Does iTunes sharing make sense for my setup?

[bcemail]

OK, here's the situation my parents went away on a week's vacation I am trying to figure out the best way to play music on my Windows 10 PC and a few rooms around the house. I have all my music in iTunes, and I don't use any streaming service. I use iTunes to keep the music on our iPhones and my kids' iPods updated, so I want to keep using it (I've read a lot of suggestions for other programs to use on Windows, but I don't think any of them can transfer to iPhone/iPod).

Currently I have RCA wires running between different rooms, and it mostly works, but I've run into problems with loose cables, ground loops, having to use 3.5->1/4" adapters, etc. It sort of works, but isn't great. And if I want to move my speakers to a different room, it would be a big project. I've also tried using Chromecasts and Airport, but the connectivity just wasn't good enough. I would get delays, missing rooms, etc. I like having all the rooms synced together, but I might give that up to simplify things.

I started to look into an iTunes server, but most info I found was older, so I thought it might be outdated. Then I read about Home Sharing and thought it might work. My plan would be that my PC would still have all the music, so if I'm there I can just play as usual. Then, in a few different rooms, I would get a used iPod Touch or iPad Mini, and just use it to run iTunes, with the 3.5mm out run to either my soundbar, mini amp powering speakers, etc. I also have a couple of Bluetooth speakers that if I wanted I could grab, unplug the Touch/Mini, and take it to another room, outside, etc.

I would lose the ability to have multiple rooms playing the same thing, although I've never had much luck with the iTunes Remote app on my iPhone, so I usually have to walk to the other room anyway. Would there be any way to control iTunes on the Touch/Mini with my iPhone? I couldn't Google a method, but wasn't sure. Or somehow tell multiple devices on the network to sync play? I think if I could that would probably lead to delays, drop outs, etc., which is my biggest frustration.

Also, could I update the Touch/Mini to over Wi-fi, or would I need to periodically connect them to the PC to update? Or should I buy Bluetooth amps and run everything from my PC? But then I think I would need some kind of Bluetooth booster or something to reach all the areas of my house.

Does this all makes sense? Sorry for the ramble, but I've been trying to get everything running smoothly for some time, and keep running into little (or big) headaches! Thank you!

 

[Boyd01]

I have a Mac Mini dedicated as an iTunes server. It just runs iTunes with home sharing 24/7 and all my media on a 4TB external USB 3 SSD. Works great, have been doing a version of this since about 2013. The mini itself is connected to my home stereo system with the 3.5mm headphone jack and I have speakers in different rooms, so I can use iTunes directly for that. This is useful for playing music throughout the house without the sync issues you mention. I could use the iPhone app as a remote for this, but my house is small so I just use iTunes directly on the server. Also have a 24" monitor connected to the server for watching movies with iTunes in that room.

But mainly I access the server through two Apple TV's, also an iPad, iPhone and another Mac. Very happy with this setup all-around. There are certainly other ways to do this, but this is very simple and does what I need. You could use almost any computer as a server, as long as it can run iTunes with home sharing.

Years ago, I had one of the first versions of the iPod touch sitting in a little dock that was connected to the home stereo. That worked fine too, but it didn't take long to fill the 32gb of internal storage. And I started ripping my large DVD collection and wanted to be able to view video throughout the house, so I moved to the iTunes server.

 

[bcemail]

I have a Mac Mini dedicated as an iTunes server. It just runs iTunes with home sharing 24/7 and all my media on a 4TB external USB 3 SSD. Works great, have been doing a version of this since about 2013. The mini itself is connected to my home stereo system with the 3.5mm headphone jack and I have speakers in different rooms, so I can use iTunes directly for that. This is useful for playing music throughout the house without the sync issues you mention. I could use the iPhone app as a remote for this, but my house is small so I just use iTunes directly on the server. Also have a 24" monitor connected to the server for watching movies with iTunes in that room.....

Thanks! I also considered that option as maybe being easier. Possibly getting a laptop just so it's a little more compact, since it will be near my TV/PC so probably won't need to watch anything on it.

When you say you have speakers in different rooms, how to you connect to them/how do they connect to iTunes?

Thank you!

 

[Boyd01]

That is very "old school" and something that I set up long before the server. I just ran two pairs of speaker wires from the amplifier to different parts of the house and have a speaker selection box with pushbuttons to turn then on/off.

 

[bcemail]

That is very "old school" and something that I set up long before the server. I just ran two pairs of speaker wires from the amplifier to different parts of the house and have a speaker selection box with pushbuttons to turn then on/off.

Haha, that's how I am with my RCA cables running through walls and stuff! I'm torn between keeping things this way or just making separate zones. I think as the kids get older they will probably want separate zones for different music around the house, but who knows. Of course, then they will probably just stream everything. Thanks!