We first told you about iHomeServer for iTunes back in December, now there is a prerelease/beta version with some new features available to test.
iTunes is fast becoming the centre of many home entertainment systems. iTunes technologies such as Home Sharing and Air Play allow you to keep a centralised media library of music and video and share it with all your other household media devices. For example, you can digitize your music CDs and your DVDs into your iTunes library and then stream them to any your Apple TV, iPad or iPhone. You can even remote control your iTunes installation to push media to several sets of speakers in your house simultaneously using the Apple Remote App. However, all these great features rely on iTunes being up and running.
What is needed is an iTunes Server platform – Enter iHomeServer.
iHomeServer wraps iTunes so you can install and run it on a Windows Home Server, dedicated iTunes workstation or just a spare PC you have lying around. iHomeServer starts iTunes automatically when the computer starts, keeps it running and allows you to manage iTunes without having to physically access the computer, for example via the Windows Home Server Management Console. It also makes it really easy to add new media to your iTunes Media Server.
This is what they said about the new beta:
If you would like to get the latest, greatest features in iHomeServer before being formally released, then you are welcome to download our pre-release versions using the links below. The current features being tested in the pre-release versions include:
- Significantly improved handling of media when iTunes is set to “copy added media to the iTunes Media library” – no more false failures showing up
- Importing of iTunes Media Library XML files from other instances of iTunes – automatic matching of data with your the instance of iTunes run by iHomeServer. iHomeServer will then update ratings, play counts, last play dates and playlist membership – this is a great easy way of copying other iTunes metadata across from a personal computer to your iTunes server without having to do a full iTunes folder migration.
- Ability to change the credentials of user iHomeServer runs iTunes as from the ‘Settings’ dialog
- Ability to run other applications when iHomeServer launches iTunes – configurable to run either before or after iTunes is launched
- Added ability to alter “Part of compilation” metadata within the metadata editor
