I have procured Mini, have an EyeTV Diversity and a spanking new Samsung LCD DH TV. I know to connect it all up but what I'm having trouble figuring out is where to put all my media so it's most accessible. Here's my hardware:

Mini (1.66 GHz Core Duo, 1Gb RAM)
iMac (3 Ghz C2D, 2Gb RAM)
Time Capsule (1Tb)
Maxtor HD (500Gb)
EyeTV Diversity

The iMac is my work computer and my wife uses it during the day for stuff, the Time Capsule is right next to it. The Mini is in the lounge room with the Maxtor connected to it for recording. I'm trying out Front Row with the PyeTV plugin.

Where should I put my iTunes library, iPhoto library, Movies etc. both in terms of being accessible and not forgetting backup of course which the TC is currently doing. And just as importantly, how do I make sure that these libraries can be seen by the Mini and the iMac? I'm just not sure of the streaming capabilities of my hardware for each media type so I'm not sure what I have to put where and where I might have to compromise.

Both macs are connected to the TC via wireless.

Thanks in advance.

How big is your iTunes library right now? How is the TC partitioned right now? Do you do Time Machine backups on the TC or when you say backup do you mean something else, like SuperDuper? If you do TM, are you planning to include or exclude your EyeTV recording archive?

Both Macs are connected to the TC via wireless

Since wireless g is unreliable for many types of video, any chance you can wire up your Macs to the TC?

Hmmm, seems I left out vital info, sorry bout that chef.

iTunes lib is about 8G at the moment but will grow steadily.

TC is straight out of the box, 1 partition and I back up the iMac using TM onto it.

I don't want to backup my EyeTV recordings by default. I watch and then delete mostly. If I want to keep something, I'll process it and store it elsewhere with my ripped movies.

My movie archive is about 60G at the moment but again I expect it will grow steadily. But I am not a "movie library" type guy who has 300 movies. The movies I rip are mainly for the kids who watch stuff over and over. There would only be a handful of movies that I would watch more than once in a 5 year period.

Macs are connected to TC via "n" wireless so I'm hoping that this will give me enough speed to stream to the Mini if necessary.

Thanks.

Macs are connected to TC via "n" wireless so I'm hoping that this will give me enough speed to stream to the Mini if necessary.

well, the mini is g, that leg will always be the bottleneck and a hinderance for TM unless you plan to install a Mac Pro wireless n card or some alternative, so streaming anything other than music and very compressed .avi will stutter--you'll definitely have problems with ATSC and QAM high def (or whatever the Diversity records) VIDEO_TS and 720p .mkv, if any of the latter happen to download themselves and find their way into your collection.

But that's OK, set that 500GB external for your local EyeTV archive. As you're expanding from one Mac to two, I think one issue to explore will be do you want to share one "master" iTunes library between your two Macs, keeping it on the TC for instance or keep two separate libraries and share them within iTunes built-in library sharing.

There can be some advantages to keeping two separate libraries--since you're starting off fresh with the mini in the lounge, rip your cd collection as Apple lossless there because that's where you are most likely to do any critical listening and maintain your iMac iTunes library at say 192 AAC for iPod and iPhone syncing. (There are of course many options here, some more complicated than others.)

You might want to consider creating several partitions on the TC as well--a TB is a lot of space to have undefined and it can be to your advantage to devote x space to x task. 2 or 3 partitions should do it. Read up on this. One could be your iTunes library, one for your iMac TM, that kind of thing.

I don't want to backup my EyeTV recordings by default. I watch and then delete mostly. If I want to keep something, I'll process it and store it elsewhere with my ripped movies.

Good, otherwise you'd quickly run out of space.

My movie archive is about 60G at the moment but again I expect it will grow steadily. But I am not a "movie library" type guy who has 300 movies. The movies I rip are mainly for the kids who watch stuff over and over. There would only be a handful of movies that I would watch more than once in a 5 year period.

Then this likely won't be hard to manage, most of us rip more for the convenience of having everything available at the touch of a button, and the rip itself is a backup of the disc. Again, the biggest challenge you'll face is trying to have video files accessible in two viewing locations using wireless only when one of the Macs is limited to "g." If you keep the Mini in the lounge oriented around the kids, store most of that video content locally, do most of your viewing in there, and don't try to stream much video back over g to the iMac, you'll probably be just fine with this setup.

Having everything on your home network connected over gigabit through the TC opens up a lot of doors, so keep that in the back of your mind as you start to live and grow with your setup. Then, all of your media, no matter how demanding, can truly live anywhere.

Your weak point will be watching video on the iMac that's stored locally on the mini.

well, the mini is g, that leg will always be the bottleneck and a hinderance for TM unless you plan to install a Mac Pro wireless n card or some alternative, so streaming anything other than music and very compressed .avi will stutter--you'll definitely have problems with ATSC and QAM high def (or whatever the Diversity records) VIDEO_TS and 720p .mkv, if any of the latter happen to download themselves and find their way into your collection.


Can't add anything that chefklc hasn't already covered, but don't forget, oobie, that with the gigabit network jack on the mini, you can hook an Airport Express unit and stream over Wireless N speeds. So at the end of the day, you aren't totally stuck with awful Wireless G speeds. :)

Great info thanks guys.

I did wonder about the built in iTunes library sharing as I'm familliar with listening to the music of other people in my office etc. I could just keep my iTunes library on my iMac and have the Mini just pick it up... my question with this is how do I get Front Row on the Mini to pick up my iTunes library on the iMac? Also, what I'd really like is for the Mini to be able to see my iMac's Playlists as well. I always rip a CD, select the tracks from the album and create a "Playlist from selection". There's probably a smarter way of doing that I imagine...

Didn't realise the Mini was "g". Bummer. It's on loan to me so I probably won't be keeping it or buying any hardware to support its limitations but the Airport Express idea is a good one. I'm hoping that Apple will release something better on the Mini/aTV front soon so really the Mini is just to get me through till then.

but don't forget, oobie, that with the gigabit network jack on the mini, you can hook an Airport Express unit and stream over Wireless N speeds.

That's a great suggestion, Nathan. Back in the day, I bought my first G4 mini before wireless/BT was standard--and got it on my network just this way using an Airport Express. Of course, the mini didn't have gigabit yet either. Thanks for bringing that memory back...

my question with this is how do I get Front Row on the Mini to pick up my iTunes library on the iMac?

You can't, or at least I don't think you can. But, one way to do this is let your iTunes Library reside on your TC, pointing both the iMac and Mini to it, then Front Row on the mini would pick it up.

I'm hoping that Apple will release something better on the Mini/aTV front soon...

That seems to be the mantra around here...