Easily Sync Multiple XBMC Machines to 1 Library

Dear Gods of XBMC Development,

For starters, I apologize if this is not a proper post. I am a newbie and doing by best to learn the etiquette of forum posts.

To the point though. I know there is a way to sync multiple machines to one XBMC library, but it is not easy. I have tried following the instructions on

http://lifehacker.com/#!5634515/how-to-s...-the-house

but have had difficulty getting Mysqol to work. I also here that even if I do get it to work, every machine has to use the same operating system. I am using 2 different OS's (Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, OS X Snow Leopard) and want to add a third to the mix (Apple TV2/iOS).

I have tried using Plex (http://www.plexapp.com) and was extremely impressed with how easily it synced between computers. There was no setup necessary, but it only works well on Macs (which only represents 1/3 of my household). It seems that there are no plans to change that. There is a windows solution, and I thank all the developers that made that possible, but that solution is a work around and are not quite as effective as Plex or XBMC.

So I simply ask (easier said then done right?) for this one feature. I dream of a feature that allows me to setup and maintain a library on 1 computer or server and easily link every XBMC machine in the house to that library over the wifi network.




Thank you to all of the developers for all of the hard work you have put into XBMC to make it what it is. I am jealous of your powers and wish I knew enough to contribute like you do.

captaintater Wrote:Dear Gods of XBMC Development,

For starters, I apologize if this is not a proper post. I am a newbie and doing by best to learn the etiquette of forum posts.

To the point though. I know there is a way to sync multiple machines to one XBMC library, but it is not easy. I have tried following the instructions on

http://lifehacker.com/#!5634515/how-to-s...-the-house

but have had difficulty getting Mysqol to work. I also here that even if I do get it to work, every machine has to use the same operating system. I am using 2 different OS's (Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, OS X Snow Leopard) and want to add a third to the mix (Apple TV2/iOS).

I have tried using Plex (http://www.plexapp.com) and was extremely impressed with how easily it synced between computers. There was no setup necessary, but it only works well on Macs (which only represents 1/3 of my household). It seems that there are no plans to change that. There is a windows solution, and I thank all the developers that made that possible, but that solution is a work around and are not quite as effective as Plex or XBMC.

So I simply ask (easier said then done right?) for this one feature. I dream of a feature that allows me to setup and maintain a library on 1 computer or server and easily link every XBMC machine in the house to that library over the wifi network.




Thank you to all of the developers for all of the hard work you have put into XBMC to make it what it is. I am jealous of your powers and wish I knew enough to contribute like you do.

You are right, this would be a worthwhile endeavor if you ask me...

However, there are things you can do to achieve a similar effect. For example, you can export your video library (choosing "separate" files) and it will put all of the metadata and images in the directory of the video file, and then when you scrape on other systems, tell it not to refresh from the internet, and it will use the same metadata.

Also, there is now a plex media server plugin for xbmc to access plex media server (which doesn't require plex to run). I'm not sure if it looks as good, but it is a pretty "out of the box" solution that I believe is totally cross-platform

There are some techniques to get the resume feature working across your network involving symbolic linking some file, but I am not sure how well this work on different operating systems.

Ultimately, however, you should consider how important it is to have all instances running off of one database. If you periodically export your metadata, the libraries will then be synced---but in addition to that--really, the scraping is pretty good. I know there are a handful of things that I customize in my library but other than that most of the data is as it was when it got scraped, so you can really trust xbmc to just scrape the data for each machine separately and aside from the few things you need to customize that can be synced by storing metadata locally, you will still have a high degree of uniformity.

Still, you are right--- I would like the ability to sync libraries, resume playback, and even play in unison to be available through xbmc with no plugins or hack-iness necessary. To me, this would make xbmc way more "out of the box" than it is right now.

Plexbmc does allow for resuming thanks to hippojay, and watched bs unwatched status. This seems to be the solution for you. I would also recommend the frontseat skin which will automatically add your pms shares to your home screen, when used with the plexbmc script.

