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[mduvivier]

I am trying out MC 15 which I just downloaded and seeing slow behavior scanning my library, the first task I tried.

I have my library of about 12,000 files in FLAC format on a high speed NAS device connected to my network. My PC is connected to a wireless router at 78 Mbs, network utilization is averaging 25% (during the scan), CPU 5%, lots of memory available.

After 24 hours it has scanned 3525 files and seems to be doing 1 file every 15 seconds right now.

Any thoughts? Is this normal behavior? What is it actually doing when it "scans" the library?

FYI, all other operations on our network are fast, even while the scan is ongoing. I just did a download speed test from the internet on the same machine while the scan is still running and had 7457 kbps.

Thanks

[JimH]

I have my library of about 12,000 files in FLAC format on a high speed NAS device connected to my network. My PC is connected to a wireless router at 78 Mbs, network utilization is averaging 25% (during the scan), CPU 5%, lots of memory available.  After 24 hours it has scanned 3525 files and seems to be doing 1 file every 15 seconds right now.  Any thoughts? Is this normal behavior? What is it actually doing when it "scans" the library?

FYI, all other operations on our network are fast, even while the scan is ongoing. I just did a download speed test from the internet on the same machine while the scan is still running and had 7457 kbps.

It's not normal.  You could turn off audio analysis in MC.  You could turn off automatic cover art lookup.  Options has a search window.

A virus checker may sometimes cause problems.

[Alex B]

Actually, "15 seconds on average" is perfectly normal on a wireless LAN if the above mentioned options are enabled (I think they are by default).

The analyzer scans the files for Replay Gain if the files don't already have compatible Replay Gain tags. In order to do that the complete files must be decoded. I.e. they will "travel" through the LAN at least once. After a file has been analyzed MC writes the Replay Gain tags. This tagging step may be fast if the file was encoded with the so called "padding" option enabled. Then the file has some preserved free space for tag changes. If the file doesn't contain adequate padding the complete file must be rewritten because FLAC tags are in the beginning of the file. To rewrite a file through a network connection MC (and Windows) must first write a temporary file (i.e. the file is first read and then written back through LAN) and after this has finished the source file can be deleted and the temporary file renamed.

The cover art downloader works in a separate thread and any typical amount of padding is not likely to be big enough for storing cover art. I.e. a full rewrite is needed again.

In the worst case each file may "travel" through the LAN five times. The decoding and analyzing process will further increase the needed time, though FLAC is one of the fastest formats to decode so this might not be a significant factor on a modern PC.


As Jim said, disabling these two options should help. However, since at least the Replay Gain tags are quite useful you may want to analyze the files and add cover art sometime later. Then it would help if you could temporarily connect the NAS using a wired 1000 MB LAN (even a wired 100 MB LAN would probably be significantly faster than your wireless LAN). Regarding cover art you can choose to use only external cover art if you don't want to embed it in the tags (Tools > Options > File Location > Cover Art...)

[mduvivier]

Thank you both, I really appreciate your insights!

The machine is not running a virus checker and is set to MC 15's default settings, so I expect Alex's post is what is happening. I should have run a cable right to my GigE switch but I don't want to start over, I'd rather let it process the files as completely as possible ...  so I'll let it go and see tomorrow.

As my original encoding was through one of the basic free converter programs, I expect it is badly tagged - it certainly does not have cover art, and one of the reasons I wanted to try out MC 15 is I periodically earch for a program that can do what I want, which includes art. I am really trying to avoid dragging my disks out of the basement and reencoding them, as I think it took me about 2 weeks the first time. Why didn't I pay for a service .....

I have not loved any of the programs I've tried for media management, so I am crossing my finger for this one. I play my music through Sonos currently but don't have it in my car because I refuse to re-encode to MP3 to put it in my phone and Apple refuses to support FLAC and transcode when sending to my iPhone, which is what would make the most sense for me.

As of now it is up to 6205 so it is definitely chugging away.