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dhy8386

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2008
827
23
In our house, we have three macs (1 bedroom, 1 office, 1 media center) each with its own iTunes Library. There was never a need for a shared library since we could just turn sharing on and have access to each computers content. However, a basic/annoying problem with the current ATV2 is that it does not consolidate content on multiple iTunes where content might be stored. I hate having 3 different computers show up and my family had to remember which ones have which content. I thought I found the answer in moving all our content onto the media server, consolidating all content, and then just sharing the same iTunes Library file (trying to maintain three separate libraries but keep them in sync with updates is a nightmare, especially with hundreds of gigs of content). This way, any computer would server as the master computer for the ATV2 home sharing.

However, the iTunes Library file can only be open on one computer at a time. This is fine except it becomes a PIA to have to run to each computer to see where iTunes was running before you can open it on the another computer. And if do try and open iTunes when another computer has it open, you get an error message and then the genius files can easily get corrupt.

So I wrote this simple little app in applescript that you can run from the local machine which checks to see if iTunes is running on all computers on your network, closes the instance, and launches iTunes on the local machine. Its early alpha but I would love some alpha/beta testers to see how it runs in a different environment. Requires some manual setup.

Anyone with a similar setup that wants to help me out (or just help me test it), it would be much appreciated. Please send me a PM.
 
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