Cache All Artwork vs Enable Artwork Caching, etc.

[ulrick65 20]

First off...as always, I love Emby for Kodi...great work on this and it keeps getting better all the time!

 

I have a few questions I was hoping to get some help on:

 

1.  Could someone explain what "Cache All Artwork" and "Enable Artwork Caching" do and perhaps how they interact with each other?

 

2.  I got the message to enable the web server in order to cache the artwork (that's new I think...I don't recall seeing that before at least?).  I went in and did it but I am not sure how to tell if its working correctly or what port and username to choose or where to set the values, etc.  Any help on that would be appreciated.  Also, an explanation as to what it is doing with the web server would help me understand it better.

 

3.  I am curious what to set the paging settings to for my setup, I move them up and syncs do seem to go faster, just not sure how high I should go or what the downside it?  I run Kodi on an Nvidia Shield and my emby server runs on a full linux server on Ubuntu 18.04 with plenty of ram, etc....way more horsepower then it needs, but I had the computer left over from an upgrade so why not.  Any pointers on these two settings would be great.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

  

[sualfred 677]

1. It will cache all images to Kodi in one task. If disabled Kodi caches them once they will be accessed. 

2. Wasn't new but never mentioned anywhere: To enable the artwork caching it's required to enable the Kodi webservice, which is mandatory to get JSON RPC calls running.

3. Leave it to its default value

[ulrick65 20]

1. It will cache all images to Kodi in one task. If disabled Kodi caches them once they will be accessed. 

2. Wasn't new but never mentioned anywhere: To enable the artwork caching it's required to enable the Kodi webservice, which is mandatory to get JSON RPC calls running.

3. Leave it to its default value

 

Thanks for the reply, but would like to understand a little better:

 

1.  So what is the purpose of the setting to Enable Artwork Caching?  I get that running the Cache All Artwork goes out and does it all at once...so what is the purpose of the other setting?  In other words, if I Enable Artwork Cache but Don't run the Cache All Artwork...what is the difference?  Does Emby somehow then simply cache on the fly?  If so, how is that different then Kodi caching on the fly?

 

2.  Thanks.  So I assume Emby somehow uses the JSON RPC to communicate to KODI about the cached artwork then.

 

3.  I don't understand why I would leave it at the default if it improves Sync speed...so I would like to have a little more details around this please.  I understand what the threads are, I understand what the limit per thread is...what I am wondering is how is this working such that increasing one or the other (or both) improves speed.  Does Emby ask for say 15 titles per thread and then wait some period of time before asking for 15 more or ?

 

Thanks.

[sualfred 677]

1. Kodi always caches all thumbs. It's just to speed this one up in task.

2. Emby never commuinicates. The addon communicates with Kodi and reports back to the server. On Python basis. Some tasks are based on JSONRPC.

3. Because the default works best. Changing it can cause issues on slower or "less stable" devices. And Kodi on Android is not the most stable solution that exists. The sync is already fast as f. 1000 movies, 10000 songs, 200 shows, 7000 episodes. 4minutes. Only change the values if you are having issues.

[ulrick65 20]

I guess I am not clear with my questions here. 

 

I know that Kodi caches thumbs, I know that the Add On does all the talking...I was simply stating "Emby" for short for the "Emby for Kodi Add-On". 

 

What I am trying to figure out is why there is a setting in the Add On that specifically says "Enable Artwork Caching".  As if to mean that if I don't turn that on, then the Add On will NOT do any artwork caching.  Since I have had that off, and I have had all my artwork displaying normally for a long time using this Add On...then I can only assume that Kodi is doing the caching directly (which I understand that it does) so therefore:  What is the purpose of the setting?  Why have it and what does it do differently if I enable it?

 

I fully understand the "Task" of "Cache All Artwork"...that makes sense to me, if I run that it goes out and caches ALL the artwork at once.  Fully understandable.  I don't understand why it needs the webserver to do that, but I don't really care much...that was just my curiosity more than a need to know for some reason.  But the "setting" of "Enable Artwork Caching" all by itself does not make any sense to me...if I turn it on, what exactly does it do differently?

 

As far as the 15/3 of requests/threads that doesn't really explain much as to how it works...simply stating "It works best" is relative I would think.  I have well over 20,000 media items in my library....on two different servers at just 50TB.  My syncs when I do a Local Database Reset (which I have done many) take a lot longer then 4 minutes...more like 20 to 30 would be my guess, but I have never timed it.  When I increase these settings to 25/5 it sped it up a LOT (again, I didn't time it...but it appears to be twice as fast to me just watching it plow through the 6 libraries now).  So I would like to understand what this setting does and if by increasing it I might be introducing other issues (that I have not seen so far, except perhaps with the occasional missing thumbnail?).

 

I am not trying to be difficult here at all...as I have said, I love this Add On and Emby itself...I am a full supporter and will continue to be so as long as it is available.  I am fairly competent in this kind of stuff and I am having some issues with thumbnail displays that I am trying to track down and want to understand how these settings might play a part in that is all.

 

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

[TeamB 2352]

"Enable Artwork Caching"

This caches artwork as the sync occures, so if you sync a new movie the artwork is cached at the same time the movie is added to the local DB so when you go to view it the art is already there.

 

Yes Kodi caches artwork as it is viewed but this requires on first seen artwork to be loaded form the server and this can take a sec or so. The cahching at sync time can give you a better experience.

[ulrick65 20]

"Enable Artwork Caching"

This caches artwork as the sync occures, so if you sync a new movie the artwork is cached at the same time the movie is added to the local DB so when you go to view it the art is already there.

 

Yes Kodi caches artwork as it is viewed but this requires on first seen artwork to be loaded form the server and this can take a sec or so. The cahching at sync time can give you a better experience.

 

 

Thanks!  That's exactly what I wanted to know about that.  That makes sense to have that on.  I will also enable the webserver which is required to turn that I on from what I understand.

 

Thanks for the update.