Library loading/scrolling speed

[MikeMcEwan 11]

I love Emby Theater for Windows, and I've been using Emby/Media Browser for years now and I'm a lifetime premium owner. Before that I was a "Gold supporter", and I've gotten my friend onto Emby and he happily pays as well. I ripped my entire DVD collection to mp4 roughly six years ago and have been collecting ever since, so my collection hits the 4,000 display item limit of ET by about the letter "O".

 

My problem with Theater is how long it takes to load my collection. The main screen of Emby Theater loads, but doesn't have any titles loaded in it when I first fire it up. If I close the program, opening it back up again sometimes then gets it to load up the collection. At that point I can click "All Movies" and it will then bring them up, but scrolling horizontally is extremely choppy unless I click left/right very slowly to scroll. The second I start to scroll quickly it gets extremely choppy.

 

If I scroll too far ahead, the posters are slow to load and sometimes seemingly won't load at all, or take up to a minute.

 

These are really my only issues with Emby Theater...if it loaded quickly and scrolled nice I would be thrilled. Is there anything I can do to help this?

 

My system is a dedicated HTPC running Windows 10. Intel Core i3 with 2gb of RAM. C Drive is 2tb with all software installed onto it, and then probably 95% full of media. The rest of my collection spread out on six other drives; 3 internal and 4 external ranging from 2tb to 6tb. The computer's been running pretty much non-stop for six years and hasn't been formatted in years. Went from Windows 7 to Windows 10 roughly a year ago.

 

I have a high performance laptop connected through wifi to my HTPC and running Theater as a test machine. It doesn't help my problem any, but again it's only connected through wifi. It's a Core i7 with 12GB of RAM.

 

Any ideas?

[Guest asrequested]

Are your external hard drives USB or NAS?

[MikeMcEwan 11]

Are your external hard drives USB or NAS?

 

They're all USB 2.0

 

With larger drives coming out in the market, I will eventually replace all drives with a few larger internal drives.

[MikeMcEwan 11]

Does anybody reading this have a large collection (4,000+) that loads easily and scrolls smoothly?

[Guest asrequested]

Does anybody reading this have a large collection (4,000+) that loads easily and scrolls smoothly?

 

They do, but they have a NAS, most commonly. You should consider using a NAS. 

[MikeMcEwan 11]

They do, but they have a NAS, most commonly. You should consider using a NAS. 

 

With hard drives getting bigger, I could in theory have four 8TB internal drives in the future. Would a NAS still be better? I run Emby Theater on the same HTPC where the files are stored, and it's hooked up directly to my television with HDMI.

[Guest asrequested]

With hard drives getting bigger, I could in theory have four 8TB internal drives in the future. Would a NAS still be better? I run Emby Theater on the same HTPC where the files are stored, and it's hooked up directly to my television with HDMI.

 

I have an HTPC, too. Using such large discs isn't a great idea. There's much more risk of losing more data. I can fit 8 mechanical drives and 2 SSDs in my case. If you don't to get a NAS, get a case that can hold enough drives. This is the new version of my case. Mine has an optical drive bay. You can take your external drives apart, and put them in your computer.

 

https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-Tower-Matte-Black-Window/dp/B015401IWE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1472445411&sr=8-4&keywords=nzxt+440

 

Sorry, this is the case I have, very similar, same brand

 

https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-Ultra-Tower-CA-H630F-M1-Matte/dp/B00DKX0VLC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472446823&sr=8-1&keywords=nzxt+h630

Edited August 29, 2016 by Doofus

[MikeMcEwan 11]

I have an HTPC, too. Using such large discs isn't a great idea. There's much more risk of losing more data. I can fit 8 mechanical drives and 2 SSDs in my case. If you don't to get a NAS, get a case that can hold enough drives. This is the new version of my case. Mine has an optical drive bay. You can take your external drives apart, and put them in your computer.

 

https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-Tower-Matte-Black-Window/dp/B015401IWE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1472445411&sr=8-4&keywords=nzxt+440

 

Sorry, this is the case I have, very similar, same brand

 

https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-Ultra-Tower-CA-H630F-M1-Matte/dp/B00DKX0VLC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472446823&sr=8-1&keywords=nzxt+h630

 

Thanks for all the replies.

 

Are the external USB 2.0 hard drives most likely the problem? Any other ideas?

