INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 13 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: kevind on February 17, 2009, 02:37:07 am
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I've been using MC for years and have to admit I don't understand the reason for the library server feature. I have multiple pc's in the house all running MC which all auto import and read from the same location. IE Music files are all stored in one location. As such, any change I make to the music; delete, genres, add new etc are automatically picked up by all MC's since they are all monitoring the same files. As such all the mc libraries (except playlists of course as these are still independent by nature in MC) are always in sync.
So...why use this feature?
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I use it on my laptop, where not only do I not want the computer constantly monitoring the files, but through which I can also connect when away from homebase - the fact that MC Library Server does on the fly transcoding (for my low upload rate) is very nice. Also, some tags are only stored in the DB, not in the files, so it's also nice for consistency.
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I use library server as I want one consistent copy of the library. My library has lots of custom fields which aren't seen by auto import. In effect your system creates a separate library for each machine which gives lots of opportunity for inconsistency.
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One cool thing about Library Server is that it's a fast way to share/stream. Just install MC on a remote PC that can see the server.
However, after using Library Server for quite a while, I came up with a way that better meets my needs, which are to play my library on another server at home, and on a laptop that I use in my RV and car. Here's a message where I explain what I do, and why:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50177.msg344957#msg344957
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I use it on my laptop, where not only do I not want the computer constantly monitoring the files, but through which I can also connect when away from homebase - the fact that MC Library Server does on the fly transcoding (for my low upload rate) is very nice. Also, some tags are only stored in the DB, not in the files, so it's also nice for consistency.
What kin of tags are not stored in the files?
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What kin of tags are not stored in the files?
The simplest example of this would be for file types to which MC is unable to write tags (eg. Apple formats, AVI, MKV, etc). You can still create a lot of information in the MC library for these files, that never can get written to tags.
Also, some formats dont allow non-standard tags to be written - which is an issue for those of us that use custom fields (at least not without converting format/containers).
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The simplest example of this would be for file types to which MC is unable to write tags (eg. Apple formats, AVI, MKV, etc). You can still create a lot of information in the MC library for these files, that never can get written to tags.
Also, some formats dont allow non-standard tags to be written - which is an issue for those of us that use custom fields (at least not without converting format/containers).
Ok, but how about mp3 for instance, wich doesn't seem to allow nonstandard fields to be written per se, but you can write those as a special comment-tag. (if i haven't misunderstood), how will that be handled?