Hi,
First of all, thanks to all that contribute to the success of XBMC and the incredible work achieved by the community so far. I'm still amazed by all what XBMC delivers in terms of performance and features.

I would like to subscribe also to the suggestion expressed by captaintater. I believe it is not unusual to have multiple systems at home and ensuring that the medialibrary remains consistent across all systems is not a straightforward operation.

If I take my case, I have one XBMC set up in the living room and three others in the bedrooms. Ideally, I would like to be able to manage my medialibrary from the "master" system (living room) and have automatically the three other systems "in sync". The master system would have "read/write" permission to the DB, the three others (slaves or secondary systems) would only have "read" permission to the medialibrary.

I'm not technical enough to estimate if possible or not or to give more in depth technical suggestions, apologies for that
Just expressing some thoughts on making my life easier.
Thanks to all again,

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Goo..._Code_2011

So does that mean xbmc will have a client / server architecture or that it is proposed that xbmc have a client server architecture?

branlr Wrote:You are right, this would be a worthwhile endeavor if you ask me...

However, there are things you can do to achieve a similar effect. For example, you can export your video library (choosing "separate" files) and it will put all of the metadata and images in the directory of the video file, and then when you scrape on other systems, tell it not to refresh from the internet, and it will use the same metadata.

Also, there is now a plex media server plugin for xbmc to access plex media server (which doesn't require plex to run). I'm not sure if it looks as good, but it is a pretty "out of the box" solution that I believe is totally cross-platform

There are some techniques to get the resume feature working across your network involving symbolic linking some file, but I am not sure how well this work on different operating systems.

Ultimately, however, you should consider how important it is to have all instances running off of one database. If you periodically export your metadata, the libraries will then be synced---but in addition to that--really, the scraping is pretty good. I know there are a handful of things that I customize in my library but other than that most of the data is as it was when it got scraped, so you can really trust xbmc to just scrape the data for each machine separately and aside from the few things you need to customize that can be synced by storing metadata locally, you will still have a high degree of uniformity.

Still, you are right--- I would like the ability to sync libraries, resume playback, and even play in unison to be available through xbmc with no plugins or hack-iness necessary. To me, this would make xbmc way more "out of the box" than it is right now.

Thank you for your input. Built in is always better, but in the mean time many of these solutions sound intriguing. What Plex plugin are you talking about and how can I find it? I have taken a quick look and have had no success on my own.

Harley Hooligan Wrote:So does that mean xbmc will have a client / server architecture or that it is proposed that xbmc have a client server architecture?

Proposed. I have put this forth as a suggested feature in hope that the gods of XBMC development may answer my prayers.

Harley Hooligan Wrote:Plexbmc does allow for resuming thanks to hippojay, and watched bs unwatched status. This seems to be the solution for you. I would also recommend the frontseat skin which will automatically add your pms shares to your home screen, when used with the plexbmc script.

How can I find out more about Plexbmc? I am not finding anything on it.

philmedia Wrote:Hi,
First of all, thanks to all that contribute to the success of XBMC and the incredible work achieved by the community so far. I'm still amazed by all what XBMC delivers in terms of performance and features.

I would like to subscribe also to the suggestion expressed by captaintater. I believe it is not unusual to have multiple systems at home and ensuring that the medialibrary remains consistent across all systems is not a straightforward operation.

If I take my case, I have one XBMC set up in the living room and three others in the bedrooms. Ideally, I would like to be able to manage my medialibrary from the "master" system (living room) and have automatically the three other systems "in sync". The master system would have "read/write" permission to the DB, the three others (slaves or secondary systems) would only have "read" permission to the medialibrary.

I'm not technical enough to estimate if possible or not or to give more in depth technical suggestions, apologies for that
Just expressing some thoughts on making my life easier.
Thanks to all again,

Yes. + 1 (not sure if I am saying that right). This is what I am looking to do, one unified DB across many slave machines, no matter what OS they use, all built in.