[Guest asrequested]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

Are the external USB 2.0 hard drives most likely the problem? Any other ideas?

 

It's most likely your external drives. Those drives only spin  at 5400 rpm, and with a USB 2.0 bus, the data transfer rate is low. Also, they spin down a lot. Your metadata is most likely stored with the movies, so they won't load as quickly. Out of curiosity, how do you have your libraries set up?

[Guest asrequested]

You could also try creating some space on your C drive (it's not a good idea to fill your primary drive), and adding some memory. 2GB is a little low, I'd suggest at least 8GB.

[MikeMcEwan 11]

It's most likely your external drives. Those drives only spin  at 5400 rpm, and with a USB 2.0 bus, the data transfer rate is low. Also, they spin down a lot. Your metadata is most likely stored with the movies, so they won't load as quickly. Out of curiosity, how do you have your libraries set up?

 

I have a "Movies" folder on each drive, and then each movie gets its own folder. Metadata is stored on the external drives inside the movie folders.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm going to be eliminating the external drives in the future, and adding more memory.

[Guest asrequested]

I have a "Movies" folder on each drive, and then each movie gets its own folder. Metadata is stored on the external drives inside the movie folders.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm going to be eliminating the external drives in the future, and adding more memory.

 

I was actually referring to your libraries, but I can see from your folder structure that your library is probably fine. As for your metadata, you could try moving it all to an internal SSD. But with the collection size that you have, unless you're confident in what you're doing, that could prove problematic. 

Edited August 31, 2016 by Doofus

[Jack Burton 94]

I'm in a similar situation, albeit with a much smaller library. Still have load time issues, which I think are primarily caused by my media being on external drives. I've set a program to write to each drive every few minutes to keep them awake, and that helped a bit. I'm basically trying to do what I can now since a new PC isn't in the cards for awhile. I did find a partial solution that seems to be working for me. Once Theatre has time to load does it perform smoothly? Mine tends to take anywhere from 1 minute to 5 or six to load everything, but when it's there, it runs pretty smooth. It's almost as if the server sleeps and has to reload the info, so I set up a secondary browser to reload Emby every minute (Firefox, Reloader add-on). Theatre now loads in 10 or 15 seconds. In the mean time maybe this will help?

[Guest asrequested]

I'm in a similar situation, albeit with a much smaller library. Still have load time issues, which I think are primarily caused by my media being on external drives. I've set a program to write to each drive every few minutes to keep them awake, and that helped a bit. I'm basically trying to do what I can now since a new PC isn't in the cards for awhile. I did find a partial solution that seems to be working for me. Once Theatre has time to load does it perform smoothly? Mine tends to take anywhere from 1 minute to 5 or six to load everything, but when it's there, it runs pretty smooth. It's almost as if the server sleeps and has to reload the info, so I set up a secondary browser to reload Emby every minute (Firefox, Reloader add-on). Theatre now loads in 10 or 15 seconds. In the mean time maybe this will help?

 

You can set how long your hard drives stay active. You can even set them to never turning off.

 

 Control Panel > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings

 

The only external hard drive I've ever had is now an internal drive. You can take them out of the case (mine did not come out easily), and make them an internal drive.

 

Edited August 31, 2016 by Doofus

[Luke 37008]

The issue is that Theater loads your entire library and scrolls all of it at once, when what it needs to do is only display about 50 items and shuffle them in and out magically as you scroll. This is called virtualized scrolling and it's still on my to do list. It's also on my to do list for the built-in web app, which is why that app has paging buttons. Once we have this feature the UI will be able to handle scrolling millions of items quickly without any delay.

[Guest asrequested]

The issue is that Theater loads your entire library and scrolls all of it at once, when what it needs to do is only display about 50 items and shuffle them in and out magically as you scroll. This is called virtualized scrolling and it's still on my to do list. It's also on my to do list for the built-in web app, which is why that app has paging buttons. Once we have this feature the UI will be able to handle scrolling millions of items quickly without any delay.

 

So loading the metadata will be more efficient? 

[MikeMcEwan 11]

The issue is that Theater loads your entire library and scrolls all of it at once, when what it needs to do is only display about 50 items and shuffle them in and out magically as you scroll. This is called virtualized scrolling and it's still on my to do list. It's also on my to do list for the built-in web app, which is why that app has paging buttons. Once we have this feature the UI will be able to handle scrolling millions of items quickly without any delay.

