Playing AAC files from iTunes on Tivo
Tivo provides a nice feature called Tivo Home Media Option which allows you to take MP3s and picture files hosted on the computer and display them on the television. The Mac version of Tivo Desktop, the software the hosts the media files, integrates nicely your iTunes & iPhoto library. iTunes' default audio codec is now AAC which Tivo doesn't understand natively. Tivo has promised to add AAC support to Home Media Option ever since iTunes 4 came out two years ago, but has so far come up short. With the most recent release of Tivo Desktop 1.9, you can now play AAC files by using your computer to transcode them into MP3 that the Tivo can understand. Unfortunatly, it is currently an undocumented, unsupported feature that is not enabled unless you have LAME and linsndfile installed. Also, it only supports non-DRMed AAC files; songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store is still not supported.
1) Make sure you have the latest Tivo Desktop installed. If it is currently installed, make sure to disable HMO while we install LAME.
2) I used the precompiled version with package installer from this website for a quick and easy install.
3) Restart HMO from System Preferences and viola! Go check your Tivo and you should now see all your non-DRMed AAC files. If not, restart your computer (I had to having them show up).
This is all well and nice, but if you have a Tivo that has been upgraded to OS 7.1 and you have an Airport Express hooked into a home theater system that your television shares, you can listen to any type of music files in your iTunes library (music store files included); look into iSeeiTunes. This also has the benefit of displaying the album art on your television display.
Posted by Chuck Yoder
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Mac OS X Address Book & 1and1.com Exchange Servers
I've "outsourced" my Case email address to an Exchange hosting company called 1and1.com. After getting bit with the loss of email less than a year ago due to the SAN failure, I decided to try and find a good alternative.
I use Microsoft Outlook at work. I also happen to use a Mac at home but I was never happy with Entourage. After reading some documents, I found that Mac OS X Panther just happens to support Exchange with their own Mail client. Also, I knew Address Book supported Exchange server syncing but I could never get it working for one reason or another. Well last night, I struck gold!
• In Address Book, goto the Preferences menu.
• Glaring at you is a Sync with Exchange server option. Check it.
• Click Configure. You'll be presented with your login information and server.
• Username: EXCHANGE\e########
• Password: Your 1and1 password
• Outlook Web Access Server: http://exchange.1and1.com/exchange/e########
• When you click OK, Address Book tries to help you by filling in more information that ends up breaking the syncing process. Go back into Configure and change it back to http://exchange.1and1.com/exchange/e########.
• Click Ok again and then open iSync.
• Make sure to click Exchange and tell iSync how you want to deal with your first sync.
• Finally click the Sync button and pray.
Posted by Chuck Yoder
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