Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mesue]

I just got an HP MediaSmart Server which runs Windows Home Server. I would like to be able to run MC (or just the media server part) on the HP server for TiVo and UPnP media sharing, but I still want to be able to administer my library (tagging, smartlists, import) on my desktop computer. Is there a way to do this?

[John Gateley]

Two things come to mind: remote desktop (to access MC on the server), or put the library on a shared folder, have Media Server start up read only on the server and access the shared folder library with write permission on the desktop.

j

[mesue]

Thank you. I don't want to do remote desktop, and I was just reading up on shared library. That might be the ticket. In the help it says, "In these scenarios, only one client can have read/write access to the library at any given time. The second, third, etc. client in will get read-only access."

Does that mean you can assign which client gets the read/write access?

Two problems I read about with the shared library are that podcasts get duplicated and that the "read-only" library does not get updated when changes are made unless that client is restarted. These were old posts, though, so I wonder if these problems have been addressed?

[John Gateley]

Hi Sue,

Normally, the first MC gets write permissions, and all others get read permission. However, there's a startup flag to start MC read only, so what you could do is start Media Server read only, then your desktop would get write by default.

I think the podcast issue was addressed. I believe the "restarting" you are thinking of involves library server, not shared access to the library.

j

[mesue]

This is what I was referring to:

I found that making the Media Server instance read-only created several problems for me:

-- Media added from other PCs wasn't reflected in the Media Server library, becase the library only updates when the Media Server instance starts and I keep that running 24/7 as it is on a server in the basement.

If I'm not restarting my server, will it automatically detect changes to the shared library?

[mesue]

However, there's a startup flag to start MC read only

How do I do this?

[John Gateley]

Hi Sue,

I believe /ReadOnly is the correct flag.

For the library staying up to date: I was incorrect, it will not get the latest automatically.
If you are not changing the library often, you can get around this by running MC12.exe with the /Library flag, this will reload the library.
If there is a cron equivalent on windows, you could set it up to do this every few minutes or so.

j

[mesue]

Well, I tried it for a few days. Getting the server to stay synced with the latest version of the shared library was way too fiddly, but ultimately I removed it because running the library from a shared folder was too slow for tagging and such.

[johnp]

Hi Sue,

I believe /ReadOnly is the correct flag.

For the library staying up to date: I was incorrect, it will not get the latest automatically.
If you are not changing the library often, you can get around this by running MC12.exe with the /Library flag, this will reload the library.
If there is a cron equivalent on windows, you could set it up to do this every few minutes or so.

j

I can't seem to get this to work.  Where are these flags documented?

[John Gateley]

Many, but not all are here:

http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/The_Command_Line

If there is one missing you can add it, or ask here and I'll take a look.

j

[johnp]

I can't seem to find it (the /ReadOnly flag) there.  Am I missing something?

[skeeterfood]

Any chance you could make mc12.exe /? display the supported command line options?

-John

[johnp]

Tried that, no joy.  Also tried Media Center 12.exe /?

Thanks anyway.

[John Gateley]

I can't find the /ReadOnly option I mentioned above. I was wrong, or it has disappeared in the meantime, not sure which.

I'll keep the /? in mind, but it's more than a 2 minute change.

j

[johnp]

Did some digging and found it finally after the 20th search term combination.  It's /LibraryReadOnly and it is run off of the "Media Center 12.exe" not "mc12.exe" just to clear that up.

Regarding that, if you can't do the /? for some reason, it would be helpful to have the startup switches documented in the Wiki or help file or somewhere like that.

Back on topic for this thread, I may have found a partial solution.  If you do a MCC_LOAD_LIBRARY indexed to the main library on the read only client, it will reload / refresh any changes made by the read/write client.  The only hitch is I can't see a way to use that command and specify read only.  If you could, you would be downtown and feeliin' good.  Unfortunately how it works now is if you happen to close the read / write client, and envoke this command, it will open the library read write on the headless server.  Then things get complicated to get back in step.   You have to close the MC running on the head less client and reopen read only manually.

