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[afss_br]

Hello, as I mentioned in another thread, now with MC31 I have finally abandoned Kodi with Madvr113 as my main playback software, moving JRiver to that first position instead, all thanks to JRVR outstanding new performance with dynamic tone mapping.

I have all my movies backed up to an external portable hard drive, and I constantly adding and removing movies from this USB drive. What I miss the most from Kodi is a simple file navigation option, which only shows video files (instead of displaying everything within the directory, including subtitle (i.e. SRT) files for instance.
Maybe I just need to configure things properly, so I would greatly appreciate your inputs on what I see as main challenges with JRiver's EXPLORER option, within Theater view:

A)   I experience slowness every time I click on my hard drive letter – Usually it takes arounds 10 seconds to open the hard drive for browsing, as If EXPLORER is trying to identify things – I just wanted a simple (and quick) file browse as I had with Kodi – are there any settings that can speed it up?

B)   Displaying only certain file types (i.e. movies). With Kodi, I entered via the movie option and browsed only through my video files – with JRiver EXPLORER I need to navigate between video files, subtitle files, and any other files that may accidentally be on the same directory.

C)   MKV actual file name versus MKV File Title. When you browse MKV files on standard Windows explorer you always get to see the actual file name (which is also what Kodi displays). Sometimes on MKV files there is an optional parameter called File Title, and within JRiver EXPLORER, this File Title appears to override the display the actual file name, whenever it is present. I can send some sample files for evaluation if needed.

Thanks in advance for your insights – I hope there are parameters that can change what I am experiencing, in order to have plain quick/seamless file browsing within Theater View/Explorer, as this is the last thing I miss from Kodi. My goal is to keep JRiver as my final video playback hup, so that I can totally turn the page on Kodi/MadVR 113 !

[bogdanbz]

I want just a simple file explorer option usable from Theater View as well.

The slowness you experience is due to the fact that MC is opening each file in the background in order to read the file metadata, as it lists the file title and duration in its Theater View Explorer plugin instead of just the file name. It's also looking for artwork to display in the background. Neither of these Theater View Explorer plugin behaviors can be disabled.

You'll also discover that you can't see the files inside BluRay and DVD folders in the Theater View Explorer plugin.

[afss_br]

I want just a simple file explorer option usable from Theater View as well, unfortunately the request is falling on deaf ears for years now.

The slowness you experience is due to the fact that MC is opening each file in the background in order to read the file metadata, as it lists the file title and duration in its Theater View Explorer plugin instead of just the file name. It's also looking for artwork to display in the background. Neither of these Theater View Explorer plugin behaviors can be disabled.

You'll also discover soon that you can't see the files inside BluRay and DVD folders in the Theater View Explorer plugin either.

Thank you very much for your reply - From my perspective there would be a simple solution if JRiver would kindly listen to our feedback, which is a checkbox for disabling this metadata file inspection, providing plain and simple file browsing - I am going to try an integration of MC31 with Kodi as a front end, as unfortunately currently, it seems to be the only way to speed things up.

[JimH]

Under any Explorer view in Theater View, you should be able to "toggle list view" to get views that have just names.  It's under More.

[afss_br]

Under any Explorer view in Theater View, you should be able to "toggle list view" to get views that have just names.  It's under More.

Much appreciated - will give it a try later on today.

[HPBEME]

The slowness that afss_br and bogdanbz are experiencing is not at all typical in my 16+ years of MC use.

I don't ever use Explorer as a way to browse MC in Theater or Standard View (that defeats the whole purpose of using a media player and tag driven metadata IMO), but I turned it on just to check. I browsed my movies and TV shows via Explorer in Theater View and everything loaded virtually instantly, including the artwork.  I jumped all around through many different folders, back-and-forth and all over the place - no issues.

I don't use a server/client set up, so if you do, that might explain it, but I doubt it. I don't have any suggestions to resolve your issues, but wanted to make sure others aren't under the impression that this is simply the way it is with MC for everyone, and there's nothing to be done about it. I just don't think that is the case.

Hopefully others can weigh-in with some possible solutions to whatever is plaguing your setup.

[afss_br]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

I have altered to "list view" on the Theater View/Explorer options, and it does help to scroll quicker through files once you are granted access to a new folder, but unfortunately it does not change the slowness to actually get to see what's inside a folder (after clicking on it, it usually takes 10 seconds) - I guess JRiver is still scanning files/metadata before granting this view access.

On my case I am concerned only about video file playback with the highest quality possible. I personally do not care about any metadata display info, but understand that others may value this.

Not sure if this is relevant, but I use an external HDD connected through an USB 3.0 port to my HTPC. I did not do any pre-scanning of the HDD to JRiver library, and would not like to do anything like this as I keep adding/deleting things from my HDD.

As I said before, until MC30 I had Kodi-Madvr as my main playback combo while keeping JRiver as a backup solution, this was mainly due to speed and video quality which was better with Kodi-Madvr. Things have changed significantly with MC31, where I think JRVR DTM has surpassed the old Madvr113, therefore I decided to move it to my first option. I just wish JRiver would to do file browsing the same way as any conventional file explorer (such as Windows File Explorer).

[Matt]

If files are already imported, browsing should be fast.  So configure auto-import to grab the folders you are browsing.

