What's the best low cost setup for multiroom iTunes/iPod listening?

[deckeda]

Salling Clicker is neat, but a cellphone probably won't be as convenient to use as a dedicated device --- particularly one that DISPLAYS the iTunes Library: http://www.keyspan.com/products/tvu200c/...works.spml

[davester]

Based on the online demo I saw, Sailing Clicker DOES show the iTunes library. That's why I thought it might be a good solution. The scosche device sounds good too, so long as the fidelity over bluetooth is good. In addition, the keyspan device you pointed out looks excellent...I didn't realize they had one of these. The only issue with it is that it is $150, though I guess most of the solutions are going to be a few hundred bucks. I just need to decide which solution is the most logical/economical.

[mikebw]

When it comes to running an iTunes music server you can always use an older version of iTunes. Clients will need to be at the same level or higher.

[olnacl]

[quote deckeda]
You might consider a NAS instead of a Mac. Pros and cons there. On the other hand, using a low-power-consuming Mac such as a laptop/mini/Cube means keeping it current. Got money?
quote]

I tried using a NAS in a couple ways - stand alone SimpleTech (now sits on a shelf unused and disconnected) and an Airport Extreme router with the music library on an attached external USB drive. In all cases, with a large - 200GB - iTunes library, load time on a remote computer (wireless) was slow and scrolling through the itunes library on a remote computer was agonizing.

[deckeda]

[quote mikebw]When it comes to running an iTunes music server you can always use an older version of iTunes. Clients will need to be at the same level or higher.
Thanks for clarifying. If what you say is true, there's no way in heck I'd ever use anything but an old Mac running 10.3 or 10.4 and iTunes for this --- particularly if clients can each listen to whatever they want using the Sharing feature. Just think of all the low-cost G3 laptops that use very little electricity.

[deckeda]

[quote davester]Based on the online demo I saw, Sailing Clicker DOES show the iTunes library. ...
You are absolutely right! I should have done my homework --- and now I have.

I also did some looking at the Amazon reviews for the fancy Keyspan and they almost uniformly complained of slow scrolling and updating on larger libraries.

Salling Clicker is looking better all the time here. I was going to get Keyspan's cheaper remote (which has lots of great reviews and is only$45 or so) but if I can use my phone instead, I will.

[mikebw]

[quote deckeda]Thanks for clarifying. If what you say is true, there's no way in heck I'd ever use anything but an old Mac running 10.3 or 10.4 and iTunes for this --- particularly if clients can each listen to whatever they want using the Sharing feature. Just think of all the low-cost G3 laptops that use very little electricity.
Yep, I had a beige G3 running as a music server for a long time under OS X 10.2, and iTunes 4.7. Any PC or Mac running at least 4.7 could connect and play music off that G3. The G3 was also a centrally located internet terminal of sorts.
The only problem was that sometimes a person would want to playback a file on the G3 from their remote computer which had a newer version of iTunes, and it wouldn't work. iTunes would refuse to connect because of the version disparity.

Of course now I have updated both my beige G3's to run 10.4.9 and the latest iTunes 7.5 so it's no longer a problem.

For a decent music server I would recommend that it have at least 100Mbit Ethernet (everything since the B&W G3 towers has had 10/100 built-in). Low power like a powerbook is also great, although some of the older models might seem slow because of their hard drive speeds. An external FireWire case would be perfect if that fits your plan at all.