Media Library Suggestions

canpolat · 2012-10-27 05:29:38

For some time now, I have been looking for a media server setup, but for some reason or other existing solutions doesn't seem to meet my needs. So, I wanted to ask you guys if I'm missing something. What I need is something like this:

All the media files are located on a server which is connected to the speakers and TV
There is a client program installed on all the other PCs that can remotely search in the media library database. And this is where most of the solutions fall short, since I'm looking for something similar to the media library of WinAmp and SongBird. I want to have configurable views (smart views) based on filters; I want to be able to configure the display options; I also need advanced search options
The client program can also remote control the playback of the media files (they are played on the server not streamed).

There are several options I could find so far:

MPD: Closest to what I'm looking for. BUT it doesn't playback video (which is not that big of a deal), search and display options of the clients are quite simple/limited.
XBMC: Can playback both audio and video, has a nice user interface and there are several remote controls around, BUT none of the remote controls are advanced enough.
Homebrew: I may have to start my own project; BUT I want to make sure that I'm not missing anything important.

Any suggestions?

Note: Classical music weigh quite heavy in my music collection, so the usual artist -> album -> track hierarchy doesn't suit my needs very well. And that's the main reason I started this search.

dgz · 2012-11-01 03:15:26

quodlibet has highly customisable filter views based on tags:

Recognize and display many uncommon tags, as well as any others you want
iTunes/Rhythmbox-like paned browser, but with any tags you want

gmusicbrowser is also supposed to be very highly customisable. although i haven't vastone recommends it i believe, so may be able to help.

schwim · 2012-11-01 03:24:55

+1 for GMB. I'm in love.

ivanovnegro · 2012-11-01 07:19:56

Talk is about media server, guys. smile

I would say you are stuck with the king MPD or XBMC, really nice apps and the best so far. Most of the clients for MPD seem to be limited in one way or the other but you should throw the GUI thinking away and just use ncmpcpp, it can do everything you want I suppose, I know, I use only MPD + ncmpcpp, my personal bombastic combo for music.

machinebacon · 2012-11-01 07:36:52

plus one for MPD + ncmpc(pp) or another MPC frontend (gmpc I like)

There's nothing that tops MPD as music server (on the cheap, without installing a bunch of bloat on top)

gensym · 2012-11-01 12:21:02

If not being able to play videos is not a big deal for you, I would strongly encourage you to go with MPD.

Last edited by gensym (2012-11-01 12:21:15)

cchhrriiss121212 · 2012-11-01 12:43:19

You could always add the music on the server as a network share for your client machines. Then use whatever full featured media player you want, then use pulse to stream the audio back to the server.

Seems a bit dumb I know but it would avoid the crippling factor of remote controls.

canpolat · 2012-11-01 16:41:17

Thank you for the responses. As many of you suggested, MPD is the closest to what I'm looking for. I haven't investigated the protocol myself, but from all the clients I have tried it looks like it sticks with the Artist -> Album hierarchy. I need to construct my own hierarchy (like Composer -> Artist -> Album or Year -> Composer -> Artist -> Album). MPD doesn't seem to support it and that's a deal breaker for me (video playback is not as critical). I have checked the screenshots for ncmppp, but it also seem to behave that way. Do you know of any client that allows me to construct a hierarchy to my liking? Or do you know if the MPD protocol allows this (I may consider writing my own client in that case).

@cchhrriiss121212: I really want to stay away from using any significant CPU power on the client side.

dura · 2012-11-01 16:46:41

I struggled with getting mpd and icecast to work. Apparently really good, but quite complex- it is something I want to get back to.

However, I would highly recommend Subsonic. It is very, very good, and does most of, if not everything, you want. Looks great, has phone apps, etc.,

Subsonic plays a range of media files, including flad, ogg, mp3 and so on. It also plays videos really well. I have films from my raspberry pi server while abroad. I use subsonic everyday when I listen to music- when out cycling, when at home.

Subsonic is amazing!

subsonic.org

Last edited by dura (2012-11-01 16:49:47)

el_koraco · 2012-11-01 16:53:37

ncmpcpp should allow for what you need. You will have to write it in the configuration file. I can't tell you the specifics, but look in the ncmpcpp man page under media_library_* Should be easier than writing your own client.

canpolat · 2012-11-01 16:58:29

@dura: I'm trying to avoid streaming solutions.

@el_koraco: I'll definitely look into ncmpcpp in that case. The thing is, I may need a "more graphical" client since I won't be the only one using it smile Thanks a lot.

dura · 2012-11-01 16:59:34

@canpolat- yeah sorry, I only noticed once I had written it, and thought I'd sneak it in without telling you devil

el_koraco · 2012-11-01 17:00:30

canpolat wrote:

@dura: I'm trying to avoid streaming solutions.
@el_koraco: I'll definitely look into ncmpcpp in that case. The thing is, I may need a "more graphical" client since I won't be the only one using it Thanks a lot.

