But this is exactly what I mean. It depends on the user. So why not keep it flexible like with raspberry pi? The media files keep getting bigger and bigger and also the quality of covers or other stuff. I think the 14 GB are not the biggest selling point.
Not every user has same library. I devided for kids and adults. So all kids are equal and all adults are equal. Main reason for different users is Trakt status. My wife watches other stuff than I do and my kids watch totally different stuff. One library mixes it up.
Thanks for your advices. I will try both and see what will happen and helps me the most.
That flexibility is there. The base OS filesystem is large enough for the system and data of most users. In case more storage is needed you can install a SD-card.
It doesn’t matter if the libraries are the same or not. Thumbnails etc are stored with hashes and looked up that way. So your thumbnail libary could contain all artwork for all your media but only the ones needed per user/profile will be read.
You can mount the Kodi directory on external storage but should be aware of the performance implications.
The internal eMMC is very fast, and will provide better performance than an HDD or SD card. Most users don’t have more than 2-3GB of metadata, but you can of course rehouse your Kodi userdata directory in case you need to accommodate for more storage
As @nrosier says, the flexibility is there. But a Pi will have much slower storage (think 25MB/s vs 100MB/s) when compared to the Vero’s eMMC.
The Vero is definitely not limited regarding storage as you have an SD card slot, usb and can mount shares over the network. Do let us know if you need help setting this up.
Thanks for your Tipps and insides. I think we can agree to disagree. I really appreciate your help and your insights. But for me as a customer, if the storage space is limited, it would be important to chose between different internal storages.
It is like you would deliver a windows PC with a ssd of 8 GB where you have space for the windows and maybe a tiny bit of other programs.
I know it is mainly an issue of kodi and how it operates, the flexibility is there, but comes with cost of performance and of backup possibilities.
I think time comes, users need more and more space. As said, maybe for average user it is totally enough. But where lays the problem of offering another vero higher priced with 32gb and one with 64 GB? Are the prices that much higher than the 14/15 GB?
You can see that as my feedback. I would not describe it as flexibility to need to manually program in Linux. Sure for most this is a normal way to go, but for a newbie like me it comes with things I don’t understand. How is it with later updates, do I need to reprogram every time etc…?
If there would be a higher model with more space I would buy it without hesitating and who knows, maybe some other heavy users too?
As said before, don’t see it as criticize please. It’s a feedback from my point of view. And as said, I really appreciate your help and your friendly way of explaining. And I know I repeat myself: I know it’s mainly a way kodi is programmed.
I asked for a way to share libraries in kodi and made a request/suggestion for it.
I’m pretty sure, with the right configuration, even for you the 16GB should suffice. I’ve installed a lot of extra’s on the system (compilers etc…) and still only user 21% of my internal storage. So your comparison with a 8GB windows system with no extra space really doesn’t compare. And I can know…,.My wife once bought a 32GB SSD Windows touch-tablet and you almost had no space left… (maybe 20%)
I also have a pretty large library but still my databases are only about 60MB total. Your main issue is you cache all the thumbnails and fanart multiple times which is just wasting space! Putting these in a shared location would solve this and isn’t that difficult but requires some “linux mumbo jumbo” which might be overwhelming for a novice user.
@sam_nazarko: do you think it would be difficult/a lot of work to add an option somewhere in Kodi or in the MyOSMC addon where you can specifiy a shared art-library which would be automagically configured in advancedsettings.xml? Or would it be a viable solution to just make that the default behaviour (e.g. store in /home/osmc/.thumbnails)? Maybe create a poll to see how many users use multiple profiles?
That’s a nice feature suggestion, but at the moment it might lead to some issues.
What do we do if the user disconnects the medium for a while and then reconnects it after some scraping has occurred? We could accidentally fill up an empty mount point.
At the moment there isn’t enough demand for a bigger eMMC. Most streamers come with 4 or 8GB, so we think 16GB will be good for a while. Even if we up this to 64GB, there will be some users who are not happy with this.
