[skunark]

The AAC file format is Apple's proprietary version of an MP3 (actually a MPEG-4 compressed audio file).  A 128 kbps AAC would be approximately the same size as a 128 kbps MP3.
 
Edit:  I just did a conversion comparison, and the AAC version was only 80% the size of the MP3 version (both at 128 kbps), so the Apple version is a little more efficient.

Steve

Well not exactly Apple's proprietary format.   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

[srb]

Well not exactly Apple's proprietary format.   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

You are correct, sir.
 
"AAC was developed with the cooperation and contributions of companies including AT&T Bell Laboratories, Dolby, Fraunhofer IIS, Sony and Nokia, and was officially declared an international standard by the Moving Pictures Experts Group in April 1997.
 
It is specified both as Part 7 of the MPEG-2 standard, and Part 3 of the MPEG-4 standard. As such, it can be referred to as MPEG-2 Part 7 and MPEG-4 Part 3 depending on its implementation, however it is most often referred to as MPEG-4 AAC, or AAC for short."
 
Thanks,
 
Steve

[pardales]

The AAC file format (an MPEG-4 compressed audio file) is Apple's proprietary the file type that Apple uses as an alternative to the MP3 file.  A 128 kbps AAC would be approximately the same size as a 128 kbps MP3.
 
Edit:  I just did a conversion comparison, and the AAC version was only 80% the size of the MP3 version (both at 128 kbps), so the AAC compression seems to be a little more efficient than the MP3.

Steve

I have about 300 GB of music saved in ALAC. I have these files converted into AAC on a computer that I synch my 60GB iPod with. It only takes up a little over half of the space on my iPod and sounds quite good. 

I just got my Mac Mini and am in the process of setting it up as my music server. I am hoping to control it solely with my iPod Touch and/or via screen sharing on another laptop.

[Bemopti123]

Hi all.  I have also been interested in doing a media server set up based on a Mini.  I have an old Mini G4 whose original OS was corrupted and now, it is loaded with Leopard....To say the very least, it is quite slow, disappointing.  I guess I was expecting much from it.

My main media computer now is my MacBook Pro 2009 with 500 GB and I do sporadic back ups on an external Firewire OWC enclosure. 

Nevertheless, I am afraid that things will go South in case something ever happens to my MacBook, which is very possible due to the nature of a portable computer. 

Which would be the most effective way to set up bootable backup copies of media files and other non replaceable documents/pictures?

How would a MacMini back up server come into this picture?

Would it be possible to have the MacMini server and its HDD used as the master and have the other HDD be a mirror backup and the whole set up be automatically copied to an external slave enclosure?

The biggest qualm I have now is that sooner rather than later, the 500GB that I have in my laptop will run out of space and being that the MacMini Server also has just 500GB max on each HD, it does not seem to offer a space buffer necessary to make it versatile into the future. 

Moreover, does the MacMini server need to be very close to the router/cable modem or its server function can function regardless of location, via Wifi?   I know that NAS need to be very close, even hardwired to the router for it to be visible for all computers. 

Finally, is it possible to have the MacMini server to be accessible across the internet by other computers?

Sorry for my ignorance and hijacking this thread.  I did not want to repost something of the similar nature. 

Paul

[skunark]

How would a MacMini back up server come into this picture?

A mac mini server will allow you to use another "mac", aka the server, as the time machine backup where as before it would have to be either an external drive or a NAS that supported time-machine (mostly just an airport extreme or time capsule).

To me at least the idea of a mac mini server with time machine 'server' enabled, one would have a large raid5 USB/FW drive attached to it and all your various computers would then use as a Time Machine "drive".   Like any "time machine restore", all one would do is boot with the mac osx install disk and during the install routine it gives you the option to restore from a time machine backup.

Keep in mind that a network restore will probably be slower than a FW800 drive and depending on your network router (gigabit vs 100 megabit) it might be slower than a USB/FW400 drive.

Would it be possible to have the MacMini server and its HDD used as the master and have the other HDD be a mirror backup and the whole set up be automatically copied to an external slave enclosure?

You can.. You can set up the boot disk to be raid1 with the 2nd HDD in the enclosure which is essentially the mirror, then you would use "time machine" to back itself up on a external disk.  So you now have a little bit of hardware fault tolerant and 'snapshot style' backup of the boot drive.   

The biggest qualm I have now is that sooner rather than later, the 500GB that I have in my laptop will run out of space and being that the MacMini Server also has just 500GB max on each HD, it does not seem to offer a space buffer necessary to make it versatile into the future.

