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Author Topic: Auto-Import Best Practice?  (Read 1946 times)

hoyt

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Auto-Import Best Practice?
« on: November 28, 2012, 03:58:14 pm »

Hi,

I'm curious if I have this setup as best as possible.  My auto-import > run import now takes 5 minutes to re-scan all files.  I'm scanning a ton of files, broken into 5 different categories, Live Music, Released Music, TV Shows, Movies, and Pictures.  It's broken up between two different NAS boxes on Netgear 1100s.  In total, it's about 5 TB of data.  The live music is about 3 TB, the released is about 110 GB, pictures are 125 GB, movies are 1.3 TB, and tv shows are about 750 GB.

I do not keep the media center PC on all the time, it's in my living room attached to my TV.  I use it to watch live TV through a tuner card, watch downloaded tv shows, DVDs, listen to music, slideshows of pictures, etc.  When I copy a photo shoot to my NAS, often the media PC isn't on.  So I then fire it up and have to exit theatre view, go to import and auto-import.  From there, it re-runs through all 5 TB of files, rescanning, etc.  This is what I'm trying to avoid.  The same happens if I add a new TV episode.  I'd rather not have Media Center rescan everything in my auto-import listing.  At worst, I should be able to tell it to jump straight to the 750 GB of TV shows and scan there.

Is there a way to only run auto-import for one subset of rules?  I have all the different types of media broken into different rules for tagging, etc.  When I look at the auto-import listing, I have 5 different sets of rules, driven by location on the NAS.  For instance, if the files are in S:\TV\, it gets taged with the media type of TV show, if it's in S:\Movies, it gets taged as a movie, and so on.

I understand if I left the media PC on 24/7, this problem would go away.  But to me that's not an option as I already run two NAS devices practically 24/7.

Thanks for the suggestions in advance!

--Ryan
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hoyt

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Re: Auto-Import Best Practice?
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2012, 07:41:25 pm »

Bump.  I changed the topic, because it seemed like I was making suggestions and I'm not, I'm looking for suggestions.  What I'm trying to figure out is the best way to deal with this setup (where my HTPC is often off, but importing continues on my NAS).

Thanks!

--Ryan
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MrC

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Re: Auto-Import Best Practice?
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2012, 07:53:46 pm »

How about trying the command line /import option with the desired folder to import?
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BryanC

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Re: Auto-Import Best Practice?
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2012, 08:06:41 pm »

http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Media_Center_windows_messages

Quote
23020   MCC_IMPORT_AUTO_RUN_NOW

Code: [Select]
MC18.exe /MCC 23020, Silent
Tie this command to one of your remote buttons. Tools->Options->Remote Control->Commands->Add->Add Run

Cheers!
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glynor

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Re: Auto-Import Best Practice?
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2012, 08:09:34 pm »

You shouldn't have to manually run the Auto-Import scan, even if the HTPC is off sometimes (or often) when new files arrive.  MC will find them on its own, it just takes a little while (probably less time than your full manual run, though).

Auto-Import detects filesystem changes as they happen, but it also does full scans as needed in the background.  It doesn't start it immediately after launching (as this would cause slowdowns), but it does it pretty quickly.

You might want to try just waiting a piece.  The files will show up (or they should, unless something odd with your NAS prevents it, it works fine on my network drives).
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hoyt

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Re: Auto-Import Best Practice?
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2012, 08:36:12 pm »

How about trying the command line /import option with the desired folder to import?

Great suggestion...  I wasn't aware of that, or when I read that part of the wiki, I thought, eh, I don't need that and dismissed it. 

I'll read on about these because that seems like a winner to me.  Is there a way to add a batch file to Theatre View?  Because it seems like I could add that to a batch file and make it a command Import TV, or Import Movies so I can fire up the HTPC and know that I just copied some TV shows over and just run on that folder.  This has promise. 

Yes, waiting does work, but usually I turn on my HTPC when I want to watch or listen to something.  I really think of it as the equivalent of a set-top box.

Thanks for the suggestions!

--Ryan
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glynor

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Re: Auto-Import Best Practice?
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2012, 04:36:32 pm »

Great suggestion...  I wasn't aware of that, or when I read that part of the wiki, I thought, eh, I don't need that and dismissed it. 

If you use Tag On Import rules, I don't believe these will be triggered when you use the Command Line Interface.  You'll have to test it to be sure, though.
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hoyt

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Re: Auto-Import Best Practice?
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2012, 09:02:20 pm »

If you use Tag On Import rules, I don't believe these will be triggered when you use the Command Line Interface.  You'll have to test it to be sure, though.

Yeah... this ended up not being so good.  The import that executes imports anything that it finds.  So I have R:\verified\ bound for live music, but R:\failed\ should be skipped.  When I ran this, MC went out and started importing partially downloaded and corrupt files.

I'm still looking for a better way to manage this because I really don't like turning on my HTPC and waiting 5 minutes when I know I've added 1 file to 1 directory.


Well that may have just been my mistake... So nevermind, still messing with it...

Thanks!

--Ryan
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