Thinking of buying iMac, Front row Question

Question

I'm thinking of getting a new iMac that would be hooked up to my media center downstairs and used by my wife for non-front row purposes (email, internet access). My problem is I've read somewhere that Front Row might not work with music from a connected iPod or shared libraries over a home network. Since my 140GB music collection is upstairs on my G5 this is an issue I need to have clarified because not being able to view content on any of my networked macs would negate one of the reasons I'm buying this mac.
So, can Front Row play music from my networked G5 upstairs or am I going to be better off fixing up my old Pismo to give to my wife and buying something like the Squeezebox (http://www.slimdevices.com/) for my media needs?

Answer 1

Front Row needs the audio files to be in the designated iTunes folder. However, I don't believe this folder needs to be on the iMac. If you changed the iTunes Folder Location in iTunes Preferences to the networked G5 then I believe Front Row will play those tracks from the G5 as long as you have the G5's hard drive mounted via File Sharing.
The following is from iTunes Help:
If you try to play a song in Front Row on your iMac G5 (iSight) but the application can't find the song because it's not in the default iTunes library, you'll see an alert message that either says, "iTunes cannot play this song" or "Communications error." If this happens, just show Front Row where you keep your music.
If you keep all of your music in one folder location:
Open iTunes.
From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences.
Click the Advanced tab, then click the General tab below it.
Click Change next to the "iTunes Music folder location" section.
Navigate to and select the folder that contains your tunes.
Click Choose.
Click OK.
If your music is stored in different folder locations:
Open iTunes.
From the Advanced menu, choose Consolidate Library to copy songs from all locations to your default iTunes Music folder. Let the consolidation process finish before you go back to Front Row.
Tip: If you want to play just one song from another folder, play the song in iTunes first. Front Row will be able to find it once iTunes knows where the song is located.