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RamboUnchained · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-21, 08:11 by RamboUnchained.)

(2015-02-21, 07:07)dgcruzing Wrote:
(2015-02-21, 00:28)RamboUnchained Wrote: Why isn't there a video tutorial for this yet? Seems like a 15min video would save a bunch of people trouble and time...

Wow.. while providing your setup file is a good thing.. shooting your fingers off with a statement like that is opening yourself for a flaming..
Youtube is your friend and in fact there is some great videos made for different NAS DB setups.. People just need to find them..

I don't understand how my wondering of why there isn't an up to date version of setting this up is available can be considered shooting my fingers off. Instead of answering the same questions every day, I'd make a video and be done with it. That's all I'm saying. It makes no sense. It's like someone choosing to cash a paper check every week over receiving direct deposit. I guess that's just me, though...I couldn't get my user and permissions right until I copypastad the Create and Grant All lines from the wiki. The symbols around Kodi weren't ", `, or '. I tried all 3, but the moment I copied and pasted it worked. Small things like that should be included in the wiki. "Copy and paste this to save yourself some time" Simple. I took a crash course in XML thanks to Xbmc/Kodi. I don't have the time nor the patience to "learn" MySQL, too. I just need to get it functioning. I can handle whatever happens from there.

dgcruzing · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-21, 08:43 by dgcruzing.)

http://quixventure.com/2011/12/configure...rettyPhoto

And there you go, good if you have got a Synology setup, and the guy has an updated youtube video done last year..

As to my HTPC.. yup missing a closing statement and so easy to do when you have been looking at multiple setups..

As to Rambo..
Unfortunate, a Shared DB using mySQL is not for joeblogs to attempt.. it does come with a disclaimer that this setup is for advanced users..

look forward to seeing your video for your NAS \ DB setup, the Kodi coding guys need as much help as they can get with this type of things and yes, do a fantastic job of providing a free piece of software we all can enjoy and I am sure also get annoyed at the same question asked time and time again.. Wiki = Community input...

RamboUnchained · 2015-02-21, 08:34

(2015-02-21, 08:18)dgcruzing Wrote:
(2015-02-21, 08:03)RamboUnchained Wrote:
(2015-02-21, 07:07)dgcruzing Wrote: Wow.. while providing your setup file is a good thing.. shooting your fingers off with a statement like that is opening yourself for a flaming..
Youtube is your friend and in fact there is some great videos made for different NAS DB setups.. People just need to find them..

I don't understand how my wondering of why there isn't an up to date version of setting this up is available can be considered shooting my fingers off. Instead of answering the same questions every day, I'd make a video and be done with it. That's all I'm saying. It makes no sense. It's like someone choosing to cash a paper check every week over receiving direct deposit. I guess that's just me, though...I couldn't get my user and permissions right until I copypastad the Create and Grant All lines from the wiki. The symbols around Kodi weren't ", `, or '. I tried all 3, but the moment I copied and pasted it worked. Small things like that should be included in the wiki. "Copy and paste this to save yourself some time" Simple. I took a crash course in XML thanks to Xbmc/Kodi. I don't have the time nor the patience to "learn" MySQL, too. I just need to get it functioning. I can handle whatever happens from there.
And there you, good if you have got a Synology setup, and the guy has an updated youtube video dont last year..

As to my HTPC.. yup missing a closing statement and so easy to do when you have been looking at multiple setups..

As to Rambo..
look forward to seeing your video for your NAS \ DB setup, the Kodi coding guys need as much help as they can get with this type of things and yes, do a fantastic job of providing a free piece of software we all can enjoy and I am sure also get annoyed at the same question asked time and time again.. Wiki = Community input...

I definitely intend to make a video when I get my setup working, I can take 20min out of my day to save hundreds of people this headache.

RamboUnchained · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-21, 10:35 by RamboUnchained.)

I have it working perfectly for my Windows test system, but my android player (Mach 8) isn't getting thumbnails. My disk usage is high (<70%) on the server, so I'm guessing that it's freezing/hanging while populating the thumbnails. I can't seem to figure out why, though. All I had to do on my test system was delete textures13. That doesnt work for my Mach 8 even though they all have the same advancedsettings and sources.

