How best to keep Moving Pictures databases in sync across multiple clients? (1 Viewer)

[Bob The Great]

Howdy all,

I have my local media server set up with MP running on 3 clients plus the server itself. All machines are running Moving Pictures 0.7.5 and all perform flawlessly now that they are fully set up.

However, whenever I add new movies, I have to go to each client machine and individually run the Moving Pictures config, add the new movies, select the cover art I want, copy the backdrops from one of the other machines (if I don't want the default backdrop), and double-check to make sure everything works. Doing this once or even twice isn't a big deal, but after the fourth time, it gets kind of tedious, especially if I buy new movies frequently.

It's worth it in the end to be able to have the same setup available no matter which computer I'm on, but I keep thinking there must be a way to have each instance of Moving Pictures look to a common database on my server, rather than maintain duplicates on each client. This way, I'd only have to import new movies once and they would automatically show up for all the clients, with correct backdrops and everything.

I'm pretty new to MP, so maybe something like exists already, and I just couldn't find it. If so, I'd appreciate a nudge in the right direction. If not, though, how difficult would this be to set up? I'm sure I'm not the only one running multiple clients out there.

 

[RoChess]

It is not officially supported and can lead to unexpected behaviour (and possibly corruption), but there is a guide to do what you want available at:

UserGuides/CentralisedDatabases - MediaPortal Manual Documentation

Or if you are patient, you can wait for official support. If you can't wait and do use the above methods, try to setup a system that will make many backups, so that if things go bad, you can always go back and not have to start from scratch.

 

[Bob The Great]

Thanks. Does Moving Pictures work off of the same MP database or does it maintain its own?

Another option I've considered is writing a push script on the server that would watch for changes and copy the appropriate db out to all the clients. That might run into over-writing problems though, if one of the clients is in use.

 

[marvenius]

MoPi maintains its own database (movingpictures.db3). It is located in the general store for MediaPortal databases (User files location)

 

[Bob The Great]

That's kind of what I suspected.

 

[igu]

Multiple clients and mediaportal

Hi I'd like to chime in on this one and provide my solution:


I have 2 MP client machines and 1 server where I store all the movies and the respective Thumbnails and backdrops that Moving pictures uses.

On My server machine I also have an MP install with Moving pictures. When I get new movies I update the server machine's Moving pictures and make sure I have the proper covers.,

Once all is setup properly on the server, I run a batch file on the server that copies the database onto the client machines making sure that the GUI import option in that database is set to false (this is set from the server machine) so that If I start up the client machines Moving pictures and there are new movies which I havn't imported, they don't get imported.

However, even though I read from the database locally, I grab all the artwork from the server machine so that I don't have to duplicate this onto the client machines( those artwork folders can get quite large). When Importing movies use the UNC path and subsequently change the paths for the Cover artwork folder and Cover artwork Thumbnails Folder to the UNC path for your server. ( in the advanced options in Moving pictures)

To copy the databases from the server machine to the client machines I first wake them up using the Wake-on-lan plugin within Mediaportal (optional) and then run my batch file to copy the databases to the clients ( i use RoboCopy included with Win server 2008) ( I do the same for the TV series Plugin but for that I have to change the Thumbs directory within MediaPortal itself using the guide in one of the previous posts).


I find that copying the databases locally eliminates the worry of corruption or of 2 clients trying to access the same database at the same time. The only problem with this is that we cannot resume movies that you have previously watched a part of after you have done a database copy.


I can't wait until MP and all the different plugins , (mainly TVseries and Moving pictures ) get together and decide on multiseat support for seamless interaction such as the TV server ( which I do not use)!

I hope this was useful, I know it makes sence in my head so hopefully it makes sence when written out

 

[Bob The Great]

That's exactly what I needed, I'll see if I can emulate it. Thanks!

Only one more wrinkle - 2 of my clients are 16:9, the other two are 4:3. I hope that doesn't hose up anything in the pushed-out db.

 

[igu]

Hope it works for you,

NB: The aspect ratio of your media portal on the other clients should have no impact on the database import from your server machine.

I used to have it so that there was 3 different copies of the database on the server machine. ( 1 master copy and 2 more shares which the clients accessed but i found that reading the DB over the network was sometimes problamatic so I decided to copy the database portion locally. ( I have a very large database containing over 2000 movies!)

 

[Bob The Great]

NB: The aspect ratio of your media portal on the other clients should have no impact on the database import from your server machine.

I was talking more about pointing to the correct aspect ratio backdrops on all the client machines. I don't see a convenient way to maintain multiple AR's of the same backdrop and have them link correctly based on the local aspect ratio that MoPi is running in.

Maybe I could maintain a customized master db for each client on the server? That kind of removes the utility of pushing out one master db though.

 

[igu]

I see where your dilema arises...

You could just replace the two 4:3 tv's....haha, but i'm sure making 2 "master Db's" would be cheaper... or just use the 16x9 Db for all of them so that when you upgrade the 4:3 everything would then be in the correct aspect ratio!

Personally I wouldn't stress so much over the aspect ratio, most likely your 4:3 tv's are not your main viewing Tv's probably a bedroom/guest room or something!