Major major request - server/client functionality
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Major major request - server/client functionality
Okay, so surveying these things and having recently thought Media Monkey was the end-all-be-all dream of my dreams I just realized something that I thought it would do that it only sort of does. Someone seems to have programmed something on their own that does this, but I want it to be a fully supported feature out of the box with minimal futzing around.
Okay - so the request is - everything works exactly as is per this request - but one can access a centralized repository of music on our house's LAN. So no particular computer has any songs on it, there is a main computer with gigabit ethernet to a wireless N router/firewall, and then kids, wives, and myself all have the $40/50 client on our laptops and it acts just as it acts now, but it gets the music from the server.
Perhaps I don't understand and it can already do this through a mapped drive letter? I'm not sure. I just know that reading extensively about J River, it does exactly what I'm saying, and referes to it in words I understand, and am wondering if MM does this through mapped drive, or if this should be a major feature request? If MM doesn't do this now, then let me make this a huge-major-gigantic request!!!!!! This is a huge deal-breaker for me and my family. And note we do lots of 24/96 and 16/44.1 flac into high quality electronics, and are otherwise extermely happy with MM.
What do people think? One music repository per household, no? Because we do 24/96 and the such we need one NAS or server device to hold all the info and can't have CDs duplicated across mulitple laptops, especially when several of them are for work.
Thanks!
Okay - so the request is - everything works exactly as is per this request - but one can access a centralized repository of music on our house's LAN. So no particular computer has any songs on it, there is a main computer with gigabit ethernet to a wireless N router/firewall, and then kids, wives, and myself all have the $40/50 client on our laptops and it acts just as it acts now, but it gets the music from the server.
Perhaps I don't understand and it can already do this through a mapped drive letter? I'm not sure. I just know that reading extensively about J River, it does exactly what I'm saying, and referes to it in words I understand, and am wondering if MM does this through mapped drive, or if this should be a major feature request? If MM doesn't do this now, then let me make this a huge-major-gigantic request!!!!!! This is a huge deal-breaker for me and my family. And note we do lots of 24/96 and 16/44.1 flac into high quality electronics, and are otherwise extermely happy with MM.
What do people think? One music repository per household, no? Because we do 24/96 and the such we need one NAS or server device to hold all the info and can't have CDs duplicated across mulitple laptops, especially when several of them are for work.
Thanks!
Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
I could not agree more, it is a major surprise that centralized music sharing is so hard.
There is a lot of workarounds, but all are technically in the "high maintenance" category.
Sharing the music is possible with twonky, and it is visible to WMP clients etc. BUT the playlists does not work.
I have tried a few, that did the talk - but after speding huge amount of time on setup etc. they all fall short in the details.
If anybody has a solid solution for this, I am in!
Mediamonky seems to be the right client, becuase it can syncronize iPod's and has an build in tag editor.
The server part has to be implemented as a service, because simple filesharing is to heavy - we need streaming.
This will also allow a thin client at the stereo, that does not require a TV or monitor to play music.
There is a lot of workarounds, but all are technically in the "high maintenance" category.
Sharing the music is possible with twonky, and it is visible to WMP clients etc. BUT the playlists does not work.
I have tried a few, that did the talk - but after speding huge amount of time on setup etc. they all fall short in the details.
If anybody has a solid solution for this, I am in!
Mediamonky seems to be the right client, becuase it can syncronize iPod's and has an build in tag editor.
The server part has to be implemented as a service, because simple filesharing is to heavy - we need streaming.
This will also allow a thin client at the stereo, that does not require a TV or monitor to play music.
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Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
talk about simple to understand?? wow is that on the hard to know what ya be talkin bout.. side.
but it sounds like you want the songs on a library on a network server that can stream the songs from there to computers that don't have mediamonkey installed on?
have you tried to use shoutcast to send to your nas server and or from there to your other computers. did that work? is it even possible to do?
i'm surprised you could not find any way of doing that with all the networking users in the forum.
but it sounds like you want the songs on a library on a network server that can stream the songs from there to computers that don't have mediamonkey installed on?
have you tried to use shoutcast to send to your nas server and or from there to your other computers. did that work? is it even possible to do?
i'm surprised you could not find any way of doing that with all the networking users in the forum.
