Welcome! I agree with BrysTony that you should be enjoying the BDP at least the thumb drive that came with it. To get you started long-term with the BDP in a way that you can synchronize the files on you Mac Mini to the BDP in much of the same way one would synchronize music to an iPod...I highly recommend this:
1) I would pick up a bus powered USB drive and using the Disk Utility on your Mac format it as MS-DOS(FAT) and give it a volume name of "BDPMUSIC". (If you are not using Time Machine or another backup solution pick up two drives and back up your computer before you continue
) Keep in mind that the BDP has a limitation of 500mA of current for the bus-powered drives so stick to the OEM name brands like Western Digital or Seagate as there have been issues with other manufactures (my g-technology won't power on with the BDP).
2) Attach the HDD to one of the rear ports on the BDP, and also attach the ethernet cable, you can turn on or reboot the BDP (might be overkill). After a few minutes, open up the Finder on your Mac and see if Bryston-bdp-1 appears as a shared computer, if not you might check your 'sharing' settings, make sure file sharing is selected and the optional "Share files and folders using SMB (Windows)". This should also update your firewall settings and you can check the advanced tab to make sure "File Sharing (AFP, SMB) Allow incoming connections" is shown. You can also use the finder to "Connect to Server" (command-K) and type in "smb://bryston-bdp-1.local/BDPMUSIC" and that will show up as a shared (aka network) drive. Username and Password will both be "bryston". (BDP and Mac needs to be on, connected to the network and fully booted)
3) Now with iTunes... How it stores files can be useful and also annoying, but what I like to do is have iTunes organize and consolidate the files. You can find this under the File Menu as "File->Library->Organize files" and even "Reorganize files in the folder XXX". This will do two things: first, provide some level of confidence that the music files you are about to copy are in one location; and second, simplify how you can browse the music for certain "mpd clients" that ignore the file tagging. Before doing this make sure you have the correct "iTunes Media Folder Location" defined, this will be under menu "iTunes->Preferences->Advanced" and for you should point to your external disk.
4) With that completed, you can download any "rsync" app from the app store or "
synkron" for free. With the file synchronizing application, you can set up a source folder that points to "/Users/<username>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music" (or your attached external drive that is on the Mac). The Destination Folder should be something like "/Volumes/BDPMUSIC/iTunes" after creating a destination folder. Click on the tiny wrench left of the iTunes folder and select "Do not modify the contents of this folder". For the BDP wrench, select "slave". Review the "Advanced" options for kicks and make sure to not select the "move contents from folder 1 to folder 2". Goal here is to synchronize the library and not move it. You can also use Synkron to sync other music libraries you might have like "hdtracks" or "flac" etc. Do make sure you point the destination folder to a different directory. Also review the other features for Synkron like black lists which you can avoid folders, files and file extensions. I do blacklist mp3, m4v and m4a files that are either lossy files or contain DRM.
5) Once Synkron completes, have the BDP update the local database. You can either use the an MPD client, webpage or reboot the BDP. BTW, some folks have mentioned that AIFF is slow to update and can take several hours. I haven't experienced that and all of my lossless cd files are AIFF and all of my hi-res files are FLAC.
Each time you rip a new CD or download new HiRez tracks you can mount the network drives and run Synkron again to copy over the new files to the BDP. Key point is this will copy just the new files or any changes made to a file, i.e. corrected a name, saved artwork to the file, which might come in handy. There is one issue you might notice with the FAT32 file on the BDP, which is how it deals with file and folder names that have special characters or are rather short. U2 might be u2 and Keb' Mo' might be Keb_ Mo_. You might notice this issue when you "browse" the files via the webpage or certain MPD clients, but AIFF and FLAC tags work well with mPod so I really don't notice it. This might also cause Synkron or other "rsync" clients to unnecessarily copy the files again.
As your music grows, you can have some assurance that you have identical copies of your music files on your Mac Mini and BDP (and hopefully a backup as well). If you have a large library, consider getting an iPhone/iPod Touch and download the free mPod app or mPad for the iPad.
Jim
BTW: Windows users can use SyncToy from Microsoft instead of Synkron. Linux/Mac/Cygwin users can use rsync on the command line.
