Why Doesn't Apple Make an iOS-based Server to Hold All iTunes Media-

[ftaok]

For me ... this would be a good first step. However, I really want more than this, and in the end, I might end up with an OS X Server.

Here's what I'm looking for.

1. iTunes server. Right now, I'm using a an old Dell WinXP laptop running iTunes 11. I have a external eSATA HDD hooked up to it and it houses all of my movies and Digital Copies.

2. iPhoto server. We currently have a few Macs in the house and none of the iPhoto libraries are exactly the same. I manually download the photo from my SLR to both Macs, but we each download our iPhones to our individual Macs. A central server that houses every photo from every attached iPhoto library would be great. Put in an archive feature in iPhoto so that older events could be removed from the Macs and retrieved from the server as needed.

3. iMovie server. This one would be a nice to have if it's feasible. Same idea as the iPhoto server, with the exception that current projects would be on the local Mac and older projects would be archived on the server.

4. Mac/iOS app server. This is a minor want. It would be nice to download an app once, and distribute to all iOS devices in the house.

5. Time Machine backups. This is probably the easiest feature. In fact, isn't this built-in already in OS X Server?

ft

 

[Cinephi1e]

How do you use Mac Mini for this purpose though?

(Keeping in mind I'm a computer novice so please don't throw things)

You would have to have it hooked up to a monitor, right? It's not like it could just be hiding behind a TV like a router because at some point you're going to need to see iTunes

I'm assuming you would also have to keep it hooked up to an external HD, as its internal one would fill up pretty fast.

Also, from a usability stand point - if the Apple TV would require iTunes to be on somewhere to access files, do you have to get up and flip a switch on the thing or does it just remain on?

The Mac Mini is very small and is easy to hide behind a TV. Mine sits right next to one of my Apple TV's. You do not need a monitor as it can be controlled using screen sharing from your Macbook Air. I have also attached it to my TV so I can use the TV as the monitor if needed.

Yes, you need to attach external drive(s) to it. It is designed for this and comes with multiple USB ports and Firewire/Thunderbolt. I have a very large Firewire RAID array attached to mine and also some hard drives with USB.

Yes, the primary purpose of the Mac Mini is to act as a server for media and so iTunes is always on. It has laptop components so it sips power when idle, but you can also set it to sleep when idle. It will be woken up when prompted by the Apple TV.

 

[carr1on]

The Mac Mini is very small and is easy to hide behind a TV. Mine sits right next to one of my Apple TV's. You do not need a monitor as it can be controlled using screen sharing from your Macbook Air. I have also attached it to my TV so I can use the TV as the monitor if needed.

Yes, you need to attach external drive(s) to it. It is designed for this and comes with multiple USB ports and Firewire/Thunderbolt. I have a very large Firewire RAID array attached to mine and also some hard drives with USB.

Yes, the primary purpose of the Mac Mini is to act as a server for media and so iTunes is always on. It has laptop components so it sips power when idle, but you can also set it to sleep when idle. It will be woken up when prompted by the Apple TV.

I was seriously considering going this way too. However, I'm holding out for IOS7 and it's ability to use ATV as a real monitor, not just for AirPlay compatible application.
In this scenario, when I carry my MacBook Air into the living room, I can attach to the ATV (and connected big-screen TV) and then play my local movies in whatever format I choose (ie. MKV, AVI).

 

[boomhower]

http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/

Exactly what I was thinking. The Mac Mini has all those features (storage, sips power, etc).

It's $600 and not designed for the purpose. This doesn't need a powerful CPU and graphics. While the mini is very power conservative it uses more than a NAS would.

What this needs is a NAS designed case that will accept ~4 HD's. A couple thunderbolt ports to add more. No monitor should be needed. All configuration is done via an app or via a browser on your network.

Essentially Windows Home Server done right by Apple. WHS actually did pretty darn well until Microsoft nerfed the best features of it with the rebuild.

I really believe there is a decent sized market for this. The key is making it at the right price and marketing well. One thing that Apple does better than anyone else is making the whole ecosystem work together.

Regardless I don't think it'll happen as Apple would rather you just buy eveything from iTunes.

