2. pc-audio
  3. 1105542684

Mini Mac as audio server?

OK, I've existed in blissful ignorance of the OSX world, being a Windows dude. But, this little miniMac thing might change my world. Small enuf to stick next to the stereo... Cheap enuf too... With DVI and DVD, probably eliminates my DVD player as well. Check it out:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore/

Sooo, someone wanna educate a non-OSX user on audio via Macs? Right now I'm 70% through ripping over 1K CDs to WAV files. I'm thinking the files will eventually end up on one of the Buffalo Terabyte NAS RAID 5 devices when they become available next month. So... the questions...

- Can I play the WAV files via iTunes?
- Is iTunes smart enuf to recognize that I've dropped the files into /Artist/Album directory format and create tags?
- Anyone using an Edirol UA-1D via USB out of the Mac? Any compatibility issues?
- Anything better to do PCM output from the Mac than the Edirol?
- If I watch a DVD, and output the video to my plasma via the DVI port, will the Apple media software recognize that I want PCM output, not multichannel?

Any help appreciated.
edesilva
edesilva OP
768 posts
 
My NAS is hardwired ethernet. iTunes pulls wav files through w/o any stutters. Took me a while to figure out how to automatically tag the files (which show up as just song title w/o artist or album) from the directory structure, but thanks to applescript, its now working fine.

As far as 802.11g, the answer is probably "it depends." 802.11g runs in the same spectrum band as 11b, so if you have bad interference issues with 11b, 11g is probably going to have some issues as well. That said, it is supposed to run faster in an ideal setup. Ideal set up, in this case, meaning short distance, no walls, low interference, etc. It will be totally environment dependent.

720p playback causes my mM fan to turn on, even with nothing else running. For those who are interested, there is a Mac-specific subchat on the http://www.avsforum.com website on HTPCs that has a lot of info in it.
fishpatrol
30 posts
 
11b iBook sitting about 6 feet from the Airport, direct line of sight, still super slow. A little less than 1MB/sec, I think. With a 800MB folder of FLAC files, that's gonna take a while.

Great thread over at Ars about HD playback on various Mac systems. A bit off-topic, per se, but let's say it's close enough. Gonna have to pay El Gato a visit before the Broadcast Flag, crawls to the top of the hill.
edesilva OP
768 posts
 
1 mbps? That does seem slow... I thought the nominal spec on 11b was 10 mbps. Does the Airport let you change channels? 11b in the US runs on either channel 6 or 11--the channel nos. are 5 MHz apart, but you need a 25 MHz channel, so 1-5 don't work (bleed into a band that isn't wifi), 6-10 don't work (interfere with either 6 or 11), and the ones above 11 bleed into a band above the wifi band. You running an industrial plywood heater? Microwave on all the time? 2 GHz cordless phone?

Seems like a bad connection... Lots of neighbors with WiFi?
gunbei
2,327 posts
 
This has turned into a great thread guys. Great info and links. Keep 'em coming. Thanks!
fishpatrol
30 posts
 
I've set up my iBook back-to-back with a PowerBook (11g) and still gotten the same ballpark speed. I agree this seems super-slow. No cordless phones around, no WiFi signal, etc. Haven't really tried channel-surfing for a better speed. But then, Mbps is 1/8 as fast as MBps, right? So 10Mbps = ~1.25MBps and actually I'm doing pretty well. It's fine for web surfing; my cable connection tops out well before the Airport does.

Finally tried to network via FireWire (not Target Disk mode) from the iBook to the G4. Worked like a breeze and wicked fast (Just turn on the ports in the Network pref pane). Definitely my method of choice from now on if there's no Ethernet available.

Hoping to head to CompUSA in the next day or two and check out one of the Syntax Olevia LCD HDTVs, since they sport a standard computer DVI in. Hoping they'll be amenable to hooking one up to a Mac for a test or two. Grabbed a couple of the HD samples at divx.com/hd to try. Really hoping to be wowwed. That's nice, once in a while.
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