Metadata/ImagesByName merge

[Pirlo1966 22]

Have been searching for some decent explanations but couldn't find any. After experimenting all WE I would appreciate some clarification.

All my media is on a NAS. I used to have my ImagesByNAme folder and subfolders on the same NAS. I understood now this no longer works and all artwork etc... that was in ImagesByNAme should be copied manually to a Metadata folder which path is specified in dashboard/metadata/advanced.

 

 

I have different HTPC's with each their own server. I would have loved a server running on my NAS serving all HTPC's but it just does not work. My NAS seems not powerfull enough and repalcing a NAS worth € 800 is not an option right now. So, all servers used the same artwork from the same ImagesbyNAme folder. My questions now are:

 

1. Will it still work with the metadata folder? Causee I noticed chapter images are allso stored on the same folder location. But I guess different servers will have different movie chapter images, right?

 

2. Whatever the metadata path is, a metadata subfolder is automatically created by the server and in that subfolder foillowing subfolders are created: artists/channels/genre/library/musicgenre/people/studio/year

>> I guess some of these subfolders are also specific for each server or can these be shared by different servers?

>> What happened with mediainfo icons and general folder of ImagesByName? Where should I put these folders and can I still use them to customise mediainfo icons for MBC/Neo theme?

 

3. I noticed strange things: when I changed the matadata folder paths in all my servers to the same new location, still new artist/people/... folders are created in my old ImagesByNAme location. What is causing this? I can't find the culprit for this.

 

 

Thanks for clarifying

[Pirlo1966 22]

strange, I have two different servers (both 3.0.5641.4) active on the same network accessing the same media on the same NAS. Both have the same metadata path: \MEDIA-SERVER\Media\Film\ImagesByName\

 

When I scan my medialibrary or refresh people with server 1, the ImagesByName subfolders such as \MEDIA-SERVER\Media\Film\ImagesByName\genre (and artist, people, library...) are updated.

 

When I do the same with server 2, a new metadata folder is created within ImagesByName and in that folder genre/people/artist subfolder are created: \MEDIA-SERVER\Media\Film\ImagesByName\metadata\genre 

 

This means duplication of +50.000 actors, +25.000 artists etc ...

 

Is this normal behavior?  Is it just not possible to share the merged IBN and metdata folder between different servers like it was possible with the IBN folder in the past?