[User 99988]

I've read alot about options to export / import and move libraries. I'm still not sure what the best way in my case would be.

Right know, I'm using XBMC on a Windows XP computer in portable mode (if that makes any difference). I will soon have my first HTPC, which I want to run XBMC Live. Now I would like to move my library (and ideally the settings too) from my Windows computer to the new Linux machine WITHOUT letting XBMC write into my existing file and directory structure.

Is that possible? Can I just copy over the DB-files (like MyVideos.db etc.) or will that be a problem? The paths to the video files on my Windows machine are \\NAS\Movies\...
Do Linux paths work this way too or will that already make it impossible?

Thanks for advice!

[wsnipex]

copying the files should be possible, but as you noted, there might be paths that you would need to edit by hand.

probably easier is just letting the new system import the library again. Settings files can usually be copied as they normally do not include paths(depends on your setup).

[User 99988]

Thanks for your reply!

Settings aren't so important as that won't cost too much time. The problem about importing the libarary again is that it would be quite a hassle for me to get everything right again. I like to apply my one fanart, covers, change the movie name to the localized version if it's not in English etc.
It would take me ages to complete that again...

How does Linux address a smb-shared file / how does the path look? Maybe I could modify the database files directly?

[wsnipex]

you could try to export and import the library. Assuming the path to the NAS share is the same. Or copy the db file and change all paths via sql

[User 99988]

But if I got that correctly, exporting always means XBMC will (try to) write to my filesystem, right?

[jhsrennie]

Try copying the database and see if it works. If it doesn't work you can look at other options. If all the sources are to a network server the database will probably just work on your new HTPC. You need to copy over the sources.xml file as well.

JR

[User 99988]

Alright, I'll do it like that, then mod the DB if the paths won't work. I'll come back here if I run into problems with that

Thanks for your support!