There has to be a better alternative to iTunes (on a Mac)

[Guest]

The key functionality that I require is home-sharing.....ie I need to be able to access my music library on the iMac indoors from an iPod in the workshop. I need to be able to search or browse with a classical music friendly interface on the iPod.

Any suggestions?

[Resurrection Man]

Well, I'm answering my own question and posting it here for others.

I found a brilliant little app called Ecoute that runs on iOS 5 and upwards. It lets you access your iTunes library as if you were sitting in front of your main computer. Even has a decent search function. Recommended

[Resurrection Man]

Rats. Poor user testing.

It only picks up the local library...ie the mini-subset I happen to have transferred to the iPod.

The search goes on.

[PJPJ]

I use Asset, but that's for Windows only. Something similar (which I haven't used) for Mac is produced by JRiver and I understand there are other software packages available for Mac apart from that one.

http://www.jriver.com/audio.html

http://www.jriver.com/mac.html

You can try it out free of charge.

This forum:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/

is very helpful - someone there may well point you in a better direction.

[Resurrection Man]

Thanks PJPJ I'll give JRiver a go.

[Dave2002]

The key functionality that I require is home-sharing.....ie I need to be able to access my music library on the iMac indoors from an iPod in the workshop. I need to be able to search or browse with a classical music friendly interface on the iPod.

Any suggestions?

Just wondering about this. If you install the Squeezeserver software (I don't think you need any Logitech devices for this), it should be possible to link to iTunes. Then you can use either Squeezepad or iPeng on your mobile device. You may be blown away or you may think it merely OK or even "naff", but I find these tools work sometimes rather well. Might not work if you want to store the library on multiple devices, or on the mobile devices.

There are other methods. I think you can even use Spotify.

[Resurrection Man]

Squeezeserver is Windows ?

[OldTechie]

Squeezeserver is Windows ?

No, it goes on almost anything. http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.ph...h_Media_Server

The network streaming protocol is unique so you need something that can play it. There is a player called iPeng for iPad to play from it. SqueezeSlave and SqueezePlay seem to be players for MAC/Linux/Windows.

I might have a play with all this - I'm dissatisfied with all player options I've tried (I mainly use foobar2000 on Windows, which, like the JRiver player, is technically excellent but not so good for finding the things I want.)

[Resurrection Man]

7.6.1 seems to be the latest version. There is an earlier version I found on the web but that doesn't work properly on my Mac.

[Stunsworth]

I know it doesn't help, but I've never understood why the excellent remote app produced by Apple doesn't stream directly to the iOS device it's running on rather than just to Airplay enabled devices such as an Airport Extreme and Apple TV.

[Dave2002]

7.6.1 seems to be the latest version. There is an earlier version I found on the web but that doesn't work properly on my Mac.

I was notified of.a new version (Squeeze ...), but I've not installed yet, as some of the earlier versions had problems. One or two people round here are probably more up to date with the best versions to download. However, in the absence of any other information, if you've not got one already, the latest will probably be OK.

[Resurrection Man]

I know it doesn't help, but I've never understood why the excellent remote app produced by Apple doesn't stream directly to the iOS device it's running on rather than just to Airplay enabled devices such as an Airport Extreme and Apple TV.

I agree. Someone recommended it to me and not knowing exactly what it did busily tried it out in my workshop. But audio came there none. After 15 minutes or so of faffing about LOML came out to me to ask why did my iMac in the house keep bursting into life and playing music !

[Resurrection Man]

Thought I'd post a quick update.

Jriver MediaCenter (although beta) worked quite well and I could access my music as I wanted to. I only scratched the surface but there is an awful lot of very good detailed stuff in it. Seems you can do quite a lot with it. They freely admit that the user interface is more windows-like and that they will redesign the UI to be more Mac-like once the program is stable. However, target price of nearly £50 means that for me and given the very basic use I will put it to rules it out of court for me.

SqueezeCenter aka Logitech Media Server (that threw me for a while) works very well on the Mac. There seem to be a lot of downloads out there...the latest would appear to be 7.7.3 (at least it has stopped nagging me to upgrade. I kept hitting the 'yes please upgrade me' button but it never seemed to work). IPeng also works although it has crashed a couple of times but that was with an earlier release of LMS....I have been through three versions!......and so maybe now OK. You do need to also buy a player for the iPod in addition to buying iPeng. But for around £6 I think that it is excellent value for money. Seems to do what it says on the tin so many thanks to all for your suggestions.

[mlb7171]

The key functionality that I require is home-sharing.....ie I need to be able to access my music library on the iMac indoors from an iPod in the workshop. I need to be able to search or browse with a classical music friendly interface on the iPod.

Is the requirement to access on an iPOD or iPAD? If the former, then I really don't think there is a solution. You are stuck with downloading from iTunes what you can fit on the iPOD. If it's the latter, then if you subscribe to Match (£25 a year I think) then you can access all your music on the iPAD and play it too. I think that's right, or it may be you don't need Match, just use of iCloud which is free.

[Resurrection Man]

Is the requirement to access on an iPOD or iPAD? If the former, then I really don't think there is a solution. You are stuck with downloading from iTunes what you can fit on the iPOD. If it's the latter, then if you subscribe to Match (£25 a year I think) then you can access all your music on the iPAD and play it too. I think that's right, or it may be you don't need Match, just use of iCloud which is free.

mlb....iPeg works just fine on the iPod. Apple's own Home Sharing also works but the user interface and functionality is woefully lacking....which was the main reason behind my search for something better. I tried Match but asked for a refund as it seems more suited to pop music TBH.

Not sure about iCloud.....may well be that to use it requires a more up-to-date version of either the OS on my iMac (which I don't really want to go down at the moment) or require a later version of iOS that is not supported by my iPod.

This whole business of cloud computing has zero interest for me. I am sure that it is of great use to many....just not for this user.