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[modelmaker]

The more I've been using  MC 12 the more annoying this is getting: I use a rock playlist alot that has about 22k songs and whenever I scroll thru the song list the cpu power goes to 100%.

If I only scroll thru 100 tracks or so, it takes a couple or 3 seconds to recover, if I jump halfway down the list then it can stay at 100% cpu for a minute or two. In the meantime, the sound is being clipped, (similar to audio clipping).

I only started noticing this the 5 or 6 builds, as I wasn't using 12 as much before then. It doesn't do it in MC 11.xxx or 10.


Media Center Registered 12.0.59 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\

Microsoft Windows 2000 5.0 Service Pack 4 (Build 2195)
AMD Athlon 1641 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 272 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81.4916 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.2800 / Shell32.dll: 5.0.3900 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping /   Drive Y:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  Drive Y: LITE-ON  LTR-32123S         Addr: 2:0:0  Speed:32  MaxSpeed:32  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /

[Matt]

It's probably building thumbnails.  This is a one-time thing.

You could let it build them all overnight in Options > Tree & View > Thumbnails.

[raym]

It's probably building thumbnails.  This is a one-time thing.

You could let it build them all overnight in Options > Tree & View > Thumbnails.

Yep. I found that this solved all the performance problems I was initially having.

[rpalmer68]

I've been having performace issues on my client running off the library server, it's very slow and unresponsive at times when browsing views.

So I thought I'd rebuild the thumbnails on the client to see if this helped.

But the rebuild is VERY slow!  It's doing about 1 thumbnail every 50 seconds over the LAN.

Should I be able to rebuild the thumbnails from the library server?

Also every time I close and run the MC client and scroll through my track lists the thumbnails are missing and seem to get reloaded from the server.  Shouldn't they be cached locally (hence rebuilding thumbnails)

MC Ver 12.0.60.

Richard

[Alex B]

Caching the thumbnails locally is not possible because a client downloads a new copy of the server library each time it connects. Changed thumbnails would be wrong. Perhaps it could download the thumbnails too, but with a big server library this would be make the initial connection much slower.

I think that at least three new options would be needed:
- disable "tiny icons"
- disable thumbnails with video files
- disable cover art and thumbnails completely (this would be good for internet connections)

[rpalmer68]

Caching the thumbnails locally is not possible because a client downloads a new copy of the server library each time it connects. Changed thumbnails would be wrong. Perhaps it could download the thumbnails too, but with a big server library this would be make the initial connection much slower.

I think that at least three new options would be needed:
- disable "tiny icons"
- disable thumbnails with video files
- disable cover art and thumbnails completely (this would be good for internet connections)

I wouldn't like to see the thumbnails downloaded each time, but having the tiny thumbnails when browsing  with library server makes it system very slow and unresponsive.

As you suggest maybe an option to turn them off and just have the old blue/gold notes like MC11 (there's another thread on this!) would be a good idea.

Richard

[Matt]

Thumbnails are cached on the client when connecting to library server.  The client keeps a local copy of thumbnails on a per-library basis.

As a test, if you use a local library (with thumbs built) instead of library server, are all the performance issues gone?

Thanks.

[modelmaker]

I am sorry to be a bit dense about this (I'm not a power user):

I have "build thumbnails" checked in options/tasks. Is there something I have to do to initiate this?

And why do I have to build thumbnails? My cover art is stored in the media files. When I switch between detail and thumbnail views, the thumbnails are all there. I mostly use the detail view and this 100% cpu happens in both views.

I have 40k plus media files and cover art for every album, stored both in the file and next to.

[Alex B]

Thumbnails are cached on the client when connecting to library server. The client keeps a local copy of thumbnails on a per-library basis.

Does this mean that a client creates thumbnails on the need basis, stores the generated thumbnails and after a reconnect creates only missing thumbnails when needed (just like MC does by default with a local library). How can a client know if a thumbnail has changed on the server?