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Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
Hmmm... I'm a computer person so I might have put in some computer jargon in there. Let me try and make it simple. Lets say a family has 6 computers. They can all have MM installed on them. But the songs should all be in 1 place, not duplicated 6 times. Some of us have large musical libraries that are all high-rez, and it is gigs and gigs and gigs of data. Can't have that on every computer, plus all of the synch issues (person #2 adds a song, should be available to everyone).
Let me know if that is not simple as a problem statement and I'll try again. Assume for example you have a 2 terabytes of songs and 3 laptops. Now what? All of my MM music is either 16/44.1 FLAC or 24/96 FLAC.
The way it should work is 'song/data repository' is separated from 'Media Monkey client'. Media Monkey client works as-is, nothing changes. But when you go to 'location' all client instances of Media Monkey hit a 'song/data repository' that exists on the home network separate from the client.
I hate to say it as I'm a big MM fan as things go, but JRiver does seem to have this functionality already. I'm very happy to stay with MM if they can tell me something is in the works along these lines, or if the mapped drive idea works, or something...
Let me know if that is not simple as a problem statement and I'll try again. Assume for example you have a 2 terabytes of songs and 3 laptops. Now what? All of my MM music is either 16/44.1 FLAC or 24/96 FLAC.
The way it should work is 'song/data repository' is separated from 'Media Monkey client'. Media Monkey client works as-is, nothing changes. But when you go to 'location' all client instances of Media Monkey hit a 'song/data repository' that exists on the home network separate from the client.
I hate to say it as I'm a big MM fan as things go, but JRiver does seem to have this functionality already. I'm very happy to stay with MM if they can tell me something is in the works along these lines, or if the mapped drive idea works, or something...
Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
It's planned for MM 4.0:
http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=534
http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=534
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Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
"User transparent" multiple client database synchronization within MM would be great. Looking forward to this and other new features in MM 4.
Light, the way I deal with it currently is in the NAS file structure itself.
I have dedicated network storage devices(NAS) with their own servers built in...these are very cheap now...or you could use a centrally located computer as you pointed out.
Tracks are filed by directory chronologically. (File structure might NOT be "clean and perfect" but MM organizes things in DB anyway...and you can start doing this with immediately with no other changes or setup to your existing files.)
New files are simply loaded to the lastest NAS directory.
Clients rescan the latest directory to update their individual MM DB to latest added tracks. Rescan is fast, simple and under individual clients' control as to when and how.
This actually works quite well avoiding one user causing issues for others and allowing pretty safe maintenance of the centrally shared files. I would actually be a bit nervous of a more "automatic" updating of main storage files.
**one note: using mapped drives across the network was problematic in the past...it was best to set things up using the "UNC" path (\\storage device\drive...).
We have multiple users here and MM works well with everyone...it is easy enough or complex enough to take care of most any user.
Light, the way I deal with it currently is in the NAS file structure itself.
I have dedicated network storage devices(NAS) with their own servers built in...these are very cheap now...or you could use a centrally located computer as you pointed out.
Tracks are filed by directory chronologically. (File structure might NOT be "clean and perfect" but MM organizes things in DB anyway...and you can start doing this with immediately with no other changes or setup to your existing files.)
New files are simply loaded to the lastest NAS directory.
Clients rescan the latest directory to update their individual MM DB to latest added tracks. Rescan is fast, simple and under individual clients' control as to when and how.
This actually works quite well avoiding one user causing issues for others and allowing pretty safe maintenance of the centrally shared files. I would actually be a bit nervous of a more "automatic" updating of main storage files.
**one note: using mapped drives across the network was problematic in the past...it was best to set things up using the "UNC" path (\\storage device\drive...).
We have multiple users here and MM works well with everyone...it is easy enough or complex enough to take care of most any user.
