Hi again Scott,
On Dec 13, 2008, at 8:50 AM, Scott Rutkowski wrote:
Hi again all.
I've just read the manual for the airport express and one thing
puzzles me.
If the airport express and stereo are together in another room away
from the iMac, as long as the airport express can see the wireless
signal from the mac, it should work fine shouldn't it?
Yes, I'm not sure what the question is here. Are you worrying about
the network access to music that might be placed on a hard drive that
has poor network connectivity?
Also the stereo I have has 2 r c a jacks for auxilary so the cable
you get in the stereo connection kit, one end I assume is a 3.5 inch
stereo jack for the airport express. The other end would need to be
r c a or I would think there would be an adapter you could get to
convert the 3.5 inch connector to r c a?
Finally when was the last time airport express was updated by apple
and would it be worth waiting incase a newer version comes out say
at macworld or would it be safe to buy an airport express now?
I don't have any insights about this. The previous big jump was the
addition of 802.11n connectivity, and I was rather surprised to read
about the ProxySTA capability. The Take Control Guide mentioned that
now when the author traveled, he carried around two AirPort Express
units, because the ability to hook into any network (wired or
wireless), and extend AirPort Express coverage meant that when he
traveled together with staff they could frequently share the cost of
one internet surcharge at hotels, etc. Actually, I haven't read much
about these extra features anywhere except in the Take Conrol series.
As for the connectors, you can get mini to rca adapters.
does the music while streaming via iTunes also can it be heard in
the room with the iMac or can you disable the audio via the iMac and
only have the streaming audio heard via your stereo connected to
airport express?
You choose the location that iTunes is streamed to -- change the popup
button from "Computer" to one of your other locations.
Now i'll be able to listen to my streaming shoutcast audio via
iTunes on my stereo away from my Mac. Exciting stuff.
Miscellaneous other comments. David is correct in that the Apple
Remote is an infrared remote for your Computer, and only works with
Front Row. (You get the same functionality by pressing Command-Accent
to start up without the remote, and escape to stop it). In Front Row
you cannot play Audible content, for example. With other remotes
(including with KeySpan and with the Remote app on the iPhone and iPod
Touch) you should be able to control playing within a playlist.
I suspect dropouts or interruptions are more prone to occur when
iTunes isn't allowed to control organization of its music library.
You can even imagine why this would occur -- you've added music tracks
and files all over your hard drive, and you're using iTune's database
functions to quickly locate them. But, since it potentially has to
retrieve the tracks from non-optimal locations, maybe even external
hard drives that are set up for network access and not optimally
formatted for the Mac OS X file system, you might get interrupts in
the smooth streaming, especially for very large libraries.
Also, AirFoil was originally written for the Mac, and there is a
Windows version. (David's discussion was about AirFoil for Windows,
so I thought I would make this clear.)
There are other solutions for steaming music, depending on what you
want to do. Here's an Australian PC magazine article that speaks
about Squeezebox, and refers to the high-end Sonos system:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/BlogEntry/122536,multiroom-audio-squeezebox-duet-vs-airtunes.aspx
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
----- Original Message ----- From: "David Poehlman" <[email protected]
>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS
Xby theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 5:36 AM
Subject: Re: Airport express questions
Hi Scott,
you wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Rutkowski" <[email protected]
>
To: <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 1:06 PM
Subject: Airport express questions
HI all.
I'm thinking about buying an airport express so I can listen to my
music
remotely on a stereo in another room away from my mac.
Excuse my ignorance here but i've not played with an airport
express before
and am wondering a few things.
Firstly does the airport express recieve it's power via a plugg
pack which
you plugg in to the wall outlet near your stereo to recieve power?
dp: The Airport express is actually a power brick with a router in
it. It
feels just like a larger version of the brick that comes with a
macbook. If
you purchase the apple audio kit, there is a cord in it that plugs
into the
airport express just like on the macbook but the cord is not
shipped with
the AE. What else you get with the apple auido kit is a stereo
mini to
digital optical audio cable, a mini to two rcas and a mini to mini
cable if
I remember. I'd have to grab mine an look at it but I think the
description
is online.
Secondly once you have used the airport utility to configure the
device, I
assume you simply use the remote speakers option in iTunes and the
music you
select in iTunes simply streams over your network to the airport
express
which is located near your stereo?
dp: correct, the ae can be only as far away from your receiver as
the audio
cable is long.
Also there's no way to somehow use the iMac remote to control
iTunes out
near the stereo is there?
The stereo is about 20 metres away in another room.
dp: as far as mac os is concerned, the remote is for front row and
front row
does not use airtunes.
There would be no way of using a macbook to control the iTunes
library on
the iMac to which the airport express is connected would there?
dp: Yes, if you share the library, you can have access to it
through any
ITunes you have authorized.
I am thinking the macbook could be near the airport express and the
music
would stream via the macbook and this would also work.
Is there any kind of lag or any brake up while the music is being
streamed
via airport express?
dp: I have experienced interruptions especially on my IMac and am
trhying to
pin down the cause but there is so much running here that I'm
surprised it
works as well as it does.
I know with some of the fm transmittors you can buy sometimes
interfearance
and or other issues can occurr and the music brakes up and sounds
terrible.
I take it also while the music is streaming you don't hear voice over
through the airport express just the music itself? Finally is
iTunes the
only application the airport express works with for streaming?
dp: Correct, all you get is what ITunes is playing. On the windows
side,
there is a program called airfoil which extends the capability of
other apps
to stream such as windows media player but I hagve not seen
anything for
macos.
Thanks to anyone who can answer the above questions.
You are welcome and let us know if you need any more help once you
get the
AE. It can be a bear to get going wih a router.
