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[JustinChase]

I hope there is a better way to do this, but I'm stumped.  I've been using one main library, stored on the HTPC, and either connecting to the same library from multiple machines (mostly just the HTPC and my Desktop), or letting the HTPC be the server, and connecting as a client from the Desktop.  Both have shortcomings that cause me frustration.  As a client, updating cover art and various tags just doesn't work well.  Connecting to the same library means that one machine cannot do anything 'permanently', and sometimes work gets lost/dumped.

I now have 5 people living in the house, soon each will have their own computer (plus an HTPC), and everyone has different tastes in music and movies.  Some are similar, some are VERY different.  I don't want to maintain 6 different libraries.  Meaning that I don't want to have to tag things in 6 places.  I don't want to try to keep everyone's available media up to date in 6 places.  I don't want to manage options in 6 places.  i know that most options can be left alone once set properly, I'm referring to new options/enhancements that come along as MC is improved, like improved theater view capabilities.

I want to be able to name and import and update and manage all the media from one computer, my Desktop.  By that, I mean making sure imported media is named properly, with the correct cover art, on the correctly mapped drive location, etc.

However, I want everyone to be able to have opinion type information specific to their own tastes on their own computers. (ratings, last played, smartlists, etc)

For example, if I rip a disc, I want to name the tracks properly, and put that music in the 'correct' location, and have all 5 other machines (including the HTPC, which doesn't 'belong' to anyone) know that this new music (or movie, or TV show, or Podcast, etc) is available without any input from them.  I want them to be able to rate the music or movies whatever they want, without affecting the others, and without physically changing the media on the server.  I want them to be able to make view schemes without affecting anyone else.  I want them to be able to set the options appropriate for their machines (stereo, 5.1 channel, 1080p or 720p, ROHQ or Standard, etc) without affecting anything else.

I want any changes I make to the media to be reflected in the physical media, so that tags and such are stored in the files, in case of disaster.  I want that to not affect the other machines or their tags.

I want each of them to be able to share their library/tags/views via media server, so they can connect to their media from their devices, and also to be able to connect to the HTPC to control that and the Patio zone from their devices.  I figure that the HTPC should be the same as my library, but if one of the boys wants to listen to their music while I'm not home, I want them to have the option to EASILY use the HTPC to see/use their library/tags/views.  I don't want the HTPC to permanently use their library/tags.  I don't want their machine specific settings to mess up the settings for the HTPC.  If their computer only has 2 channels/speakers, I don't want that to change the HTPC to 2 channel, since it has 5.1 channels connected to it.

I want to be able to make changes to how Theater View or Gizmo is displayed, and let them benefit from those changes, without having to make those changes in 6 places.

If I decide that I've organized something poorly, or decide I can improve it by changing it's physical location/path, I want that to not cause problems for the others.

I'd like to be able to share smartlists and views with everyone, but have them be meaningful because they calculate using their specific values/ratings, not mine.

I'd like for everyone to be able to use the TV tuners in the HTPC for local TV playback on their machines, and to be able to schedule recordings.

I'm sure there are other things I'm not thinking of or taking into consideration here, but I think that's the bulk of what I need to reach a happy household.

How close to these goals can I get today, and what's the 'best' way to accomplish this currently?  I can't think of any way to get all of this to happen, and the tradeoffs from one method or another are usually not 'acceptable' to me.

I'm sure many others have similar needs/wants, and maybe have figured all this out already.  I'd like your opinions, and maybe some we can come up with some suggested enhancements to v18 to benefit others with similar goals.

[rjm]

Best compromise I was able to come up with:
- one master library owned by you (the admin)
- each user has local copy of master library which references media in common location on network
- users cannot make use of ratings or play count features
- users cannot import new media
- users cannot change media tags
- users must request admin to add podcasts
- users must request admin to add or change views
- users can have private playlists
- whenever there are sufficient library changes, admin copies library to user machines overwriting existing library but excluding the file "playlists.jmd" so that user playlists are preserved
- admin can optionally copy the thumbnail cache if it is desirable to not rebuild thumbnails on user machines

[MrHaugen]

I had the same problem as JustinChase. This is THE biggest shortcoming in MC imo. There is just no way of doing this effectively and in a logical way today.

I think that the only way it can be accomplished is for MC to get a user/group/computer management interface for the server, and add personal library fields like Number Plays, Last Played, Last Skipped and so on to each of the users. The data must be synced back and forth between server and client as usual, and the client specific data must be loaded together with the default fields at startup. This should also include views and playlists for each clients/users, but there should be a way of marking views as defaults for all users, so you don't have to do a lot of the same changes on every clients.

Starting with a simple option page for adding new users, and linking new user specific library fields for those and syncing the details would be a great start. And in my head, it should not be that complicated.

MC have become a considerable player in the media network segment, but without this multi user foundation there is a place where it just stops being that useful and powerful. This really needs to get some attention.

