[activate]

Hope am in the right forum for this one.

Am contemplating setting up a friends house with multiple xbmc installations, object being that xbmc is accessible from different tvs in the house, lounge, bedroom etc.

Hence installing aTV2 with each television equals 3-4 aTV2s. All accessing a single shared network drive from a computer somewhere at home.

Wondering if this is the best/only way to achieve this objective. No equipment has been bought yet so I have to time work out the best strategy.

Appreciate any tips and suggestions

[ozblogger]

wait a minute, if you want to share the same media & database over a few atv2 -xbmc around the house .... look into hosting a mysql db server on your main share PC/NAS, and then all xbmc installs will connect remotely to that single mysql database ...
and you can also change the thumbnails to be stored on NAS rather than locally on atv2

buy 1 atv2, try it out with a shared mysql db, then buy another one, and if it all works out, buy the rest

hope I read that right

[activate]

okidoki, thanks i'll read up on it. It will still mean each aTV2 will need to have xbmc I guess. I am currently at home running a single aTV2 sharing an external drive off the mac, works great.

Yes, the main purpose was to have xbmc interface at multiple tvs. This way seemed the easiest, with media streaming flexibility as well as financial costs.

[ozblogger]

yes each atv2 still has xbmc on it , but they are all identically configured to connect to a central mysql db & thumbnail path (both fall under advancedsettings.xml) and hence are just passive xbmc copies of each other

[activate]

Mate, sorry to sound amateurish, but having looked at mysql database, what is the advantage of it over a bunch of files on an external drive being shared between atv2s over the network.

[ChipsAhoy]

XBMC can operate either in Library mode or File mode.

In File mode, you're just navigating the directories and files as they're set up on your server.

The advantage of using Library mode is that XBMC can automatically gather info about movies and TV series and then present you with an interface that automatically organizes your media and shows DVD covers, plot synopsis, and so on. It can auto link to trailers, get cast info, and much more. You can also keep track of what you've watched, or where you paused a program if you stop in the middle.

If you use a centralized SQL database, updating that info in one location updates it for the whole network. This is really great for those of us that want it to work that way, and are willing to put out the initial effort to set things up.

On the other hand:

- some folks have different viewers in the house and don't want centralized tracking
- navigating the GUI is generally a little slower
- it's initially a lot more setup time to use Library mode
- currently the database versions are in flux, so if you're adding multiple machine types into the mix (Macs, PCs, ATVs), getting the correct matching versions is more difficult.

Personally, I love Library mode with a centralized MySQLdatabase, but it's not for everyone.

[itsalltrash]

The files will still be stored in their standard form over the network; that won't change.

What ozblogger is getting at is XBMC stores a local database of what you have watched and any Library info that you may have. This doesn't fair well if you want to say resume a show or movie where you left off in a different room or want to keep your files synchronized across all ATV2s so that you don't have to update on each device.

This site has a good breakdown on why you may want to set it up and how to do it. Please keep in mind that it is more specific to a Windows XBMC install and the pathing is going to be different on your ATV2. Plus you will need to use a tool to send and receive files from your ATV2, like WinSCP or Putty.

http://lifehacker.com/#!5634515/how-to-s...-the-house

[dvverga]

The files will still be stored in their standard form over the network; that won't change.

What ozblogger is getting at is XBMC stores a local database of what you have watched and any Library info that you may have. This doesn't fair well if you want to say resume a show or movie where you left off in a different room or want to keep your files synchronized across all ATV2s so that you don't have to update on each device.

This site has a good breakdown on why you may want to set it up and how to do it. Please keep in mind that it is more specific to a Windows XBMC install and the pathing is going to be different on your ATV2. Plus you will need to use a tool to send and receive files from your ATV2, like WinSCP or Putty.

http://lifehacker.com/#!5634515/how-to-s...-the-house

Thanks for that info. Was exactly what I was looking for.

Do you know the path for te advancedsettings.XML file on appletv2 and how the library is imported? Only parts I am missing from that site I believe.

