Jump to content

Takes a long time to load the artwork.....


Recommended Posts

Koleckai Silvestri
Posted (edited)

The image files can be large as I have some that are 2 and 3 megabytes. 

 

The speed of downloading the metadata relies on several things but your CPU speed isn't one of them usually. Your internet connect, network saturation and the response times of the provider sites do have a large effect. For instance, thetvdb.com has been slow to respond to API requests for the last few days. Not sure if they are throttling the requests or I simply have a bad route waiting for a third-party router to be replaced. After the initial update though it should be quicker as you're loading it off your machine.

Edited by Wayne Luke
Posted

There isn't any useful information in that log. Notice all the response times contained within are small, ~ 50ms

Macburp
Posted

Hello. I've noticed that when I add new content to my video collection, MB3 takes 90-120 seconds to load the artwork. This is a l-o-n-g time.

 

I don't have the swiftest of processors in the server PC - Intel Pentium G620 dual core @2.6Ghz - so a fair bit of load time is to be expected I suppose. Is there any way to reduce it? Does the server have to check every bit of artwork if it notices changes (does it do that)? The artwork loads instantly if there have been no changes. Why does it need to take forever to load the artwork if the server regularly scans the media library? Have I completely misunderstood how it all works?

 

Anyway, link to server log - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22367822/server-63537024554.txt

 

ttfn

Posted

Can you define what you mean by "load the artwork"?

 

Do you mean download the original files from the internet or load them into some view in some client?  If the latter, what view and what client?

Macburp
Posted

Can you define what you mean by "load the artwork"?

 

Do you mean download the original files from the internet or load them into some view in some client?  If the latter, what view and what client?

OK. On my extender I have an entry point into ny films and my videos, bypassing the EHS (using the little hack that you guys don't support). When I open up MBC on my extender the list view for chocolate is loaded, then takes a long time to load cover art, album covers and logos. Basically, all the eye candy in the image below

 

kClBzpi.jpg

 

Should this lot not be in the cache already? Or is there a setting that I've got wrong?

 

Have noticed load times for this are a bit slow on my NowTV box too, hence why I posted in the server forum.

Posted

Does it behave any differently if you don't use the hack?

 

What about on the host PC?

Macburp
Posted

Does it behave any differently if you don't use the hack?

 

What about on the host PC?

 

No and No.

 

I opened up MBC on the host PC today (first time in a long time), and the load took about 90s.

 

Interestingly, if the MB3 session is interrupted in any way (the extender crashes a fair bit) and I restart, the artwork loads either straight away or a lot quicker than first time round.

 

I also have the standard MB3 icon that takes me into an account with EHS enabled, when I pick one of videos or films I have the same long load time.

Posted

I would need to see an MBC log to have any clue.  As Luke said, the server log you posted has nothing but fast response times in it.

Posted

Everything on that machine appears to be running very slowly.  For instance, your plug-in loading took 8 seconds.  On my machine - with a lot more plug-ins - it takes 1.99 seconds.

 

However, the main culprit is one particular call which is timing out (taking over 30 seconds).

 

Please bring up the web client with the same user you are using for MBC.  Then go to the detail page for any item.  Then find the part of the URL that looks like:

id=dcbf9015e52069e0567f205ff9c79422

and replace the part after id= with:

8d705bfe-5204-3280-ec06-a39936464c4e

hit enter and paste a screen shot of what shows up.  Whatever that item is is what is taking forever to retrieve from the server.

 

Also, it looks like you have the EHS turned off.  Is that correct?

Macburp
Posted

Here's the screenshot - 

 

wofBgJd.jpg

 

This is the first series in my list (alphabetically) that is not marked watched. Would it be a good idea to move this series out of the way?

 

 



Also, it looks like you have the EHS turned off.  Is that correct?

 

Yes for that account. I have two accounts I use for MBC with EHS turned off, plus another (that rarely gets used) with EHS on. Using the unofficial entry point hack I don't need the EHS.

 

Thanks for your help.

Posted

Interesting. Just a TV series with one season?

 

Is it possible you have drives that are spun down at the time you are trying this?

Macburp
Posted

Interesting. Just a TV series with one season?

 

Is it possible you have drives that are spun down at the time you are trying this?

 

Unlikely. All my drives are inside one PC, which is also the MB3 server and main PC for WMC.

 

The Caesars is a one season show. I added it to my collection in MB2 daya, and so there are *-mediainfo.data files present in the metadata folder as well as xml files. That's all I can see that's different.

Posted

Just because they are inside the box doesn't mean the drives don't spin down.  Most "green" drives these days do spin down after a period of inactivity.

 

My green drives take maybe 30 seconds to come back alive when they are spun down.  What you are describing and what I saw in the log does look like a hardware delay of some sort.

 

Can you find the server log that matches up with the MBC log you posted above?

Macburp
Posted

The server log for that period was a very large file, so I've taken an extract, hope it provides all you need - 

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22367822/server%20log%20artwork.txt

 

Checked my power settings and my drives spin down after 20 minutes. However, would not the drives spin up as part of the extender boot-up? Or would that be the system drive only?

Posted

The drive will only spin up when content on that particular drive is requested.  It looks like that is what is happening here.

 

You can increase the time-out in the advanced panel of MBC so that it will eventually get the items in this situation instead of timing out.

Macburp
Posted

Well, I increased the time out to the max allowed - 12 secs - but it has not really improved matters :(. I store metadata locally - would it help to store these on a central cache on the system disk?

Posted

The maximum timeout is 120 seconds (two minutes).

 

Bottom line - we are waiting on either your hardware or the server here.  As I said, the WMC host machine seems really slow too - what are its specs?

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...