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[steveklein]

I've got a main library with all my files and also a library that I (try) to maintain for just my current favorite music (rule: rating >= 3 stars, type is audio).

Is there a way that when I make a change to my main library (ie, give a new song a rating of 3+ stars) it will be auto-imported into the 3+ stars library? Alternatively, can I set a different list of rules for the auto-import wizard for each library? When I auto-import into the main library, I want it to grab all files... but when I auto-import into the 3+ star library, it should be pulling a different set. That way I could simply run auto-import on the 3+ Stars library and it would import any song rated 3+ stars.

Also, there might be a way to do what I want from some completely different approach that I haven't considered.

Thanks in advance,
Steve

[glynor]

You should not be using a separate Library for the 3-stars-and-only tracks.

You can make separate Media Views within your main Library which are filtered to only show 3-star tracks. Each Media View (the items in the Tree under Audio, Video, Images, Documents, etc) can be filtered just like a Smartlist. And, even better, the filters "cascade" (filters of "parent" Views automatically apply to the children of that View). That's why, for example, only Audio files show up underneath the Audio part of the Tree. Because the Audio View has a filter to show only [Media Type]=[Audio].

So, you can make a whole section within your Main Library that is filtered to only show highly rated tracks. This should be very easy to accomplish. Make a new View called "Highly Rated" underneath Audio in the Tree and filter it to only show the highly rated tracks using Right-click > Customize View > Settings > Included Files > Set rules for file display. You'll probably also want to customize the view as follows:

• View As: File List
• Settings > Tree > Allow Tree Selection: Unchecked.

This will make it behave like a "folder" (similar to how the top-level Audio View works). Then, drag-drop the other regular View you want to use in the Tree on-top of the new one and duplicate them. When you use the copies inside that filtered "Highly Rated folder View" it will only show the files that match the rule you set.

That would be the appropriate way to do it.

Independent Libraries are intended to be used for purposes that will NEVER intersect. For example, maybe you have a set of personal files you use at home for entertainment, and another set you only ever use for work purposes. A good rule of thumb is: If you think you ever might need to move information from one Library to another (certainly on a regular basis), then you shouldn't be using a separate Library and should use filtered Views instead.

[steveklein]

That makes sense, but I don't think it will be effective at what I want to do. What I am trying to accomplish is similar to what you mentioned at the end about entertaining versus personal use.

I am using an Amazon Echo and the way it works right now is it is giving me a ton of results instead of just playing the song I want to hear. It is cumbersome due to the size of my library. If I were able to have a library where it was only searching a couple thousand songs, there would be far fewer duplicate matches complicating things. Here is a post I made about it: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,102709.msg742740.html#msg742740

[ferday]

Are the libraries on separate machines? Separate hdd's?  How does the echo pull the data? Is it DLNA?

I still think (like glynor), you're probably doing it wrong.  i just don't know enough about your setup...

[steveklein]

Are the libraries on separate machines? Separate hdd's?  How does the echo pull the data? Is it DLNA?

I still think (like glynor), you're probably doing it wrong.  i just don't know enough about your setup...

The libraries are on the same machine. Same hard drives. Echo pulls the data using the media server (there's an Echo Skill called "House Band" where I entered the 6 character Media Server key and linked it.) I'm not sure if that is technically DLNA.

[ferday]

That's neat, just reading about it.  Might have to get an echo!

How does it present the library?  Just as one group, or can you separate by tags (genre, artist, etc)?

[glynor]

I don't know if House Band has a way to filter the results, or if it always uses the full Media Center Library to do its searches. If it can't filter them, you should ask the developer to add that, as it seems like it would be a valuable addition (you're not the only person who would have this issue, certainly). If I was using it, I'd have that requirement as well.  Preferably, you would have the ability to select a smartlist and use it to include or exclude items from the search results.

But, barring that, if you're willing to manipulate your filesystem locations for the files (or make duplicates), you could possibly do it like this:

1. Set up a special, separate folder on your media storage disk for the "highly rated" files that will be used on the Echo.

2. Load up the separate Echo Library, and set up an Auto-Import Watched Folder pointing at only this folder. Make sure you have Update for external changes enabled on that Library.

3. Load up your Main Library and make a Smartlist that shows all of your Highly Rated tracks. You can make the smartlist even "smarter" by having it exclude any files that are already in the special Echo folder (use [Filename] does not contain "\my echo folder name\" as the rule). That way, in the future, you can always just use that smartlist to move files to the proper destination folder.

4. Select all of the files in that smartlist and use Rename, Move, and Copy Files to either (depending on if you want to dedicate additional storage to the Echo versions): (1) move the files into the special Echo folder, or (2) copy them over to the Echo folder. If you copy them, it'll be nice because the originals can stay where they were untouched (and you can always just delete the whole Echo folder with no consequences). But, that will cost storage space, obviously.

5. You could even set up the Echo folder as a Handheld in MC and largely automate the process (this will probably only work well if you are making copies, rather than moving the source files).

6. Then open up the Echo Library, and it'll auto-import everything in the special Echo folder. It should bring in most tags, as long as MC is set to write them to the files (if any metadata is missing, you will need to turn on tag writing for that field).

[steveklein]

glynor --

Thanks. Yeah, right now House Band can't filter results; It always searches the entire library that is active.

I will try out your suggestion and let you know how it works. I suspect it will be okay. Will only cost me 20 extra gigs of hard drive space and I have a couple terabytes to spare.

[glynor]

One other tip worth investigating, before you make the separate Library and duplicates... It is possible that creating an Echo User via MC's Users system might solve the problem.

External systems that connect to the Library would connect via whatever User MC has currently loaded on the Server, so you might be able to:

1. Have one Library.
2. Make an "Echo" User that filters the available files so that only the ones you want come through.
3. Always leave that user active on the server when you're not doing maintenance.

I think that might work. Worth testing it out, in any case. If you don't know how the Users feature works, there's a nice Wiki article:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Users