[GodsDead]

I recently moved all my media to a hp microserver n54l running windows server 2012, which is awesome I can stream from any device using shared & upnp/dlan, But I want to Beef this up and have the XBMC Library hosted on the server with all the media too, So I can use xbmc clients to connect to the server. I found this method for setting up the database in MYSQL http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...ab=Windows.

Since I need to create a library from scratch, would I just install XBMC on the server and run all media into it as usual, then export into the MYSQL database? then somehow connect other devices to this? Theres no explanation on the Wiki for this http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...ng_up_XBMC

Then how do I connect other devices?

I also came across this web interface to manage everything http://htpc.io can I install this on the server too? Or are there better alternatives?

[ConfusedTA]

Once you've installed MySQL on the server, create the advancedsettings.xml file as described in the Wiki, and put this on all of your clients.

You then just use the clients as you've always done - but rather than the database being hosted locally, it's hosted on your central server.

Installing XBMC on the server (and putting the advancedsettings.xml file in place) would give you the ability to run XBMC permanently on the server, and this can be the target for any library updates from applications like Sickbeard or CouchPotato - meaning when your clients turn on, they don't need to worry about scraping the library - because the server's copy of XBMC has already done it.

[GodsDead]

Once you've installed MySQL on the server, create the advancedsettings.xml file as described in the Wiki, and put this on all of your clients.

You then just use the clients as you've always done - but rather than the database being hosted locally, it's hosted on your central server.

Installing XBMC on the server (and putting the advancedsettings.xml file in place) would give you the ability to run XBMC permanently on the server, and this can be the target for any library updates from applications like Sickbeard or CouchPotato - meaning when your clients turn on, they don't need to worry about scraping the library - because the server's copy of XBMC has already done it.

Ah this is cool, seems like a waste of resources having to have XBMC running on the server just to update the library when new items are downloaded, I planning on having Sickbeard & CouchPotato monitor & download for me, can these not update the library automatically since its sql? without the need for xbmc to run.

[ConfusedTA]

When XBMC is not doing anything/minimised, it uses basically no CPU - especially if you enable DirtyRegions and set the blank screen screensaver

Sickbeard/CouchPotato send updates via the JSON interface to XBMC - they do NOT talk directly with the MySQL database - this ensures that any database changes within XBMC will not break this operability.