stpierre76

Hi all, I am desperately looking for some advice about how and what software to use on a Mac mini as part of home integration. i am about to purchase a home automation system, not so much as a full home automation yet,but more as universal controller for one room, at this stage with ability to slowly expand and other rooms and functions (lighting, gates, camera...) i am very confused as to how to do it. I need to control all my av equipment via IR/IP but also most importantly the Mac mini. I just bought it with the hope that it was easy to integrate, but turns out not. all my equipment is in the garage in a av cabinet. The controller/ must be a hard button remote as I have been using a ipad via roomie remote for the last 6 months and though can t fault the software or hardware, I have come to the conclusion that ipad as a remote is not ideal. Kids run away with it, goes to sleep mode, fingers slip from the screen and press the wrong command, have to watch the ipad whilst executing commands. I was hoping to run the mini permanently on and have a remote system to control itunes thus using my tv to display and choose what I wanted to listen to, either my music ( loaded under itunes in aiff), radios.... But the apple remote does not do much apart from play and pause. I thought it worked a bit like a Apple TV, where I could navigate the screen, and easily choose what ever suited me, highlight the album....but I can t. is there a software/media player that I could load onto the Mac mini which would allow me to control and navigate thru my preferences ( either play music, listen to internet radio...)via a remote ( or any IR command from what ever automation I decode to go with). i then thought about the control4 HC250 controller with thesr250 remote and use my tv as display, use the USB port to load all my music onto a hard driven play from there, but the HC250 will only accept flac as lossless. please help me, I am totally lost. I beleive savant is the best apple integration, but it cost a fortune here in Australia, whereas, control4 and RTI are fairly priced. i am totally out of my depth here. I just want simple and ease of use for myself but more importantly my wife. any advice will be greatly appreciated. regards

Paul, indeed windows can be installed on a mac, but I ll try to stay away from that option. I need real simplicity, not for me per say, but more for the family so if I could everything from Mac OS I d be happy. Good to know that it runs natively on mac, so does that mean my unity gear will see it as soon as I turn it on, just like on the windows version. I think it comes as 24 bit audiophile...then I just click on it via naim n-stream app and voila, ready to browse and play music. Eloise, thanks for for the advice on mini server. I will definitely look it up. one more question I have before I leave you alone , is if the kids are watching a movie in the theatre room thru the mini, will mini server be able to " fish out" the data and be able/allow my naim and n-stream to play music? once again, thanks a lot for all the info sincerely yours

Hi all, thanks for the replies. naim does not support airplay at this stage unfortunately. i had jriver on a PC and the naim gear always found the jriver files and played it with no problems but on mac I m not so sure it will. i may even give up streaming altogether if too hard or unreliable with. Ac and go straight from computer to dac via usb cable. regards

Hi all, I am just wondering how jriver for mac is going and if anybody using it yet. i just got a Mac mini and wondering if I could download it to use it s basic features which in all honesty only what I need. i have a naim uniti system and want to be able to stream all my music collection from it, but I know itunes and mac will does not support streaming, so may be jriver for mac would do it, or if you guys have any ideas, please let me know. regards