03-16-2012, 09:51 PM

Hey everybody - first post, so be proud!

So I've got a Mac Mini that I'm using as a home theater system. I was thinking about an Apple TV, but with the Mini, I can rip all of my DVD's onto the hard drive and have a complete digital library of all of my movies, music, and TV shows. And I have to say, it's pretty amazing. Moreover, I control everything from my (new) iPad using Remote. So everything's working great until I realized that I can't stream back to my iPad. In other words, if I start watching a movie on my Mac Mini, I can't stream it back to my iPad and watch it there (i.e. carry it into another room and resume where I left off).

So I guess my question is, "Does anybody know of a way to stream movies from a Mac Mini iTunes library onto an iPad?"

Thanks everyone!

03-16-2012, 11:16 PM

Mistake

03-16-2012, 11:35 PM

What you want to use is called home sharing. It opens up what you have in your iTunes library to your iOS devices that have access to the wifi (Mac mini must be on wifi...I guess ether net chord will work but I use wifi) or network in your home.

Have everything up to date, iPad, OSX on Mac mini, and ITunes itself.

I'm not home, but this link should show you how to set it up.
iTunes: Setting up Home Sharing on your computer

Tips to remember:
You need the SAME apple ID on both devices.. Mini and whatever iOS device you desire to stream content to.
You have to turn on sharing for iOS devices. On the iOS devices it's under settings app easy to find, for iTunes just read over that link.
You have to be on the same network wifi that is.

This will also let you share what's on your mini to other iTunes accounts on other computers on your network.

If you desire to watch a video on your iPad you need to go to the video app (the directors board) and if you want music to play you have to go to the music app (not the iTunes app).
Once in those apps you will see album or songs or title on the bottom in gray, click other and once you have completed the process above you will see a share option at the bottom. That is how you access the media from iunes on your mini.

It's very helpful if you have a smaller capacity iOS devices.

Hope this helps, I'll check back to see if you made it work.

03-20-2012, 08:05 PM

What do you use as the media manager on the Mini? Or do you just open the files and play them?

Check out Plex, its free. It can manage your media library, and stream to your iPad/iPhone. Not sure if it keeps track of paused location or not, as I don't stream from my Mini.