 

[linds15]

Mac mini approach is the best as it stands, in my humble opinion. I use mine as my home desktop, and always leave it on, but if I didn't I would still by one, stick it behind my tv with an external hard drive, and let it stream to all the TVs in the house with their ATVs connected. At ~500 the base model is adequate enough to handle the task. Worst case if I need to control it I use my ipad with a desktop viewer or absolute worst case it's hooked up to the TV for troubleshooting.

 

[Otago Lad]

Essentially Windows Home Server done right by Apple. WHS actually did pretty darn well until Microsoft nerfed the best features of it with the rebuild.

I'm using Windows HomeServer 2011 and running Stablebit Drive Pool on it to handle duplication and I think its fantastic. You can even run iTunes directly on it (some people say you can't but you can 🙂) meaning you don't have to keep any laptops or PC's on to still be able to access it.

I currently have 3 aTV's which all access directly from the server and so do my iPad's and iPhones together with a Boxee Box, PS3 a desktop PC and a laptop. Have had no issues and all the info we have as a family is accessible across the network.

The only downside is power usage, however given that I currently have space for 40TB of data and have used approx 30TB there was always going to be a small downside somewhere but I can live with that.

 

[theusualsuspect]

That's why I went the Plex /HTPC route - it does what Apple TV can't right now.

I built a cheap HTPC style hackintosh ($300) with room for a few TB's of storage, plugged into my TV.

Itunes server, iphoto server, Time Machine Backups, VPN, all my ios devices sync to it.

On the front end, Plex makes all my local files look pretty (and plays everything), and the ios app streams them to my iPad when I'm out of the home.

It's always on, it just works, and it was a fairly minimal investment.

 

[NMF]

What this needs is a NAS designed case that will accept ~4 HD's.

NAS boxes aren't as reliable though. I have consolidated Time Machine back-ups for every Mac in my home, fast and easy iTunes streaming to every device in the house, backups and syncing for every iOS device, master family Aperture library, VPN, etc. I have it stashed in the closet with one of these. Currently have 6 TB of storage at my disposal with an additional 2 HDD bays available. Obviously I have the USB for 3 more boxes. Potentially 48 TB if I stick with 3 TB HDD's, and that's without bringing Thunderbolt into the equation at all. Everything sleeps when not being used and wakes on demand since I'm using an AirPort network. Minuscule power bill footprint. Can't beat that.

With NAS boxes you'll end up paying about the same for far less reliability. Your Time Machine backups might work... for a while. Nothing will ever be as convenient and easy and a Mac mini running OS X Server. Especially if you have multiple Macs and iOS devices in your home. It's just amazing. My friends are always in awe of how well all my stuff works with the server, they think I'm some kind of IT genius. Heh. I know absolutely nothing about networking.

Thanks Mac mini! 😀

 

[d21mike]

I agree with NWF about using the Mac Mini. I use three of them at my office running VMWARE so I can consolidate a bunch of servers. Half of which are windows servers.

However, I only use MAC OSX 10.8 Destop Edition. I have no need for the Server Version. I assume you don't either. Just more things to deal with if not needed.

 

[boomhower]

I'm using Windows HomeServer 2011 and running Stablebit Drive Pool on it to handle duplication and I think its fantastic. You can even run iTunes directly on it (some people say you can't but you can 🙂) meaning you don't have to keep any laptops or PC's on to still be able to access it.

I currently have 3 aTV's which all access directly from the server and so do my iPad's and iPhones together with a Boxee Box, PS3 a desktop PC and a laptop. Have had no issues and all the info we have as a family is accessible across the network.

The only downside is power usage, however given that I currently have space for 40TB of data and have used approx 30TB there was always going to be a small downside somewhere but I can live with that.

Drive pool is what they nerfed out of it. I had a couple of WHS boxes and drivepool was absolutely genius. It's the perfect form of RAID. You have redundancy without the need to match hard drives. I had one with 500GB, 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB drives. When one failed I replaced with a newer larger drive. It worked great. To this day I have yet to find something that worked as well.

