Brovig

Yes, one should and one can. But plain OSX doesn't quite do the trick. I need something that's automatic and robust and that doesn't drop the NAS connection after sleep etc. That's the need that AutomountMaker was designed to meet. I think it remains the best tool for the job but it hasn't been updated in 3+ years so I wanted to check with people here. Thank you for the link!

Yes. Or at least i think I am. It's a Synology server.

It's been a few years since AutomountMaker was referenced as the most reliable way of mounting a NAS drive in Mac OSX. Do you feel this is still the case or are the better ways these days?

This link seems to be no longer valid. Could you point me to the article you wrote some time ago on NAS mounting on a Mac? Thank you kindly.

I have set up a music system for a friend: iTunes on a MacBook Pro is the hub; a Synology NAS is the music repository. He has an AppleTV in another location. In the ATV "zone" he controls the music with an Ipad running Apple Remote App. In the ATV zone he and his wife tend to play music from already created Playlists. They kickstart with a song selection and walk away. When they open ARApp a while later they'd like it to open up in that active playlist, just as one sees in iTunes. As it is now, they have to hunt and peck to find that playlist again. Often they even have to select "library" first before the music library opens up. All in all, interacting with the music library takes several steps. It feels inconvenient and I understand their "plight". Any thoughts/ideas on whether there's anything one can do? On a whole other note, ain't it about time Apple gave the ARApp a serious upgrade?! It's such a useful tool in so many ways yet still lacking. Like in the handling of Compilations and Album Artist, as in the iPods... .../S

Thanks Chris. Yes, I noticed that it has a ping "feature" but it wasn't quite clear to me how it works. I'll play with it some more...

Yes, that'll work nicely as long as the NAS is up and running - and available to be mounted. But what if it isn't? <br /> <br /> I'm looking for a solution that can handle the exceptions.

I've read through this very useful thread but I'm not sure it totally solves my problem. <br /> <br /> I have a headless MacMini and a Synology NAS. I'd like a foolproof OSX startup script that will mount the NAS and then start iTunes... BUT not before knowing that the NAS was successfully mounted. I want to avoid iTunes starting up and pointing to the wrong folder. <br /> <br /> I have installed AutoMountMaker but I can't see that there's a way to have it wait until a successful mount is confirmed.<br /> <br /> I'm trying to address situations where there's been a power outage and the NAS and MacMini start up again. The NAS takes quite a bit of time to start up. <br /> <br /> Any ideas?

Many thanks for confirming that, WGScott. Much appreciated. And you've added very helpful insight on the ATV vs AirportExpress. I was not aware of that. So each ATV in a home network can be independent zones, each playing their own songs sourced from the iTunes master system, whereas a AE device only plays whatever is being played by iTunes?

I have an existing music system consisting of a NAS, MacBookPro + Bryston DAC with iTunes as the music player. I now want to make the music available in another room and had in mind to use AppleTV connected via Toslink to a DAC and feeding into a 2ch amp system, i.e. not a digital AV receiver. But someone told me today that ATV outputs audio in 5.1 and cannot be fed to a 2ch system. They said I'd have to use Airport Express. Can anyone confirm that this is true, that ATV cannot be a source for a 2ch system?

FLAC is perfectly capable of containing tags for cover art. I'm not familiar with XLD but it sounds like it is the issue. Rippers like dBpoweramp and Easy CD-DA have no problem handling cover art for FLAC.

Further to the Bryston BDP-1. Remarkably, for that $2K price tag you get a box that can't even access a NAS! It assumes an external USB HDD and...USB thumb drives. They even recommend using thumb drives for storing "playlists". Pretty leading edge stuff. Yup, the unit has an ethernet connection, but don't be fooled. Not for NAS access. 'tis for fetching album art from the web... I think Bryston - and the rest of the companies with a heritage in electronics - struggle with understanding what functionality users would want, and in developing an appropriate UI. They don't really have a history of developing software for end-users.

Yes, I agree, I don't want to go the route of a CD player with a USB input. I'm willing to spend the money on a top-notch standalone DAC with flexible inputs. But what model of CD transport should I hook up to it?!

Rascal: Re "...for the Mac". I actually said "...from a Mac". And what I meant was that I will be sourcing music mostly via a Mac. In addition, I'd like a CD transport that would ALSO connect to the DAC. In other words, I'd like music sourced from music files as well as CDs and I'd like both these sources to be fed through the same DAC. The Mac would connect to the DAC for the music files and the CD transport would connect for CDs. As for price range. I don't really know. At what price point do they start? Not super high-end but something decent. I am assuming that a regular CD player in the $2-4,000 range would cost a fair bit less without a DAC. Perhaps that's not the case?

I'm a bit new to all this... I'm planning on getting a really good DAC and while most of the music will be fed from a Mac with an external HDD, I'd like to also have a CD player as part of the setup. But rather than a standalone player, it strikes me as smart to go with a plain CD transport and also run that through the DAC. A DAC can be connected to two sources, no? If you think that makes sense, I have the following questions... 1. Any recommendations as to a decent transport? 2. What kind of interconnect does a transport typically require? I'm assuing USB or SPIF Toslink for the Mac. Your input is much appreciated!