Unified Media Management
This is my vision of the future for media management.
In my opinion Plex, XBMC and others based off of XBMC have gotten out of control when it comes to media management. If you have one device running any of the mentioned software its fine to an extent. But as soon as you start adding multiple devices with media spanning all of those different devices it starts getting a bit out of control.
So this is my stab at what I think should be done about the different problems that I have with the current Plex / XBMC setup. Don't get me wrong. I think they are both great pieces of software. I just believe it could be better.
Problems:
- using a remote to add a media destination is bad. User experience is poor and error prone.
- maintaining separate configurations for each player is tedious.
- No asset management across multiple devices.
- No ability to acquire new media.
In my opinion non of these items should exist with inside Plex or XBMC. In fact the only thing they should do is just render the UI and Video / Audio/ Pictures / Launch Games and very basic settings.
Let me explain the diagram...
Nodes
So lets talk about what a node is. A node is just a computer attached to your LAN running the media node software. All nodes are equal. Although one node could have access to more inputs. Such as a capture device or maybe an optical drive where as others don't. All these nodes appear as one aggregated node to the media player or software accessing the media node. For example plex would see it as one node with available media. If you wanted you could install software on a computer that would expose the node as a UPnP, DLNA or Web Server.
The node is in charge of scraping its content for thumbnails / descriptions / etc. the node is network aware and will dynamically buffer / cache as needed. So for example, if I am on a computer running plex and it discovers that there is a piece of 1080p content on a laptop connected via Wireless G. It'll know how long it has to buffer to accommodate for network packet drops. etc. If the computer that has plex is also a part of the node. Then the local node could download and save the media file to the local computer if space permitting and store it there for a time before removing it from its node or reassigning the content to that node depending on configurations.
A node can be disconnected from the nodes and the nodes will show the content as unavailable. If the node is remote and can be connected via web then it'll be able to share content using streaming if speeds permit.
Node Manager
The node manager would see all the nodes as separate nodes. Here you would be able to configure what type of node each node is and what it can do. For example if you want a node to migrate all its content or a specific type of content to a main node over time you can specify that. Or to treat a node as more of a cache where it keeps a copy of most used items which would be good for a laptop that might be coming and going from a node cluster. How much storage can be used on that node. If the node has a dedicated storage volume or just a % of available space. Node client manager would also be able to configure other resources that the nodes might have access to. such as a tuner, iptv or an online streaming sources. The node manager would be able to mange how long content is around for and how and where to store new content
Node Client
Clients would see the nodes as one massive node. Any client will be able to access any of the allowed content from these nodes such as Video, Audio, Pictures, Roms, Saved Games as if it were to be coming from one machine. The node client would know how to connect directly to each node to retrieve content.
Scenarios
- I want to watch "The Office" Season 3 Episode 2. I launch my preferred client. Navigate to tv shows. It shows "The Office" Seasons 1 - 6. I only have a copy of season 2 on one of the nodes. The last 5 episodes of season 6 are on Hulu. Seasons 1-2 are available to watch instantly on Netflix. all 6 seasons are available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes. I can also add season 3 to my Netflix Queue or I can watch this episode next week at 6pm on a given channel or schedule it to record and add a reminder when it's done.
So my options are. Schedule a recording, buy now or add to Netflix queue. If I don't have any external service configured. Such as TV, Amazon, Netflix or iTunes. then I'm only presented with what is available to watch in my list. in this case all I would be able to see is "The Office" Season 2.
- If I start watching a piece of content on one player. I will be able to pause it, go to a different player, then click play and resume from where I left off.