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[Guybrush]

I'm running MC21 on my HTPC which also serves as my gaming PC, preamp, and center of my entertainment universe. I would like a server to hold my library of songs and movies for access anywhere. There's no way I'd feel comfortable leaving my HTPC on 24/7, hence the idea to build a second, low-cost machine to handle that. I know this request isn't unique, but I have a couple questions that I haven't been able to sort out from other posts:

1. Number one requirement is to not degrade performance/viewing quality of my movies on the HTPC. How much slower is accessing a movie file from a library server hosted by MC on a second PC vs. the HTPC's own HDD? I'm already running some mad madvr settings - would that affect the frame buffer? I'm running out of HDD space on my HTPC, and not much physical space to add more, so I would definitely want the server PC to act as a NAS in that sense.

2. Low cost server would also be DLNA server for gizmo devices like phone and tablet when away. I assume it would be best for server to provide rendering muscle in those cases, but I wouldn't want it to handle rendering for the much more powerful HTPC. Is it possible to configure this way? What is minimum recommended CPU for handling these tasks (likely never more than 2 streams at a time)?

Thanks!

[mwillems]

I'm running MC21 on my HTPC which also serves as my gaming PC, preamp, and center of my entertainment universe. I would like a server to hold my library of songs and movies for access anywhere. There's no way I'd feel comfortable leaving my HTPC on 24/7, hence the idea to build a second, low-cost machine to handle that. I know this request isn't unique, but I have a couple questions that I haven't been able to sort out from other posts:

1. Number one requirement is to not degrade performance/viewing quality of my movies on the HTPC. How much slower is accessing a movie file from a library server hosted by MC on a second PC vs. the HTPC's own HDD? I'm already running some mad madvr settings - would that affect the frame buffer? I'm running out of HDD space on my HTPC, and not much physical space to add more, so I would definitely want the server PC to act as a NAS in that sense.

As to how much slower, it depends entirely on how the two machines are connected, what kind of drives you use in the NAS, and (sometimes) processing power.  If they're both wired to a gigabit switch and the drives in the NAS are reasonably modern, you'll probably get performance comparable, but slightly slower than a local spinning disk drive (my NAS drives have read speeds that don't quite saturate a gigabit link, so my HTPC can pull about the same 110 MB a second it could pull if the drive was local).  If you're trying to connect via wi-fi or use slower drives, expect mischief unless you have very fast, very stable wi-fi.  It should have no effect on MadVr if the connection is reliable, especially if you're buffering a few frames ahead.

2. Low cost server would also be DLNA server for gizmo devices like phone and tablet when away. I assume it would be best for server to provide rendering muscle in those cases, but I wouldn't want it to handle rendering for the much more powerful HTPC. Is it possible to configure this way? What is minimum recommended CPU for handling these tasks (likely never more than 2 streams at a time)?

This is where the rubber meets the road; transcoding requires a fair amount of cpu "grunt" to do in real time.  The standard recommendation is about 2000 passmark points for every stream you intend to transcode at any given time, plus a bit of breathing room.  So you'd want something on this chart (i.e. more than 4k, preferably more than 5k): https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Full JRiver clients (like the one on your HTPC) can each specify their own transcoding settings, so you can easily turn off transcoding for your HTPC.  Gizmo and JRemote currently always require transcoding, so you should "budget" a transcode stream for each phone or tablet you expect to be watching video at any given time.  

[Guybrush]

Thanks, mwillems, you've always been quick to reply to my posts. I was doing a little more research and came across a wiki post that says DVD/Blu-ray rips won't work across a library server. Is that still correct? I'm worried the network share would be slow. Again, my objectives are to maintain a premium quality experience on my primary HTPC, which I don't want to leave on 24/7, and secondary, to host my media library for other devices/PCs. I'm wondering if the approach of storing my media library on a dedicated server PC is not the best idea for this.

And one more question: if I do have my media library on a dedicated server, is there a way to prioritize HDD bandwidth? I'm not worried about network traffic because it would be connected to my HTPC via gigabit switch, but if multiple users are attempting to access videos stored on the same hard drive, I would want to make sure that the HTPC wins.

[mwillems]

Thanks, mwillems, you've always been quick to reply to my posts. I was doing a little more research and came across a wiki post that says DVD/Blu-ray rips won't work across a library server. Is that still correct? I'm worried the network share would be slow.

The issue the wiki is describing isn't about speed, but about how MC's media network stack works.  To make a long story short, direct disk rips (i.e. rips in .ifo/vob format) don't work with MC's media network sharing, but you can still potentially play them in a client/server context if you meet a few conditions.  If you both: 1) map the networked drives as local drives on the PC and 2) ensure that botht he server and the client see the same "path" to the files, you can enable the "use local file if possible" option on the client and my recollection is that .ifo rips will play on clients in those circumstances.  However, I don't have any .ifo rips so I can't speak to how well it works currently. 

An additional limit is, because the paths need to be identical, you can't use this solution in a cross-platform context (all machines would need to be either on Windows, or on another OS), but I'm not sure .ifo rips are well-supported on non-windows platforms in any case.  My recommendation would be to convert any .ifo-type rips into .mkvs, which are a quick and lossless conversion, and work perfectly with MC's media network.

Again, my objectives are to maintain a premium quality experience on my primary HTPC, which I don't want to leave on 24/7, and secondary, to host my media library for other devices/PCs. I'm wondering if the approach of storing my media library on a dedicated server PC is not the best idea for this.

If you want full-time availability, you need a computer that is either always on or always reachable.  For my case a dedicated server was the best solution; you could also look into configuring your HTPC to sleep when not in use and configure wake-on-LAN.  That didn't work particularly well for my use case because of some my peripherals don't play nicely with sleep, but a modern computer uses just a watt or two when asleep so it can be a good solution if that would work for you.

And one more question: if I do have my media library on a dedicated server, is there a way to prioritize HDD bandwidth? I'm not worried about network traffic because it would be connected to my HTPC via gigabit switch, but if multiple users are attempting to access videos stored on the same hard drive, I would want to make sure that the HTPC wins.

Traffic shaping is potentially possible, but I'm not sure how you'd do it since MC is directing all the traffic; it would depend on what OS's are in play.  If your HTPC is hardwired, and your other clients are using wi-fi, unless you've got very, very fast wi-fi, there's little risk of the devices pulling a majority of the i/o if you see what I mean.  Even with fairly modern wi-fi, unless you're right on top of the router, your devices will probably be pulling 10 or 12 MB/s (100mb or so).  I've never had any problems with my wired HTPC in a similar setup.