NAS boxes aren't as reliable though. I have consolidated Time Machine back-ups for every Mac in my home, fast and easy iTunes streaming to every device in the house, backups and syncing for every iOS device, master family Aperture library, VPN, etc. I have it stashed in the closet with one of these. Currently have 6 TB of storage at my disposal with an additional 2 HDD bays available. Obviously I have the USB for 3 more boxes. Potentially 48 TB if I stick with 3 TB HDD's, and that's without bringing Thunderbolt into the equation at all. Everything sleeps when not being used and wakes on demand since I'm using an AirPort network. Minuscule power bill footprint. Can't beat that.

With NAS boxes you'll end up paying about the same for far less reliability. Your Time Machine backups might work... for a while. Nothing will ever be as convenient and easy and a Mac mini running OS X Server. Especially if you have multiple Macs and iOS devices in your home. It's just amazing. My friends are always in awe of how well all my stuff works with the server, they think I'm some kind of IT genius. Heh. I know absolutely nothing about networking.

Thanks Mac mini! 😀

What is running that enclosure?

NAS boxes can be reliable, it just depends on what you buy. Spend the money and high end RAID with darn near fool proof redundancy is possible. It just matters how much you want to spend. It can take several drives and cost you a lot of that drive space for the redundancy.

Implement something like MS's drivepool method and it can be done cheaply with spare drives or what you can find on sale. But again, this isn't Apple thinking. Budget they are not. They are about max profit, not necessarily what's in the best interest of consumers. Making a device where you can buy a season of a show for $10 on sale and load it simply compared to buying it on iTunes for 2-3x the price isn't their style. Not hating, I'm in whole hog from beginning to end as you can see in my sig. I just desperately want this device as I don't believe in the cloud for media as you can get the media for much cheaper (legitimately) outside of iTunes.

 

[Otago Lad]

Drive pool is what they nerfed out of it. I had a couple of WHS boxes and drivepool was absolutely genius. It's the perfect form of RAID. You have redundancy without the need to match hard drives. I had one with 500GB, 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB drives. When one failed I replaced with a newer larger drive. It worked great. To this day I have yet to find something that worked as well.

That's why Stablebit's Drive Pool is so good - they've taken all the good stuff from WHSv1 duplication and made it even better, and it can be used with WHS 2011, Server 2012 and Windows 8.

 

[haze]

I'd buy a simple elegant Apple media server solution. I was using a HP MediaSmart server with WHS for this as it was the simplest solution. It died and they discontinued the product. Now the only option seems to be to build my own. So, I will have to build a computer and install Ubuntu with Amahi. Such a pain!!! I haven't built a computer since my Windows days in college. I wish Apple would just make something easy.

 

[Michael CM1]

Making an assumption that you bought EVERYTHING in your iTunes library from iTunes or you use iTunes Match for music and bought your video from iTunes, Apple TV does exactly that in the cloud. I'm guessing you're like and have a bunch of iTunes stuff and a bunch of ripped stuff, so you'll probably just have to stick with using a computer. But if you buy stuff from iTunes, you can access it on Apple TV from anywhere.

 

[Che Castro]

Making an assumption that you bought EVERYTHING in your iTunes library from iTunes or you use iTunes Match for music and bought your video from iTunes, Apple TV does exactly that in the cloud. I'm guessing you're like and have a bunch of iTunes stuff and a bunch of ripped stuff, so you'll probably just have to stick with using a computer. But if you buy stuff from iTunes, you can access it on Apple TV from anywhere.

Maybe apple should have something like iTunes music match but with movies

 

[wzz]

In the past few posts, it was "implied" that mini consumes more than an NAS.
I'm just wondering, where is the basis of that statement?

One could just literally put the mini into sleep and be able to use it as a (iTunes/etc) server.

mini 2012:
sleep: ~1W
idle: ~11W
max: ~85W

NAS? [unfamiliar with NAS - but a simple google search gives me something like 35W]
idle: ? [10/20/70]

+ additional wattage due to extra components added to the system

 

[cxc273]

I'd love to see something from Apple on this front, but I think Apple sees such a device as a niche product.

