Host Movie and Music Database in MySQL

**bisk** · January 3rd, 2011, 07:29 AM

Instead of running a local database for movies and music, can we have the option to run the database from MySQL? This is already available in XBMC as a config setting in advancedsettings.xml by adding the following to the file:

<advancedsettings>
<videodatabase>
<type>mysql</type>
<host>xbmc.domain.com</host>
<port>3306</port>
<user>user</user>
<pass>password</pass>
<name>xbmc_video</name>
</videodatabase>
<musicdatabase>
<type>mysql</type>
<host>xbmc.domain.com</host>
<port>3306</port>
<user>user</user>
<pass>password</pass>
<name>xbmc_music</name>
</musicdatabase>
</advancedsettings>

I have Boxee's attention on this one and they've asked me to post here and see what sort of attention it gets. This will be great for those of us that have more than one Boxee in their house. It will allow us to share playstates as well! Please show your support!

**Silverlock** · January 3rd, 2011, 09:49 AM

I've been considering putting my .boxee directory on the same server as my local media, NFS exporting it and then mounting it on my various Boxee installations to accomplish much the same thing. But I'd certain support having a central MySQL db instead.

**synapseattack** · January 6th, 2011, 09:57 AM

I wish this would happen. I've been using multiple XBMC installs in 3 different rooms for about a year now all of them sharing the same DB. This year I got a Boxee Box for Christmas and now one room doesn't have a sync'd DB with the other two. I'd be more than happy to invest in two more boxee box STBs just to keep everything uniform in my home. But I can't share the DB and use a network PC/NAS with mySQL or another DB server on it. It's already annoyed me a couple of times in the past few weeks. Enough that I might just end up switch back to xbmc and ebaying this boxee box.

**CiXel** · January 9th, 2011, 08:47 PM

I would like to see this as an option, at least as an experimental flag. Having used it for so long on the XBMC side, when I was playing with Boxee today it was sorely missed and required rescanning all my files on each individual box.

**DPK** · January 9th, 2011, 11:03 PM

I'd love to see this as well. I looked into it at one point, but it appears the original Boxee project was forked from XBMC right before the feature was added to XBMC.

It's always been on my high list of wants for Boxee. To be able to centralize the database somewhere on my network.

**aurel42** · January 11th, 2011, 01:34 PM

I'd love that as an option. I could have Boxee on my workstation scan all day and be sure that I have all the latest content visible when I switch on the Box in the living room.

Perhaps that would even allow us to insert or modify Metadata that Boxee doesn't scrape, for example for content that's neither a TV show nor a movie?

**samukas** · January 11th, 2011, 03:26 PM

A few days ago I submitted this ticket to JIRA but it didn't get much attention. Even though the suggestion is not the same, I believe we are trying to achieve the same thing!!! I would love if this thing got implemented, please vote on it and share some of your suggestions too!

**sfuhrman** · January 20th, 2011, 08:43 PM

I love the boxee interface. I have several HTPCs and have been browsing my large collection of Videos on my NASs, while this is easy for me, others in the household find this more difficult. I have also been going directly to various websites to stream video. A solution that both makes it easy to watch local files and internet streaming from one interface is very attractive. I have experimented with boxee and its great except for the fact that the data is maintained locally on each htpc. I would also like to use boxee boxes on some TVs. A method of having one database to share among the Various locations would make boxee a viable product for my household

**joshjryan** · January 5th, 2012, 10:29 AM

I would also like to see this.
This is the one thing that is keeping me from getting a Boxee Box. I have an XBMC HTPC and XBMC atv2 that are sync'd by a common MySQL database, and I won't buy a Boxee Box until it can connect to the same DB.

**pwilson250** · March 15th, 2012, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by bisk

Instead of running a local database for movies and music, can we have the option to run the database from MySQL?

I have Boxee's attention on this one and they've asked me to post here and see what sort of attention it gets. This will be great for those of us that have more than one Boxee in their house. It will allow us to share playstates as well! Please show your support!

This would definately be a great idea! There is an excellent article on LifeHacker.com that discusses configuring this feature in XBMC (upon which Boxee is based).

Check out the LifeHacker article: http://lifehacker.com/5634515/how-to...m-in-the-house

Many consumer-grade NAS units already support MySQL, (including my QNAP TS-419P+), and users without NAS technology can still install MySQL on a Windows or Linux PC to get the same functionality.

With a central MySQL database stored on my NAS for the Video and Music libary database data, I would be able to "pause" a video on my livingroom Boxee, and resume the same on on my bedroom Boxee.

This would also give the additional functionality of keeping a common "watched" vs "unwatched" data stored in a single database, so if I "watch" a video in the bedroom it would also by marked as watched in the livingroom when I went back to the same Movie or TV show there.

I'm thoroughly sold on Boxee, and own multiple Boxee units. It would be great if they could share a common external MySQL database for storing Video and Music database data.

The whole "pause" in one room, and "resume" in another would be totally awesome, and it would probably encourage me to buy additional Boxee units for my kids TV's too.

Please understand that my request for a specific database format ie MySQL, is delibrate. It is an OpenSource database that is available for multiple OSes, and which comes pre-installed on many NAS units.

As Boxee users discover the power of locally stored media, they soon also discover the need for massive amounts of storage for their local media, many of them, myself included, will turn to NAS units to fulfill this need. As many NAS units come with MySQL pre-installed, (or easily installed by tools like "ipkg"), support for MySQL seems like a natural upgrade for Boxee developers to consider adding.

Supporting this functionality would allow the consumer to enjoy a "pause in one room" and "resume in another" functionality, and yet also permit the Media itself, and the database to stored in the same place (ie the NAS).

This functionality alone, especially with the above requested MySQL solution, would be a welcome addition for Boxee users, and would probably help drive sales for secondary and subsequent Boxee sales as existing users find the desire to purchase additional Boxee units to take advantage of such a "pause"/"resume" functionality.

Please consider adding this functionality to Boxee ASAP, as I sincerely doubt I am alone in living in a home that already has multiple Boxee units. I love my Boxees, but I am frustrated that each Boxee maintains its own database, I would like them to support a common database (again preferably MySQL based), so that I can get this functionality on all of my Boxees.

Patrick Wilson
Victoria BC