Gday Rozzer,
I am a user of Media Server, also...
It has been asked of the dev team a number of times if they could build in library database updates from the client back to the server. It seems as if this feature MIGHT appear in MC10. Apparently, the database needs some re-writing to allow for multi-access (ie. 3 clients mights try to update the server simultaneously).
As for the cover art, this seems to be an issue with different builds. Generally it works. I keep all my covers in the folder where the album resides (covert art file is called Folder.jpg). I do this as it works nicely in WinXP (ie WinXP Explorer will show all the folders with the album cover embedded in the folder image in Thumbnails view). Sometimes I find a certain build of the software just doesn't seem to send the cover art correctly to the client. My only suggestion is to:
a) Go back to a slightly earlier version
b) Wait for the next version...
You COULD map a shared network drive containing your media files to your client machine, and have it build it's own library. The main problem with this (for me anyway), is that you then have two (or more) libraries on your LAN, and there's more work in maintaining this setup. I have also seen a number of posts hereabouts which refer to slowdowns when you use this method.
As for me, I am happy to wait for future versions which have the Server update from Client features. It would be nice if my server had all the play stats etc. from the client, but I can live without it for the time being..
Hope this helps...