Just found this and upgraded from v2

[jdthird 3]

I noted that I was not seeing some actor images on my Windows 8.1 Media Center computer, so went to start the configurator for the first time probably since I got Windows 8 running on here, and saw an error flash ,and an empty config.  Hit the old webpage and saw "Closed" and had a brief moment of panic - first Harold Ramis yesterday, and Media Browser today.  Then I searched and saw there was a new version.

I removed the old, downloaded the server and the client both on my Alienware X51 - is there any benefit to having the server run on my ACTUAL server, a Windows Home Server 2011?  There's about 25 terabytes of movies on it, but everything is connected cat 6 and gigabit, so I have good speed to the Alienware.  It's an i7 compared to the atom in my homebuilt WHS 2011 server.  I figured the CPU may be more beneficial for some things than the Atom would be in the server.  Good call or does it matter?  I figured if the server is where transcoding happens in some circumstances (not something I've ever bothered with but might now depending on what all this version can do) than I'd be best off with the horsepower and RAM on this machine here.

 

Next question - my searches for what to do about images and such are not turning up things that are answering what I'm trying to determine, but I think I've determined from another post I finally found that my old imagesbyname folder on the server I can just nuke, since the new version is doing things differently and there's no way to leverage all that existing data?  (many gigs and many tens of thousands of files in this folder structure)

 

I have a programdata\mediabrowser folder that I deleted since I assume that was the old one (files dated from 2013, about 7GB of imagebyname files in it) since right under it is a mediabrowser classic folder with today's date from the install I just did.  I am guessing the uninstall doesn't clean out old program in its entirety, just its files it installed, so that if you reinstall you don't lose all the data that your system downloaded? 

 

Nothing shows up with any cover art yet, but I just installed it.  So I assume my old structure (used meta/browser for fetching previously) with folder.jpg and background.jpg and such won't be used?  Should I just globally delete all of the info (NFO files ,XML files, JPG files, etc) in the movie and TV show folder structures and let mediabrowser server refetch everything itself and start completely from scratch?

 

All my folders are individual movie folders with the movie name (but not the year) as the directory name, with the movie file inside, also named for the movie name, usually including the year and resolution in the file name then.  I can easily just search for *.jpg in those structures and delete the results, same with the other file types that meta/browser fetched for me to use with mediabrowser2, just didn't want to do that if eventually the server for mediabrowser 3 WILL pick that data up and use it somehow.

 

Thanks for any information, I'm really curious to the other things this can do now above just the media center plugin, since I do have a few Windows 8.1 touch devices (Lenovo Helix, Surface Pro) and I just got my new Windows Phone 8 Lumia Icon this week to replace my old iPhone 5, so I can't wait to see how some of these things I've never integrated end up functioning.

 

Thanks for any information or links to other posts I may not have found yet.

 

John

Edited February 26, 2014 by jdthird

[ebr 14926]

You should definitely put the server on your server.

 

As for a lot of your other questions I'll ask you to try it out or maybe others can provide their experience.  Your exiting structure of files should be fine and even the metadata, although, we add so much more information now that I would probably recommend just blowing away the xml files and letting MB3 re-build them.  Any images should be fine though.

[jdthird 3]

Yep, the data and graphics started showing up, and now display well.  For the time being I'll leave the server where it is while I get used to the changes and finish my tweaks, then I'll do some digging to see if I can move the server install to the server in my basement and copy over all the configuration I've done on the server install on the computer up here, so I don't have to go through that again.  I'm guessing I'll find some XML or config file somewhere I can copy over to save the manual work, just haven't had to dig into it yet.

 

I'm still up in the air about having the server pull metadata compared to meta/browser, since I like the control I have with what posters to get, what banners and backdrops I want to include.  It's nice in their software to be able to just browse and select, and use arrows to reorder things and have it do all the naming in the background.  But I also like not having to deal with anything at all, and I've noted that as time went, I spent less and less time worrying about how cool I could make things be, and have started settling for just having a poster and the metadata.  I'll be curious in a few days to check the actors images though, and see how those are going as far as getting repopulated...  I did get to free up about 9GB of space on my server by removing the old imagesbyname folder and such though...

 

J

[Luke 37102]

you probably ought to explore the web interface a little more because we have all of that.

[techywarrior 688]

You should definitely put the server on your server.

 

As for a lot of your other questions I'll ask you to try it out or maybe others can provide their experience.  Your exiting structure of files should be fine and even the metadata, although, we add so much more information now that I would probably recommend just blowing away the xml files and letting MB3 re-build them.  Any images should be fine though.

 

Why would you recommend he puts MBS on the Atom Windows Home Server 2011 instead of his fast PC? As long as he doesn't mind the overhead from MBS (mostly memory unless transcoding is going on) then it should stay there.

[Abobader 2947]

Why would you recommend he puts MBS on the Atom Windows Home Server 2011 instead of his fast PC? As long as he doesn't mind the overhead from MBS (mostly memory unless transcoding is going on) then it should stay there.

 

I can think of one thing, that the WHS 2011 would be 24/7 online as example to his network than a personal PC, that just a thought.

[techywarrior 688]

I can think of one thing, that the WHS 2011 would be 24/7 online as example to his network than a personal PC, that just a thought.

 

People still turn off computers? lol

[jdthird 3]

My Alienware X51 is my media center PC as well as the storage for all my Logitech security cameras, so it's on 24/7 also.  And this actually helps me in justifying moving away from my WHS to a Synology NAS anyway.  My home server's board only supports 6 SATA drives, I have the only PCI slot filled with a controller with ports for 2 more, and I already also have a couple USB drives hanging off of it, so I need room for drive expansion...  Have been contemplating swinging to a NAS since I don't use the server for anything other than the file shares anyway...  We'll see how it goes.

 

Thanks everyone.  It's working well so far even if I haven't dug into the new features available. 

[Abobader 2947]

People still turn off computers? lol

 

lol ... yah, no one now days, but dose "everyone" own PC now days? Most now with handheld and they all that what they want

 

I think we hijack the thread now

 

Sorry jdthird.

[ebr 14926]

Why would you recommend he puts MBS on the Atom Windows Home Server 2011 instead of his fast PC? As long as he doesn't mind the overhead from MBS (mostly memory unless transcoding is going on) then it should stay there.

 

Actually, I read his description backwards.  I thought the WHS was the i7.  If the HTPC is on all the time and he wants to do any transcoding, then, yes, he should keep the server on that machine.