I suppose you don't mean that a client downloads the server thumbnails on each reconnect.

(I have not tried MC12's Library Server yet.)


modelmaker,

MC uses its own fast thumbnails in thumbnail views. Accessing the source image files directly would be too slow. If you have a thumbnail for each cover art then the high CPU usage is caused by something else.

[Deivit]

modelmaker,

MC uses its own fast thumbnails in thumbnail views. Accessing the source image files directly would be too slow. If you have a thumbnail for each cover art then the high CPU usage is caused by something else.

To Modelmaker,

However, you may just "think" you have all your thumbnails build but, reading your posts, I would gess not unless you have already scrolled down ALL your files at least once since you installed MC.12 and with your number of files it may be unlikely.

If I'm not wrong, there have been at least two major changes to the thumbnail engine since the introduction of MC.12 that required building new thumbnails.

You can try what Matt suggested:

Go to Tools -> Options -> Tree & View -> Thumbnails -> Build missing thumbnails

(Let it run overnight)

Then you positively will have all your thumbnails build.

Try to scroll again your huge playlist and see if the problem persists.

[Alex B]

If I'm not wrong, there have been at least two major changes to the thumbnail engine since the introduction of MC.12 that required building new thumbnails.

I just installed 12.0.60. It removed all old thumbnails and is now recreating them.

(Or is just me? 12.0.59 crashed during thumbnail building and I installed 12.0.60 after that. So perhaps the thumbnails were corrupted.)

[Deivit]

The two changes that I was referring to were in July, I'd say.
Can't comment on build 60 though... still with 59 

------
12.0.37 (7/18/06)
12. Changed: Updated thumbnailing engine for improved performance. (thumbnails will need to be rebuilt)
------

I can't find the other one, but I'm almost positive that I had to rebuild thumbnails twice... maybe it was the first build that was available to us?...

[modelmaker]

I never turn MC (or my computer) off - it's always running. I have Build Thumbnails enabled.

I just installed .60 How can I tell if MC is building thumbnails and when it's done?

[JimH]

Go to tools/options/tree and view and tell MC to rebuild missing thumbnails.  It will tell you what it's doing.

[modelmaker]

Sorry, my bad!  I had Tools/Options/Tasks/Build Thumbnails checked,which I guess only works when Otto is enabled, which it isn't at the moment. Duh!  I'll do the other and report back when done.

(and I've only been using MC for 3 and a half years!!)

[modelmaker]

I got to about 5000 built and then the DivX manager pops up in my task bar for a brief second and then MC closes. I've tried it 3 times. Same results. All pugsins are disabled and I'm using the default skin.

I uninstalled DivX and I'm going to try again.

[modelmaker]

With DivX uninstalled, thumbnail building completed without a hitch. 42 106 in 39 minutes.

This solved the scrolling problem. Thanks all!

Does anyone have any isea why DivX was interfering with the process?

[rpalmer68]

Thumbnails are cached on the client when connecting to library server.  The client keeps a local copy of thumbnails on a per-library basis.

As a test, if you use a local library (with thumbs built) instead of library server, are all the performance issues gone?

Thanks.

Matt,

My machine with the local library seems to be performing OK now that I've built all the thumbnails but my client using the library server doesn't seem to cache the thumbnails.

Doing a rebuilt thumbnails takes a VERY long time, approx 50 seconds per thumbnail!! so instead I deleted all thumbnails on the client and then browsed my library and let MC build the thumbnails that way which believe it or not was MUCH quicker. 

Once the thumbnails were built browsing performance seemed OK, until I clicked on an artist that didn't have any album art (I haven't scanned them yet, and approx 470 tracks) and then things slowed down until it seemed that MC had worked out that there was no album art on the server and then it came right again.

BUT if I close the MC client and open it again all my thumbnails are gone and have to be built again.

So for me the MC client IS NOT caching local thumbnails when using the library server and thus gives performance issues.

Richard