[gamecrusader]

Hi peeps,

I’m making really good progress with my RPi2/Kodi setup and I’m super excited about it! My wife even enjoys it and is giving me the green light to replace all my WD TV Live players with this setup

That said, it’s introducing a few new questions and I figure I would just ask them all here in one shot.

1. I kind of already know the answer to this question, but I thought I might ask it anyways. Let’s say you have folders/files with this setup:
Cartoons {Top/Root Folder}
Batman
Movies
Series
I would add to my library the root folder, Cartoons and then scrub it, but the issue is I have a mixture of movies and TV series in sub-folders (keep in mind this is just one example; there are MANY other folders under the Cartoon root folder). I understand you can only scrub one or the other, movies or TV series.

One possible solution I could think of would be to add each folder to the library individually, but that would be really messy. The question is:
Are there any other work around for situations where you would have movies and TVs trying to cohabitate? Even if I have to do it manually (so we could view the pretty art and info)?

2. Since I am going to be adding multiple RPi2/Kodi devices, I see it’s very easy to duplicate them (simply copy the SD card with Win32DiskImager), so that’s covered. The next thing I looked into was sharing a database among the different devices. It looks like the best two options are UPnP or setting up MySQL (on my Synology). Obviously UPnP is the easiest/quickest way (though the ability to stop in one room and resume in another is nice with the MySQL setup). The question is:
How much overhead does UPnP add to the RPi2? I obviously don’t want to overwork the RPi2 and slow it down any (on either the server or client side). I guess I’m asking from a performance stand point, will it be ok?

3. I think I’m going to setup my mom with one of these bad boys (totally mom friendly setup going on here). It would be easy enough to just duplicate my setup, however there is one difference there. The IP scheme at her place is a 10.0.0.x setup whereas mine is a 192.168.0.x setup. I COULD switch up her subnet but that would be a pain. So my question here is:
Is there some way to change the path/IP for the database? If my current path is nfs://192.168.0.2/volume1/Movies, could I change it to nfs://10.0.0.2/volume1/Movies easily so I wouldn’t have to rebuild the library?

Thanks for taking the time to read through all of this. If I come up with any more questions I’ll add them to this thread.

[Jdiesel]

1. This folder organization is less than ideal. In all honesty unless you have a very good reason for organizing your files this way I would suggest moving your movies into their own folder.

2. Between those two choices I would setup MySQL on your NAS. I found that MySQL was the best way to share and sync multiple devices however I believe there has been major work done on UPnP in the last year. My vote still goes to MySQL though.

Another option you might want to consider is using Emby Media Server to host and manage your media. There is a package for the Synology NAS. Emby Media Server will take care of all the metadata and Kodi, using the Emby Plugin, will handle the playback. This is the exact system that I currently use. You can also access your media over the web and transcode it to other devices like Android and iOS using the other Emby player apps.

3. I wouldn't worry about trying to clone your database as your will likely spend more time doing so than it would take for the initial scan. What you can do once you get your installation the way you want it is export your database into multiple files. (Settings-Videos-Export Database). This will create .xml files in each folder with all the correct metadata. When you do a scan on your Mom's setup it will use those .xml files rather than scanning the internet to populate the database.

[gamecrusader]

1. Well with the WD TV Live this setup was perfect; I could browse right to the folder I wanted and play a file. Also, I have A LOT of stuff, so from the organization standpoint outside of the media player(s), it is helpful. I realize Kodi sees/does things a little different. I was just hoping there was a way to accommodate it the way I like to organize things.

2. I guess I should try out the UPnP myself and see how it goes. I could do the MySQL route, I was just looking for the simplest solution.
Emby looks a lot like Plex? I tried out Plex a few times and I've never had any luck with it (it was actually what I was playing around with prior to getting the RPi2). I like the idea of Plex/Emby since I could load that up on a Roku and have Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, etc. all in one place (I know you can with Kodi as well, just not a seamless).

3. That's good to know. That should save me some work when I set it up for her.