[HPBEME]

If files are already imported, browsing should be fast.  So configure auto-import to grab the folders you are browsing.

I did not do any pre-scanning of the HDD to JRiver library, and would not like to do anything like this as I keep adding/deleting things from my HDD.

You beat me to the punch Matt.  I was going to say the OP inadvertently identified the issue with the portion of his reply I quoted.

You don't have to spend any time tagging files and displaying metadata if you don't want to, but you at least have to import the files so MC can build the database. Otherwise, MC has to read the files from scratch every single time.  As for your making edits to the portable hard drive where you store the files, that is all the more reason to import it.  If you designate those folders for MC to monitor, it will automatically update the database every time you make edits.

[afss_br]

Thanks again for all the inputs - will give it a try later in the day.

[HPBEME]

Thanks again for all the inputs - will give it a try later in the day.

Let us know how it turns out.

As I noted in a prior post, when I used the built-in Theater View Explorer function, the response was instantaneous when navigating in and out of folders, as well as showing the full-screen movie art in the background. I am virtually positive that is due to having imported all my movies/shows, whereas you have not.

[afss_br]

Importing the HDD to the library, resolved the slowness - now browsing is pretty much instant - THANK YOU ALL !! - my concern is related with file deletions/additions that I plan to do to the HDD, and how Explorer will deal with them moving forward. I will report back as I learn more from it.

[bogdanbz]

1. Importing to the library defeats the purpose of having a file explorer. I mean... one could just browse or search directly in the library, no need to navigate to folders on disk drives.

2. Selecting "list view" does not display the file names, it still displays titles from the file metadata. To see this, just try it out on some files that are not imported to the library.

[HPBEME]

1. Importing to the library defeats the purpose of having a file explorer. I mean... one could just browse or search directly in the library, no need to navigate to folders on disk drives.

As the OP noted, importing files into MC completely solved the previous slowness he was experiencing in MC's Theater View. As I understood it, he was never using Windows Explorer to navigate folders on disk drives, he was using MC's built-in explorer (see Theater View options) but it was very slow. So the "purpose" of importing files is not "defeated", but rather the solution.

2. Selecting "list view" does not display the file names, it still displays titles from the file metadata. To see this, just try it out on some files that are not imported to the library.

If you really want to see filenames as they are shown in Windows Explorer, you could update the thumbnail text to point to the filename instead of the Title tag.

[afss_br]

How/Where exactly is this done ?

"If you really want to see filenames as they are shown in Windows Explorer, you could update the thumbnail text to point to the filename instead of the Title tag"

[EnglishTiger]

An alternative way of displaying the filenames as they are shown in Windows Explorer is to simply display the Filename (name) tag/field in the details list.

[Ashfall]

Importing ahead of time isn't a solution for my situation either.  Kids, or their friends, or my friends will occasionally bring a thumb drive or hard drive and connect it, then are held in suspense for 10-20 seconds before the list of files in Explorer view is displayed.  I've also tried toggle list style, but that has no effect on how long it takes for all the files to be scanned.
Would love it if "explorer" was just a dumb explorer.

[HPBEME]

How/Where exactly is this done ?  "If you really want to see filenames as they are shown in Windows Explorer, you could update the thumbnail text to point to the filename instead of the Title tag"

I don't use Theater View all that much, so I really don't remember the complete blow-by-blow. That said, it would involve going into Options/Theater View and then the Customize Info Panel, where you would then need to modify the various templates for movies, TV show, video, and have them use/point-to the filename field.

If somebody else wants to expend the effort of explaining the exact step-by-step, I will leave that to them.  Good luck.

[HPBEME]

Importing ahead of time isn't a solution for my situation either.  Kids, or their friends, or my friends will occasionally bring a thumb drive or hard drive and connect it, then are held in suspense for 10-20 seconds before the list of files in Explorer view is displayed.  I've also tried toggle list style, but that has no effect on how long it takes for all the files to be scanned.
Would love it if "explorer" was just a dumb explorer.

I don't have much to offer by way of a solution for this. Don't use Theater View maybe?  If all your video file associations are set to use MC, then just browse/launch files using Windows Explorer directly from the portable drive. That is what file associations are intended for - that is, launching files from somewhere other than directly within MC. 

[bogdanbz]

I don't use Theater View all that much, so I really don't remember the complete blow-by-blow. That said, it would involve going into Options/Theater View and then the Customize Info Panel, where you would then need to modify the various templates for movies, TV show, video, and have them use/point-to the filename field.

If somebody else wants to expend the effort of explaining the exact step-by-step, I will leave that to them.  Good luck.

The Theater View Explorer plugin doesn't have any kind of configuration options, and has always been like that.

This missing configuration feature of the Explorer plugin seems to go quite unnoticed. I got the same advice to "configure" it when I asked how to display the file names some time ago: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,131747.msg913345.html

And I'm not the only one that wants to see the Explorer really be just a file explorer, and not do things like retrieve cover art and metadata, as if doing an import to library (nothing gets imported anyway, it just wastes time). Another forum post in the past regarding this: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,134140.msg929157.html

You don't always want to have stuff in folders imported to the library and mess it up, you just want to safely and quickly browse those folders, and still do it while on the couch.