INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Sync handheld from library client  (Read 1912 times)

larichardson73

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 44
Sync handheld from library client
« on: December 22, 2015, 06:21:50 pm »

I was wondering if someone could help me figure out something.

I am setting up an old desktop PC as a library server, and a laptop as a library client.  This is done, and the tremote setup is working great.

Right now, I've got a monitor and keyboard attached to the server computer, so that I can make adjustments to things.  But, eventually, I'd like to remove the monitor, and just have the old desktop sit on the shelf, headless.

So, I'd like to be able to sync playlists to my android phone from the laptop client.  This works, but it takes a long time, because the files have to be encoded into mp3 (from flac).  

The mp3 files that exist after a sync are put into the conversion cache on the server computer.  If I connect the Android right to the server computer, and perform a sync, JRiver sees that it has MP3 files in the conversion cache, and uses them appropriately.  So no encoding is needed.  However, when I connect the phone to the laptop client, and perform a sync, the files in the server's conversion cache are not used.  The flac files are encoded again, and I get duplicate MP3s in my collection.  

Does that make sense?

Does anyone know of a possible solution to this?

Thanks.
Logged

blgentry

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 8014
Re: Sync handheld from library client
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2015, 09:09:31 am »

Why not use remote access software to get to the server computer?  Teamviewer, VNC, Splashtop, etc.   All of those can be used from your laptop, to control the Server, just as if you were using it's keyboard and mouse directly; all with a headless server.

Brian.
Logged

larichardson73

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 44
Re: Sync handheld from library client
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2015, 04:54:32 pm »

Brian, thanks for responding.  Yeah, I actually set up Splashtop the other day.  So, now I can control the server from my laptop client when necessary.  However, that wasn't really the problem I was having.  

I eventually found the solution here:

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99693.0

I think my original description of the problem was inaccurate.  I'll restate it, just for the sake of anyone else who might run into the same problem.

I have a laptop that is the library client of another PC, which is the server.  I wanted to sync my handheld device (android phone), through the laptop client.  I found that I could do this, but it took a LONG time, because the files were being converted from FLAC to MP3.  So, I wanted to create MP3 versions of each song, so that the sync would be quicker.  When I performed the sync, JRiver would create MP3 versions, and store them in the "Conversion Cache" folder, on the server PC.  When I went to sync those same files to the handheld again, JRiver would look for MP3s in the conversion cache folder, and use them, as expected.  Great!  The problem was that I wanted to make MP3 versions of every song in my library (about 11000), and using the sync feature to create these MP3 versions didn't seem very efficient.  I would have had to transfer all of my music to my handheld, just to perform the MP3 conversions.  It isn't possible to perform file conversions on the server from the library client.  This option is greyed out when you are looking at files from the client.  The next thing I tried was to get on the server, and perform file conversions, with the destination folder being the conversion cache folder.  However, when I then tried to sync the handheld from the library client, the files that were in the conversion cache folder were not used.  The conversions were, instead, done again when syncing, and I ended up with duplicates.

The solution, which is mentioned in the post linked to above, was to create a "virtual handheld", which was a folder I made on my client desktop, and to perform a sync to that folder.  This way, MP3s were stored in the server's conversion cache folder, and were remembered when I did the next sync.

I hope that makes sense to anyone having the same problem.  
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up