Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[avpman]

Is it possible to convert and download a playlist to a laptop and subsequently play the tracks using MC on the laptop?

For example, my audio files are ripped in APE format on my main PC. I'd like to create a playlist, download them to my laptop (converting the files to MP3's) and play them (using MC) when I'm disconnected from my local network. Effectively turning the laptop into a "handheld" device. Would like to be able to drag/drop the files just like I do for my handheld device.

Yeah, I know I can use MC as a client on the laptop to play files over the network from the library on the main PC. But I want to be able to do so disconnected from the network. Like when I take the laptop on a trip. Seem logical or desirable to anyone else?

[zxsix]

Set up peer to peer networking between the 2 computers.
Create a share on the laptop with full control access rights (not the default of read only).
Map a drive letter on the pc that points to the share on the laptop.

Start up MC.
Go under handhelds in the options screen.
Choose Device Management.
Choose add device.
Specify the drive letter and path to the laptop where you want the files sync'd to.
Select your playlists and sync away.

On the laptop, double clicking on the playlists will play them in MC.

[avpman]

Set up peer to peer networking between the 2 computers.
Create a share on the laptop with full control access rights (not the default of read only).
Map a drive letter on the pc that points to the share on the laptop.

Start up MC.
Go under handhelds in the options screen.
Choose Device Management.
Choose add device.
Specify the drive letter and path to the laptop where you want the files sync'd to.
Select your playlists and sync away.

On the laptop, double clicking on the playlists will play them in MC.

Ok, this is like way too cool! Only problem I have is that for security reasons I can't allow the laptop to share ANY folders. So here's what I did to workaround the issue.

1) Created a shared directory on the main server.
2) Created my "handheld device" on the main MC server and pointed to the directory above. Basically so MC would "transfer" the files to a directory on the same PC.
3) Set up an off-line folder on the laptop which points to the shared folder on the main server in step 1.
4) Enabled off-line folder synchronization so when the laptop connects/disconnects the files are synced to the off-line folder on the laptop.

However, in step 2 above, I had to select the network share name for the directory, otherwise the playlist that MC created had the local path for the tracks (c:\sharedmusic\trackname) inside the file. Trying to play the playlist on the laptop using the local path inside the playlist won't work because the files aren't on c:\sharedmusic, they're in the offline folder (\\mediaroom\sharedmusic). So I changed the filepath in step 2 to point to the network path \\mediaroom\sharedmusic. The problem with that is when MC trys to transfer the files to the UNC network path \\mediaroom\sharedmusic it converts the files but errors out when it tries to transfer the files.

Soooooo, I created a mapped network drive "L:" on the MC server that points to its' own shared folder \\mediaroom\sharedmusic. Now when MC creates the playlist, the file names inside the playlist contain the mapped drive letter and tracknames, L:\trackname. Then I created an equivalent mapped network drive "L:" on the laptop that points to the the same \\mediaroom\sharedmusic. And it works!

I'm gonna setup another PC, enable shared folders on it and try it again uisng the UNC path. Maybe MC has a bug in that it can't use a UNC pathname when writing to a "handheld" device.

Hope this is all clear.

[zxsix]

Don't forget about the default administrative shares.
\\machinename\c$
You can get to those if you have admin rights on the laptop, and you technically won't be creating any shares 

[avpman]

Don't forget about the default administrative shares.
\\machinename\c$
You can get to those if you have admin rights on the laptop, and you technically won't be creating any shares 

Nope, even the default admin shares have been disabled on this laptop. Removed the admin share and disabled the "services" service (ala Microsoft Tech Article) so they are not automatically re-created at boot time.