Most people don't have big TV and movie libraries that necessitate a standalone server-type device with attached local storage. Unlike CDs, ripping DVDs and Blu-rays are a bit more involved.

The people who tend to do this often use a Mac Mini or some other machine to be the media server. Although Apple doesn't offer a works-out-of-the-box solution, it does give people the opportunity to create a method that's customized to their needs.

The trend appears to be moving toward streaming, whether it's through a service like Netflix or Hulu or through Apple's iTunes.

Personally, I prefer having a Mac Mini as my media server and having my TV shows and movies locally, but that's just me.

 

[Michael CM1]

Maybe apple should have something like iTunes music match but with movies

It'll never happen. With music, ripping was built in to iTunes. With DVDs and BDs, you had to jump through hoops with third-party software. Therefore to the studios it doesn't exist and is like armageddon.

I wish that would happen, but it won't.

 

[BeachChair]

The market for this would be miniscule.

How big is the market for the Mac Mini or the Time Capsule?

It doesn't matter that the market for this device isn't in the billions like iPhones. What matters is that it will make the Mac OS X devices and iOS devices much stronger.

 

[26139]

Yep

1) I think, because of licensing, Apple is looking to move most everything to the cloud. Media providers don't want us downloading stuff because they can't track and serve us ads.

2) An older Mac Mini, paired with an AppleTV, works perfectly for this.

 

[brentsg]

How big is the market for the Mac Mini or the Time Capsule?

It doesn't matter that the market for this device isn't in the billions like iPhones. What matters is that it will make the Mac OS X devices and iOS devices much stronger.

The point is that this concept adds nothing new. I know plenty of people with Mini's but nobody that would buy this.

Apple is focused on the cloud, not helping us find new ways to horde digital media.

 

[kiranmk2]

Agreed - Apple isn't going to provide what we want. I wrote about this before - an iTunes / iPhoto server that is headless (configured via app on iOS or OS X) that swallows up all your media, streams to iTunes and iOS devices and syncs your iOS devices. As has been pointed out Apple would much rather you buy your content from them and store them in the cloud. In their eyes the days of user-stored media are numbered so why bring out a device geared towards that now?

As an aside I guess a way to set up a makeshift iTunes server is to combine a NAS with a low power computer. People have mentioned old Mac Mini's which would be ideal if if weren't for the costs involved, but an alternative might be an old Atom-powered netbook or nettop. It should be possible to set up the system so it is woken by network requests. Ripped or downloaded media is copied into a folder that is 'watched' by the netbook which then adds the media to iTunes and syncs (if needed) to the various iOS devices as they enter wifi range. The computer can also be controlled via remote desktop if needed. Not as ideal as an Apple-built server but might do the job.

 

[talmy]

For 3 1/2 years I've been running a Mac mini server. It has 8TB of drives and consumes 41 watts at idle. It runs 24/7.

Looking just at entertainment server functions (it does much more than that here):

1. It runs Plex Media Server which handles all video (homemade, ripped from DVDs, or recorded off of TV, no Apple media). It also serves images and music directly from iPhoto and iTunes databases stored on the server.

2. I used to run iTunes to serve converted media to our ATV, but now I run a script that allows the ATV to access the Plex Media Server.

By using Plex instead of iTunes I also get around the five computer "home sharing" limitation imposed by iTunes even for media that isn't DRMed.

If I had to start over, I'd do exactly the same thing!

 

[Cinephi1e]

I will say this again, Apple already makes such a server and it is called a Mac Mini. I don't understand why Apple should make another server when they have the Mini. It will do everything that people are asking and more.

 

[d21mike]

I will say this again, Apple already makes such a server and it is called a Mac Mini. I don't understand why Apple should make another server when they have the Mini. It will do everything that people are asking and more.

I would like to see an ATV UI on the Mac Mini. Like the old Front Row but using the ATV UI. That would be a good starting point.

 

[kage207]

I just built myself a Ubuntu server and use Plex. Airplay to any aTV in my apartment. The cool thing is I can stream my media anywhere. If I wanted, I could also use it for my Photos but I don't really take many pictures.

It does have 18TB in it. 😀
Only 6TB filled. 😀😀