@nrosier that’s impressive with your 60MB. I am really far away from that. And yes, you are right, it is overwhelming. Took me long time to find my way into kodi and pi and vero. Think that’s the main reason some people still don’t buy those devices, at least it is like that with all my friends and family. Takes too much time to figure things out. Once you are in it is easy, but they are not devices which you plug in and they work. At least for people like me it is necessary to ask and read a lot.
Your idea is good, I raised a request in kodi forum 2 days ago about making a main library and let different users access it. So far no answer.
Implementing something into kodi like in Android where you can mark “move to sd card” or “download to sd card” like in Spotify and Netflix would be really cool.
@in10se I’ve got a big music collection (converted all my CD’s to FLAC) and ripped my entire DVD and BR collection to NAS. My thumbnail cache is about 2GB. So for 6 users I would also get 12GB and hit the limits of the device.
In each profile/user you created I would set the following in it’s advancedsettings.xml.
That way all your images will only be cached once in 1 place.
I understand any Kodi device has a learning curve. Your files need to follow the naming convention etc… And if you’ve never worked in Unix/Linux you will easily get lost. But if you need help there’s plenty of folks on the forum that will help you.
The issue of having a shared MySQL database with multiple users has been brought up (and shot down) several times in the past with Kodi devs. Remember, they still consider MySQL as ‘experimental’…
I do remember a while back seeing a post in the Kodi forums where a user had explained changes he made to the database to allow profiles to share everything, but have separate watched status.
@nrosier exactly the same I have too. Except mire TV shows. I have a huge collection of TV shows. Damn it was so much work to digitalize everything
Do I need to copy the thumbnail folder first to the location or do I do the entry and then rescan the library?
Thanks for the explanation and your effort!
@bmillham oh, that’s disappointing. I didn’t even think about a database more like a shared folder. And information like watch status etc is still saved in profile. It’s just not clever to need to have every data double for the users. If you want have a media center you normally have a family too. I guess the easier user management and installation is something which leads people to emby or plex.
I just like my little devices that I put so much effort in it and still don’t understand. But maybe I should take a look at emby or plex to check the disadvantages. When I once installed emby, the user management was awesome.
I understand the reluctance to use a shared library. For starters you have the watch status and progress that would have to be split off. But also what when you only want to share a part of the library. I like the fact in Emby that you can restrict access to media based on the rating. Handy for a childrens profile…
And a said above, the databases aren’t the biggest consumers, it’s the artwork and you have a nice workaround to fix that.
@nrosier thanks for the quick response. I will give it a try today and hope it goes well.
So you use emby? How is the kodi or the implementation on vero? Do you need to recann whole library or does it just access the emby server like the android app does? Also are you successfully running different user with Trakt.tv watxhstatus? That would be the most important for me.
The restriction of areas is awesome, that’s exactly what I need for my kids.
@in10se I use the Emby for Kodi Sync addon (Emby for Kodi - Emby). I use the native playback modus so Kodi knows the location of the media. This is best if you want to download subtitles etc… in Kodi as it needs to know the filename (which is not the case in the default Addon mode. This mimics best the default behaviour of Kodi. You miss some Emby features but I don’t need those so…
The Addon accesses Emby and syncs your metadata to the Kodi databases. All updates are done with incremental syncs so when you add data in Emby you do not need to rescan, the addon just sync the changes. For know I just use it as an easy way to edit metadata etc… In future I will use more features when I get a Vero for our daughter.
I do not use different users with Trakt. I have 1 user which is shared on my Vero’s and is linked to my Trakt-account. My wife does not use Trakt so all watch status is on my account. But afaik in Emby you can link different accounts to different trakt-accounts. The biggest problem with watch-status is you cannot say who is watching. So if you watch a movie together with your wife the watch status is only update on 1 account. You have to manually update it on the other account(s).
I have the same problem with Netflix. Some shows we watch are on my profile, some on my wife’s and some on our daughter’s. It’s a hell to keep track of what you’ve watched.