iTunes and iPhoto on MBA as second computer

[ks-man]

I just received my new MBA today and I'm trying to decide how to use it best with photos and music. I have an iMac where I upload my pictures and manage my iTunes library. I don't need continuous updates to the library so I'm thinking my best bet is to periodically copy the iTunes and iPhoto library to an external hard drive (which I do anyway for backup purposes) and just have the MBA look at those libraries over my home network.

The other method (which I don't know if it is possible) would be for the MBA to look at the libraries stored on the iMac. It is more important to me to not impact the performance on the iMac than having the most up-to-date music and photo library. I also would prefer to use a method which will make the MBA more responsive.

Which of these two methods would be better assuming both are possible and is there a different method that would work well for my scenario? I don't have enough hard drive space to have local copies on the MBA and I don't want to use an external drive connected to the MBA. I definitely want to handle the libraries over the network.

Thanks.

 

[Bluemeanie1976]

Well, I have a select playlist transferred to my air via homesharing. Movies, and my other music is streamed when I need it. Photo's are done in exactly the same way. I use the 'homesharing' thingy in iphoto, so I can keep the library on the one mac, and keep the air uncluttered. If I need any photo's transferring, I do a straight copy when, and if required.

Haven't had any issues with it.

 

[bcaslis]

For iTunes you can turn on home sharing on both the iMac and MBA. Then whenever you are on the same network, if iTunes is running on both, you can either stream music/videos to the MBA or copy files as needed. It works very well for this.

For iPhoto, I don't believe there is anything similar. You could share the folder with the iPhoto library but this will be pretty slow to access across a network if you have a large number of photos. I've chosen to have copies of files on both machines for photos and to use home sharing for the large video files (TV shows, Movies) in iTunes. The iTunes library on the MBA has the complete set of music, but not videos.

 

[bcaslis]

Well, I have a select playlist transferred to my air via homesharing. Movies, and my other music is streamed when I need it. Photo's are done in exactly the same way. I use the 'homesharing' thingy in iphoto, so I can keep the library on the one mac, and keep the air uncluttered. If I need any photo's transferring, I do a straight copy when, and if required.

Haven't had any issues with it.

I didn't see your post before mine. There's home sharing available in iPhoto also? Does it keep thumbnails on the local machine to speed up display? I would think a large library might be slow to access.

 

[Bluemeanie1976]

I didn't see your post before mine. There's home sharing available in iPhoto also? Does it keep thumbnails on the local machine to speed up display? I would think a large library might be slow to access.

I don't think it does. I haven't used it that much, but it does take 'some' time to load up the pics. It doesn't use up that much power when loading up. I had a look at util mon as it was loading the thumbnails, and it got to 0.2... No idea if that will be like that for you.

 

[ks-man]

For iTunes you can turn on home sharing on both the iMac and MBA. Then whenever you are on the same network, if iTunes is running on both, you can either stream music/videos to the MBA or copy files as needed. It works very well for this.

So I need to have iTunes running on both computers for this to work? That seems annoying since I would have to go to my iMac and open iTunes to use it with my MBA. Can't I just tell the Air to look at a library over the Network? I can't imagine that would be difficult to stream.

 

[Bluemeanie1976]

So I need to have iTunes running on both computers for this to work? That seems annoying since I would have to go to my iMac and open iTunes to use it with my MBA. Can't I just tell the Air to look at a library over the Network? I can't imagine that would be difficult to stream.

But you don't have to go to the other mac... Just remote in from the mac you are using. That's what I do. Or you could start it using terminal if you are feeling frisky.

 

[ks-man]

But you don't have to go to the other mac... Just remote in from the mac you are using. That's what I do. Or you could start it using terminal if you are feeling frisky.

Does Remote work if the other mac is in sleep mode?

 

[bcaslis]

Does Remote work if the other mac is in sleep mode?

No, the computer needs to be running with iTunes open.

 

[ks-man]

No, the computer needs to be running with iTunes open.

I meant Remote control of my iMac. Can my MBA control my iMac (login to it) if the iMac is asleep or do I have to go and wake up the iMac before the MBA can remotely control it.

 

[koobcamuk]

Depending on the settings of the iMac, it can be woken for VNC access.