Storing metadata locally
Questions keep popping up on how exactly one benefits from storing metadata locally, and how it differs from MediaBrowser’s ability to fetch metadata. I’ll briefly try to explain…
MediaBrowser
MediaBrowser is capable of fetching metadata using its online sources. Like meta<browser/>, MediaBrowser also uses TMDb for movies and TVDb for TV. It uses your folder name or media filename to perform its search, which means that you need to name your file and folders to match exactly, or close to, the title listed on its online sources.
Pros:
- Very little user interaction needed
- Each movie does not need to be in its own folder
Cons:
- Very limited control over what metadata is fetched (might need to alter folder or file name to match its online source)
- No way to display metadata for movies/tv shows that are not available through its online sources
- No control over any of the metadata or images displayed by MediaBrowser, as it is stored and used internally by MediaBrowser
- Each machine running MediaBrowser will have to fetch/download metadata from its online sources individually, which can take a long time depending on your collection size
- Each machine running MediaBrowser can get out of sync with its metadata because it fetches metadata individually
- Every time you clear the cache in MediaBrowser, it will again have to fetch/download metadata from its online sources
Locally stored metadata
If local metadata is present MediaBrowser will not try to fetch metadata for it using its online sources and will use the locally available metadata instead, this gives you full control over what MediaBrowser will display.
Pros:
- Fetch exactly the movie you want without having to rename your folder or filenames
- Full control over the metadata and images that will be displayed
- Create metadata for items not available through its online sources
- Each field of the metadata is editable for your OCD
- Metadata for MediaBrowser is populated a lot faster since it is stored locally over your network
- Each machine will stay in sync, as the metdata is stored locally and any changes you make to the local metadata will be reflected on all machines running MediaBrowser
- Repopulating metadata after clearing cache is almost instantaneous, since the metadata is stored locally over your network
Cons:
- Each movie needs to be in its own folder
- Initially requires user interaction to populate metadata
- Your OCD about metadata being complete
One thing to keep in mind is that even though you store your metadata along with your media items, MediaBrowser will still cache all the metadata and images on the local machine running MediaBrowser. This is done for speed. The only difference is that MediaBrowser uses the local metadata as its source instead of trying to download it from its online sources.
Hopefully this answers some of your questions, also, this post is Wiki Editable, so feel free to add/change anything.
