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[Robert Taylor]

Hi Guys!

For quite some time now, a few people have been asking if and when we might expect to see some database changes to (among other things) allow updates from the client when running off Media Server.

I seem to recall before V11 appeared that it was a "hopefully in V11" kind of thing. Since V11 came out, I've seen a large amount of new features such as document support etc.

I am not interested in this functionality at all, I want to use MC purely as my music organiser / player. I think that all this other stuff dilutes MC's power as a music (and video / photo viewer/organiser). Whilst I want to continue to support MC and will happily pay for upgrades, I can't see anything in MC11 which motivates me to upgrade (I had installed a number of the V11 builds, but have since gone back to the latest build of 10).

If a build came out which supported client updates to the database, I would pay my upgrade fee in a flash.

I haven't seen any mention of database changes for a while, so thought it an opportune moment to raise the subject again.

[Jakester]

I would love to see this as well.  Right now I am doing a "dangerous" sharing of a single library by MC on two separate computers.  I just make sure not to run MC on both machines at the same time.  It seems to work fine, but would rather have true client/server support (especially once I branch out with additional zones).

[Alex B]

There is a workaround:

I think the following is currently possible:

All media files are in one "storage" computer. All computers, including the "storage" computer itself, see those media files through an identically named network share.

MC is installed to all computers. MC database and cover art locations are pointed to folders on that network share. Those paths are identical in all computers.

The media files are imported to one of the MC instances (or the old local folder paths are replaced with the network paths). Others can use a library backup. After that you can run one MC instance at a time with the main library active. The other MC instances must connect by Media Server.

This makes possible to edit the library with any PC when needed, but the other concurrent MCs must be in the client mode.

Though I don't know how well it works. At least a fast and stable LAN is needed.

[Jakester]

Yep, that's what I meant by a "dangerous" sharing of a single library.  It's dangerous because it is not recommended by J River.  Been working good for me, but nobody has claimed it is foolproof ...

[Robert Taylor]

It's not so much the editing of tags that I want to be able to de-centralise (I tend to do most ripping/tagging on the server machine anyway), it's the updating of "last played" / play frequency info.

I'm aware of the workaround, but to me, the end results do not justify the hassle.

I live in hope that we might see a "true" client/server version of MC one day...

[Jonas]

I would also love to see this.  I may buy MC11 anyway due to the other improvements in the audio area but I have absolutely no interest in document or image manipulation.  That's just a personal preference, I'm not saying document manipulation shouldn't be done because I have no idea whether it's something the MC market as a whole would want, but for me it's not interesting.

[hit_ny]

I support this idea as well especially in an era where networks are ubiqutious.

I think updating the server from the client is more an issue to do with what happens if the connection between the two gets interrupted during an update. There is the potential for library corruption.

Databases have been able to deal with this by allowing transaction support and rollbacks. It will require significant effort to provide this type of protection in MCs proprietary database. Given the significant work on the database on v11 makes me confident we might see something soon.


Might i suggest a workaround for the time-being.

Try out UltraVNC. Make sure you have the extra video driver (incld) which allows for 100s of screen updates /second. If you are on a LAN it works pretty well.  Best of all its free and cross platform.

Only downside is if the server and client are significantly far away, running speaker wires might not work out which i think might apply in Lunch's case.

[adamsp70]

I think i've appended a "me too!" comment to every single thread on this topic - and i too was hoping for it to be added to v11.

Surely this feature is being asked for by more customers than some of the other additions?