Going from MBP to MBP and Mac Mini

[MoodyM]

I've decided to add a Mac Mini to my house, rather than constantly running my MBP on power with a 2.5TB USB connected, serving my 3 Apple TVs.

The idea will be to run the Mac Mini headless, running iTunes, with my USB drive connected, always available to the Apple TVs, leaving my MBP "portable" again. Winner!

I just wondered how every else with this setup manages things like iTunes, syncing iPhones/iPads, etc. Obviously all my movies, TV shows, etc will be on the Mac Mini, so they be available to Apple TVs all the time, but I do like to sync some TV shows to my iPad for watching.

Is it best to simply sync my iPad/iPhone to the Mac Mini (bit of a pain as it'll be hidden down low on a shelf), or keep 2 copies of iTunes Library?

 

[barkmonster]

You need to borrow a keyboard and mouse, then hook it up to a monitor with your existing cables to do it but I'd suggest this: -

Have your Mac Mini setup as your iTunes system.

Use a USB extension cable from it for easy access for syncing.

Setup screen sharing with the Mac Mini and the MacBook Pro.

Once you've done that, your Mac Mini can run headless and you can control it any time you like remotely from the MacBook. I do a similar thing with a Mac Mini as my main system and an G4 with a SATA card and a couple of HDDs as a backup server and it works fine. Even have certain folders on it setup with XBMC on the G4 so I can play it through my TV as a media centre. It doesn't have the CPU power for all video but using XBMC remote and Mobile Air Mouse from my iPhone gives me some idea of what it would be like when I replace the G4 with the Mac Mini and a JBOD enclosure for the drives once I get a more recent Mac.

 

[maflynn]

I think maybe a NAS may be a better option as they're designed for multimedia streaming. In any event what you state is workable, but as mentioned you'll need mouse/keyboard and a monitor to boot up and configure the mini.