Help me set up an iMac G3 as a streaming music station
A while back, I asked for ideas on what to do with an inherited iMac G3. You had some great ones. There are still plans to steampunkify it, but until then, I would like to use it more practically. One primary function of its use will be a guestbook for people who come over: they will be coldly commanded as they walk in the door to describe what they are doing here, who they are, and anything else they want to write. I am considering using Twitter for this purpose, so the paucity of my social life can be distributed to the masses.
But I have a more practical need of the bulky old i(ndigo)Mac. I need to turn it into a streaming music station. I have Airport Expresses in every room of the house: that's no problem. The problem is the set-up. And I'd like you guys to help me work it out.
My current setup: my main computer is a two year old MacBook Pro. This is what I currently use to stream music to the various rooms. But because my hard drive is only 80GBs, I opted to put my iTunes library directory on an external drive. This works well enough, but what it means is I can't listen to music over Airtunes when the MBP is working its primary function: as a laptop.
So I would like to set up the iMac as my music streaming station. I assume a USB wi-fi dongle will take care of actually getting music to the Airtunes. But there's a couple of other logistic problems with this plan. The big one is videos. I have a lot of videos in iTunes and I want to continue to be able to watch them on my MBP iTunes. So I think what I need to do is come up with a way to only sync my music collection on the iMac. Unfortunately, I don't know a simple way to do that except by adding new albums manually to the iMac.
The second is a matter of control. I would like to be able to use my laptop to access the iMac and select the next songs to play from any room in the house. I have no good ideas on this front.
Any ideas? I look upon you, o ye cybogish droogies, for the expertise my job description laughably claims I should possess.
the latest
latest episodes
Well VLC might handle streaming. I use it with torrentflux-b4rt (on ubuntu) for that same purpose- web based interface, VLC runs on anything and the kitchensink, and while its meant as a download client, torrentflux works as a nice web based control interface as well. You'll need an *amp stack and python off the top of my head, but it should work on any *nix based box.
Linux or OS X though? the former should be a breeze, no idea about the latter ;p
I'm doing exactly this with an iMac G3 @ 500.
For remote control, my inefficient but elegant solution was to use VNC screen-sharing.
A VNC server is built-into 10.4 (System Preferences -> Sharing -> Apple Remote Desktop), or you can install a free VNC daemon, like Vine, for 10.x.
The iMac can then be controlled from any Mac running 10.5 just by using the "Share Screen..." button that appears under the iMac's icon in your Finder. There are also free VNC clients for just about every other OS imaginable, including iPhone — though the iPhone's new remote iTunes control app has obsolesced this.
You'll need something faster than a USB wireless dongle, I reckon. Those old iMacs only have USB 1.0, which could stutter. Maybe you can find an old Airport card for it (if they fit?)
I think the easiest way to go will be to keep your movies on your MBP, in iTunes if you like, and access the iTunes library of the iMac via iTunes sharing. Then broadcast to the Expresses with the MBP.
Hell, you could even try hooking the iMac directly to one of the Airport Expresses via ethernet, not Wi-Fi dongles required.
C
It shouldn't be that hard.
My N810 internet tablet streams music no problem and it surely has less resources than your Desktop system.
Supah Fast, answer for your last question:
iTunes Remote Control
http://them.ws/itrc/
this frills-less utility is what you may need.
Be sure to activate the Apple Remote Event checkbox in the Sys prefs / Sharing panel.
Use MPD! It's a daemon and will run in the background forever, waiting for music/playlist commands form any number of clients available on a wide variety of playforms.
You can create multiple libraries in itunes. Create a second, music only library and port that library to the imac.
Evildoug, is that done by creating another iTunes user? Another complication: I would like to continue syncing the video/music library with my iPod while pushing all the music to the iMac.
I have my itunes library on an external drive shared via my airport extreme. I just use the same library on all computers in the house. When launching itunes hold [option] and select the library folder from the shared drive.
Here's how I deal with 4 different computers and iTunes and AirTunes...
I've got an AirPort Extreme Base Station (new gigabit model) on the 2nd floor. It connects wirelessly to an iBook G4 running Tiger and a Dell laptop running Vista. It connects via ethernet to an iMac G4 and a dual 450MHz PowerMac, both of which also run Tiger. On the 1st floor I have an AirPort Express connected to the stereo. All four of these computers can (and do) connect to the Express with AirTunes, no problem.
I don't think an early AirPort card (wireless b?) is capable of streaming via AirTunes, but you'd have to double check me on that. The wireless USB dongle might work - worth checking out.
I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered the wired computers could run Airtunes if connected to the AirPort Base Station, and now I use the PowerMac as my music server. I originally wanted to set it up as headless and use Apple Remote Desktop and Chicken of the VNC to run it, but found that method cumbersome after a while and I also like playing some old OS 9 games on it once in a while.
All of our music is stored on the PowerMac, but since it is not USB 2.0 and I never got around to adding a USB 2.0 card, all iPod synching is done on the iBook. I can't exactly recall how I did it without going back and trying it again, but basically I connect to the PowerMac as a server, and use aliases of the iTunes Library data from the PowerMac as the iBook's iTunes data. In other words, tell the iBook that everything it needs to know is on the PowerMac. The advantage I have found for this method is that I keep just one XML file of the library as opposed to several, so that if I add new files to the PowerMac's iTunes library, when I fire up the iBook I don't have to add them to that library - it is the same XML file.
Maybe this makes sense?
Something you might check out is SimplifyMedia, some software that gives iTunes the ability to stream your music, even if your MPB wasn't on your local network. iTunes should do this without SimplifyMedia if all of your computers are on your home LAN.
You might also consider putting all your music on the iMac (manually) and just sharing it your MBP when you want to play it there. Using a VNC solution, or LogMeIn Free, you can control it remotely.
If you have the cash another AirPort express connected via ethernet to the iMac would be an efficient way of getting it compliant with the rest of the setup. It also means sharing libraries will be quicker and easier with the wired connection.
USB 1.0/.1 may crap out, as Mr Charlie pointed out.
As for creating another account, hold down Option when launching iTunes (this works for iphoto, too) and you get the option to create or chose a library. Just be aware that moving the xml and artwork files is a bad idea, just relocate the audio-files folder ONLY to a shared location, and point iTunes there.
You can always just install osx, apache and mysql and then Jinzora, a free music streaming application that is web accessible.
I highly recomment it!
I've been using an ibook to control the itunes on my music server. I have tried many remote control solutions. Desktop sharing (VNC apps, Remote Desktop) works, but seems like a memory hog; it slows my computers way down. The app linked above, iTunes Remote, works fine, but I don't like the clunky interface. My favorite is TuneConnect. It's free, the developer was exceptionally helpful when I was having connection issues, it's got an itunes like interface, and it pulls album art and shows it on the remote side.
http://www.tuneconnect.net/
the only catch could be that tuneconnect requires leopard (osx 10.4). can that old g3 imac run leopard?