@Womaz,
Correct: as Guillaume pointed out, there is no 100% guarantee that a MAC Mini will be faultless with respect AIR streaming. But if it's disconnected from the Internet (and won't run any auto-updates), the chances may be pretty high. And again, USB streaming is your certain fallback.
So, I understand you're not completely wired, as your laptop is not wired to the Router. I think in your case, this is the main issue.
@marcor,
MAC Mini setup: JRiver controlled by JRemote. JRiver running on the Mini can talk to another JRiver instance running on a different computer, using it as a remote library (server). I've tried this setup using two PCs, and it seemed to work fine. However, I did not experiment with it extensively.
One disclaimer: I don't own a MAC, so for me it's a theoretical possibility - the last resort. I've still not given up on using AIR with Windows 7 (or 10 in the future).
Guillaume,
Yes, although in theory any UPnP control point/server should work with Aries, I observed that it worked best with its own Lightning DS app, in the OpenHome (not UPnP) mode. When I tried using JRiver as the server and control point for Aries, it was plagued with several issues, the worst among which was the inability to play very short tracks. (Now, I'm not saying it's Aries' fault. JRiver may be to blame). And when I used JRiver as the server, and Lightning DS as control point, the latter would keep on losing the music library after it was first loaded (the library would show up empty upon subsequent launches of Lightning DS).
Here is what I did not like about other (than JRiver/Jremote) control points in general:
1) They would combine albums with the same title, even if the composer/artist is different for them. In JRiver, this can be easily remedied by creating a custom Library field concatenating the album name, composer and artist, and updating the Albums View to use this field.
2) JRiver/JRemote understand semicolon separated Artists and Composers assigned to an album. For example, if you assign "Bach;Mozart" to the composers field of the album, this album will be cross-listed both under Mozart and Bach in the composers view. All other control points I've tried would display this album under the composer with the name "Bach,Mozart". To me, it's a serious shortcoming. Given that there may be multiple composers per album, the Composers View can quickly get out of hand.
I could continue this list, but I think you're getting my point.
Correct: as Guillaume pointed out, there is no 100% guarantee that a MAC Mini will be faultless with respect AIR streaming. But if it's disconnected from the Internet (and won't run any auto-updates), the chances may be pretty high. And again, USB streaming is your certain fallback.
So, I understand you're not completely wired, as your laptop is not wired to the Router. I think in your case, this is the main issue.
@marcor,
MAC Mini setup: JRiver controlled by JRemote. JRiver running on the Mini can talk to another JRiver instance running on a different computer, using it as a remote library (server). I've tried this setup using two PCs, and it seemed to work fine. However, I did not experiment with it extensively.
One disclaimer: I don't own a MAC, so for me it's a theoretical possibility - the last resort. I've still not given up on using AIR with Windows 7 (or 10 in the future).
Guillaume,
Yes, although in theory any UPnP control point/server should work with Aries, I observed that it worked best with its own Lightning DS app, in the OpenHome (not UPnP) mode. When I tried using JRiver as the server and control point for Aries, it was plagued with several issues, the worst among which was the inability to play very short tracks. (Now, I'm not saying it's Aries' fault. JRiver may be to blame). And when I used JRiver as the server, and Lightning DS as control point, the latter would keep on losing the music library after it was first loaded (the library would show up empty upon subsequent launches of Lightning DS).
Here is what I did not like about other (than JRiver/Jremote) control points in general:
1) They would combine albums with the same title, even if the composer/artist is different for them. In JRiver, this can be easily remedied by creating a custom Library field concatenating the album name, composer and artist, and updating the Albums View to use this field.
2) JRiver/JRemote understand semicolon separated Artists and Composers assigned to an album. For example, if you assign "Bach;Mozart" to the composers field of the album, this album will be cross-listed both under Mozart and Bach in the composers view. All other control points I've tried would display this album under the composer with the name "Bach,Mozart". To me, it's a serious shortcoming. Given that there may be multiple composers per album, the Composers View can quickly get out of hand.
I could continue this list, but I think you're getting my point.
JRiver MC20 --> Devialet 250 Expert Pro --> KEF Blades II
