iTunes library sharing as service?

[SouthPaw]

For 7 years I have been using iTunes sharing to play my iTunes library through out the house. Recently I have setup a very low power server. I would like to have this server provide the iTunes sharing of my iTunes library. I want to power down my very power hungry primary pc when not in use.

I would share the files on the network so that my primary PC's iTunes could sync with iPod.

Anyone have a recommendation of for setting up iTunes sharing as a service?

 

[cjmnews]

Read all of the NAS messages they all do this setup.

There are issues with it, like slow syncs, manual work arounds to see your music again, and the inability for multiple iTunes to access the library for syncing at the same time.

I suppose you could set it up for syncing on the low power system (take your iPod to that system) and let the others use the Home Sharing. That would eliminate most of the NAS issues.

 

[SouthPaw]

Solution I have used.

Here is the solution I decided to use.

My server is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and many solution won't work on this OS.

The problem with network drive storage and sync discussed in forum seem numerous. Therefore I decided that having a duplicate copy of my library on the low power server won't be much of a problem.

I made a copy of my music library to the low power server.
Installed iTunes 64 for windows.
Loaded the library and setup the sharing.

I then installed JTunes. It lets me run iTunes as a windows service.

Download JTunes here | JohnCleary

Every now seems Works great.

Before with both workstation and low power server on and their monitors and speakers off they consumed 417 watts. Now the low power server only uses 23 watts. The is a savings of $453.75 a year.

Low power server cost me $197 So I will recoup the cost in less than 6 months.

 

[bltkmt]

There are issues with it, like slow syncs, manual work arounds to see your music again, and the inability for multiple iTunes to access the library for syncing at the same time.

Am I correct in thinking there really is no good solution to this problem when running your iTunes library off of a NAS? Two users cannot access the library at the same time, no matter what?

 

[cjmnews]

That is correct from what I know. Read up on the many NAS articles there are here.

 

[Elliott2011]

Got fed up with hacky partial solutions until I found this

Tried various solutions like srvany and Firedaemon and these worked ok for running iTunes as a service, however adding new media and getting it to auto update when I changed metadata became a drag.

I came across iHomeServer which both runs iTunes as a service as well as auto adds/updates media that it discovers in custom watch folders (Inc NAS). Now when I add a cd to my collection on my media server, my iTunes server automatically picks it up even with cover art!

I can't post links but search for bizmodeller iHomeServer in google....

 

[S2_Mac]

Wow -- hard to beat that price ($16USD). Here's the link to iHomeServer. (Posting links isn't allowed until 10 posts and 7 days, to stop spammers from signing up and flooding the boards with crap. Or, put another, the policy keeps the mods from going nuts ;-)

Sure is a shame that iTunes is so finicky on Windows. I've got a small Mac devoted to iTunes, beaming to two stereos via AirPlay (I use iTunes v9.2.1), with iTunes running 24/7...I reboot every couple of months just for the heck of it ;-) Plus, I can run several concurrent instances of iTunes, thus having a couple-three libraries available form the same machine all the time. This works great for playback, but still leaves the problem of multiple computers contributing to a shared library file.

Been waiting years for Apple to get its Windows act together, and for them to offer something better than dorky "Home Sharing" for all platforms...instead, we get :ing:: -- sheesh.

 

[herrman]

Are there any cheaper or free solution besides iHomeServer? Thank you!

 

[herrman]

As alternative I have found EasyTunesAsService application (please google for link)