[JohnR]

OK, so I'm working at my laptop, upstairs, away from the desktop but in front of the (a) stereo, which is being sourced by an Apple TV. It's pretty cool.

To change album/track/volume, I use the Remote app on my iPhone. It's very convenient. All I have to do is find the phone, perhaps run downstairs and get it off the charger, then click on the round button, then slide to unlock, then enter the security code, then open up Remote if for some reason I'd used some other app, then wait for it to connect to my desktop iTunes, and then it's just like it was already at my fingertips.

But hang on, I'm already at an Apple laptop, connected to my home network driven by an Apple Airport Extreme etc etc etc. Can't I just have a little Remote application for my laptop, sitting on the screen there so I can control the stereo?

This is not actually a rant I'm just really perplexed by the product positioning/thinking here? Anyone? (Rational and not anti-Apple comments only please...)

[Pez]

Ugh hit remove rather than edit! 

What I wanted to say was trying to type was if that doesn't work can't you just use air share in some way?

[JohnR]

Have you tried using a 27" screen on an 11" one? My desktop is set up to use as a desktop. I use spaces and the whole bit to make it productive.

[Pez]

lol I just did and I get what you're talking about. 

Not exactly useable. 

Also, let me make sure I understand here, you are using the Apple TV and your choices are A. iPhone B. Junk Apple remote. So my remote desktop 'solution' wouldn't have helped either way. What you are saying is you need to be able to control your Apple TV via your laptop. In which case from what I understand you cannot. The only thing you can do is stream content FROM your ATV to your laptop, which defeats the purpose a bit.

Anyway, as I typed before (then deleted) with Lion coming up the App store for mac opens a new world of possibility. Who's to say some smart enterprising person won't create an ATV remote app for Mac!

[guest4954]

I don't know wether you can easily flip through your spaces without disturbing processes. But you can scale the remote screen on your laptop.

I don't use it with iTunes but with squeezecenter when I don't have my iPhone at hand.

My 2cts.
Michiel

[skunark]

Check out "home share" and "remote speakers" in iTunes.   I can take my laptop browse the library in the desktop and play music back on the laptop, desktop or the apple tv.  I can even play music back on all of them at once creating a whole house audio solution.

[JohnR]

Oh yeah. That's worth a try.

[JohnR]

Um... I can only see the shared library as a list of tracks. Is there a way to view albums? The view selection is greyed out





Both machines are running itunes 10.1.1

[skunark]

Um... I can only see the shared library as a list of tracks. Is there a way to view albums? The view selection is greyed out





Both machines are running itunes 10.1.1

Sadly the view for shared libraries is a bit limited, i normally go after playlists or search for an artist or album on shared libraries.  You could also enable remote desktop on your desktop to view on your laptop.

[low.pfile]

JohnR,
I recall you disliking Screen Sharing due to the difference in screen real estate between your main computer and your remote laptop screen (11").

Here is a possible workaround that you may find tolerable: on your main music server computer (if not already there) in System Preferences>Displays, check "Show displays in menu bar" this allows fast access to resolution changes (even when using Screen Sharing).

When you are going to use your remote display through Screen Sharing, change the main display Resolution to a lower resolution--one close to your 11" laptop. now will have a compact version of your desktop on your 11" display. Just change back your resolution using the menu bar icon when using your 27".

Yes, it's an added step. Though, it may remove the scrolling issue or micro font size you have to see your entire 27" desktop on your 11" laptop using Screen Sharing. it works well on my 15" laptop and my 27" display.

cheers,
ed

[JohnR]

Here is a possible workaround that you may find tolerable: on your main music server computer (if not already there) in System Preferences>Displays, check "Show displays in menu bar" this allows fast access to resolution changes (even when using Screen Sharing).

Thanks low.pfile, that was a big help. However, in the end the solution was simple: set up a headless Mini for iTunes. Now it can be accessed with screen sharing (low-res - 1024x768) from any computer in the house, as well as with Remote on the phone.

It's a G4 that I had anyway, can't tell yet if there's any deficit with respect to the i7 iMac but since it's streaming over wireless I'm assuming that I still have bigger fish to fry anyway.

Not there yet - still have to copy the full library over. Sigh.

[Levi]

Hey John, please let me know if screen sharing works for you.  I also heard that you can also control your Mac from the internet using iChat.

