One thing that I'd really, really, really love to see with the Mac version of MC in the future is an automatic function to remap filenames across platforms. So that when connected from a Mac copy of MC to a Windows MC Server, it can automatically "look" for a connected file share with the same files present (just like how Windows-to-Windows or Mac-to-Mac does the Play local file if one that matches Library Server is found function).
For that to work currently, of course, the file path has to match exactly. Since the Windows file-paths are rooted in a drive letter (or UNC prefix) and mounted Mac volumes are found under /Volumes/ (not to mention the reversed slash directory delimiters), this doesn't work when cross platform.
But, MC could look and make some educated guesses. If the files are imported as UNC Paths on Windows, the path includes the server and share-name. That share name, if I mount the same SMB path on my Mac, is /Volumes/<SHARE>. So, MC should be able to find that mounted drive on my filesystem and use the files in it directly without too much more than a Regex.
If the Windows files are imported with a drive-letter root, it would be more difficult, though I suspect you could figure it out there (or perhaps let us assign the share name with a tag somehow). But, even if it was limited to work only with files imported via UNC paths, I'd be happy.
WHY?
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My MC server runs on Windows. But I have multiple Macs that connect to that MC server, including our main "family" computer, my work laptop, and my office workstation. Some version of this type of setup can't be that uncommon. I know more than a handful of Mac-owning MC users and all of them use MC in a "mixed" environment. For music, it basically works perfectly. For Video, and to a degree Images, not so much. A couple of the main issues I see are:
Seeking around in video playing back from a connected file server in the Mac version of MC is basically useless. It works sometimes, but much more often, playback goes all crazy. It "fast forwards" seeking trying to get to the right "hunks" of the file, and more often than not, gets completely discombobulated and seeks around like crazy. I can reduce this issue somewhat by disabling Hardware Acceleration, but not eliminate it. This is incredibly infuriating when you just need to seek backwards 30-60 seconds to re-watch something where you missed a line of dialogue, forward to skip opening credits, or whatever.
Locate > On Disk (External) and other similar functions don't work (drag drop to the desktop, etc). This basically makes using any of my connected Macs useless for photo editing work for me, because I typically need to work on the files in external editors, collect them into folders for distribution or printing, etc.
That's just a sampling, of course. Playback and usage over MC's network is non-ideal, especially for large source files.
BUT... If I import those files into my running Mac Client-copy of MC (while still connected to the Windows server), and play or use those? All of the listed issues above go away completely. Seeking is smooth and responsive (like it is for my Windows clients), and Locate/Drag-Drop "Just Work".
It has really put a damper on my usage of MC lately. And it seems like a pretty easy fix. Any love?
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Topic: Feature Request: Cross-Platform Play-Use Local File Function (Read 1428 times)