[hernandito]

The files will still be stored in their standard form over the network; that won't change.

What ozblogger is getting at is XBMC stores a local database of what you have watched and any Library info that you may have. This doesn't fair well if you want to say resume a show or movie where you left off in a different room or want to keep your files synchronized across all ATV2s so that you don't have to update on each device.

This site has a good breakdown on why you may want to set it up and how to do it. Please keep in mind that it is more specific to a Windows XBMC install and the pathing is going to be different on your ATV2. Plus you will need to use a tool to send and receive files from your ATV2, like WinSCP or Putty.

http://lifehacker.com/#!5634515/how-to-s...-the-house

The Lifehacker guide only centralizes the Watched Items and Resume from last stop on different XBMC client. This is only the first half of the centralization.

Each XBMC client by default stores all the thumbnails, fanart and movie nfo, in its own database. It is NOT read from the Movie Folder as one would assume. I wrote a guide how to do both Watched Items and Centralized atwork, on an unRAID server. I think the methods are in there to implement it into your own setup.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.p...#msg109149

It is a bit to absorb, but I started with less info how to do this... The one nice thing is that if you add a movie or TV show, you update the library in only one of your clients, and the changes will be reflected on all other clients.

[dvverga]

Thanks hernandito.

Going to try the guide out tonight on my win7 box shouldn't be much tweaking instruction wise from the unraid setup.

[activate]

Ah I see. I see the difference now.

I am assuming my single setup is in file mode, although it gives the option of resuming video. I imagine this will only work in library mode for multiple users.

I'll have a look at the links to understand the setup configs. Thanks, prob will have questions down the track. Appreciate your help.

Also, anyone see this http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=99297

[dvverga]

Ah I see. I see the difference now.

I am assuming my single setup is in file mode, although it gives the option of resuming video. I imagine this will only work in library mode for multiple users.

I'll have a look at the links to understand the setup configs. Thanks, prob will have questions down the track. Appreciate your help.

Also, anyone see this http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=99297

Sounds great, thanks for the link, checking it out now. Wonder how well it works. Hope to hear more soon. Let me know if you try it.

[itsalltrash]

Going to try the guide out tonight on my win7 box shouldn't be much tweaking instruction wise from the unraid setup.

Be careful with using nightly, or rather unstable, builds with stable releases. The databases can get corrupt, or the nightly builds can update the databases to the point where the stable releases won't read them. Make sure that all devices go to the same build, or test the nightly build without touching the shared DB.

@hernandito Nice write up. I used the Lifehacker doc almost a year ago now and forgot that it didn't includensharing the thumbnails folder. I do like how you have rolled most of the different devices into the one tutorial!

[dvverga]

Be careful with using nightly, or rather unstable, builds with stable releases. The databases can get corrupt, or the nightly builds can update the databases to the point where the stable releases won't read them. Make sure that all devices go to the same build, or test the nightly build without touching the shared DB.

@hernandito Nice write up. I used the Lifehacker doc almost a year ago now and forgot that it didn't includensharing the thumbnails folder. I do like how you have rolled most of the different devices into the one tutorial!

Aw...good looking out thank you. Going to be a bit hard with the my windows htpc and the apple tv 2 one in the stage it is at right now. I'll see what I can do to balance it enough to try it out.

[keith]

Be careful with using nightly, or rather unstable, builds with stable releases. The databases can get corrupt, or the nightly builds can update the databases to the point where the stable releases won't read them. Make sure that all devices go to the same build, or test the nightly build without touching the shared DB.

Exactly itsalltrash. What I do is attempt to match the nightlies from:
http://mirrors.xbmc.org/nightlies/

with your ATV2 build. Look at the build date under System Info.
If you're using linux, there might be PPA nightlies, not sure.

With that said, I haven't had to erase my DB in almost a month, pretty good for an unstable and unofficial build.

And awesome tutorial Hernandito. I need to incorporate the pathsub stuff for thumbs in my setup, still haven't got around to it. It really needs to be added to a FAQ.