[charrua]

Thanks alot, you have been of great help.

You're welcome.

I have now set up MySQL on my windows box (running as service standard install not advanced), installed the xbmc version you linked to and edited the advancedsettings.xml
As expected, the library is gone (im guessing its looking to the windows box for it)

Remember that the old database is not really gone, it's still there in the userdata/database folder of your XBMC path. So if for some reason you need it back, just delete the lines you've added to the advancedsettings.xml and XBMC will load it instead of the central (MySQL) db. That is true for the video and also for the music dbs.

Is there any way of exporting the existing library onto the MySQL one or will rescraping be needed?

You can export the library from XBMC (settings>video>library>export video database-->only one file-->export thumbs and fanart) while still using the local (SQLite) database, and then import everything back from XBMC after making the change to the central (MySQL) database. That way you'll keep even the watched/unwatched info. The import process could take a while though (depending on the size of your library).

I did try rescraping my TVshows and what I find is that XBMC becomes very sluggish when browsing them, a little box comes up in the downright corner of the screen, saying "working" almost every time I "change directory"
When using symlinks, I find XBMC much faster. Any way of dealing with this?

Regarding browsing speed using the central db, at least in my case, it's only a bit slower than using the local db. It's reasonable because MySQL db is remote and also natively slower than SQLite, but the advantages for the trade on speed are concurrency (simultaneous connections to the database) and native network connectivity.

Anyway if after importing all the data from the old db, you still have a very sluggish response from XBMC GUI, try enabling the debug mode and looking at the log to see if something unusual is happening and causing the problem. Alternatively you can post the log in the original thread of the feature posted before and ask for troubleshooting help.