Hi Gary,I have considering buying at some point a Time Machine since it has all the requirements I would want except one, a way to stream music to various speakers like the airport express ability. Is there any product that has the same features as the time machine while also having a way to stream music through various speakers?
The main features I would want to have are:
-Music Streaming
-External Hard drive access
-Time machine backup compatibility from the mac
-Printing (USB)
Thanks Gary
— Carlos M
I assume you mean Time Capsule. Time Machine is the backup software that comes with every Mac. Time Capsule is the Airport base station that has a hard drive built in.
Time Capsule can do all of those things. but of course you need more to play music through speakers. I'm not sure what you mean by streaming. But you can add Airport Express devices to your network to play your iTunes music through speakers in other parts of your house. Time Capsule or Airport Extreme won't do it alone -- and even if it did it is only one device in one location of the house. You'll need to purchase something to connect the speakers to, and that something is probably an Airport Express. Look it up in the Apple Store to read about it.
Once device can't do it all since it can only be in one room at a time.
Also, check out episode 355 about the Sonos player for another device that does music streaming throughout the house.
Hi Gary, is there a product that can do all those things other than apple products cause I havent been able to find one?
Ill clarify on the streaming, I mean connecting it to hi-fi system and play music all over the house where I would have various speakers connected to the hi-fi.
thanks
I'm sure there are other products that can do this. I'm sure I've seen high-end networking products that can be configured this way. But I don't think you will save any money -- and you certainly won't find something easier to use with your Macs. Is there something about the Time Capsule/Airport Express combination that you don't like?
No, I love the products, but wanted to see if there was a cheaper product that would have both of the features in one so I wouldn't have to buy both the Time Capsule & the Airport Express.
Thanks Gary for your input.
picking this up a bit late but the one problem is that you need your itunes sw working when you want to play music. so even if you put your itunes library on your time capsule and you used your remote sw on your itouch or iphone to choose what song to play, you'd still need a mac or equivalent running itunes to be on in order to control the library. hope that makes sense. If I'm wrong, then I'll be more than happy - I have a time capsule and a macbook and want to stream music to different rooms but dont want to do have to keep the macbook on all the time to do so.
You may want to look into a Sonos system. It can play the music without iTunes running.