INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Matt on February 18, 2004, 05:41:38 pm

Title: NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: Matt on February 18, 2004, 05:41:38 pm
Media Center 10.0.73 adds databasing to removable drive type handhelds.  You can get it here:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=19350

This allows for fast access while still maintaining the ability to do iPod-style synchs from within Media Center.

The database will be created the first time you view the handheld.  It may take a few minutes.  After that, using the handheld should be fast.

The database is an XML file called 'Database.mpl' on the root of the drive.

If you get a chance, let us know how these changes work for you.  Thanks for any feedback.
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: JimH on February 18, 2004, 06:46:41 pm
This is an important change.  We'd appreciate any feedback.
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: lalittle on February 18, 2004, 10:17:03 pm
I'm not clear on this feature.  Is this something that effects handhelds OTHER than iPods?  I don't notice any difference in the way the iPod works with the new version, and I don't have any "Database.mpl" file in the root of the iPod drive.

Thanks for clarification on what handhelds this effects, and what to look for,

Larry
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: Matt on February 19, 2004, 08:38:15 am
This affects handhelds that show up as a hard drive. (removable drive type)  An example is a Creative MuVo or an Archos.

The iPod is not affected because it has its own database.
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: Uwe on February 19, 2004, 09:17:38 am
ok, i plugged my Archos. It is listed as a local Drive at "my Computer".
What kind of feedback do you need ? Please some more briefing...


Uwe
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: kiwi on February 19, 2004, 03:49:06 pm
Does this work with regular removable drives? i.e. the Firewire drive that I use for music?  I hook it up to the laptop and would love to be able to sync my music with it.  (Or a network share from my laptop.)

kiwi
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: JimH on February 19, 2004, 03:51:11 pm
Does this work with regular removable drives? i.e. the Firewire drive that I use for music?  I hook it up to the laptop ....
Not yet.  We're making changes that may make that possible later.
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: skeeterfood on February 19, 2004, 04:40:42 pm
Does this work with regular removable drives? i.e. the Firewire drive that I use for music?  I hook it up to the laptop ....
Not yet.  We're making changes that may make that possible later.

If you go that route, please please please ... make it work for mapped networked drives/UNC paths too.  Did I say please?  This would allow me to synchronize the music on my laptop using MC instead of using XP's offline file synchronization , which MC has serious issues with at the moment (see my bug reports in the latest build threads Fixed in 10.0.74!).

-John
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: Sauzee on February 19, 2004, 04:43:56 pm
Does this work with regular removable drives? i.e. the Firewire drive that I use for music?  I hook it up to the laptop ....
Not yet.  We're making changes that may make that possible later.

That would be useful. I don't have a handheld but do use a firewire/usb HDD.
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: jgourd on February 19, 2004, 05:23:07 pm
The database is wonderful for letting my Archos AV380 show the media files so quickly.

My only complaint is that before it built the database, I was shown a dialog stating that the handheld was going to be initialized. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of having my unit wiped clean by an "Initialization". The only reason I went ahead with it was that I rememberd the new feature in release notes.

Perhaps you should alter your nomenclature or extend the message to indicate that no data is going to be lost duing the initialization.
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: Matt on February 19, 2004, 07:36:17 pm
Thanks JGourd.  We'll try to make that more clear in a coming build.
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: plopje on February 20, 2004, 09:53:54 am
Plugged in my Archos Jukebox Multimedia. All seems to work OK now. Sync is very fast. No errors reported.

I just wonder if things could speed up just a litte more. When choosing the handheld icon, MC first displays all files on the handheld as one list. This costs time. I wish this could be switched off. In earlier builds this was an option.
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: jgourd on February 20, 2004, 11:21:19 am
Will the new database get out of sync when I delete files from within the handheld itself?
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: SteveG on February 20, 2004, 11:30:53 am
If you delete files from the handheld, the database will be out of sync until you do a "Rebuild database" but it won't really matter because we will only show the files that are actually on the player. We will optimize this in the future.

Steve
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: plopje on February 20, 2004, 02:23:05 pm
Problem: MC is sometimes deleting the wrong files on a sync. On my Archos Multimedia Jukebox I have music files, pictures, and movies. I only want to synchronize music files. Music files are all stored in "P:\Music". My movies are stored in "P:\Movie" etc.
I have set the Root-directory for syncing to "Music".
Normal sync is ok. New music files are stored where they belong.

But when I use the option "delete unselected files from handheld", MC is not only deleting unselected music-files from the Music directory, but all files in all other directories as well! So I lost several movies and hundreds of pictures.

I don't know if this is by design, but this is very dangerous for users that have other files on their handheld.

I think this can be avoided if synchronizing only affects the directory which is set in the "root directory"-option.

Please, can this be changed?

Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: kiwi on February 21, 2004, 04:32:51 pm
Does this work with regular removable drives? i.e. the Firewire drive that I use for music?  I hook it up to the laptop ....
Not yet.  We're making changes that may make that possible later.

Great to hear.

Thanks,
kiwi
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: plopje on February 22, 2004, 05:30:07 am
Kiwi,

It don't know about firewire, but it works with my SCSI MO-drive. The drive itself is not removable but the disks are (like a floppy-drive).
Title: Re:NEW: Removable Drive Databasing
Post by: kiwi on February 22, 2004, 08:36:51 am
plopje ~ I'll give the latest version a try.