Jump to content

Slow Media Load Times


Recommended Posts

dark_slayer
Posted

Also switched back to Titan, and it is loading and processing much quicker now that I enabled compress artwork. With show indicators and resume percentages off it's very usable on the nexus at this point. I had hesitated since the first time around new years when I tried titan kept locking kodi up completely on artwork caching, but that could have had to do with the instability of 14.0 vs 14.1 for all x86 android builds of kodi instead on anything being related to Titan

 

I think the json reduction may still be needed for the popularity of the pi and fire TV as well as all upcoming arm android TV devices that won't be running an Intel or tegra k1 soc

Posted (edited)

It looks like you have some level of logging on?  Please try 0.9.778 - the JSON data is significantly reduced.

 

The idea with the Netflix mode is that you don't have to go into the traditional sections, it acts more like the Android/Roku clients.

Edited by xnappo
  • Like 1
marcelveldt
Posted

It looks like you have some level of logging on?  Please try 0.9.778 - the JSON data is significantly reduced.

 

The idea with the Netflix mode is that you don't have to go into the traditional sections, it acts more like the Android/Roku clients.

just a quick note that Titan skin uses that same method by default, the widgets will be preloaded with content.

marcelveldt
Posted

@@im85288 @@marcelveldt - I have changed this back and forth a few times, please confirm this doesn't break skin helper.  I have no idea why I reverted it in this commit:

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/MediaBrowser.Kodi/commit/cbc185c6988ab96b84b8c09cc0ff64a4e686cac3

 

It needs to be as it is now.  If it presents a skin helper issue, we need a different work-around.

In my testsetup it's still working :-)

 

If any users has problems with their menu tiles not populating in titan skin or info missing in the widgets this will be the result of this change but I think it's fine.

dark_slayer
Posted

It looks like you have some level of logging on? Please try 0.9.778 - the JSON data is significantly reduced.

 

The idea with the Netflix mode is that you don't have to go into the traditional sections, it acts more like the Android/Roku clients.

I let info logging run for that log

 

I'll try 778 when it hits. I'm running beta server updates

Posted

Okay - FYI the info logging doesn't tell us much from a time point of view - the 'profiler' is better for that. 

 

If you refresh the repo you should see 778 (or 779 :) ).

Posted

just a quick note that Titan skin uses that same method by default, the widgets will be preloaded with content.

It's a little more than just widgets, it is for All Movies/Genres, All Shows etc. Take a look and you'll see what we are referring too.

dark_slayer
Posted

Okay - FYI the info logging doesn't tell us much from a time point of view - the 'profiler' is better for that. 

 

If you refresh the repo you should see 778 (or 779 :) ).

Thanks forgot that stuff. It's been a while, so I'm a newb again (or I never got past being one in the first place :D )

marcelveldt
Posted

It's a little more than just widgets, it is for All Movies/Genres, All Shows etc. Take a look and you'll see what we are referring too.

Yes, I did that's why I said it, I use your netflix style for my widgets, filling lists with dynamic content from the addon.

That brings me to ideas... maybe we can build a custom window for our skins with content filled by the window props ?

Maybe something for the dev forum but this could be a step in having fast navigation on slow devices, altough I think that the recent changes in the addon made it already very fast.

Posted

Yeah, building a skin with views that don't use ListItem would be a lot faster.

marcelveldt
Posted

Also switched back to Titan, and it is loading and processing much quicker now that I enabled compress artwork. With show indicators and resume percentages off it's very usable on the nexus at this point. I had hesitated since the first time around new years when I tried titan kept locking kodi up completely on artwork caching, but that could have had to do with the instability of 14.0 vs 14.1 for all x86 android builds of kodi instead on anything being related to Titan

 

I think the json reduction may still be needed for the popularity of the pi and fire TV as well as all upcoming arm android TV devices that won't be running an Intel or tegra k1 soc

I know what this is.... This is the issue that the GPU memory is full. Is really a problem on devices like the Pi and almost every Kodi skin has this problem.

