I know the core can show media that is stored on it at any station, but what if I were to plug a usb drive into a MD, would it be viewable on any other station then? Can I only plug that USB drive into the core to have it show up on other MD's?
In short, yes.
If you plug in a USB drive into any media director or the core, UpdateMedia will crawl it for media. It will ask you (a) whether you want to use the drive, and (b) whether it uses LinuxMCE's file structure OR make all files public or private to a given user.
The recommended thing is to use LMCE's File Structure, and copy the media into the folders it creates, it works fastest.
-Thom
So if I have a MD with no HDD that booted off the network, it will copy the media off the USB drive onto the core?
No the media stays on the USB HDD. References are added into the database for it.
If the device is disconnected, the media is marked as inactive and doesn't display until the device is reconnected.
If the device is reconnected, the media reappears.
If the media is moved to another location, the stuff in the database is changed to reflect it.
If the media is duplicated somewhere else, the attributes are reused.
-Thom
I'm scared of trying USB drives on LinuxMCE...
I tried that once, and lost all media on it.
It found my media, but when I disconnected it, Total corruption...
I have not found how to unmount or as windows call it "safe removal".
you can remove the disk after 5 seconds of no activity.
-Thom
:)
Just to add my bits to this. I use 2 Western Digital 500G MyBook's to store videos and audio on. I started out with them plugged into my Living Room MD, but I have moved it around and unplugged it and taken it to a friends house, to use his FIOS to download movies, and tunes, and then brought it back home, and plugged it in to any of my MD's and it has always came back after a few minutes or a quick reload router.
I have never lost any data, and I have done this several times. :)
So do not fear USB dirves. One thing I do, is as Thom suggests, use the pluto file structure, my videos are stored under /mnt/device/<number>/public/data/videos and the audio under /mnt/device/<number>/public/data/audio.
It is a wonderful thing. And, If you know someone else who has a LMCE system close by.....Sounds like movie night to me, grab your drive, and head over to a friends house.
Regards,
Seth