Best way to use iTunes on Mac to play music library on PC?

March 12, 2007 4:00 PM

What is the best way to use iTunes on a new Mac Mini to play my music library, stored on my Windows PC?

I got the Mini as a media centre, sitting in the living room under the TV. The PC (connected wirelessly) has over 50GB of music on it, and I don't want to copy it all to the Mac. I'm a happy user of Winamp 5 on the PC. Should I...
a) Import all my music into iTunes on the Mac, unchecking "Copy files to iTunes Music folder", OR
b) Run iTunes on the PC, and share its music library across the network?
I guess the latter makes more sense, because I won't have to worry about importing any new music I acquire to the Mac. But I don't like iTunes much, and much of my library is in Ogg Vorbis format...

Bonus question: Can I create playlists in iTunes based on the folders into which my tracks are organised?

posted by snarfois to computers & internet (6 comments total)

2
posted by jne1813 at 5:58 PM on March 12, 2007

Have you thought about installing Windows on the Mini? You could run the software you like best, and the DVD players under Windows are usually better too.
posted by Malor at 11:30 PM on March 12, 2007

By "2", I take it you mean "b"? Thanks!

Installing Windows is an option, but still a relatively distant one.
posted by snarfois at 1:31 AM on March 13, 2007

DVD players under Windows are usually better

Hmmm. I'd use VLC on both. Which is awesome.
posted by tomw at 2:16 AM on March 13, 2007

Sharing the music with iTunes is probably easiest (although I'm biased - I love iTunes). There is also an Ogg Vorbis component that enables playback in iTunes (I haven't tried this myself, though). If you enable iTunes sharing from your PC, you can then playback your music on the Mac in iTunes or via Front Row.
posted by phrayzee at 11:19 AM on March 13, 2007

tomw -- yes, VLC is the only game in town.

phrayzee -- I've installed that component, but there are problems with it. In my case, the computer freezes for a minute before it starts playing a track. I've read similar complaints elsewhere, but I'd love to hear from someone who got it working fine.

Anything on my other question? Can I create playlists in iTunes based on the folders into which my tracks are organised?
posted by snarfois at 6:46 AM on March 14, 2007