protocol just isn't made for it. I'm not sure how you would accomplish that with just a droboshare (which is why I deem them useless).
Click to expand...

i was thinking to get the drobo + droboshare and connect directly via firefly to my appletv.
drobo -> (droboshare ->) appletv

any insighs on compatibility?
i don't want to add another computer(mac mini, etc) in between ....

thx
 
Apocrathia said:
it's doubtful. the only thing they could really do to up the attached speed is add esata, and even then, not much really is equipped with it as a stock feature. at least not in the market of users that data robotics aims for.

they released the drobopro with iscsi, which is kinda lame, kinda awesome, still not esata. firewire 800 isn't that bad though to be honest. i just have no idea why they haven't made a firewire 800 droboshare.

if an update will be coming, it will be next year, around the same time the drobopro was released, which is around the same time the fw800 drobo was released the previous year. i love my drobo, couldn't ask for more out if it. it's already saved my data a couple of times. i don't know where i'd be without it right now. i can live with it not being blindingly fast in exchange for the ability to sleep at night.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. I am hoping to discover a drobo share fw800. I also hope they add ethernet to the drobo
 
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