Sonata allows for some degree of sorting, but it doesn't read all the tags you want. Right click on the window, and you'll see the relevant tab to sort stuff.

dura · 2012-11-01 17:01:01

Other than that, xbmc seems really good. I use it for tv, video, etc., over a raspberry pi- and you can access it via other machines, etc.,

And xbmc as far as I know is debian based. Not very easy to access deb packages through it, but being deb does give you easier options for modding I guess...

Last edited by dura (2012-11-01 17:01:53)

canpolat · 2012-11-01 17:22:26

@el_koraco: I remember giving Sonata a try before, but I'll try it once more to see if I have missed anything or not.

@dura: XBMC clients/remote controls doesn't seem to be advanced enough. Do you know an advanced XBMC remote control that meets my requirements?

el_koraco · 2012-11-01 17:25:03

Stupid question. Why don't you just get a Boxee or something?

canpolat · 2012-11-01 17:30:19

el_koraco wrote:

Stupid question. Why don't you just get a Boxee or something?

I don't think that it's a stupid question. I could buy Boxee or similar if I knew that I could do all of the above with it. But from their website it's not easy to see how the media library manager looks like on a PC screen. It looks more like TV-oriented.

Last edited by canpolat (2012-11-01 17:31:18)

el_koraco · 2012-11-01 18:05:09

Consider this. Get yourself a cheap nettop or something old, the specs are less important. Set it up as a file server, with all your music and files (say, a Debian netinstall with no X will do fine). Configure Samba mounts on it (or NFS if you want, less important, it really depends on what protocol the media server - read on - can use). Buy Boxee or any other cheap media center for the TV (they all have their own remotes). Point all the computers and the media server in the house and the media center to the Debian server, and you can use any program you want to listen to music and watch videos. Alternatively, you can buy a NAS device instead of a nettop or cheap computer with Debian. I don't think the whole thing should set you back more than 300/400 dollars. The upside is you wouldn't have to worry about sound forwarding, as you would use the native sound device on every machine.

Last edited by el_koraco (2012-11-01 18:05:51)

canpolat · 2012-11-01 18:21:08

el_koraco wrote:

Consider this. Get yourself a cheap nettop or something old, the specs are less important. Set it up as a file server, with all your music and files (say, a Debian netinstall with no X will do fine). Configure Samba mounts on it (or NFS if you want, less important, it really depends on what protocol the media server - read on - can use). Buy Boxee or any other cheap media center for the TV (they all have their own remotes). Point all the computers and the media server in the house and the media center to the Debian server, and you can use any program you want to listen to music and watch videos. Alternatively, you can buy a NAS device instead of a nettop or cheap computer with Debian. I don't think the whole thing should set you back more than 300/400 dollars. The upside is you wouldn't have to worry about sound forwarding, as you would use the native sound device on every machine.

It sounds good, but I don't understand one thing: Say I have 2 laptops, 1 Boxee and the Debian server. I want to use my 2 laptops to play music on my Debian server (or Boxee but not on my laptop). How do I do that?

el_koraco · 2012-11-02 00:51:27

You point all the laptops to use shares on the server. And boxee too. I'm not sure what you don't understand. Am I assuming correctly that you're not sure what it is I'm describing and need a bit of help with setting up a home network?

cchhrriiss121212 · 2012-11-02 12:37:55

canpolat wrote:

@cchhrriiss121212: I really want to stay away from using any significant CPU power on the client side.

I'm not sure it will use all that much cpu (pulse will not downsample AFAIK), I think network traffic is going to be the limiting factor if anything.

canpolat · 2012-11-02 16:42:46

el_koraco wrote:

You point all the laptops to use shares on the server. And boxee too. I'm not sure what you don't understand. Am I assuming correctly that you're not sure what it is I'm describing and need a bit of help with setting up a home network?

Perhaps I don't understand pointing a PC to use a share on the server. I don't understand how that implies whenever, say, WinAmp tries playing a file that is located at the Debian server, the file is actually played back on the Debian server (and not on the laptop). If this is possible, I guess this is what I have been looking for. In that case, a few pointers on how to set up this kind of a network.

Is this the same as cchhrriiss121212's suggestion?

cchhrriiss121212 wrote:

You could always add the music on the server as a network share for your client machines. Then use whatever full featured media player you want, then use pulse to stream the audio back to the server.
Seems a bit dumb I know but it would avoid the crippling factor of remote controls.

If so, then I understand the setup (which involves streaming of audio).

Last edited by canpolat (2012-11-02 16:45:42)

el_koraco · 2012-11-02 18:07:14

It was me who misunderstood. Your choices are what chris is suggesting (which is a little convulted, but would do the job), or use mpd and its network streaming capabilities, but then you would miss out on a GUI frontend that has the tag sorting you need. It's no easy situation, I know big_smile

canpolat · 2012-11-02 22:15:38

Thank you all for your suggestions smile I guess I'll slowly start a project to implement what I need. Maybe it will be useful for others as well...

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Media Library Suggestions

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