 

That would be unbelievable! That's exactly what I'm waiting for, and I'm sure others will benefit, too.

 

 

I'm in a similar situation, albeit with a much smaller library. Still have load time issues, which I think are primarily caused by my media being on external drives. I've set a program to write to each drive every few minutes to keep them awake, and that helped a bit. I'm basically trying to do what I can now since a new PC isn't in the cards for awhile. I did find a partial solution that seems to be working for me. Once Theatre has time to load does it perform smoothly? Mine tends to take anywhere from 1 minute to 5 or six to load everything, but when it's there, it runs pretty smooth. It's almost as if the server sleeps and has to reload the info, so I set up a secondary browser to reload Emby every minute (Firefox, Reloader add-on). Theatre now loads in 10 or 15 seconds. In the mean time maybe this will help?

 

I may try this as a stop-gap, thanks. But I do leave my HTPC on 24/7 and don't want to burning out the hard drives from over-use.

[elfman12 1]

Does anybody reading this have a large collection (4,000+) that loads easily and scrolls smoothly?

I have 3 RAID 5 towers attached via USB3 (2) and Esata (1) to the Server PC that also is running ET. I get very slow load times at first as well, especially when scrolling through movie titles. The transfer speed to these drives are normal, and they never go to sleep. The metadata is on these external drives.

 

Is there a guide that explains moving all metadata to an internal SSD or other high-speed drive? If that helps I'd be willing to give it a shot. Thanks!

[Guest asrequested]

I think @@Happy2Play would be the best to ask

[Dibbes 431]

I have 3 RAID 5 towers attached via USB3 (2) and Esata (1) to the Server PC that also is running ET. I get very slow load times at first as well, especially when scrolling through movie titles. The transfer speed to these drives are normal, and they never go to sleep. The metadata is on these external drives.

 

Is there a guide that explains moving all metadata to an internal SSD or other high-speed drive? If that helps I'd be willing to give it a shot. Thanks!

 

I have a 4000+ movie collection and 30k series episodes on a 50TB NAS. I have similar issues as described here. Quite often ET won't even load the normal layout properly and I have not yet found a way to force the load.

[MikeMcEwan 11]

Thinking of buying this hard drive today, with the intention of never needing to upgrade it down the line:

 

http://www.ncix.com/detail/western-digital-wd80efzx-8tb-red-88-127793.htm

 

I'm sure it's fine but can anyone verify that the above drive has good speed and specs for Emby? I'm also going to pick up some more RAM.

 

I don't expect it to completely solve my problem of slow loading speed, but it can't hurt and I don't want to have these external drives all plugged in anymore.

 

My HTPC case only holds four internal drives, but I like the look and style of it so I don't want to replace it. The above drive would allow me to replace one internal 2TB drive (necessary cause I don't have an open slot) and two 3TB external drives, which I can then sell on Craigslist.

[Guest asrequested]

That link doesn't go to a specific item

[MikeMcEwan 11]

That link doesn't go to a specific item

 

Sorry, here's the same hard drive on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Western-Digital-WD80EFZX-SATA3-128MB/dp/B01BYLY4DM

 

"Western Digital WD80EFZX 8TB Red SATA3 6GB/S 128MB Cache 3.5in Hard Drive"

[Guest asrequested]

Ok so they are for NAS. Some people have trouble putting NAS drives as internal. I have two in RAID 1 in my system, and they work very well. In the picture, the drive you've picked has it's RPM in blue. I would encourage a faster speed (highlighted in red). But in general, those drives are pretty good. What OS are you running? Some OSs won't support that size. Take a look at this

 

Edited September 5, 2016 by Doofus

[MikeMcEwan 11]

Ok so they are for NAS. Some people have trouble putting NAS drives as internal. I have two in RAID 1 in my system, and they work very well. In the picture, the drive you've picked has it's RPM in blue. I would encourage a faster speed (highlighted in red). But in general, those drives are pretty good. What OS are you running? Some OSs won't support that size. Take a look at this

 

 

 

The Red Pro 7200RPM drive is out of my price range, unfortunately. The cost goes from $400 (already pushing it) up to $625.

 

I'm running Windows 10.

 

Is there any reason why I really should not buy this drive? Thanks for the response and help