Why use "save preview video thumbnails into media folders"?

[MBSki 1114]

What's the advantage of using the "save preview video thumbnails into media folders" setting? I see it saves a bif file next to the video so the only advantage I can see is that it's easier to delete the bif and re-create the thumbnails if needed. I can't imagine it's any faster though. Is there any other advantage I'm missing?

[ebr 16178]

Not having to re-create them if you move the item or re-install the server.

[MBSki 1114]

4 minutes ago, ebr said:

Not having to re-create them if you move the item or re-install the server.

Got it, ok, thanks. If I use the portable install though and just move the entire Emby folder it isn't regenerating though right? So the biggest advantage is when doing a clean re-install.

[kikinjo 281]

It would be good to know more about it, how are they read..are they read every time user gets into detail of movie / show, are they cached on server / client.

I m asking because if you use gdrive for storing media like i do and many others, putting bif images could be big degradation of speed in clients if they are always fetched from

"storage location". More details would be useful.

[rbjtech 5284]

Depending on the number obviously, the storage for them is not insignificant either - I have ~80Gb of them which is why I choose to save on alternative drives and not with the emby install. 

[Neminem 1518]

I use a nvme drive for metadata + thumbnails, serve pictures as fast as possible to client.

and a old ssd scrap drive for transcoding, easy to swap out if s@#t happens.

That does mean the initial library scan takes a long time, if i need to rebuild.

But i do that in sequence scan + meta, next step thumbnails.

That will get your library ready fast, but without thumb for chapters, that's done later.

 

[Neminem 1518]

Ups forgot another step I push back, and that's intro skip, that's done last.

[kikinjo 281]

14 hours ago, rbjtech said:

Depending on the number obviously, the storage for them is not insignificant either - I have ~80Gb of them which is why I choose to save on alternative drives and not with the emby install. 

Yes it can take a lot of space, thats why i m exploring to put it beside media file wich means google drive, but wonder if it will slow down browsing. Will test in next few days, this scenario. Since i use rclone and local VFS cache, think it will be the same but need to confirm.

[rbjtech 5284]

14 minutes ago, kikinjo said:

Yes it can take a lot of space, thats why i m exploring to put it beside media file wich means google drive, but wonder if it will slow down browsing. Will test in next few days, this scenario. Since i use rclone and local VFS cache, think it will be the same but need to confirm.

Depends what you mean by 'browsing'.    It's only loaded when it needs the thumbnails during 'chapters' or 'scrobbing' - if you simply open an item and press play, I don't believe the BIF is even loaded.    I don't see any delay loading it myself, but this could be because it's remapped in my file system to be on fast NVME (despite being listed alongside the media drives from a file system allocation perspective) but if it needed to load it from a remote source, I could see there being a one off delay until it is cached in memory. 

[kikinjo 281]

4 hours ago, rbjtech said:

Depends what you mean by 'browsing'.    It's only loaded when it needs the thumbnails during 'chapters' or 'scrobbing' - if you simply open an item and press play, I don't believe the BIF is even loaded.    I don't see any delay loading it myself, but this could be because it's remapped in my file system to be on fast NVME (despite being listed alongside the media drives from a file system allocation perspective) but if it needed to load it from a remote source, I could see there being a one off delay until it is cached in memory. 

by browsing i mean client enters movie..and bif needs to be displayed. Did not see anywhere on forum if bifs are cached, how long are cached if they are...etc...

With my setup rclone gdrive..basically it will be cached locally in VFS cache, but cache is limited in space, that's why i will explore this further. Its nice if u move server that bifs are there in media folders so no need to rescan again.