trying to stream iTunes from my house to my office

Published September 10th, 2002 in macintosh

I’m looking for a way to stream my own MP3s from iTunes on my home computer, so that I can just type in a URL into iTunes at my office (or anywhere) to listen to them.

Macintosh Digital Hub:iTunes looks like a good starting point, but no quick apparent solutions.

Audion 3 supports Broadcasting, but requires a seperate server to actually send out the stream (though I haven’t read much into this). [later: this may end up as the best (cheapest) solution).

Rampell Software seems to make a product that’ll let me control my Mac using a web browser.

Apple needs to update their iTunes Apple Script pages (I’ll come back and read this later, to see if any of it is neccessary.)

This FM Transmitter looks like a great way to broadcast my MP3s throughout my house, but that will interfere with my Soundsticks operation, and also doesn’t solve the whole ‘listen to the MP3s at work’ problem, unless… maybe… nah, my neighbors would kill me if I built a big ass antennae, and I doubt I can get enough power from the residential grid, not to mention the FCC regulations that I’d have to break… just a thought.

iNet Stream Archiver looks like a cool way to save streams that I might be listening to, but not applicable to my immediate uses.

Look like Quicktime Streaming Server may end up being the best solution to what I’m looking to do, but egads that overkill, isn’t it? Alas, as I read futher, I notice that the requirements list Mac OS X Server… not gonna happen soon, maybe Quicktime Broadcaster? It only requires Mac OS X client, so I’m downloading it now… but it looks like Broadcaster is really only for streaming video in MPEG-4 format. I’d really like to use Quicktime Streaming Server, so that I can make cool playlists using a web browser… argh… time for an XServe in the house?

I did find these instructions for some command line work on MacOSXHints.com that will allow you to broadcast to an icecast server (what’s that?) Oh, and I need to remember to set up the iTunes Music Library (and our iPhoto Library) for multiple user use (why Apple hasn’t fixed this is beyond me).

End result of tonight’s searching for a solution? One step closer, not solution in sight yet (but I’m still looking).

6 Responses to “trying to stream iTunes from my house to my office”

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1 Gonzo Dec 5th, 2002 at 8:12 am

Any luck? I’m trying to find this now. Shoutcast and icecast by the way are streaming servers that can be connected to with iTunes or winamp.
2 Wacky Jan 22nd, 2003 at 3:44 am

Quicktime Streaming Server Tutorial

http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/12/13/homemade_dotmac.html

Also for OSX Client

MALTX (Discontinued) http://www.macamplite.com/ is another solution, but needs also another broadcaster like live365

ICE/ShoutCast Tutorial http://www.insanely-great.com/news/01/1065.html
3 shifty Jun 4th, 2003 at 7:20 pm

There is an app called MP3 Sushi Server which can stream your mp3’s from your host (home) computer to your office using itunes on the client side. I was interested in doing the same thing and have had decent results with Sushi Server, though there is no playlist option in the radio setting, it also allows you to connect via your web browser to access specific songs. If you have a dynamic ip address from your ISP you have to verify your WAN (internet) IP address when you start the server so that you can use it to access the server remotely. iTunes 4 also supports Rendevous and Library sharing, which may be a better solution, allowing you to connect directly to your home computer and control iTunes.
4 Rob Jul 15th, 2003 at 6:31 pm

I followed the same path, starting with QuickTime Broadcaster and settling on the Audion/SHOUTcast combo.

The downside with all the iTunes Sharing/QT Broadcaster/MP3 Sushi-type solutions is that they dump the mp3 file to the network as-is. Like the iTunes 4.0 sharers discovered, serving 160kbps+ songs results in buffering problems very quickly for everyone connected. Keeping a second set of mp3s re-encoded at a lower rate just for streaming isn’t practical.

With Audion, you can resample on the fly to whatever rate you like to feed the SHOUTcast server. I do 56k mono which results in an acceptable-quality stream that can support six listeners reliably over my cable modem. Audion doesn’t handle large Libraries/playlists anywhere near as smoothly as iTunes does, but for streaming it can’t be beat!
5 Jacob Oct 8th, 2003 at 6:10 am

It is sometime since you wrote this and I don’t know if you found a solution. I found this article (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/archives/000016.php) which shows how you can use Audio Hijack Pro to stream the output from iTunes, which is exactly what I am after as I simply want to stream from my wireless powerbook to my HiFi -via a PowerMac with an optical connection, which means I can keep control of what I’m listening to from iTunes (I used to use Audio but I prefer iTunes for managing a 1200+ album library).

Another simpler possibility that I am going to look into is to dynamically update the icecast/playlist with whatever iTunes is currently playing, however I’m not sure that either of icecast/shoutcast can/will regularly check the playlist for changes without restarting them…

Incidentally MP3 Sushi does now reencode the MP3s but it doesn’t allow ‘input’ from iTunes (what I’m after) and simply creates a playlist from a specified folders (or the web if using the jukebox).

Incidentally the easiest method if you want to have playback control at the other end, is to simply turn file sharing on, connect to your home mac from the office mac and add the mp3 files to its iTunes libary will, although this will be slow - you may find it quicker to simply copy your library over, in which case you either need to mount your entire hard drive on the office mac or better if your music is on a seperate partition or hard drive just mount that. Admittedly you need to make sure you have enough bandwidth between the two macs to accommodate file access and trasnfer of the larger bitrate MP3 you have between the two machines…
6 Jacob Oct 8th, 2003 at 7:05 am

It is sometime since you wrote this and I don’t know if you found a solution…

I found this article (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/archives/000016.php) which shows how you can use Audio Hijack Pro to stream the output from iTunes, which is exactly what I am after as I simply want to stream from my wireless powerbook to my HiFi -via a PowerMac with an optical connection, which means I can keep control of what I’m listening to from iTunes on my PowerBook (I used to use Audion but I prefer iTunes for managing a 1200+ album library).

Another simpler possibility is to dynamically update the icecast/shoutcast playlist with whatever iTunes is currently playing… could be ideal. I shall loook into adding this feature to my iTunes cover file viewer app (OnDeck http://verseguru.com/?applications/ondeck).

Incidentally MP3 Sushi does now reencode the MP3s but it doesn’t allow ‘input’ but simply creates a playlist from specified folders (in radio mode).

Incidentally the easiest method if you want to have playback control at the other end, is to simply turn file sharing on, connect to your home mac from the office mac and add the mp3 files to its iTunes libary will, although this will be slow - you may find it quicker to simply copy your library over, in which case you either need to mount your entire hard drive on the office mac or better if your music is on a seperate partition or hard drive just mount that. Admittedly you need to make sure you have enough bandwidth between the two macs to accommodate file access and trasnfer of the larger bitrate MP3 you have between the two machines…