hey guys im new to the forum but not to xbmc. I have been using xbmc for quite a few years and rave about it to others that arent yet into htpc yet.
Anyways, i have a question about shared libraries and common thumbnail sync. I have a fairly extensive movie/tv show collection and i want to be able to sync this collection, and cover art across all clients in my network. Ive been doing some goggling and have managed to get my library to share across my network with the help of my QNAP nas. however, i am having a problem with thumbnail syncing. i read that frodo will take care of all thumbnail syncing so path sub isn't required.
Only the client that i used for the library update/scan has the cover art, the rest of the clients dont. do i have to share the thumbnails folder or something in order to get all clients to access the cover art? Not all of my clients have internet access, so i would prefer to only use one client for content updates and thumbnail d/l's and be able to receive those library updates as well as thumbnails without having to connect to the internet again.
i would appreciate if someone would be able to point me in the right direction..
thanks guy for your time and help!
cheers
For clients without internet access, make sure you scrape only local artwork. Switching to local-only content is easy enough by either exporting the library and/or using a media manager.
If you insist on your current approach of using internet artwork, your only option is to synchronise Textures13.db and the Thumbnails folder of each remote client (that doesn't have internet access) with the "master" (your scraper client).
(2013-09-12, 18:06)MilhouseVH Wrote: [ -> ]If you insist on your current approach of using internet artwork, your only option is to synchronise Textures13.db and the Thumbnails folder of each remote client (that doesn't have internet access) with the "master" (your scraper client).
That sounds like what I'm trying to accomplish. How would one go about implementing this process?
would this be the process i need to do
Code:
If you used path subs for the entire Thumbnails folder - Extra safe method[1]
Quit all XBMC devices.
Update all instances to XBMC v12 "Frodo", but don't open/launch XBMC yet.
Choose one XBMC device and open XBMC
Say yes when it asks to update art.
Copy your path-substituted thumbnails folder onto all XBMC devices, replacing the local thumbnails folder in the userdata folder.
On the first XBMC device go into userdata/database/ and copy the "Textures13.db" file to all the other XBMC devices in their userdata/database/ folders.
Remove path substitution for thumbnails from the advancedsettings.xml file of each XBMC device.
You can now open/launch XBMC on your other devices.
From that point on, XBMC will sync art/thumbs directly to each XBMC box, but will keep them in sync (whereas before XBMC would only add art on one box, and boxes could have different artwork if set manually). Having the thumbnails folder locally on each box will also speed up loading the library, and what art to use is stored in the videos DB that MySQL is already sharing.
will i need to copy the texture13.db and thumbnails folder to each client every time i add some new content or will the process be automatic after the initial copy over?
(2013-09-12, 22:35)DJRCB Wrote: [ -> ]will i need to copy the texture13.db and thumbnails folder to each client every time i add some new content or will the process be automatic after the initial copy over?
Yes, you'll need to copy the "master" Texture13.db and Thumbnails folder to each client every time there is an addition/removal/modification of media. Copying the Thumbnails folder will take a long time unless you use something like rsync (Linux) or robocopy (Windows). Clients that haven't been updated with Textures13.db/Thumbnails will still know about the new content once it is added, but won't be able to fetch the artwork without an internet connection - they'll just show a blank image (or maybe extract an image from the video), so you'll need to "push" the updates to each client as soon as you make changes on the master.
Generally, this is an approach that doesn't scale well. Using local artwork avoids all of your problems.
(2013-09-12, 23:00)MilhouseVH Wrote: [ -> ] (2013-09-12, 22:35)DJRCB Wrote: [ -> ]will i need to copy the texture13.db and thumbnails folder to each client every time i add some new content or will the process be automatic after the initial copy over?
Generally, this is an approach that doesn't scale well. Using local artwork avoids all of your problems.
would that be like downloading the cover art manually and sharing the files?
wouldn't path sub. accomplish what im trying to do? wouldn't i be able to have my scraper client store the thumbnails and texture13.db to a network drive instead of locally and then have each other client just grab the thumbnails and textute13.db from that network share?
(2013-09-12, 23:55)DJRCB Wrote: [ -> ]would that be like downloading the cover art manually and sharing the files?
Yes, although a tool like Ember Media Manager can help automate the process to a large extent. Download the artwork and plot details (nfo) and store alongside your movies, scrape this local metadata into your MySQL database then all your clients will download the local artwork automatically.