Code:
<advancedsettings>

  <splash>false</splash>

  <imageres>720</imageres>

  <fanartres>1080</fanartres>

  <useddsfanart>true</useddsfanart>

    <videodatabase>

        <type>mysql</type>

        <host>192.168.1.3</host>

        <port>3306</port>

        <user>kodi</user>

        <pass>kodi</pass>

    </videodatabase> 

    <pathsubstitution>

        <substitute>

        <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from>

        <to>smb://Stream-PC/kodi/userdata/Thumbnails/</to>

        </substitute>

    </pathsubstitution>

    <video>

        <usetimeseeking>true</usetimeseeking>

        <timeseekforward>60</timeseekforward>

        <timeseekbackward>-10</timeseekbackward>

        <timeseekforwardbig>600</timeseekforwardbig>

        <timeseekbackwardbig>-180</timeseekbackwardbig>

    </video>

    <videolibrary>

        <recentlyaddeditems>50</recentlyaddeditems>

        <importwatchedstate>true</importwatchedstate>

        <importresumepoint>true</importresumepoint>

    </videolibrary>

    <network>

        <buffermode>1</buffermode>

        <cachemembuffersize>524288000</cachemembuffersize>

        <readbufferfactor>20</readbufferfactor>

        <curlclienttimeout>45</curlclienttimeout>

    </network>

    <gui>    

        <algorithmdirtyregions>3</algorithmdirtyregions>

        <nofliptimeout>0</nofliptimeout>

    </gui>

    <videoscanner>

        <ignoreerrors>true</ignoreerrors>

    </videoscanner>

</advancedsettings>

I'm guessing <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from> is the culprit for missing thumbs on the Mach 8. However, I am not sure since special://profile/Thumbnails/ should be universal for all Kodi installs.

Milhouse · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-21, 11:20 by Milhouse.)

Code:
<pathsubstitution>

        <substitute>

        <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from>

        <to>smb://Stream-PC/kodi/userdata/Thumbnails/</to>

        </substitute>

    </pathsubstitution>

If you're sharing that directory between multiple Kodi clients, that is not supported, doesn't work, and is bound to fail. Remove it.

(2015-02-21, 10:32)RamboUnchained Wrote: However, I am not sure since special://profile/Thumbnails/ should be universal for all Kodi installs.

Universal, yes, but intended for use by a single client only.

RamboUnchained · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-22, 00:08 by RamboUnchained.)

Well, that's a bummer. Sharing thumbs/fanart worked on my test PC flawlessly, but won't work on my Mach 8 at all. Guess I'm gonna need a flashdrive, because the onboard memory was chewed up within the first 24hrs. Why isn't thumbnail sharing supported? It'd make having multiple Kodi installs so much more efficient for those that have a central server like many do. I'm sharing a large library via MySQL. I'm pretty much limited to a single poster for movies and TV shows (which is fine in most cases), a single piece of fanart for movies and tv shows, no banners, no logos, no season posters, and no episode thumbs if I want to keep my Mach 8 storage tamed. The lack of thumbnail support makes a lot of skins, such as Transparency (my favorite skin), kind of useless.

Is there ANY way at all to remotely store artwork?
i.e Could I create a thumbnails path in my pictures library (C:/users/stream/pictures/thumbnails) on my NAS and run a path substitution for my Mach 8 to cache it's images there?

Milhouse · 2015-02-22, 01:35

You can use path substitution to relocate your Thumbnails folder to the network - that's supported - just don't share one Thumbnails folder between multiple clients, because that's not supported.

dgcruzing · 2015-02-22, 02:22

(2015-02-22, 01:35)Milhouse Wrote: You can use path substitution to relocate your Thumbnails folder to the network - that's supported - just don't share one Thumbnails folder between multiple clients, because that's not supported.

Are you sure about that statement?
I have been sharing one thumbnail directory for years now..due to the limitation of the internal memory on the Android Boxs..

Code:
    <pathsubstitution>

     <substitute>

      <from>special://masterprofile/Thumbnails/</from>

      <to>smb://192.168.1.193/Thumbs/</to>

     </substitute>

    </pathsubstitution>

This works for me and most skins I use..
I think I did a scrape many moons ago and got fanart, thumbs and have been working with this for some time..

Then once we get a new box or tablet just load the settings into it and bam..
Its usually up and running within a few minutes..

So unless some thing has changed and or I am reading that statement wrong?

Milhouse · 2015-02-22, 03:12

(2015-02-22, 02:22)dgcruzing Wrote: Are you sure about that statement?

Yes, completely.

(2015-02-22, 02:22)dgcruzing Wrote: I have been sharing one thumbnail directory for years now..due to the limitation of the internal memory on the Android Boxs..

http://kodi.wiki/view/Path_substitution

Read the contents of the orange box.

RamboUnchained · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-22, 04:05 by RamboUnchained.)

So I've created a folder on my NAS just for my Mach 8's thumbnails and added this line to my advancedsettings.xml:

Code:
<pathsubstitution>

        <substitute>

        <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from>

        <to>smb://192.168.1.3/RemoteThumbnails/</to>

        </substitute>

</pathsubstitution>

Upon loading Kodi on the Mach 8, the thumbnails folder on my NAS instantly filled with numbers 0-9 and a few random letters, but nothing is being saved there, so I have a bunch of empty thumbnails. I've utilized the "everyone" permission for that folder, but it doesn't seem to take.

dgcruzing · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-22, 04:45 by dgcruzing.)

