Hi, Break.

netTunes will let you manipulate the playlists (etc) on the server-side, but we don't remote the audio: only the interface. To remote the audio, you can simply use iTunes to do playlist/library sharing: the changes you make to the playlists with netTunes will be reflected in the iTunes UI.

Alternatively, you can use something like Nicecast on the server and "tune" the stream locally.

Hope that helps!

Hmm... could you elaborate a bit on that first suggestion?

What kind of sharing? The normal iTunes sharing?

Would that alter the play counts? Play counts are pretty important to me - I rarely alter my playlists. There's got to be some way to implement this.

Nicecast is a bit too complicated for this, it seems. I don't want to have to be running all that stuff. netTunes would be perfect if it also streamed the audio.

Understood. But we don't, unfortunately -- I've used Nicecast for exactly this purpose, and it works well, but I can understand why you wouldn't want to.

I can't think of any other options, though!

Speaking of little features and/or add-ons (which we weren't, but hey...), I'd like to be able to have iChat display my "now playing on MusicServer iTunes..." song prefrences.

Because that's what I'm now listening to.

It actually does that, mcroft! We automatically rebroadcast the iTunes "iChat notifications", so it should definitely show what song/artist is playing at any given time.

Indeed it does. My bad for assuming. Thanks!

I think this might win for the "most delayed response", mcroft! ;) Glad you're enjoying netTunes.

Remote control
 

I don't know, this might be doable know through the Applescripting, so I guess this is a superposition of a feature request and a request for advice...

How's this for layers of indirection? I have a central iTunes server (a Mac mini), and a central iTunes *client* (on a quad G5), which plays out to my house stereo system via an Airport Express (why the extra layer? Because I want to be able to use the iTunes "browse" feature on playlists... I could also do this through a Fast User Switched 2nd account, but VNC gets strange when you try to combine it with FUS).

Now, in my bedroom I use my laptop to control the iTunes "client" with netTunes.

I'd really like to be able to use something like the Apple bluetooth remote to tell my laptop to play/pause/etc when I'm half asleep in bed. I don't actually have one, so another piece of remote control hardware would be nice, but nothing too complex - I need to be able to operate it "blind."

What should I do?

Thanks.

How about Salling Clicker? If you put the "server" on your "client" and on your laptop, you can connect to the Quad through the laptop, and get very effective BT-based control.

Isn't sailing clicker for cell phones and PDAs? I can't see any mention of any support for anything like the Apple remote control (is there anything else like the Apple remote?).

Thanks,

Salling Clicker is for cell phones and PDAs, but it's Bluetooth, whereas the Apple remote is not. It's also two-way, and will provide a much better experience for you than the relatively lousy Apple remote.

Ah, I hadn't realized that the Apple remote wasn't BT.

But what I want doesn't need to be two-way - I really want something that I can operate with my eyes closed while listening to music, so something with distinct tactile buttons is necessary.

Digging around, it looks like the griffin AirClick might do the trick if it can control netTunes.

Oops, nevermind, I misread the description and parsed "iPod mini" as "Mac mini." That's no help :(

Edit added:

But the Keyspan remote, while not ideal because it's IR not BT, will do what I want. Will netTunes respond to it?

If you can program the remote to send netTunes scripting commands, it will. But if it doesn't support it natively, no: we have no specific support for the Keyspan.

It's time to add Apple Remote support to NetTunes!
 

I would roll over like a puppy if you could add Apple Remote support to NetTunes so that my Apple Remote could control, through my Intel iMac, the iTunes sitting on the music server that I keep in the closet. That, would be heaven.

I listen to music almost exclusively on the hi-fi hooked up to this closet-music-server-mac, and love NetTunes.

What do you say? Can we get it so that using the Apple Remote on my iMac does at least the same thing as clicking on the "Play-Pause-Next-Previous" buttons in the menu bar?

Great work!
Steve...