Peter
By main machine, do you mean each individual machine or the server.
I just bought a 495. I am new to all of this. There are 5 of us in our family. We all have ipods or iphones. Currently, we have music on each mac or pc under itunes and several of the computers are running out of space. My idea is that we collect all the music into one server version of itunes on the 495 and then each user looks to server itunes. I don't know how to do this best such that each person really only syncs with the music that they like etc and that it is still easy for them to see
Sharing Your iTunes Library With Your HP MediaSmart Server to Mac and PC
Categories: Media Sharing and Connected Devices
Unlock the secrets of the iTunes music serving capabilities living inside your HP MediaSmart Server.
Read full item
October 17, 2009 10:32 AM
October 17, 2009 10:38 AM
One thought is to create a playlist for each person, "person1", "person2" etc on each computer that would have all their music and use that playlist for each person to sync or have a view of just their music.
What do you recommend
October 17, 2009 11:37 AM
Does the mediasmart allow everyone to point to the same data but not share (ie everyone can have their own playlists etc).
Jim1225 said:
One thought is to create a playlist for each person, "person1", "person2" etc on each computer that would have all their music and use that playlist for each person to sync or have a view of just their music.
What do you recommend
Does the mediasmart allow everyone to point to the same data but not share (ie everyone can have their own playlists etc).
October 17, 2009 10:51 PM
updated: October 18, 2009 3:27 PM
Thanks for your reply, Peter. Since I posted, I have been able to create new playlists on the server. I'm not sure if it the exact method you are suggesting, but this is how I accomplished it: I opened itunes on my laptop and went to edit >> preferences. In the advanced tab I changed the itunes media folder location to a folder on the mediasmart server. Then to create an actual playlist, I clicked start >> network, signed in and browsed to the location on the MSS where my mp3s are stored. Then I simply dragged desired subfolders and tracks into the itunes window after creating a new playlist and that did the trick -- a new playlist that lives on the server. I have not yet attempted to access that same playlist from another computer but I am hopeful that I will be able to do that if I change the itunes media folder location of my second machine to be the identical folder on the mediamsart server that I selected for my laptop in the step I mentioned above. Then hopefully both computers will share the same playlists, which is my goal (which contrasts with Jim1225's goal different sets of playlists).
I should point out that I accumulated a few hundred gigs of music before I ever started using itunes and I don't want to lose my existing directory structure as this structure will be instrumental in helping me create all of the playlists I have planned. It would be very difficult for me to recreate the same organization if I allow itunes to manage my music and mix everything into one folder. So I have chosen not to let itunes do that.
Two questions: (1) is this method of creating playlists on the server I noted above the correct way to go about that? (2) using said method to create playlists, am I leveraging the benefits of the mediasmart itunes server, or am I more or less just using the server like network-attached storage?
Many thanks for this very useful forum.
Editor / Mac Nerd
- member since: 03/26/2008
- rank: 13 of 10477
- 8 articles authored
- 10 forum threads started
- 57 comments
October 18, 2009 4:01 PM
@rumremix - I can't believe I didn't think of that! All you really did was change your iTunes Library to the one that is housed on the server, add playlists, then change back to the "local" library. You can do that via the Preferences, like you did, or you can also hold "Option" while clicking on the program in the dock, which will prompt you to choose a library. Doing this isn't really benefitting any feature in the WHS and is more like using it as attached storage. But, that is an excellent sedgway into this...
@Jim1225 - Now, I see what you want to do. If you want to house all of the music in your household on the WHS, there is a feature called the Media Collector that will do precisely that. It will collect media files from computers attached to the server that you specify. What I don't know is how it organizes the data for each computer exactly. The settings in the control center reflect that you can have them organized by album/artist or by PC folder structure, but I don't think it keeps a dynamic separation of what's on each computer in separate playlists, although it would be awesome if it did.
Has anyone else tested the Media Collector yet in this capacity?
October 18, 2009 6:48 PM
What are those benefits (of itunes server serving files vs local laptop itunes ser ving from network attached storage) exactly and what is the correct way to set up playlists to leverage those benefits?
Thanks.
"Doing this isn't really benefitting any feature in the WHS and is more like using it as attached storage."
What are those benefits (of itunes server serving files vs local laptop itunes ser ving from network attached storage) exactly and what is the correct way to set up playlists to leverage those benefits?
Thanks.
Editor / Mac Nerd
- member since: 03/26/2008
- rank: 13 of 10477
- 8 articles authored
- 10 forum threads started
- 57 comments
October 18, 2009 7:01 PM
The benefits of the WHS are many and really build upon the ability to simply provide an iTunes share.
Of course, the WHS will do this, either via the Home Sharing feature of iTunes (which has nothing to do with the WHS) or by the shared library.