(2015-02-22, 04:04)RamboUnchained Wrote: So I've created a folder on my NAS just for my Mach 8's thumbnails and added this line to my advancedsettings.xml:

Code:
<pathsubstitution> <substitute> <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from> <to>smb://192.168.1.3/RemoteThumbnails/</to> </substitute> </pathsubstitution>

Upon loading Kodi on the Mach 8, the thumbnails folder on my NAS instantly filled with numbers 0-9 and a few random letters, but nothing is being saved there, so I have a bunch of empty thumbnails. I've utilized the "everyone" permission for that folder, but it doesn't seem to take.

One thing that we had to do on the Android ATV1200 Boxs was copy all of the thumbs we had generated across to the substituted path..thus then run it.. So then it was populated with the artwork of our choice..

The Bear had it sorted on how to do this in the ATV1200 thread.. But I can't find that post at the moment..but here is one of his posts so you know who I am talking about..
He has this all sorted and so did most of us that used the same setup..
http:// http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=147647

The other thing I have used is Mudislanders CCM for Helix that has the ability to direct the skin to look to the NAS for fanart.. Thus all devices look the same and are pulling from the same directory..

As to the new Wiki update on shared thumbs..

This then posses the question..
As it explains why its not a good idea to do this...
It leads me to believe then that we are making multiple thumbs directories on the NAS of our choice for each and every device that is used with in the share environment?

Milhouse · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-22, 06:19 by Milhouse.)

@RamboUnchained: Delete the Textures13.db file from the Mach 8. Your remaining problem is a perfect illustration of why thumbnail sharing isn't supported, and is prone to failure.

@dgcruzing: Not necessarily multiple thumbs directories, but each client is likely to be overwriting existing shared thumbnail files until every client has cached the same thumbnail and created an entry in it's local Textures13.db.

If a client has plenty of local storage, then don't use path substitution - simple as that. If however you have a client with insufficient local storage, then allocate it a dedicated, unique folder on your network that is only read/written by that client (using path substitution) and not accessed by any other client. Rinse and repeat for every additional client with insufficient local storage.

dgcruzing · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-22, 05:59 by dgcruzing.)

ok, thanks for that clarification..
Maybe what I need to do is spend some time on this all as its been a while since I have played with it all and as it seemd to be working for say new TVshows and Movies across all devices, we havent had to worry about it..
But after reading this I think I need to go back in and check some of the devices and see the different sizes of the thumbs files so can compare whats actually been going on..

Edit: Thumbs directory sizes.. so people get an idea of what we are talking about..
As an example..
Main HTPC at the moment mine is sitting on about 217mb as its a new install and was running with Path Substitution..

NAS Thumbs shared is sitting on about 4g as its not been cleaned for sometime and has about 3 years of path substitution sitting in it..
Then... its got the separate 800 odd meg of Artist/fanart/Album thumbs that have been generated via various programs..

So yes, low memory sticks and boxs and even tablets, HTPC's with Solid state memory (As mine has only 32g in it and has only 2g left for anything else.. the path substitution is a necessary evil if you want to use Kodi with in a Nas setup and want all the pretty pics to come along with it..

RamboUnchained · (This post was last modified: 2015-02-22, 06:20 by RamboUnchained.)

(2015-02-22, 05:01)Milhouse Wrote: @RamboUnchained: Delete the Textures13.db file from the Mach 8. Your remaining problem is a perfect illustration of why thumbnail sharing isn't supported, and is prone to failure.

If a client has plenty of local storage, then don't use path substitution - simple as that. If however you have a client with insufficient local storage, then allocate it a dedicated, unique folder on your network that is only read/written by that client (using path substitution) and not accessed by any other client. Rinse and repeat for very additional client with insufficient local storage.

I appreciate your help thusfar. This is way more of a headache than a bargained for. Deleting textures13.db didn't do anything. It was only a 36kb file when I deleted it. I don't understand why my device can save remotely, but can't access what it has saved remotely. That's extremely weird. When I press an addon to configure it, the addon's icon shows up normally, but it doesnt show up at all when just browsing. If I can't get this to work, I'm just going to try to save thumbs on /storage/external_storage/sda/. It's a 16GB USB 2.0 disk with the most annoying flashing red activity light ever...

EDIT. Hmm. So I went to my mach 8's thumbs folder on my NAS and noticed that the "pictures" are empty placeholders. Windows can't open the files. Weird. Window's properties tab shows that there are 44 files, 18 folders, using 0 bytes. lol. What the heck?

Milhouse · 2015-02-22, 06:29

(2015-02-22, 06:14)RamboUnchained Wrote: Deleting textures13.db didn't do anything. It was only a 36kb file when I deleted it.

Unless you'd already deleted it recently, it doesn't sound like you're deleting the correct file - Textures13.db should contain one row for every Thumbnail file, and would normally be several megabytes in size for a reasonable number of thumbnails.

If your current client is referencing a different Textures13.db that remains populated with cached artwork, that would explain why no new artwork is being added to the cache.