I am working on this issue with a helpfull member of the Kodi team to make optimizations in how memory is allocated and cleared in Kodi.

Basically if you browse your list with movies a lot of fanart and thumbs get stored into the gpu memory. A high quality fanart image can take up to 8MB to imagine how fast the memory can be full.

 

The workaround for this is to allow more memory to be used for the gpu memory. For the Pi you can do this is the confix.txt but I don't know about other devices.

While I was working on this with heavily debugging Kodi I discovered that the memory that is allocated doesn't get flushed very well.

It's all on this thread in Kodi forums if you're interested...

 

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=213368

 

It is not an issue related to skins or MediaBrowser, it's just that all the artwork has impact on the systems performance, on top of that the mediabrowser addon needs some processing power in python to provide the lists and that's what could hit some limits on low spec devices.

marcelveldt
Posted

Yeah, building a skin with views that don't use ListItem would be a lot faster.

OK, I will start working on a Proof of Concept for that. Just a window that loads all lists in the background.

  • Like 1
marcelveldt
Posted (edited)

@@xnappo, please take a look at phil's extendedinfo script for Kodi.

He did a nice job with paging...

Just run the main entry point for the script which loads all 200.000+ movies from IMDB in just 1 or 2 seconds.

Basically the list "pages" when you're scrolling...

 

I'm thinking about creating such a view but this might be the right solution for the addon as a whole.

Edited by marcelveldt
Posted

Yep,  that is the way to do it,  but it is a lot of work on the skin side. 

marcelveldt
Posted

Yep,  that is the way to do it,  but it is a lot of work on the skin side. 

I don't mind... I just did the work for the extendedinfo script in Titan and the result is amazing.

Got it to work with MB3 too so lot's of extended info pages available now in the skin.

 

BTW: I just did the first test with a custom view foe "fast movies" and the result:  instant! No loading time at all.

But, I have to say I'm testing this on a fast core i5 laptop so I need a voluteer to test on low spec device...

 

@@dark_slayer do you want to give this a test ? I can upload a beta version of the skin for you to try...

Posted

Can you explain more what you are doing?  Are you making a view that does not use listitem?

marcelveldt
Posted (edited)

Can you explain more what you are doing?  Are you making a view that does not use listitem?

I created a view which is filled with the listcontent from the allmovies node. Basically my own version of videonav.xml but with all the lists prefilled.

So the loading is still done but it happens in the background. The extendedinfo-method with paging is the better way though...

Edited by marcelveldt
dark_slayer
Posted

@@marcelveldt

 

Sure thing. I'll give it a go. I can do a zip if that's easier for you

marcelveldt
Posted

@@marcelveldt

 

Sure thing. I'll give it a go. I can do a zip if that's easier for you

Beta version 3.2.42 of the skin will be available within now and 30 minutes.

In the menu editor you can add a tile for "fast movies test beta", just add that tile and launch it...

 

Remember it's just a POC (proof of concept) so it only shows one view (big panel) and not all info is there.

It's just to see if it helps to load the list in the background for low powered devices...

dark_slayer
Posted

Okay, I'll try to get a little more scientific with the stop watch and compare fast to regular

dark_slayer
Posted

Beta version 3.2.42 of the skin will be available within now and 30 minutes.

In the menu editor you can add a tile for "fast movies test beta", just add that tile and launch it...

 

Remember it's just a POC (proof of concept) so it only shows one view (big panel) and not all info is there.

It's just to see if it helps to load the list in the background for low powered devices...

 

I need a little more explanation probably. In skin shortcuts, I can add a new item and under "Movies" there are "All Movies FAST TEST" and "All Movies FAST TEST 2" sections

 

I added those to the home screen, but no success yet. I'm in a spin of death lockup, letting movies spin for 4 minutes did nothing. Trying to go directly to the MediaBrowser add-on gives the same spinning progress wheel with no change.