As far as the shared library itself is concerned, accessing it through iTunes from the WHS is essentially the same as accessing any other shared library, whether it lies on a network attached storage device, another computer, etc.
However, the benefits of the WHS specific to iTunes mostly lie in the Media Collector feature, which allows you to aggregate content across your network from multiple PC's and Macs and centralize them on the server. You also have the Media Streamer which allows you to stream content over the Internet from the WHS, something iTunes doesn't do (at least, not easily.) If I'm missing anything big here, please chime in anyone :)
Of course, don't forget the tons of additional features that the WHS has that are not iTunes specific; it's not just a simple network drive ;)
October 29, 2009 6:30 PM
Peter, All,
Thanks for a really interesting debate here....truly excellent thread. Would really appreciate peoples view on the following approach (which I hope is implementing the best of what I've read here, while extending the debate perhaps)
Have just purchased an ex490 (ex495 not available in EU grrrr), and following read thru of all the posts in this thread, I've come up with the following solution. But a little first about my setup.
- Currently running a PC without enough disk space to run my iTunes dbase (x00's GBs)
- Using Roku Soundbridge to stream music direct from iTunes running on my PC (i.e. support for playlists, itunes meta tagging etc). Streaming Wirelessly.
Needs:
- A resilient/backed up music database, retaining all my various ratings, coverart, playlists etc.
- Effective native iTunes streaming to my Roku devices supporting playlists etc, without having to switch on my PC (and wait for 10 mins to boot up).
- Want to share my music library with my Wife and allow her to pull tunes down onto her iPhone as well as manage her apps.
Proposed Solution:
1. Mapping a network drive from PC to a new folder on my MediaSmart Server (MS) called "_iTunes_Files", (not using the standard "MS/Music" folder here). Planning to leave iTunes dbase files on PC for now, but may move later.
2. Going to move my music files from PC to MS/_iTunes_Files using iTunes move music location functionality. This will keep my iTunes dbase in synch with the new file location.
3. Going to point MS Media Collector to point at my PC, and collect music from iTunes on PC (being careful to disable pull from Windows Media Player, and other folders, so no nasty duplicates). This will recreate a copy of iTunes music files in the MS/Music folder which the MS iTunes Server will use to create a copy of my music and playlists for streaming to my Roku and other devices.
I know point 3 is creating duplicate copies of data on the MS Server, but this will create my backup copy of music files.
Also going down this route following someone's comments above re: Mediasmart iTunes Server streaming being faster than accessing music files directly. Also iTunes Server supports playlists which was one of the main reasons I purchased the Roku Soundbridge.
What does everyone think of the above approach?
Thanks....
JJX
November 14, 2009 2:02 AM
I followed the steps in this article and everything worked great. I was able to see my media from the MSS in my itunes under the "Shared" section on the left panel.
Unfortunately, something has changed and itunes is no longer displaying a "shared" section. And no matter what I try, I've been unable to get it back. The itunes server status is still enabled in the MSS settings. And "look for shared libraries" is still checked in my itunes preferences. I don't know what else I can adjust! The server seems to be running smoothly and I can access it in all of the other ways. Interestingly, I can still play songs that live on the MSS in itunes via playlists that I created. And the itunes media folder location is still set to live remotely on the MSS. I just can't access the entire library as "shared" no longer appears in itunes.
The only thing that changed recently is that I added a "to desktop" app on the MSS but I'm not sure if that coincided with the disappearance of "shared" from itunes. My itunes that no longer displays shared is running on a Vista machine.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
View unverified member's comment - posted by brucefan42
January 26, 2010 12:43 AM
updated: January 26, 2010 12:48 AM
@rumremix I had the same problem. I enabled the "Server for Itunes" option on my HP EX485 and it worked fine. I was able to view the server shared library on my local PC. Then the next day I could not. The initial screen on the server for Itunes showed it was enabled but when I clicked on the configure link, the next screen showed the "server for Itunes" was disabled. This keeps happening. The server for Itunes will not stay enabled. Anyone else had this problem?
March 19, 2010 8:44 AM
Situation: I have 40 GB itunes collection. My wife has a 6 gb collection. We use two separate profiles on one PC to access our itunes collection.
Desired outcome:
Maintain 2 profiles on PC and 2 music collections so we can both sync our separate libraries on a home server
Question: How can I do this with the EX490 (which I am so close to buying :))?
May 3, 2010 1:34 PM
I have my iTunes library on my HP Home Server. The problem is after I've added new music to iTunes they don't show up on my Home Server and I've done all that you said to do in iTunes and on the server using the Media Collector. Any suggestions?