Do you know a way to invoke the MCC_LOAD_LIBRARY with a read only switch?  Perhaps you could add a separate MCC_LOAD_LIBRARYREADONLY ?  I think that would solve a lot of peoples' problems while enabling us to run a headless media server and mange the library from a desktop, then simply refresh the library on a schedule or on demand.  I would be satisfied with that approach, and there are more than a few of us wanting to implement this type of architectural solution.

[John Gateley]

I've added all the command switches as of 448 to the wiki.

In 449, there is MCC_LOAD_LIBRARY_READ_ONLY

Thanks,

j

[DarkPenguin]

It isn't out yet.  It will be announced at the top of the board.

[johnp]

OK, I'll be patient, biut I am really excited to have this feature 

[johnp]

Well that did the trick for me.  I can now have a fully unattended media server and do all library updates remotely on my desktop machine using the MCC_LOAD_LIBRARY_READ_ONLY control.

The only downside is that some of the smartlist functionality is not going to work well because of the play counts not getting updated.  Is there a work around for this?  What I mean; Is there a way to get play counts from a read only client to update a common library?

Seems like each Media Center Instance that connects to the library could open separate connection for play counts and the main library could keep track of each clients play count and it's own as well.  you could then have play counts by client or sum total displayed in the library when it refreshed.

Just thinking out loud here.

[park]

I just trawled the wiki to see how this could be done, but the core commands page goes over my head a bit, and the scheduler page is outdated.

To get MC to start in media server and read only mode would something like this work in the shortcut's command line?:
mc12.exe /Media Server LibraryReadOnly

And to get MC server to auto refresh itself, would I schedule a recorring event?
The wiki says:
20028   MCC_LOAD_LIBRARY_READ_ONLY   int nLibraryIndex (12.0.449)

So in the scheduler, would I format it something like this:
mc12.exe
20028, library index (how would I find that number???)

Thanks

[johnp]

To get MC to start in media server and read only mode would something like this work in the shortcut's command line?:
mc12.exe /Media Server LibraryReadOnly

You can start the server read only by adding the /LibraryReadOnly flag to the normal command line so it would look something like this:

"C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\Media Center 12.exe" /LibraryReadOnly

I'm pretty sure you do not have to worry about auto starting the Library Server function.  Once you have the service running it should start up whenever you run "Media Center 12.exe" unless you stop it for some reason.    Also I think the following command will launch it if Media Center is running:
MC12.exe /MediaServer

Sorry I'm not 100% sure on Library Server because I don't use MC that way.

So in the scheduler, would I format it something like this:
mc12.exe 20028, library index (how would I find that number???)

Pretty sure you'd do it this way...
MC12.exe /MCC 20028, 0

The int nLibrary index is a reference to the Library #.  I am assuming that for each additional library you add to the list in Library Manager, another number is enumerated.  At any rate I know the first one is library #0 so just use 0 if you have only one library.  I know that works for me.

Cheers,

[park]

Thanks for replying.
I read on the wiki that loading media server loads MC in a less resource intensive way, and I think that would be  a very good thing since it is running on my hp mediasmart server. Does anyone know the syntax to load MC in both server mode and read only mode at the same time?

Thanks for the reply to the scheduler point too. I will play with library numbers and see if I can get it to work.
I've just looked at the scheduler though and found that there is no way to specify "every x hours". You can only say "every day". I guess that's fine for the moment, if it really works.
I'll report back if i learn anything.

[park]

Nothing I've tried works:

I've tried putting the following into the arguments field:
/MCC 20028, 0
MCC 20028, 0
20028, 0

I've tried using the "program files" path for MC12.exe, and the one in the windows folder.
I've tried changing the int number from 0 to 1, since there is only one library available to that server computer, but that didn't make a difference either.

Any help appreciated.

[johnp]

Hmmm, I just tried it from the command line and it works as advertised with the syntax I used above.  I know because it gave me the warning that the DB was opening read only when I had started the program read write.  As to the location, MC12.exe is not in program files as far as I know.  It is in the C:\windows\system32 folder, and should be in the system environment path so you should not have to specify the path when calling it.  Just type the following in a DOS window:
mc12.exe /mcc 20028, 0

A good way to tel if it is working is to change your view to something other than default, browse into the library tree for example.  When the library reloads it will come back to your start page default.

Best,

John