iTunes home audio setup

[henry99k]

Hi everyone looking for some input on if this set up is possible before I go shelling out my Christmas money.

Looking to set up a audio system all through my house using itunes.


So my plan is to having my old pc wiped completely other than browser and itunes running in sleep mode at all times and set up to wake with network access. It will be running all my content on itunes for my 2 atv2, 3 speakers throughout the house with airport express, my macbook and ipod touches. I will also be getting a set of stereo bluetooth headphones to use for my son with the upstairs appletv through airplay.

So what Im inquiring about is this:

Will I need to have two iTunes applications running in order for the upstairs and downstairs to be playing seperate songs or movies given that they are accessing the same computer?

Also using the remote app will i be able to control the downstairs without interrupting the upstairs?

Thanks for any guidance

 

[EvilC5]

Will I need to have two iTunes applications running in order for the upstairs and downstairs to be playing seperate songs or movies given that they are accessing the same computer? no, just 1, and it will do multiple streams.
Also using the remote app will i be able to control the downstairs without interrupting the upstairs? yes, for the apple tv's at least. the airport express is just an airtunes speaker, for example, on the ATV2, you can select music/video with the remote app, and play if there on the tv. but the airport express, you can only send audio to it and control the volume from the app or itunes....i think that makes sense, or at least it does in my mind....
Thanks for any guidance

see above in red.....

 

[Omne666]

Hi everyone looking for some input on if this set up is possible before I go shelling out my Christmas money.


Will I need to have two iTunes applications running in order for the upstairs and downstairs to be playing seperate songs or movies given that they are accessing the same computer?

As far as I understand, to stream different music to different locations requires extra itunes applications per the number of different streams. Im also looking into something similar. Im probably going to try and run an itunes in a parallels os on the same computer.

Playing different movies on different atvs is not an issue from the one itunes. But 'sending' different music to different speakers is the question.

Anyone else tried this????

 

[EvilC5]

As far as I understand, to stream different music to different locations requires extra itunes applications per the number of different streams. Im also looking into something similar. Im probably going to try and run an itunes in a parallels os on the same computer.

Playing different movies on different atvs is not an issue from the one itunes. But 'sending' different music to different speakers is the question.

Anyone else tried this????

so sending is probably an issue, but streaming from should be a problem.

you have the music folder on ATV2 that you should be able to select a song/artist/playlist/etc from and that play locally to that tv/av receiver and be controlled by the remote app for everything except volume which is controlled by the devise streaming to. if you send audio, then you can control individual volume as well as overall volume.

 

[Panch0]

... pc wiped completely other than browser and itunes running in sleep mode at all times and set up to wake with network access. It will be running all my content on itunes for my 2 atv2, 3 speakers throughout the house with airport express, my macbook and ipod touches. I will also be getting a set of stereo bluetooth headphones to use for my son with the upstairs appletv through airplay.

So what Im inquiring about is this:

Will I need to have two iTunes applications running in order for the upstairs and downstairs to be playing seperate songs or movies given that they are accessing the same computer?

Also using the remote app will i be able to control the downstairs without interrupting the upstairs?

First, I think "sleep mode" is going to cause you a problem. I don't think that the AppleTvs are going to be able to 'see' the Home Sharing library unless it is actively running. I could be mistaken about this - I decided long ago to let my iMac stay awake.

I think that the consensus on streaming multiple songs/movies from the single library to the AppleTVs is correct, but the specs of the system acting as the server may effect the quality of the streams. I would definitely want a wired network connection to the 'server' as well.

With the Airport Express, you can have a single copy of iTunes send the SAME audio to multiple speakers (the AE looks like a speaker to iTunes). You could have iTunes stream to one AE, while the various iPod Touches stream directly to the other AE via AirPlay. I think this would be preferable to trying to run multiple copies of iTunes in VMs - that just sounds like a horribly complex setup.

With the remote App, each AppleTV, and the main iTunes library should all appear as different "Libraries", and you can switch the library you are controlling, so yes you can control each independently.

 

[EvilC5]

First, I think "sleep mode" is going to cause you a problem. I don't think that the AppleTvs are going to be able to 'see' the Home Sharing library unless it is actively running. I could be mistaken about this - I decided long ago to let my iMac stay awake.

SL 10.6 and the current firmware on the AEBS have the ability to wake on network activity.

 

[Panch0]

SL 10.6 and the current firmware on the AEBS have the ability to wake on network activity.

Yes, but if the Home Sharing 'server' is asleep, will the AppleTV 2 even be aware of it's existence so that it can send a wakeup call? I'm pretty sure that if I quit iTunes on my iMac, my library disappears from the Computers menu on my aTV.

 

[EvilC5]

Yes, but if the Home Sharing 'server' is asleep, will the AppleTV 2 even be aware of it's existence so that it can send a wakeup call? I'm pretty sure that if I quit iTunes on my iMac, my library disappears from the Computers menu on my aTV.

I leave my itunes open on my mini, but have it set to sleep after 1 hour. in the morning, I go to my apple tv2 and hit the menu button and it will wake the ATV as well as the mini. it takes a second or 2, but it works.

 

[mstrze]

Yes, but if the Home Sharing 'server' is asleep, will the AppleTV 2 even be aware of it's existence so that it can send a wakeup call? I'm pretty sure that if I quit iTunes on my iMac, my library disappears from the Computers menu on my aTV.

Yes, if you QUIT iTunes, the library will disappear, but as others have said, ATV will successfully wake the Mac when it needs iTunes access. I have been doing that for over a year with no problems. I have iTunes constantly running on my Mac, but the computer sleeps after about an hour of inactivity.

My current 'old' ATV retains 'knowledge' of all the movies, TV Shows and Songs available on iTunes and will just require a 5-10 second delay to wake the Mac when I want to play something. I stream everything, so it's essentially like the newer model.

 

[Panch0]

I leave my itunes open on my mini, but have it set to sleep after 1 hour. in the morning, I go to my apple tv2 and hit the menu button and it will wake the ATV as well as the mini. it takes a second or 2, but it works.

I stand corrected...

 

[Synthetickiller]

I'm a windows guy through and through, but I am using iTunes in another room.

Here's what I did. I have a server that is dedicated for media (for now). I simply installed itunes on another PC on the network and pointed to my music folder on that server. All my different PCs with iTunes just pulls from the same folder.

I've had 0 issues with this.

At least in windows, streaming from one iTunes program to another is a headache as it is very slow to initialize. Having all your files in one place (and backed up) is simpler.

I'm also running the set up on a touch screen which works well with a stylus. Not sure if there's any way for an option like that, but its fun!