June 10, 2010 11:55 PM
Peter, I'm still not clear re Playlists. I have an EX485 with rel 3.0. All my music files are stored on the MSS in the Music Share folder. A desktop PC "manages" this music collection in the sense that all ripping and purchasing is done from iTunes running on this PC, as are creation of playlists. Its iTunes library is stored locally but in its preferences the iTunes Media Folder location points to the MSS Music Share.
In the MSS console I have enabled iTunes and all client PCs attached to the server do see the MSS server under Shared in their respective iTunes. However, they do not see any playlists.
I should add that I do not have the HP Media Collector running. The music files were moved to the MSS Music share manually at the outset, and then additional music gets added through iTunes running on the Dekstop.
So my question, what must I do to get the playlists shared? Do I need to enable Media Collector? But I fear it will go and pick up all and any other MP3 files it might find on the desktop, which I do not want as part of the music library.
I think you store your single iTunes library file on the MSS but I would prefer to avoid that since I tried that once arlier and found it slowed down the process of adding music files and editing music tags etc.
Thanks kindly for your help on this.
June 14, 2010 5:31 PM
Peter
Thanks for the excellent post. I have the current setup,
2 User accounts on a Mac and a EX490.
I have managed to consolidate all the music from my primary user account(User A) to the MSS and then point itunes for User A to the 'Music' folder location on MSS.
When I tried to do the same thing for User B I ran into problems. I did not have any music in the local itunes folder for user B, so I changed the iTunes library to point to the same 'Music' folder on MSS and for some reason it wont load the music. Any suggestions?
Thx
Editor / Mac Nerd
- member since: 03/26/2008
- rank: 13 of 10477
- 8 articles authored
- 10 forum threads started
- 57 comments
June 15, 2010 11:42 AM
@Brovig - I don't think Media Collector needs to be enabled to share playlists. It should just work automatically, and playlists show up in my MediaSmart Server shared library in iTunes. However, for some reason, I am not seeing the actual contents of the playlists now. I am not sure what is causing this issue. Has anyone else on the community experienced this?
June 15, 2010 3:05 PM
Thanks Peter. But how do you think the MSS-based iTunes determines where to find the Playlist? The playlists are stored in the iTunes library file and it needs to know where to look for it, no? It is, for example, quite conceivable that there are several client PCs connected to the MSS which all have an iTunes Playlist, based on their local library files, all of which are pointing to the MSS Music share. Would you assume that the iTunes on MSS would compile Playlists from all of them? As I see it, there's a whole bunch of ways this could go, depending on where the iTunes Lib files are stored, and it'd be great to better understand how the MSS iTunes works.
Editor / Mac Nerd
- member since: 03/26/2008
- rank: 13 of 10477
- 8 articles authored
- 10 forum threads started
- 57 comments
June 15, 2010 4:50 PM
updated: June 15, 2010 4:51 PM
Honestly, Brovig, I haven't tested your scenario at length but it is an interesting one. The trouble lies in how the MSS shares its built in library through iTunes.
In iTunes, I cannot manipulate the files in any way other than play them from the shared library, and I'm unsure if there even is a way to do this.
The other problem is that in the scenario you present, each user would have their own separate library stored on the MSS, which means they would (in theory) show up as a separate iTunes music share. They aren't all magically pooled together, which would be cool, but alas is not the case.
I think the core issue is not the MSS but rather how iTunes works. iTunes shares are designed only to be played back, not manipulated, unfortunately. More than one machine could try to hook into the same iTunes Library folder, but I can only imagine that would create issues.
To sum it all up, I don't know if what you are looking for can be done, at least not in a streamlined or efficient way. I would love to hear the technical explanation from someone at Apple or HP!
June 15, 2010 10:08 PM
I don't think I was making myself clear. First let's clarify the issue of where the iTunes library file is stored, i.e. the XML file. I think you store that on the MSS, yes? In which case the iTunes on your client PC accesses the XML library file AND the music files on the MSS. Nothing is stored locally. And perhaps that's what is required in order to have Playlists available via the MSS iTunes?
In my setup I am storing the iTunes XML library file locally on one of the client PCs, not on the MSS. All the music files, however, are stored on the MSS.
And in my setup I can see the shared iTunes server from all the client PCs but there's no sign of the playlists. When you say Playlists "are automatic", I suspect that's because you have the XML file - which contains the Playlist info, stored on the MSS.
I am not trying to manipulate the Playlist files from multiple client PCs. I am happy for them all merely to "read" them. But I just want/need to know which XML library file the MSS iTunes looks for. I'll report back if I figure it out!
July 4, 2010 8:48 PM
Hi there,
I have still not seen a clear answer or step by step instructions on how to sync your shared music library from the HP Mediasmart to an iPhone or iPod.
Can someone please explain this to me?
RSS
