I take a nap and it's all changed!

[tobermoryboy 0]

Hi

My MB2 installations have been allowed to fall into some disrepair, largely as my main NAS Drive was full. So I have sort of bodged things since early summer 2013, now having upgraded my work PC, and my Nas  I return to find ITs ALL DIFFERENT !!

 

Now I am not sure how my setup will work with your new client/server system, I have movie files stored on a QNap Nas, and previously my PC had MB installed and one of the other PCs on the network, Movies (and Music) on the Nas could also be accessed by any other PC using a windows explorer connection and VLC or whatever.

 

It seems to me that the server for your new system should be installed as a Nas Service as it's far too resource hungry to be run on My PC and I wouldn't want to open my PC for other network users anyway, plus it would mean this PC being on 24/7 to allow access to the movies?

 

Am I getting this wrong or is there some other way to setup MB3 ? (I haven't even considered how my mirror system at home will be setup as it uses a HTPC and a D-Link Nas, with a very limited 3G internet connection (Browser refresh was a bandwidth issue here before!))

 

Help?

[ebr 16169]

We are working on Linux capability for the server which will theoretically open us up to run on some NAS devices.  However, your logic of why we should be on a NAS is actually kind of opposite.  Yes, it would be nice to be on the one device you already have running all the time to serve files.  However, it is exactly the fact that we will require a certain amount of resources that will potentially make this difficult - depending on what your NAS is.

 

Most true NAS devices are just that - "Network attached storage".  That means they are usually quite low-powered in the memory and processing department.  We will do our best to operate on these but things like transcoding (required for delivering content to most mobile clients) will be difficult.

 

I personally use a Windows 8 machine as my server for both storage and running MB (as well as other processes I want running all the time).  But, we are moving towards where you could do this with a Linux machine too - as long as it has the necessary horsepower.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

The good thing about the server component is that it allows playing to smaller  and more energy efficient  devices like the Roku, phones, mp3 players and tablets. Unlike some other solutions, you don't have to jailbreak your iOS devices to get it to run. You can also use technologies like port forwarding and VPN to make your content available outside your LAN if you wish. 

 

As we, as a society, move more towards smaller mobile devices, this is a good thing. You can easily offset the cost of an always on server with a 4 watt Roku device attached to auxiliary screens in the house instead of using 100 watt HTPCs.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Wayne Luke

[tobermoryboy 0]

Right - I've had some time to absorb this, so now I have questions:

• Can I run the software on a PC and point the "library" to the NAS ?
• Will the client/server system allow me to continue to operate as before, in so much as maintain my own file & folder structure, for example with MB2 I found I had to write protect many folder.jpg images to prevent them being updated to duff (eg foreign covers) ones.
• Will it allow other browsers (on other devices on the network) into the file area and be able to view / play media with, say, VLC?
• With music can it simply use id3 tags and not populate everything with folder.jpgs etc.
• I use Calibre book library in a somewhat similar way (it's not client / server however) and as long as I don't edit the data in tow places simultaneously it copes with me.

Thanks for all your attention

[trusselo 225]

Right - I've had some time to absorb this, so now I have questions:

• Can I run the software on a PC and point the "library" to the NAS ?YES
• Will the client/server system allow me to continue to operate as before, in so much as maintain my own file & folder structure, for example with MB2 I found I had to write protect many folder.jpg images to prevent them being updated to duff (eg foreign covers) ones. MB3 has a majorly re-vamped metadata editor, and allows you to select your own images through a  nice interface, and many other tweaks to metadata that you will like.
• Will it allow other browsers (on other devices on the network) into the file area and be able to view / play media with, say, VLC? if by file area you mean raw folder structure,  yes your files are still in the folders you setup on your NAS or PC. they can be accessed outside of MB no problem. If you mean have VLC display your pretty library with metadata, not sure about VLC (garbage) but MB server CAN act as a backend for PLEX and XBMC (possibly others) as well.
• With music can it simply use id3 tags and not populate everything with folder.jpgs etc. nope.  there is more information used and displayed than can be included in ID3 tags
• I use Calibre book library in a somewhat similar way (it's not client / server however) and as long as I don't edit the data in tow places simultaneously it copes with me. MB3 has a ebook plugin now. not sure what your question was////

Thanks for all your attention

there ya go

[Luke 42077]

there might be some questions that our users don't know the answer to, in which case, just try it and report your results so that everyone can hear about them

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

With music, I have found it pulls information from the ID3tags and then finds and supplements that information from the Music Brainz database. You can turn off the later though.

 

I have no problems accessing my videos via VLC, which I use as a testing tool if there is a problem with a video. As long as the application has access to your file system, it can still be accessed.

 

There is a book manager available as a plugin. The recommended reader is Calibre so you're probably good here. I haven't played with that yet.

[tobermoryboy 0]

Thanks Guys answers are good, Trusselo - esp details,by each question) re: Music  i don't want more info than ID3Tags) and my question was not to use MB3 for books I was using Calibre as a comparison.

Luke - yes I am sure better explanation and instructions are needed so I will let you know my difficulties, (Starting below!) but my first comment is about the MB3 website, coming to it looking for a Media bowser/Player I don't think it either explains what MB3 is or "sells" it particularly well, yes as part of finding that things had changed I took a look at both Plex and XMBC, and I feel if it hadn't been for the fact I used MB2 I would probably have gone down either of these before MB3 !

Wayne youv'e made some key points about my Music, i don't really want loads of data, sure Artist / album / title/ writer/ year but that's about it

 

I use calibre as a Book Library, all books are "ripped" into Calibre (is ripping the booky term?) De-drmed if from Amazon / Google / Waterstones etc converted to epub and then remote accessed from Clients ( Android tablets / phones mainly, though also Laptop for technical manuals which I also store here). Client, downloads a copy of the book and deletes when read. - better than our home bookcase and loads less space

 

I want to do similar with Music, so phone can come in to network and pull MP3 version off MB3, Music being stored in mp3 and Flac but also perhaps some music videos

 

Movies are all ripped or converted to MKV and I used MB2 as a simple pretty front end, with cover art and backdrops, really I'm not bothered about facts, cast, Director, Year and that's my lot (I not interested in Celebs !). I really don't want to stream or remotely access these, just watch from PC on lan with MB "Server" running

 

I have attempted to install MB3 on my "old" PC at work and am having problems from stage One!!  More about this later...

 

 

[ebr 16169]

 

my first comment is about the MB3 website, coming to it looking for a Media bowser/Player I don't think it either explains what MB3 is or "sells" it particularly well, 

 

Can you be more specific?  We backed off on the "sales-speak" on purpose but what about this would you think needs to be changed to improve it?