I would not be picking the mac mini server based on it disk space..  I personally don't want the internal HDD to store data, just OS and any Apps i need to run on the server.  For data I would want an external raid 5 FW800 disk for server style backups.    I would probably just run the OS on raid 1 and then use the FW800 port to attach to a drobo or raid5 setup and call that my data drive.  Maybe even partition it to 'data' and 'backup' partitions.   Devices like Drobo allow you to expand your disk as needed, so it's really a good solution if you do expect it to grow over time.   However, the drobo and most raid5 setups do have a fan noise and for me at least they are a bit loud.

Moreover, does the MacMini server need to be very close to the router/cable modem or its server function can function regardless of location, via Wifi?   I know that NAS need to be very close, even hardwired to the router for it to be visible for all computers. 

You don't necessary need it next to the router, but I wouldn't really want to do WiFi.  It's possible, use a gigabit network as it will be the fastest connection you can have today.  Even 100 megabit would probably have a higher sustained data rate over 802.11n, but mileage will vary.    For me at least I would plan to use a wired connection over wireless, but doesn't hurt to experiment.
 

Finally, is it possible to have the MacMini server to be accessible across the internet by other computers?

The mac osx server does offer a VPN server as well, so yes, both the server and the network can be accessible.   It be pretty much like a corporate network that allows their employees  VPN access, but not all VPNs are created equal and there might be an entire series of steps one would take to properly enable it.   




Also keep in mind that you can really debate the value of raid1 and raid5. They add cost and if you used the mac mini server without raid, it would still be a very good solution...
Mac Mini Sever -
  Boot/App drive - internal 1TB raid0 configuration- stripe data for speed or just make it two partiitons
  Data drive - network share - 1TB data drive (fw800)
  Backup drive - timemachine disk - 2TB to cover boot and data drive on mac mini server +HDD space of each additional computer(and their external drives) you want to backup.

---And for an added bonus I would use an offsite backup solution just for this machine (like back blaze which is $5/month, if you know others can you list them in this post). 

Also I will point out that the mac osx server upgrades haven't been as cheap as the desktop upgrades and most of the bundled features are either just an open source implementation or you can find just as reliable open source product if you take the time to install and configure.   

[Bemopti123]

Thanks for the detailed response, Skunark, I have another question, perhaps it might be redundant and not part of the conversation, but if I see the MacMini Server as a server machine, what would be the difference between its functionality as you describe it in your extensive response and that of the newly announce Drobo FS with NAS functionality?

If you had the DROBO connected, Hardwired via a Giganet connection to a router, and if you began with 2 TB drivers, can it be used as a external backup server with raid functionality for all wireless computers on the network and across the internet?  Wouldn't it be copying the same functionality of a Mini Server? 

Paul

[skunark]

Thanks for the detailed response, Skunark, I have another question, perhaps it might be redundant and not part of the conversation, but if I see the MacMini Server as a server machine, what would be the difference between its functionality as you describe it in your extensive response and that of the newly announce Drobo FS with NAS functionality?

If you had the DROBO connected, Hardwired via a Giganet connection to a router, and if you began with 2 TB drivers, can it be used as a external backup server with raid functionality for all wireless computers on the network and across the internet?  Wouldn't it be copying the same functionality of a Mini Server? 

Paul

Mac Mini Server vs a Drobo FS as a copy?  well not exactly...

For one you would have to compare network performance between the mac mini server with a FW800 Drobo connected to it vs the Drobo FS.    If I bet historically, the mac mini server with a FW800 HDD will be drastically faster over any consumer NAS out there (my guess).    It's entirely possible to have the Drobo FS mimic the features of the mac mini server, but they both have their pros and cons.  Price, security, ease of use and configuration all would have to be considered and it's not that easy to way them all for every user.   

Also keep in mind that if you use the Drobo FS as an iTunes server, you would still need a way to backup the drobo.  If there was a power failure and if more than one drive crashed, there would be data loss.  Not to mention you still might want to back up to protect against theft.

A VPN connection to your home network would grant you access to your printers, network shares and even time machine drives, but you can also hide those as well.  Even though Drobo FS has remote access features, it's unclear if they will offer a VPN server. 

As for doing backup over the internet, I guess I would probably consider using something like "http://backblaze.com" over the mac mini server if i was going to be traveling a lot.  They offer secure ways to back up the data and you can even use an RSA key to encrypt the data that they store.  (I would still argue to create a password protected 'dmg' image with high encryption settings).