Maybe they will integrate it in the future iTunes. 

[JohnR]

It's OK, a little slow but the mini is pretty old (original model). One irritation is that command-Tab gets "trapped" so you can't command-tab away from screen sharing, you have to use the mouse. Don't know if there's a way around that - can't find one. Not out of the woods yet - need to find a way to sync across the library properly.

[JohnR]

It looks like Syncopation (http://www.sonzea.com/syncopation/) is good for syncing the music server to the "master" iMac library. I'll write up a little tutorial on it.

I'm a bit bemused - it seems like I'm the only person having these issues. What am I doing wrong?

[low.pfile]

It's OK, a little slow but the mini is pretty old (original model). One irritation is that command-Tab gets "trapped" so you can't command-tab away from screen sharing, you have to use the mouse. Don't know if there's a way around that - can't find one. Not out of the woods yet - need to find a way to sync across the library properly.

John, I understand what you mean about not having access to the command-Tab switcher. that is because your screen is displaying the host computer session likely completely filling your 11". When I use screen sharing the remote window(at 1280 x 720) doesn't fit my MBP screen (1440 x 900). Therefore, I can mouse click outside of the remote window....which is my MBP screenspace and I am able to command-Tab away from Screen Sharing. It depends on the resolutions of both systems and window size. Give it a try.

I wonder what is slowing down your SS session? Was it slow using your i7 with your 11" ? maybe the Graphics card on your 11" or your wireless network? mine is 95% the speed as the actual interface in itunes.  Using Screen Sharing an older intel MBP(viewer) with i5 iMac(music server) on an original -N Airport Extreme.

Also about the sonzea program. Do you really want to duplicate all of your songs on both systems?

I do thing it would be cool to sync just your the resource files iTunes uses, but using a common HDD for both systems. but the text on their site sounds like the sync is simply duplicating the actual music files to make a matched pair. I did only scan it though.

[JohnR]

John, I understand what you mean about not having access to the command-Tab switcher. that is because your screen is displaying the host computer session likely completely filling your 11". When I use screen sharing the remote window(at 1280 x 720) doesn't fit my MBP screen (1440 x 900). Therefore, I can mouse click outside of the remote window....which is my MBP screenspace and I am able to command-Tab away from Screen Sharing. It depends on the resolutions of both systems and window size. Give it a try.

Hi, that's fine, it's just that it's taking some getting-used-to as I tend to switch pretty rapidly between apps (and spaces) as I multi-task.

I did find a single-window version of VNC that might help but haven't tried it yet.

I wonder what is slowing down your SS session?

I think it's just that the Mini (server) is old (6? years). It's a 1.25 GHz G4 with 1G RAM.

Also about the sonzea program. Do you really want to duplicate all of your songs on both systems?

Yes! The iMac is the master library, and the mini serves it to the rest of the house wirelessly. (OK, you can serve it from the iMac as well, but the default situation is...) Syncopation running on the mini is now set to automatically mirror the master library from the iMac. While I do have a NAS, I'm content for it to be just for long-term backups.

I'm getting there 

[JohnR]

Also, I don't want to spend a huge amount of time on it as one day I'm going to ditch the Apple concept of organizing computer-based music anyway, of that I'm fairly sure. Here's an example: search for an album using a word in the title. You get the whole album you wanted, and then a few songs from other albums, that happened to match that word. Play the album... and then when it's done, you get the rest of the matching songs, which you didn't want.

This whole idea that an album is nothing more than a coincidence of artist and title absolutely drives me nuts. iTunes thinks that the organizational unit is a track; I think that the organizational unit is an album. I've alway thought that way, and I like to think that way. So there's going to be a divorce one day. When I can afford it 

[JohnR]

Well, that's interesting. On my desktop, Command-Tab gets "trapped" as mentioned above. On my laptop, it doesn't... it works exactly the way I want. I can't figure out why, will look into it more. The laptop is still on 10.6.5, I hope it doesn't change when I update to 10.6.6.

[NekoAudio]

Here's an example: search for an album using a word in the title. You get the whole album you wanted, and then a few songs from other albums, that happened to match that word. Play the album... and then when it's done, you get the rest of the matching songs, which you didn't want.

If you choose to search albums only, I think you'll get what you want. The search field should have a little magnifying glass in it. Clicking on it will bring up a pop-up menu that restricts what you are searching for.