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[yonkiman]

A while back I bought a Master License because I'm running all three of these systems at home, and I assumed they would all share the same library file, which I would store on my always-on linux system, along with all my music files.

After I installed the linux and OS X versions, I found that they each needed their own (i.e. non-synced) library/database (or the library file needed to be stored locally on each installation or something similar), so I stopped messing with the linux and OS X versions.

It's been a year or two since then, so I'm wondering if it's now possible to store the master library file on one system (again in my case, I'd like it on the same linux server as all my music files).

Can this be done now with MC20 or MC21?

[blgentry]

It sounds like you want to use one library for several computers *at the same time*.  As far as I know this isn't supported, and I would guess is not a feature they will implement any time soon.   There are a number of good reasons why this is hard and/or a bad idea.

But the Library Server support is designed for having one master library, on one computer, and having several other computers access that library remotely.  I haven't personally used it, but it sounds like something you should investigate if that's what you want.

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Server

Other options include doing things like periodically exporting the library from one computer to another (via MPL), using handheld sync to replicate the library, or doing full backup and restores from machine to machine.

Good luck.

Brian.

[yonkiman]

There are a number of good reasons why this is hard and/or a bad idea.

Thanks for the response Brian.  The Library Server would help spread the music around, but I was hoping to be able to maintain/correct/add-to the database from any machine.  I'm sure it's a somewhat hard idea (you'd need to handle conflicts/collisions from different instances of MC, and would probably want to split out the library from the other MC settings), but I wouldn't say it's a bad idea...   

[mwillems]

Thanks for the response Brian.  The Library Server would help spread the music around, but I was hoping to be able to maintain/correct/add-to the database from any machine.  I'm sure it's a somewhat hard idea (you'd need to handle conflicts/collisions from different instances of MC, and would probably want to split out the library from the other MC settings), but I wouldn't say it's a bad idea...   

Library server isn't just about the media it allows changes to metadata and the database on client PCs which sync back (you can configure it to sync automatically, or do it manually).  You can do about 90% of database maintenance or correction from client machines.  JRiver does bidirectional database sync so tag changes on clients propagate to the server and then to other clients, etc.

There are a handful of exceptions where certain database operations have to happen on the server. The main ones are importing files into the database and cover art changes, both of which must be done on the server.  However, the import situation is easily handled: if you setup auto-import on the server, it's just a matter of putting files into a networked "watched" directory from a client and then the server will scoop them up within a few minutes.  Then you can tinker with the tags from a client.

The cover art is a pain, but you can work around that with remote desktop software like teamviewer or tigervnc, etc.

But 85 to 90% of what you want is already handled by Library Server in a robust collision-free way.

[yonkiman]

But 85 to 90% of what you want is already handled by Library Server in a robust collision-free way.

Cool, I wasn't aware of that.  Is the linux Library Server as full-featured as the PC Library Server?

The cover art is a pain, but you can work around that with remote desktop software like teamviewer or tigervnc, etc.

I'm storing cover art as tags - are you basically saying text tags can be changed by a client but binary tags can't?

Thanks,
Fred

[mwillems]

Cool, I wasn't aware of that.  Is the linux Library Server as full-featured as the PC Library Server?

With a handful of exceptions, yes.  

The main exceptions relate to: 1) functionality not present on Linux yet (like TV tuners) or 2) lack of cross-platform filepath logic, which breaks playback with certain special file types (.ifo DVD rips specifically).  Basically if all the content you want to serve is currently supported on Linux, a Linux server should work great.

I'm storing cover art as tags - are you basically saying text tags can be changed by a client but binary tags can't?

No, I meant that literally no cover art changes can be done on a client (whether tagged in the file or not). For example, MC stores TV series art separately from all media files (it doesn't support embedding it in a file).  You can't change that on a client.  You also can't change cover art embedded in files.  No cover art related operations work on the client (although the UI does not make this clear).

Every other tag I've tested (other than cover art) seems to work fine; you may or may not have issues with some types of binary tags.  What I can confirm is that there's definitely something special about cover art.

[yonkiman]

Thanks again for the info.  For me the Library Server-on-linux positives aren't outweighing the negatives, since while my linux box is my always-on server, my main base of operations for all things musical (including library/album art maintenance) is my sometimes-on office/studio Windows PC.  So for now I think I'll just keep it as-is, with the linux box just looking like a hard disk to MC.  Will VNC into Windows when I want to do maintenance from other systems.

[mwillems]

Thanks again for the info.  For me the Library Server-on-linux positives aren't outweighing the negatives, since while my linux box is my always-on server, my main base of operations for all things musical (including library/album art maintenance) is my sometimes-on office/studio Windows PC.  So for now I think I'll just keep it as-is, with the linux box just looking like a hard disk to MC.  Will VNC into Windows when I want to do maintenance from other systems.

I know what you mean (I also have an always on Linux file server, but need some of the windows server functionality).  For example, I need TV tuners and have mostly windows clients, but I didn't want to keep two boxes on all the time. So I just squared the circle and have a windows virtual machine running my MC server on my linux box