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[Snickering87]

as a client. 

On the Server?
or
On the client?

Thanks
Bill

[JimH]

There are ways to do both.  Maybe you could describe what you want.

Library Server will serve a library that a client can play.  (Music on client)

Remote Server will allow a client to control the server with a web page on the client.  (Music on server)

[Snickering87]

This seems to be a difficult task to accomplish what needs to be done.  This project is for a dance studio.  The studio has 3 rooms.  I am helping the studio progress to the age of digital music.  I have working on this for quite some time.

These are the issues that I am having trouble with.
1.  The teachers must be able to cut music and add the music into the library.
2.  I do not work there and none are very computer literate nor do many people work there like a normal business.  So ripping music to the library seems to be a difficult issue.
3.  Create and edit playlits.

Now if this was a single computer setup, this would not be much of an issue.
I have three rooms that want to access the library and playlits simultaneously.
People want to have the flexibilty to not only listen to music in the library but also create and edit playlists.
They also need to have the ability to edit music and add it to the library.

Right now I have JRiver on one computer.  I want to add 2 more (they are all networked).  In this senario, it seems as though a person needs to have a music server that is completely separate (no one touchs), then all the other computers would connect to it.  This is workable and I could make it very reliable.
But
then we add in the rest of the needs
create and edit playlists
add music to the library

This is where I get stuck

My ideal Media center would be
A server that would allow  multiple clients to connect.  The client needs to be able to play music, create playlists/edit playlists, rip music (of course to the the same machine as all music) and import the music into the library.  Editing the music could be done through some other 3rd party application, I would just need the ability to add it to the music library from the client.

That is the clift note version of what my ideal media center server needs are.  Any ideas??

Does media center 12 fit this mold??

[JimH]

Make one of the PC's a server that also can be used locally.  Rip everything on that PC. 

Run Library Server on it.

Now other PC's can play this music as clients (File/Library/Search for Media Servers).  The music will play locally for the clients.

All versions of MC need to be the same.

One license can be used for all.

[Snickering87]

How about create/edit playlists on the client.

Then another issue is:  People that use the server have a tendancy to log on and off.  Does library server run as a service??  Does logging on and off bother the server.

By the way thanks for getting back with me
Bill

[Alex B]

Some workarounds have been published here in the forum. They are based on copying the library files when the MC instances are inactive. I have explained my solution and Glynor has published nice scripts that can do the work automatically. However, these workarounds are not suitable for your not very computer literate dance teachers.

MC12 can use a shared library folder. The first opened MC instance has full read and write rights and the others load automatically a copy of the library on startup and cannot save changes. Even this is not suitable for your dance studio environment.

Another new feature in MC12 is Auto-Import. I think that separate libraries with the Auto-Import feature could be the best solution for you. The server would just provide a shared base folder for media files. Each client would automatically keep a local library up-to-date. When one of the MCs has ripped a new CD or edited tags the other MCs will automatically add the new files to the library or update the library from the changed file tags.

The users may need to use the same playlists on different PCs. MC can export and import m3u playlists so the users can periodically export all playlist to shared folders (The server could have separate shared folders for exported playlists - one for each PC). Auto-import should be able to import the playlists.

Edit

1.  The teachers must be able to cut music ...

MC's own Media Editor might be good enough for basic audio editing like cut, paste, fade etc operations. If the tracks are ripped in a lossless format the audio quality will remain unaltered even if the same tracks are edited several times. I would recommend trying Monkey's Audio. The Fast compression option could be the best choice with Monkey's Audio because it would minimize the needed decoding and encoding time.

[Snickering87]

Another new feature in MC12 is Auto-Import. I think that separate libraries with the Auto-Import feature could be the best solution for you. The server would just provide a shared base folder for media files. Each client would automatically keep a local library up-to-date. When one of the MCs has ripped a new CD or edited tags the other MCs will automatically add the new files to the library or update the library from the changed file tags.

The users may need to use the same playlists on different PCs. MC can export and import m3u playlists so the users can periodically export all playlist to shared folders (The server could have separate shared folders for exported playlists - one for each PC). Auto-import should be able to import the playlists.

This sounds like like a good solution.  The only thing, I thought I read that if more than 2 computers simultaneously access a shared music folder, it would corrupt the files???  Am I incorrect??

Is this true.  Lets say 3 users access the same song simultaneously, will this corrupt the file.  Unlikely to happen but the JRiver clients will be being used at the same time.

[Snickering87]

The only thing, I thought I read that if more than 2 computers simultaneously access a shared music folder, it would corrupt the files???  Am I incorrect??

Is this true.  Lets say 3 users access the same song simultaneously, will this corrupt the file.  Unlikely to happen but the JRiver clients will be being used at the same time.
Posted on: December 16, 2006

I was really wondering about this question

[Alex B]

Haven't you already built a test environment for trying various SW solutions? I have used shared media files on our home LAN for years without any playback problems, but naturally you should test that before delivering anything.

Also tagging should be safe. Of course if the unexpected happens and more than one user tags the same file simultaneously only one of the users can physically write the tag at any given moment. The OS should automatically prevent the other users from changing a file that is reserved because of a save process. The other MC's would be queued until the file is free again. In any case the audio data should survive unharmed.