ncarver wrote:
Yes, but the separate shares on different drives show up as separate entries if you have Folders filtering selected. What I was talking about was how one can end up with a single share (single folder for Media Library) that spans multiple drives.
I think I understand your question, but if not, then here is a long rambling answer that may be of no help at all. :confounded:
First off, it seems to me that you may not need to use the media library to get the effect you want. Are you sure you want or need it? I personally do not use it and find that I am able to view my files in the manor I think you are asking to see them. The Media Library has some great features, and does some things I do not like or need. I guess it’s all personal preference.
File Naming:
This was not part of your question, but I felt worth mentioning. You have your TV series in folders, but without the name of the show for each individual episode, just the main folder. Just for good housekeeping I would add the name of the show. For example instead of "205 Sad Sack.S02.E05.mkv”, it would be “Arrested Development.S02.E05.Sad Sack.mkv”. This would be simple and quick using “Bulk Rename Utility” which is free, very powerful with lots of options. An entire directory of TV series could be done in seconds. If you intend to use the media library this would be pretty critical. I would do it no matter what just to keep things nice and tidy.
Drive Spanning or Merging:
You want to present multiple drives as a singular drive. You can do this via software or hardware. You could merge drives with software. I use Drivebender to make multiple drives act as a single drive. Other folks I know like DrivePool. DB works well for me. I can keep adding space as needed by adding drives, and you can also use these to have duplicate copies in case of a failure. Alternately, you can use hardware RAID as you mention above. Any way you do it, the key (at least for me) is to have the individual folders shared on the file server or NAS, which then presents them to the SMP all at once when you choose that server as your content source
It may not be exactly the solution that you are looking for, but the SMP is not going merge or span drives for you. You will have to use another program or piece of hardware.
So… When you have the drives and data on another computer (a file server for the purpose of this conversation), and you choose that machine as your content source, you will see all the shares on that file server. Using your example above, you would share each of the individual folders; “Music”, “Kids Shows”, “Cartoons”, “TV Shows”, “Movies”, and “Music Videos”. You will then be presented each of these folders at the same time on the screen in folder view. Again, this is without using the Media Library
Example:
For example, my file server has three shares, “Movies” and “TV Series” that SMP uses, and one called “Data” that contains other stuff I want to get to from other computers. That server is my default content source, and the SMP will show me those three folders (shares). When I choose video from the main menu, I see the three folders automatically since it is the last content source I used. It will always default to that unless I change the content source which I dont have much reason to do. Within those are the actual videos. MY SMP does not know that the each of those directories actually spans 4 drives on the file server.
Sorry if that was long or doesn’t make as much sense as it does in my head: :smiley:
Remember that I do not use the media library. I want to go into the Movie folder to look for movies, and the TV folder to look for a specific TV series.
So, here are the views I see when looking for videos. I am using the Simplicity theme, and I have subfolders or Genres for movie underneath both of the main “Movies” and “TV Series” folders. Yes this is very basic and I am sure you understand this part, but it displays what the SMP shows me. It is blissfully unaware that the folders (shares) span multiple drives using DriveBender.
Your GUI will obvioulsy look different than mine, depending on which theme if any you use, what data you have scraped and what view you prefer. If I run low on space on the drives housing my TV Series, I will just add another drive to that pool. You would do that via whatever hardware or software solution you choose. The main point is that if you put the media in shares on a file server or a NAS, you will get the view of each of your folders from the main interface without having to switch your content sources all the time.
Hope this was helpful in some way.
-P