[HTPC4ME]

+1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^

[JustinChase]

Best compromise I was able to come up with:
- one master library owned by you (the admin)
- each user has local copy of master library which references media in common location on network
- users cannot make use of ratings or play count features
- users cannot import new media
- users cannot change media tags
- users must request admin to add podcasts
- users must request admin to add or change views
- users can have private playlists
- whenever there are sufficient library changes, admin copies library to user machines overwriting existing library but excluding the file "playlists.jmd" so that user playlists are preserved
- admin can optionally copy the thumbnail cache if it is desirable to not rebuild thumbnails on user machines

I'm considering doing something similar.  Put a local copy of the current "master" library on each machine, but make it a library local to that machine.  This should let them change ratings and such to suit their needs, but I'm not sure how it will handle collecting/managing new media I upload to the server.  As long as they have the same Auto Import settings, I'm hopefuly it will mostly work, but who knows?

I just know that at some point big changes in MC will require me to 'update' each machine individually, and I foresee big problems with getting only the changed bits updated, and not screwing up their custom libraries.

I have written much on this in the past, but it's never gotten much traction...   

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=57440.0

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=67229.msg451935#msg451935

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=60689.msg409608#msg409608

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=58261.msg396665#msg396665

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=58965.msg398643#msg398643

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=56698.msg384978#msg384978

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=20346.msg141998#msg141998

One of these days I'm going to map out all the suggested changes I think would resolve all of these (and many other) issues, but it's going to take days worth of work for it be useful.  It's mostly just changing how parts of MC connect with one another, and not too many "new" features would be needed.  Some day.

[mbc0]

This was the situation I faced when using MCE & MyMovies, I admit it used to work well as I have 1 HTPC, 4 Laptops, 1 Desktop, 3 Tablets, 2 PS3's & 1 Xbox 360 in the house! all of which want to view the media library!!  I am very new to JRiver Media Center but so far I am maintaining 1 library on the Windows Home Server in the cupboard under the stairs & I am struggling more with getting to grips with the different interface after so many years, but I have to say it does work.  My only gripe is wishing I could maintain the database on the WHS from my desktop rather than using a remote connection, but hey I can at least say it all works :-)

[BryanC]

I've been hoping for something like this for years:

With so many devices accessing MC15, I was thinking of ways to simplify the DLNA/Library Server and syncing. Maybe there should be a similar "syncing" system like what Chrome or Firefox use for their web browsers. The caveat is that you would be able to choose what you wanted to sync to and from on each client. You wouldn't have one "main" library per se, but a library made up of all your different devices--of course you choose to aggregate them all on one or two devices that could serve as a central hub.

So say I set up my main library and do an initial sync TO the MC cloud (local cloud). I could then choose what to sync from this MC cloud on each of my devices. On my HTPC I might sync everything to have a duplicate library, or I might choose not to sync files, but rather access them over DLNA. Or maybe I only want Podcasts on my laptop since that is where I sync my iPod. So I would download the podcasts onto my laptop but not choose to sync them to the cloud (so they would not show up in the other libraries). Maybe my desktop computer has cable TV access which I sync (or open up) to the cloud and that I only choose to access from the HTPC. Maybe I want changes to options to be reflected on some devices, but not others. I would allow the computer I'm changing settings on to sync TO the cloud but would only choose to sync FROM the cloud on devices that I want to duplicate those changes.

So each copy of MC15 would have a long two column list where I could choose to sync FROM or TO the cloud:

                                 Desktop                                   HTPC                                  Laptop
                          To                From                     To              From                To                  From
Views                  X                    X                                                                X                       X
Options                X                    X                                                                X                       X
Playlists                X                   X                        X                  X                   X                       X
Files (library)         X                                                                 X                   X
Files                    X                    X                        X                  X                   X                       X
Handhelds             X                                                                                      X                       X
Podcasts               X                   X
TV                       X                                                                  X
Images                  X                   X                                             X                  X                       X


You could make it more seamless if every MC device automagically knew every other device that was connected in the network (including Gizmo, etc.) Then you could choose from and to certain devices to allow changes to be made between groups of devices (only an issue if you have >4 devices, but would make it a simpler process for even less than 4 devices). Then you could do something like this:

                                 Desktop                                   HTPC                                   Laptop                    HTPC 2
                          To                From                     To              From                To                  From      To            From
Views                  X                    X                        O                 O                   X                       X        O               O
Options                X                    X                        O                 O                   X                       X        O               O
Playlists                X                   X                        X                  X                   X                       X        X               X
Files (library)         X                                                                 X                   X                                                  X
Files                    X                    X                        X                  X                   X                       X        X               X
Handhelds             X                                                                                      X                       X
Podcasts               X                   X
TV                       X                                                                 X                                                                       X
Images                  X                   X                                            X                  X                       X                          X

[JustinChase]

Surely I'm not the only one here with multiple users with different tastes desires.  How does everyone manage this?  Does everyone just agree that the geek gets to decide the ratings for everyone, and they all just connect as clients?

Of course improvement will be needed to get me everything I want here, but how does everyone manage this currently?  I really hate that I have to re-invent the same wheel that everyone else has likely invented already. 

[MrHaugen]

In my case, I just dropped supporting media for other users. That worked when you lived with friends. They had to use VLC and network folders. Poor bastards
If I get a family, that will probably not be an option. They will want to have personal preferences. I would have a problem, just like you. I cross my fingers and hope that this problem will be solved before that happens.