I'm just about to set up a new PC with MC on it, and now considering all the pros and cons on how to keep two machines in sync. Only one of those PCs will be doing ripping, tagging, etc, i.e. the "Admin" PC. The media files themselves are on a central NAS with a path common to both PCs.
I could have independant, local libraries on each PC and export the library from one machine to the other whenever changes are made. This ensures that neither PC requires the other PC to be switched on in order to work.
I could make the Admin PC a client of the non-Admin PC so that changes only have to be done once - however I believe there are limitiations regarding ripping, cover art and/or tagging when done it on a client. Is that right? What exactly are the limitations, I think I've only read about them in vague terms? This would probably be the ideal scenario but if it's not going to work reliably then I don't want to do it this way.
But when you make one copy of MC a client of another, there is an option to "automatically sync changes with the server". I have never understood the meaning of this, could someone clarify it for me? I would have thought that if you are connecting to a server's library, you are always dealing with the server's library remotely, so why would changes have to be sent explicitly back to the server by some sort of sync process that may or may not work in real time? If you don't select this option then....what happens? You are connecting to the server library remotely and you make changes but the changes don't actually happen on the server? Is it a case that the client doesn't actually connect to the server in real-time but just reads the server's library once at start-up, and thereafter it's using a local copy of the server's library?