Hi All,

 

I have a few questions about setting up XBMC on my unRaid machine.

 

 

 

Current setup

unRaid 4.7

I have a 30GB ssd setup as disk 20 within the array and also an old spinner setup as a cache drive.

I'm currently running YAMJ with popcorn hours and all the Jukebox files/thumbnails stored on the SSD. All the posters/fanarts/nfos etc are just stored with the movies in the movies share spanning all disks but YAMJ makes appropriate copies and puts them in a Jukebox share on the ssd only.

 

I'd like to move over to XBMC from my current setup but still need to keep the popcorn hours going as I have a few and will phase out over time.

 

I want to make sure I set this up correctly as I'll have multiple XBMC clients at some stage and would like to centralise the database and if possible the thumbnails.

 

After reading for a few weeks I think this is what I have to do.

 

Install MySQL

Hostname: Tower

Disk: Disk20 (for the ssd)

MySQL root Password: root

First Database: ??

Database User: xbmc

Database User Password: xbmc

 

1) What is the name of the database? Do I have to create 3, movies, tv shows and music videos or is just whatever I want to name it?

 

2) To get all my thumbnails centralised I then have to create symlinks from the userdata/thumbnails to a share I create on the ssd/disk20. Is that correct as well?

 

3) Does XBMC make all new thumbnails or does it read the posters/fanart that is saved in the movies share?

 

Thanks for taking the time and reading.

 

Thanks Josh

1) What is the name of the database? Do I have to create 3, movies, tv shows and music videos or is just whatever I want to name it?

 

I believe, presuming the permissions are set correctly for the mysql xbmc user, that xbmc will create the databases it needs itself. This is certainly how I remember my setup going.

 

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Share_libraries_using_MySQL/Setting_up_MySQL

 

2) To get all my thumbnails centralised I then have to create symlinks from the userdata/thumbnails to a share I create on the ssd/disk20. Is that correct as well?

 

You *can* do but recent releases of xbmc store the thumbnail metadata in the database. Each client can then download their own copy locally. This is the path of least resistance but does mean you need more local storage / more bandwidth to duplicate the thumbnails.

 

i.e you add some media, the database entry contains the url to thumbnails / fanart etc. All your clients then read the url from that database entry and download it from the source site again. The actual art isn't in your database, just where to download it from.

 

You can do it your way (which is the 'old' way) and it's probably more efficient, but more of a pain to setup and maintain.

 

3) Does XBMC make all new thumbnails or does it read the posters/fanart that is saved in the movies share?

 

I'm not 100% on this. It should just use the posters and fanart already there. Having said that if you're coming from something else than those existing data need to be in the xbmc 'format' (whatever that might mean..even just in terms of the names of the files) and if you have plugins / additional options enabled in xbmc it might want to go and fetch more.

 

Hope this helps.

Thanks Boof,

 

Quote from: joshpond on June 07, 2013, 06:08:12 PM

1) What is the name of the database? Do I have to create 3, movies, tv shows and music videos or is just whatever I want to name it?

 

I believe, presuming the permissions are set correctly for the mysql xbmc user, that xbmc will create the databases it needs itself. This is certainly how I remember my setup going.

 

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Share_libraries_using_MySQL/Setting_up_MySQL

 

I've read that a few times, I think the thing that has me thrown is in unMenu there is that option for the First Database?

 

Install MySQL

  Hostname: Tower

  Disk: Disk20 (for the ssd)

  MySQL root Password: root

  First Database: ??

  Database User: xbmc

  Database User Password: xbmc

 

 

I sensed that locally stored thumbnails was the current method, I suppose the main advantage is quicker loads, but as long as everything is synced, as in the same pictures and fanart which it should be, just more downloading.

 

Thanks Josh

 

I am currently in the process of manually adding fanart, posters, and actor thumbnails to all of my movies. I am keeping separate actor thumbnails with each movie because I want to use pics of the actors close to the age they were in the movie. For example, I don't want a 70 year old Sean Connery in my James Bond collection. It's EXCEEDINGLY time consuming, and in a lot of cases I'm having to use screenshots for fanart, but in the end, it should make for a definitive archive that all media systems in the future can scrape.

I've read that a few times, I think the thing that has me thrown is in unMenu there is that option for the First Database?

 

No  idea, I don't use the unmenu plugin. I would imagine it's just trying to get you quick started.

 

So you can stick anything in there really. So long as you have the root credentials you can then go in by hand and do the necessary setup for the xbmc user (privileges) as per that page.

Thanks,

 

I've been playing around with it and trying to test it but I think I might just have to give it a go, worst case scenario I just bork the whole thing and start again.

 

Josh