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Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
Awesome! I really look forward to seeing what it looks like in version 4. I'll do as mentioned above in meantime via NAS.
Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
I have 1 NAS unit with all my music, 20.000 +, on. 4 laptops (LT), all with MM installed. On the NAS is also the MM.DB. The NAS is mapped on all 4 LT as Z: and then i have (has?) changed the path in the .ini to DBNAME=Z:\(path to MM.DB) . No matter what LT i'm working on i'm connected to the same MM.DB and therefore whatever im doing (tagging/reorganizing/playcount/etc.) will show when i open up whatever LT i get my hands on next.LightMiner wrote:Hmmm... I'm a computer person so I might have put in some computer jargon in there. Let me try and make it simple. Lets say a family has 6 computers. They can all have MM installed on them. But the songs should all be in 1 place, not duplicated 6 times. Some of us have large musical libraries that are all high-rez, and it is gigs and gigs and gigs of data. Can't have that on every computer, plus all of the synch issues (person #2 adds a song, should be available to everyone)
Since i'm the only one maintaining the music in my house i can not say what will happen if i play music or updating tag's on 2 LT simultaneously.
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B.B.Lauritzen
B.B.Lauritzen
Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
I have separate databases on all the PCs now but will probably do this also as I'm also the only one that maintains the library. Do I have to map a drive or will MM follow \\NAS\mm.DB UNC path for both the library and database?B.B wrote:
I have 1 NAS unit with all my music, 20.000 +, on. 4 laptops (LT), all with MM installed. On the NAS is also the MM.DB. The NAS is mapped on all 4 LT as Z: and then i have (has?) changed the path in the .ini to DBNAME=Z:\(path to MM.DB) . No matter what LT i'm working on i'm connected to the same MM.DB and therefore whatever im doing (tagging/reorganizing/playcount/etc.) will show when i open up whatever LT i get my hands on next.
Since i'm the only one maintaining the music in my house i can not say what will happen if i play music or updating tag's on 2 LT simultaneously.
How is the new functionality in 4.0 going to differ from this method?
Jim
Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
For tracks it's actually best to use the UNC path instead of a mapped drive.
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Lowlander (MediaMonkey user since 2003)
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Lowlander (MediaMonkey user since 2003)
Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
Absolutely on target with this request. It is frustrating to use MM to manage your files but need to use WMP (mp3's) or TVersity(flac's) to stream your music to a high quality home stereo...not to mention the playlist compatability issues. After all, MM is for music lovers, right? An open DLNA and UPNP Based server would complete the picture for music and provide an opportunity to support video as well. BTW, I understand the effort would be substantial and think it should be designed as a plug-in and have an additional fee for its functionality. I am a gold user and would not expect this functionality for free but would be very willing to pay more for it....especially if it supported video. God, I would so love to tag video and pictures with the ease MM enables us to tag audio!
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Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
This feature is already planned for version 4.0 of MM.
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Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
What does this mean exactly? Also how would i do it?Lowlander wrote:For tracks it's actually best to use the UNC path instead of a mapped drive.
Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
UNC = Uniform Naming Convention...a windows network location address system...its the windows name/syntax for the path to a location in your network.
In this case your music files.
When you add/scan using MM just locate the folders you want to scan by using the "Network" node in the Nav selection tree.
Here you see the "Music Group 5" folder selected to scan. The "UNC address" is displayed by MM as "\\HS-DHTGL157\NetworkDrive\Music Group 5"(HS-DHTGL157 is just the name of one of my network drives...it could be another computer or any other device connected to your network):
In this case your music files.
When you add/scan using MM just locate the folders you want to scan by using the "Network" node in the Nav selection tree.
Here you see the "Music Group 5" folder selected to scan. The "UNC address" is displayed by MM as "\\HS-DHTGL157\NetworkDrive\Music Group 5"(HS-DHTGL157 is just the name of one of my network drives...it could be another computer or any other device connected to your network):
Re: Major major request - server/client functionality
So doing it that way kinda cuts out the middle man. I tried it that way and it seams to be working good. now is there a way to share your library file? Maybe with dropbox?