Media Server (Movies, Music, Pictures)

[ykamchi]

Hi all,

I guess every TV Server user asks "why there is no easy support for sharing movies, music and pictures"... Well, now there is.

I have finished the development of the first release of the "Media Server" and now everyone can share their media between all the Media Portal clients in the setup.

The installation is easy:

Install the server service (for each machine that contains media that you would like to share)

1. Run setup.exe (attached)
2. Start the new windows service "Media Server Service"
3. Run the server configuration from the installation directory (MediaServerConfiguration.exe) and edit your shares. For each folder that you would like to share, you need to share the windows directory and attach a name that will be used by Media Portal. You can do all of these from the server configuration. Clients will see shares that use non empty string name.

Install the client (plugin)

1. Copy MediaServerPlugin.dll to plugins\process
2. Run Media Portal configuration and enable the new plugin.
3. Edit the plugin configuration - add servers (ips) and the refresh rate (interval of the client refresh to check servers changes). You can add 127.0.0.1 for the local machine.

You are ready. Run Media Portal and the remote directories will be available for the clients.

Notes and known issues:

1. Only static IPs supported. It will not work for machine names.
2. It is recommended to backup MediaPortal.xml before installing the client plugin.
3. If login required by windows when shared directory opened, then you need to login from regular windows explorer before running Media Portal. Just run: Start->Run and type "\\[server-ip]" and login to the server. You need to do it just once.

Thx,
Yohay

[ykamchi]

Fixes:

1. Handle a missing server (MP will not crash any more)!!!
2. Adding the ip of the server to the label of the share.


For those of you that still does not understand what the service and the plugin do, I will try to explain again:

The only way to share media (movies, music and pictures) between MP installed computers is to 1) Create a window shre of the folder you would like to share 2) configure each MP installation with the reference to the shared folder. 3) manualy manage this process. When a share is not available any more, MP works very slow (trying to find a missing directory) and .... whenever you change your settings you need to update all the clients.

This service and plugin does everything automaticaly for you. All you need to do is to configure your media shares using the configuration application (yes.... as a windows shares, and the configuretion help you with that) and boom, every client can see the shared folder. If the shared folder is not available, it will not make MP slow.

Please continue to ask questions about this pluginservice, for me it works great and solved a very big problem, I will be happy to assist you.

[igu]

This is astep in the right direction for Media portal as a whole, with more and more people setting up media servers and using media portal "clients" we need a way to streamline having to update each client. ( I myself have 3)

This plugin almost gets us all of the way there.

Is there a way to implement this idea using the databases that are set up within Media portal?


Basically you would be able to configure all the database for the various media at the server and be able to view them using your plugin from all clients media portal machines. In my honest opinion I have no idea why it wasn't implemented like this in the first place. Personally i use media portal for movies/tv eps/music/pictures and not Live TV/PVR...I have a PVR from my cable company.. .

What would be really neat would be to have a server configuration app (like the client one now) but in the server one you could define all the options for the different clients on your network. and when starting up the client Media portal app it would "get" its configuration from the Server Media portal configuration app/service

I have done a crude implementation of this by using a batch file to copy the db's from one system over to the other, but this time consuming and I still need to remember to manually update all the clients.

I do this mainly in conjucntion with the TV series plugin I have yet to try it with movies since I am waiting until I have all my movies online.


let me know what you think and if this could ever be implemented with the current Media portal (1) without a rewrite of the actual application.


for the plugin again, I wish I could help in the dev work of my vision above but i am hardware guy and not a programmer.

[RobertinoM]

Hi a friend of mine and I am trying to develop a plug in that follows this idea..

On each client is a Process Plug In that accesses the SQL-Database to

1) synchronize the on the TV-Server stored movie/DVD database down to the client
2) sync the MP-Config on a per room/client base (e. g. language, tv-fullscreen, folders etc.)

But it is very pre-alpha at the moment..


But as soon as possible we will upload a beta version.

Regards Robertino

[igu]

RobertinoM,

That sounds exactly like what I need.

Right now MP works perfectly except for this aspect ( over multiple clients), which is what gives MP it's wow factor.... without Nice covers and IMDB MP doesn't really take on a Set top box feel without this, the TV series plugin is great too, any way to include that in your implementation?


thanks

[sderuiter]

Can you include synchronization of the TV-recordings as well? That would be great!

[RobertinoM]

first we have to find a way to make the sycs from the server and to put into the sql-server/mysql.

then we have to store the config-files there and find a smart mechanism to synch them to the client.. and then ...

we are not sure how long it will take... but we will be open after the basic work is done for new input..

[ykamchi]

Guys,

I am working on syncing the database between the clients. It will take time. What you guys suggest is different from my plugin. In my plugin, I support multi clients and multi server environment.

I suggest that you will wait for my updates or for MP2 that will have this functionality.

Anyway, my code is an open source, you can use it or modify it in SVN. Please update me if you do this.


Thx,
Yohay

Guys,


The problem was "fixed" ..... please see MediaPortalDirs.xml under MP root directory. You can share the database directory. Just set the database section of all MP clients to point to the same network location.


Note: It is recommended not to update the IMDB from more then one client. Use just one client for the update and if you would like to do it on a different client then start it just after restarting the first one..... hope it is clear

Thx,
Yohay

[ulf]

Hi,

I am using svn 17500 on client and server, but my main mp client does not display the shares when I am in MyMusic.
I know the media Server service is installed properly because a local MP client displays the shares like 127.0.0.1/music.
But not the "real" client who runs on another box.

The mediaserver client plugin is enabled and configured to the right ip address of the server.
Server shares are accessible via WindowsExplorer.

Is there a way to get more logging from the client plugin to help understanding the issue?

Thanks,
Ulf

[ykamchi]

ulf,

Before getting into logs and other details, please check that you can browse to the share folder via Microsoft Explorer. If the browser request a login/password, then it might be the problem (you need to do it only once and it will work for the plugin as well).

Let me know if it works for you and if not I will continue to support you.


Thx,
Yohay