 

I'll try again later with a log as well. Wife's watching TV now (in the sideloaded MB app :D )

dark_slayer
Posted (edited)

Okay, uninstalled then reinstalled Titan Beta

 

Processes for a long time upfront, then my Nexus reset :D didn't like something. I also am not seeing the fast movies test beta auto populate or anything. I can add it, but where am I looking when I add a new item under skin shortcuts? Is it Movies? There are the two fast test options in there, but I thought those are probably remnants from the xnappo fast processing testing. Anyway one thing at a time I suppose

 

Attached the log from before the reset

kodi.log

Edited by dark_slayer
dark_slayer
Posted

paging @@marcelveldt :D

 

Sorry your instruction looks simple, but I'm not too bright ;) If you could elaborate on what I'm adding I could test for you . . .

 

I need a little more explanation probably. In skin shortcuts, I can add a new item and under "Movies" there are "All Movies FAST TEST" and "All Movies FAST TEST 2" sections

Is ^this what you are looking for or something else

 

 

Also, not to pit you and @@im85288's skins against each other, but here are some things I noticed changing between the two

 

Titan

  • ​Processes a lot and for a long time (even before the latest beta) and doesn't seem to process much faster each time. If you enter, exit, and re-enter your TV Show collection multiple times it gets pretty fast. As soon as you head into movies, back to home, and back to tv shows it feels like the first time as far as processing time
  • Having watched and new indicators helps out a lot I think. Show indicators can be flipped off, so when just "hanging out" inside the TV Show collection the navigation gets very smooth. Into a show, into a season, back to all shows, all stays pretty fast (unless you go back to home and into movies, but I already said that). Since my wife watches a lot of TV Shows, this gets very manageable after all 70 shows are pretty much cached as long as we stay in TV Shows
  • "Latest Movies" only pulls the latest movies (both watched and unwatched) - again not to pit you against 1080XF but it always pulls the latest unwatched videos ;)

 

1080XF - Metro

  • ​Processes a lot on first entries into movies / tv shows
  • After some browsing going into TV Shows or Movies processes much faster
  • Going into and out of Seasons and Episodes and All Shows gets quite fast
  • The overall lack of indicators (watched) is a little problematic. With all the indicators turned on from the server, watching a show causes a pretty good delay before getting back to episodes. The "in-skin" watched indicators end up feeling a little faster / backgrounded / smoother like in Nox and Titan
  • I'm pretty certain there's a "New" indicator (a star) even when you have MB Server indicators turned off - but I can't find anywhere in the skin settings to add a "watched" indicator. Also the new or unatched indicator doesn't show on Series view, and we end up using that a lot to identify new shows were added (when the indicator is anything other than "watched" -- usually a number). I know we could hide all watched, but that has low WAF for me since she likes to go back and watch her favorite old shows as well as new ones
  • Like 2
Posted

Thats good feedback :) The skins are spurring each other on!

marcelveldt
Posted

I need a little more explanation probably. In skin shortcuts, I can add a new item and under "Movies" there are "All Movies FAST TEST" and "All Movies FAST TEST 2" sections

 

I added those to the home screen, but no success yet. I'm in a spin of death lockup, letting movies spin for 4 minutes did nothing. Trying to go directly to the MediaBrowser add-on gives the same spinning progress wheel with no change.

 

I'll try again later with a log as well. Wife's watching TV now (in the sideloaded MB app :D )

Hmmm, it probably needs some more work then... BTW, ignore fast test 2, I forgot to remove that one.

This is either an issue of the server locking up due to memory issues or the "trick" I tried just doesn't work. What it basically does is loading a slim version of "all movies" in the background and when you press the "all movies fast test" tile it will show that backgoundloaded list with the movies. Like I said on my fast dev laptop this works extermely fast but I haven't tested it on a low power device. I will give my raspberry Pi a try tomorrow, I bought one last week so I can do some more testing with speed optimizations for my skin and the addon.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...