Music Streaming the iTunes way

J

James_G

Member
 Guildford, Surrey
Currently I stream music from an instance of iTunes running on my laptop through to my Apple Airport Express and finally into my amp. Most of the time I control the laptop/iTunes using Apple Remote on my iPad. This works perfectly.

However I recently suffered the "black screen of death" and although I didn't need to re-install Windows it made me think that some network storage would be good. I then thought wouldn't it be good if the NAS could run an instance of iTunes and so operate like my laptop currently does. That way I can turn my laptop off, and still listen to all my music.

Research shows there are NAS drives with iTunes server, but as I understand it I still need a media box to stream this into my amp, and I don't want to do it like that.

So does anybody know of a NAS that will enable me to replicate my current setup and give me a decent backup solution? I don't care about streaming video by the way, just music.

Thanks.
 
dont suppose airport express is DLNA compliant ??

my NAS does either ITunes server or DLNA serving... bluray player handles the input into the amp via DLNA, so not quite the same...
 
Get a NAS with AirPlay support i.e a synology device. You can connect your airport express via its optical out to your amp and choose the express as the "speaker" for Airplay :thumbsup:

Alternatively, get a low power PC and install any one of a million Linux distros for NAS/AirPlay/iTunes server.

Alternatively, get an AppleTV 2 and jailbreak the software to support XBMC and USB/ethernet storage for your audio/video.

Alternatively, get an older spec mac mini to and Plex media centre.

There are bundles of options depending on how much you want to spend and how integrated you want the experience. If you have any questions on any of the options just ask! The beauty of all of these setups is that you can also stream to/from any connected iOS devices.
 
playalistic said:
Get a NAS with AirPlay support i.e a synology device. You can connect your airport express via its optical out to your amp and choose the express as the "speaker" for Airplay :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Thanks - that sounds ideal. A bit more research shows that this is a recent thing, software wise.

http://www.whathifi.com/news/synology-adds-airplay-support-to-its-nas-devices

Other reviews also say it's a challenge to get set up. Still, I'm all for a challenge..!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom