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[pcstockton]

God Day Forum,

In another thread I started grilling Glynor about how he serves up music for remote access as well as to local zones and multiple MC servers.  Rather than completely taking over the thread I asked Glynor if we could take to messages or email.  He messaged me with the thought that others might benefit from the discussion and to start a new public thread.  So here we go.

I am thinking about moving my hard drives to my office (just like your man-cave), then loading the Office Library on my HTPC.  This way I dont have spinning drives in my HTPC room and dont have to leave it on 24/7.  My office PC is always running.

Would this work for me?

Glynor responded with:

"Yeah.  That's exactly why I moved all of my media to the server in the basement.  The basement PC ("my" PC) was always on anyway.  And I don't care how loud it is, or how many drives it has.  And that way I can shut everything down when we go away (and let the HTPC go into "full sleep mode" while we aren't using it).

The HTPC doesn't have ANY media locally.  It mounts the server's drives as network drives (using matching drive letters).  It doesn't even really have its own Library in MC (well, it does, but only because they make you have a default, I never use it).  It is always in Client mode."

My questions about his above arrangement might simply be a request for definition of terms.  But in an effort to learn how to be a better MC user, I thought a little dialogue would be helpful.

A quick description of the current set-up.  Office PC wired to router.  New HTPC connecting via wifi.  MC installed on both of course.  I did import music including 24/96 FLACs into the Office MC then loaded the library on the HTPC.  Worked great.  I can see moving all of my media to the office.


1) Firstly, what does "mounts the server's drives as network drives" mean?  How does this functionally differ from me loading the Office Library on my HTPC?  Do you do this so you can actually navigate into the Server drives and move things around, add files etc??  If I dont require this, can I simply always have my Office Library loaded on the HTPC?

2) Why is the matching drive letters important?

3) This may be stupid question but, what is "client mode"?

4) In another post in the other thread Glynor mentioned letting his HTPC go into "full sleep mode".  Would that be "hibernation" in Win7 or is that simply "Sleep"?  

5) Will JRemote (or will WOL in general) wake up a PC from Hibernation or only Sleep?

6) Does WOL only work with a wired connection?

5) Lastly, I tried streaming 720p and failed miserably.  I wasn't expecting it to work but I tried anyway.  If i used a wired connection from the office server to the router then on to my HTPC (without wifi anywhere) could I expect this to work?  DVD level quality was OK.  I have a brand new Netgear gigabit router FYI.  I am going to send cat5 to the HTPC in the next day or two.  But I might not bother if it wont help with sending 720 or 1080 from my Office to the HTPC.

Thanks for the help Glynor and any others who feel compelled to chime in.
Patrick

[imugli]

OK so just to let you know where I'm coming from...

My setup is currently -

Server in garage / office running Ubuntu Server. All my DVDs / CDs etc are stored on this.
CAT6 throughout house (20+ ports)
HTPC in Lounge room with no media on it at all, connected via 1 CAT6 port... HTPC also acts as main server for MC (so has to be on if I want to use Gizmo etc.)
Wifi router in lounge serving the house wifi connected to another CAT6 port.

To your questions...

1. In windows, you can "Map a network Drive" so that your drive on your server at IP address 192.168.2.x (or whatever it is) is seen by your HTPC as your Z: drive (for instance).

2. I'm assuming so that your library syncs properly. If you have your media on c:\ on your server, your library file will reflect this, so you need to map your network drive as c:\ on your HTPC, so that when you load it and MC looks for the files on c:\, they're there.

3. Client mode will stream music using the stream settings (file conversion included), while simply loading the library from your server will play at full quality etc.

4. I believe he would be talking about s3 (Standby or sleep mode)

5. I believe only s3 sleep / standby mode.

6. No. I run MC on my (wifi) laptop and my library on my HTPC. If my HTPC isn't on when I start MC on my laptop, it wakes my HTPC.

*If you are running a windows server, WOL probably won't matter that much to you because the MC server is always on (different to my set-up).

7. CAT5 should be more than sufficient for this.


Hope this helps 

[pcstockton]

Thanks imugli,

A few comments and questions if you dont mind.

1) Why would I mount the Office drives as network drives rather than simply loading the library on the HTPC?  Is there a functional difference?

2) Library sync.....  do I even want to do this? 

3) I want full quality always on my home network.  So am I correct I dont need/want client mode?

4) Off topic but what is the difference between Sleep and Hibernate.  Also what is the difference between Hibernate and Shut Down?

5) That is what I figured.  I dislike sleep because it makes the power button blink constantly.  I guess a piece of black electrical tape could fix that.

6) I meant, does the PC that you are waking need to be wired?

7) Excellent.

I really appreciate the help.  They may sound like very elementary questions but I am trying to create a mind-map of how i want to control and use all of this.

If I do move all media to Office PC (server) running MC, then share the library with the HTPC, I think I will need to set-up two Servers in JRemote one for remote streaming, one for local control of HTPC.  If I only set-up one Server in JRemote then I will need to change zones as needed. 

It appears either way I will be required to either choose a server or a zone no matter where I am and what im doing.  I am trying to find a way around that.

Cheers,

Thanks again,
Patrick

[glynor]

I will come and comment, but not right now.

[imugli]

1) Why would I mount the Office drives as network drives rather than simply loading the library on the HTPC?  Is there a functional difference?

There are a couple of ways you can go about this...

You can copy the "library" from the server to the HTPC.

The "Library" in this case is a database that stores the locations of the files, not the files themselves. So your "Library" will tell MC that Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen, is stored at c:\queen\a_night_at_the_opera\Bohemian_Rhapsody.ape (for instance). If you import this Library to another PC (your HTPC), this doesn't change. The Library still tells MC that that song is located at c:\queen\a_night_at_the_opera\Bohemian_Rhapsody.ape.

If your drive names don't match, it won't find it.

Or you can import your media to the HTPC and create a new "Library".

Or you can do as you say and simply load the Library as a client.

The main difference would be if you didn't want part of your library to show on your HTPC, or if you wanted to make changes to tags etc and not have them update one or the other...

2) Library sync.....  do I even want to do this? 

See above.

3) I want full quality always on my home network.  So am I correct I dont need/want client mode?

This will happen automatically if you use a local copy of the library, or you can do this simply by setting the stream conversion to "None" in settings on the server machine. Not the best option if you intend to stream movies to your wireless devices, though...

4) Off topic but what is the difference between Sleep and Hibernate.  Also what is the difference between Hibernate and Shut Down?

    S3: Commonly referred to as Standby, Sleep, or Suspend to RAM. RAM remains powered
    S4: Hibernation or Suspend to Disk. All content of main memory is saved to non-volatile memory such as a hard drive, and is powered down.

G2 (S5), Soft Off: G2/S5 is almost the same as G3 Mechanical Off, except that the PSU still supplies power, at a minimum, to the power button to allow return to S0. A full reboot is required. No previous content is retained. Other components may remain powered so the computer can "wake" on input from the keyboard, clock, modem, LAN, or USB device.

5) That is what I figured.  I dislike sleep because it makes the power button blink constantly.  I guess a piece of black electrical tape could fix that.

Or disconnect the wire to the LED on the switch if your OK with opening up the case...

6) I meant, does the PC that you are waking need to be wired?

Don't know TBH. I've never tried it.

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with JRemote, so can't say regarding your zone / server setup for it...

[jimmy neutron]

I'll chime inabout my builds and how well they work.

Gameroom upstairs houses an HTPC. The build itself is AMD Quad-core 3.6, 16 gigs ram. The hard drive houses ONLY the OD (Win 7 64bit) and JRiver - nothing else is installed, as JRiver is all I need to get the job done. This Gameroom HTPC has 1 USB 3.0 external 2 terrabyte drive housing all my music in FLAC up to 24/192. This HTPC plays on a 10' Optoma projector in 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. 7.1 is coming soon.

My Gameroom is the "hub" of my whole house network. When we bought our home a few years back I ran CAT-5 cables to every room in the home - 2 cables per room actually. So here in the Gameroom (my Man-cave  ) I have my main internet hub (AT&T U-verse) and a huge switch. All the rooms in the house, including the Gameroom HTPC connect via CAT-5 to this big-ass switch.

My downstairs Family room HTPC is a dual core AMD 4600ghz with 16 gigs ram build. It also runs Win 7 64bit and is a bit more flexible in it's use since it's in the family room. It is also wired with CAT-5 to the Gameroom upstairs. This Family room HTPC has 4 external USB 2.0 2 terrabyte drives which hold all my DVD and Bly Ray rips. All my rips are in "full" rip with no compression - up to 50 gigs per Blu Ray. Hey, space is cheap nowadays. I don't want to sacrifice picture quality. This HTPC plays on a Samsung 55" LED LCD monitor and a Yamaha reciever in 5.1 dolby digital surround sound.

My 2 channel music only McIntosh system. This system is in our livingroom and is running MC on a Dell Dual core 3.6 ghz Win 7 32 bit laptop with 8 gigs RAM. This system ONLY plays my music library from the Gameroom drive. It is USB out of laptop into a Musical Fidelity V-Link asynchronous convertor to an Emotiva external DAC, then to a McIntosh preamp, then to a pair of McIntosh amplifiers running my Carver ribbon speakers in bi-amp mode. This system does not have a CAT-5 cable connection. Instead I purchased a 150 mps AC data converter. This little box (2 actually) will piggy back a LAN signal from my Gameroom switch onto the homes AC line and then convert it back to CAT-5 connection at the laptop. The advantage is that I can get a much higher through-put than if I was on Wi-Fi. I tried Wi-Fi but had terrible stuttering when playing back anything higher than 16/44.1. Every 24/48 and higher file was virtually unplayable. This power link adapter took care of that.

So now knowing that I have movies on 1 HTPC and music on another HTPC it was all ust a matter of pointing each MC to "look" at whatever HTPC I choose to. Remember, all HTPC's are on my home network and can be seen by each computer and all files can also be shared. MC handles these libraries with amazing ease - literally flawless. Point MC to the proper library and let it do the rest. But the big question is how does this arrangement work? In a word - flawlessly. Not kidding. I can stream and listen to all my music up to 24/192 with no hic-cups. I can watch DVD and Blu Ray movies in my Gameroom HTPC with no issues either. No stuttering playback, perfect color, full 5.1 dolby digital or DTS surround sound streamed from the downstairs HTPC to the upstairs gameroom HTPC on CAT-5 perfectly. And I can stream my music from the gameroom HTPC down to the family room HTPC with no issues too. Honestly, I am not exaggerating when I say even my Blu Rays are streamed from one PC to another with NO PLAYBACK ISSUES AT ALL - NONE. MC just handles this perfectly. Of course, having fast PC's for Blu Ray playback and all PC's on direct CAT-5 connections is a big part of why everything just works. Wi-Fi can barely stream DVD movies, and it will not handle 1080p Blu Ray movies at all, much less hi rez music.

This is a very interesting thread. I think if we all show off what systems we have and how we connect/manage them it can be very helpful for someone trying to do their own builds. God only knows that this can be a very frustrating hobby, but at least if we dedicate a page to the different types of systems we have it can make many members less intimidated about getting the best from their system and MC. We should also post pics of our systems. I for one love seeing all the different systems out there. It sparks my imagination.

Jimmy

[imugli]

My 2 channel music only McIntosh system. This system is in our livingroom and is running MC on a Dell Dual core 3.6 ghz Win 7 32 bit laptop with 8 gigs RAM. This system ONLY plays my music library from the Gameroom drive. It is USB out of laptop into a Musical Fidelity V-Link asynchronous convertor to an Emotiva external DAC, then to a McIntosh preamp, then to a pair of McIntosh amplifiers running my Carver ribbon speakers in bi-amp mode. This system does not have a CAT-5 cable connection. Instead I purchased a 150 mps AC data converter. This little box (2 actually) will piggy back a LAN signal from my Gameroom switch onto the homes AC line and then convert it back to CAT-5 connection at the laptop. The advantage is that I can get a much higher through-put than if I was on Wi-Fi. I tried Wi-Fi but had terrible stuttering when playing back anything higher than 16/44.1. Every 24/48 and higher file was virtually unplayable. This power link adapter took care of that.

*Drool*

On a serious note, idea of posting configs has been raised a couple of times and there's a couple of threads around. I'm all for another now that MC is becoming far more popular, though

[jimmy neutron]

We should start a thread called "Members MC systems" and make it a sticky. Every member can then post their setups - everything from hardware,software, how they use it, how they've customized it, post pictures of their set ups, etc. It would be very usefully and informative for thosesetting up their systems.

Jimmy

[pcstockton]

Thanks a bunch for sharing your thoughts and system Jimmy.

That is a tad more convoluted than mine, but it is great to know the MC "network" can stretch far and wide.

So it appears I will need to run cat-5 to my HTPC from the office.  That should be easy enough as they share a wall and my systems are literally 3 feet from each other.

So I think I will wire up the HTPC, move all media to Office then open that library on the HTPC.

Now the question becomes; how best to control this for local playback and remote streaming.  I am using JRemote which could be used in a few different ways.

I will no longer require powering the HTPC 24/7 so i can stream remotely.  The Office PC is already on 24/7 so remotely I will use it.  When home I will want to control the HTPC.

So how to do this in the most elegant fashion?  I haven't ever had MC running on two machine at the same time.

-Patrick

[glynor]

Well...

I'm sorry it took so long.  I was broken, and then suddenly traveling, and then back and exhausted, and then sick (children are fathomless pits of disease, they're lucky they're cute).  I know... Excuses, excuses.

But, I'm healthy and back and not absurdly exhausted now.  But I know you've taken some steps, so tell me where you stand and I promise I'll finally comment.

[pcstockton]

Glynor,

You dont need to make any excuses.  You do so much around here.  No one will ever accuse you of "slacking".

I really appreciate your help in my threads, and every other you post in.  Obviously you are a very smart man and well versed in MC as well as the reason we are all here; To better connect with that which we love, be it music or photograph, film (porn) or book (maybe still porn).

I am also at a disadvantage at the moment.... celebrated a good friend's birthday tonight.  Its not quite the same as kids and whatnot, and actually does fall under the category "excuses, excuses", but i am HAMMMMMERED.

I will post my current workflow and connections to the thread tomorrow.  I would love your input.

Learning some things on the fly about how MC works vis-a-vis library server, but i know i am missing the crux of the biscuit.

Cheers and goodnight,
Patrick