[MrDVD]

Anyone have an idea why updating the db for tvshows is much faster than for movies ?

At my test i had 400 Movies on 2 HDDs and 87 TV Shows with 5263 episodes on 3 HDDs.

Here a short video what i mean

Inside this video i update not realy as there was no new movie or episode but its the same when i have a some new episodes or movies. You see how long it checks for new Movies and for new TV Shows(episodes). Path to all this HDDs are UNC Networkpaths on the same PC as XBMC run.

Anyhing i can optimize ? (not that the speed is bad at all, i just want to know why its, as it is right now )

[phsyraxion]

I've been reading up on this "multi-access" topic for hours and it seems there is no real great way of managing multiple machines easily.

I currently don't use XBMC as my HTPC front end but I have been using both a combination of Meedio and MediaPortal to handle everything and I run 3 machines and a laptop with sync between them all (to a degree). I am in the process of changing to XBMC because i'm just a lot more impressed with it.

The MySQL database function looks like a good idea and I use this with MediaPortal (though I only use MP for liveTV so I don't have image issues) but this keeps everything synced perfectly.

For my Meedio frontend (which is music, movies and TV) I currently have an editor version on my server I add everything through and then download this database to all machines. A simple plugin in Meedio exports and imports the watched tags every few hours and all without notice.

All my images are loaded from a NAS location and these all seem to load fine though there is just a small delay when browsing fast (though Meedio only loads images just before they appear on-screen, not all at once).

I was thinking if this may be possible (if not already mentioned somewhere in this thread:

- Central SQL database manages all "text data" and watched tags
- A "User Data" folder is stored on the server also that contains the thumbs directory and other required sharable data.
- Every few minutes a looping script checks each HTPC that is online and compares the files to the servers files. If it finds a newer one on the server, it copies to the HTPC and vise verser
- It then checks the next machine and does the same.

This would copy new images (based on the file created tag) from any HTPC that updates an image, then download to any HTPC that doesn't have the image.

The only thing I could see with this as being an issue would be a delay for the image to be copied.

:confused2:

[ringgh0st]

- A "User Data" folder is stored on the server also that contains the thumbs directory and other required sharable data.
- Every few minutes a looping script checks each HTPC that is online and compares the files to the servers files. If it finds a newer one on the server, it copies to the HTPC and vise verser
:confused2:

imho the dropbox way is the best for syncing all the thumbnail stuff (because the external mysql database cannot handle it). Just put the Thumbnail-Folder in your Dropbox and set up a symlink to it on every client. It works perfect (i use this way on4 machines - 3x win7, 1x mac os).

[RockDawg]

imho the dropbox way is the best for syncing all the thumbnail stuff (because the external mysql database cannot handle it). Just put the Thumbnail-Folder in your Dropbox and set up a symlink to it on every client. It works perfect (i use this way on4 machines - 3x win7, 1x mac os).

It also works just fine by putting the Thumbnails folder on your central server and symlinking to it. No extra software needed.

[tboooe]

It also works just fine by putting the Thumbnails folder on your central server and symlinking to it. No extra software needed.

I do this but its slower than just having a local copy synched via dropbox.

[ringgh0st]

I do this but its slower than just having a local copy synched via dropbox.

right. it is much slower having the thumbnail folder on a central nas.

[MrDVD]

My english isnt the best, but here i dont get it at all

Why the hell its much slower to have the thumbnails local on an nas ?

[ringgh0st]

My english isnt the best, but here i dont get it at all

Why the hell its much slower to have the thumbnails local on an nas ?

because of the Protocoll. There are so many Files stored in the thumbnails folder. thats why the first access after starting xbmc through samba is much slower than local accesss.

[RockDawg]

I'm curious and I'm going to check this when I get home. Maybe it's been so long now that I just don't remember, but I don't remember any noticeable speed difference when I switched from local thumbs to networked thumbs. I get that there is at least a theoretical speed difference between local and networked, but I just don't remember seeing a difference. What exactly do you experience that is slower. Is it fast browsing through say your movies and it takes a few seconds for the thumbs to appear?

[MrDVD]

When you talk about "dropbox" and "local" this mean you first sync it to dropbox over the inet and than from there back local to each client ?
Or is in the dropbox appz also a way to sync it local ? (i never used there appz)

@RockDawg - i also cant remember that there is any speed diff between my GB lan thumbnail browsing and browsing it over the slow 2,5 hdd at my client

[RockDawg]

Dropbox will sync stuff to a local directory. Example: you setup a filled Thumbnails folder on PC1, install Dropbox and tell it to sync that folder. Then setup Dropbox and an empty folder on PC2 and tell it to sync that folder with the Thumbnails folder and it will sync the two folders and then automatically keep them synced according to any changes.

[phsyraxion]

imho the dropbox way is the best for syncing all the thumbnail stuff (because the external mysql database cannot handle it). Just put the Thumbnail-Folder in your Dropbox and set up a symlink to it on every client. It works perfect (i use this way on4 machines - 3x win7, 1x mac os).

I have read about this but here is the issues I have discovered with that...

ISSUE1: I already have a dropbox account running on my server which I use for other purposes and it could not handle the large data from the thumb directory

ISSUE2: The FREE dropbox accounts only give you 2.5GB. I am only in the development stage of setting up XBMC and running tests (i have a massive setup using Meedio already) and my thumb directory is almost 2GB WITHOUT a movie library (TV shows, Photos and Music so far)

ISSUE3: I live in Australia and have a 1.5mb down\ 512kb up. Transferring files would be a bit slow...

The solution I recommended is basically the same thing dropbox does only across the network rather than using the internet to transfer the files. I already use this solution for synching files and making backups, it requires no software because it uses batch files and it's reliable and resource friendly. Only a single script runs on the server and checks each machine, grabs data from them then sends new data to them.

@RockDawg
Your solution is what I do with my images in Meedio at the moment. Seems "OK" to me but using a local cache with XBMC has convinced me that the local option is the way to go. I am going to invest some time testing this out on a small scale and if all works well I might post some details.

[MrDVD]

My Thumbnail folder is 5GB so, no way to sync it with an free dropbox acc ?

[RockDawg]

I switched back to local Thumbs and I do see that networked is a tad bit slower. When I fast scroll through my movie list the covers disappear and after I stop it takes a fraction of a second for them to populate. It only does this the first time through then they are all cached and it's instantaneous just as if the thumbs were local. I would give the Dropbox method a try, but I run Live and OpenELEC so I wouldn't know where to begin to set it up on those. At the same time, it's not a big deal for me because it's only slower the first time through your list after you boot and I use sleep instead of shutdown and I rarely reboot. So mines instantaneous 90% of the time anyhow.

The Thumbnails folder size could be an issue for some at some point in time with Dropbox, but you my want to try and clean up your Thumbs because XBMC doesn't remove them for media you delete. I have 976 movies, 3932 TV episodes and 3744 songs and my Thumbnails folder is 1.67 GB. Here is a script to remove unused thumbs in case you weren't aware of it:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=96097

[MrDVD]

Thx for the link but i have a bit more media than this and i use dds so i have dds and tbn for each thumbnail and dds is most 2x the size of an tnn

Edit: I still dont understand the way over dropbox

@RockDawg - as you run Linux you can try rsync

@windows User - W7 have some Offline funktion maybe this will work too. It sync also files between folders. Or any other sync tool that sync it local without inet.