I'm looking for a "distributed library" feature in MC. I have a feeling that there is already a way to do this, but I haven't found it.
Here is the requirement:
I have all of the family's music files on a single server on the home network. Each member of the family (self, wife, son) has a laptop as his/her primary listening platform. I plan to create a separate MC library for each person, giving each one his or her own "view" of a subset of the available music files. When we're at home and connected to the home network, I'd like each person's library to point at the server-resident media files, but when we are away I'd like there to be a local copy (resident on the laptop) of the library's files (possibly in a more economical format than the "originals" on the home media server). I need a way of keeping the central media repository and the laptop-resident media repository synchronized.
I know that Library Server can be set up to automatically stay in synch with a client instance of MC, but as far as I can see that works only if we are all using the same library with a single "view" of the available media. How can I do the same thing, only with each person maintaining his or her own view of the data?