Idea for thumbnail speed improvement

[Snyper]

This may be something you're taking care of in v3 anyway, but I thought I would mention it just in case.

From within the Mezzmo application, if I click a folder with lots of movies in it (for the first time), it can take a long time before the thumbnails are displayed. It appears that the library is being (checked for changes, or) generated. This then seems to be reused for successive clicks until the application is closed and reopened later, when the delay will appear again.

Would it be possible to do the following ... When a user clicks on a folder/playlist, display the last-known thumbnails and do the checking/generating/updating in the background. This way, if I click on a folder just to change the permissions or filters then I don't need to wait for the display to update before I can do anything.

Thanks again guys. I can't wait for the next version to be released.

[Paul]

Hi Snyper,

Thanks for the suggestion. Folders are a little slower than playlists to display in Mezzmo since they are dynamically listed (Mezzmo goes to disk and gets the list of files each time you click on the folder in Mezzmo). The first time you click on a folder, then the thumbnails are generated for it. The next time you click on the folder, the thumbnails come from Mezzmo's thumbnail cache/database so it should be faster. Anyway, we'll take a look and see if we can speed things up.

[Gus]

Hi Paul,
not sure if this is the same as my tiny issue, not big enough to raise, but a pain all the same!

All my folders are physical and added to Mezzmo. I have a "TV" folder, with about 40 subfolders for each TV show, each subfolder has a folder.jpg so i can see a cover in Mezzmo.

Every time i click TV folder, there is a 20-30 seconds pause while it checks for each folder.jpg (i assume), even after i click away and come back, or reload Mezzmo. There is still this 20-30 second pause before i can navigate the TV shows folders.

Again its no big deal, just a pain. so no rush.
cheers

Gus

[Paul]

Thanks for reporting this, Gus. We'll check it out.

[Gus]

Hi Paul,

i've not got round to upgrading to v3 yet, mainly because everything is working so well, so need to make some time. I just wanted to check if there had been any progress within v3 for caching folder.jpg files?
my problem isnt a huge one since its only a 30second wait when i click the TV folder in Mezzmo. However a friend has 250 movie folders each with a folder.jpg, and he waits 4-5mins

no rush

cheers
Gus

[Paul]

Hi Gus,

Sorry - we have not done any work on folder.jpg files as yet. My guess is that it is not the reason for the slowness. To confirm this, you could rename your 'folder.jpg' files to (say) '_folder.jpg' and then try browsing the folders again with your DLNA device to see if it is any faster. My guess is that it will be the same. Let us know your findings.

When you first browse a folder in Mezzmo or on your device, Mezzmo gets the list of files and adds these file into your Mezzmo library (including getting the text metadata and artwork). The metadata and artwork are stored in the Mezzmo database for fast retrieval. When you browse the folder again, Mezzmo already has the metadata and artwork so this step is skipped (meaning your folder.jpg files should not be accessed again). The slowness you are experiencing would be coming from accessing your drive, getting the list of files & checking for any changes. That is where we may need to address speed issues. We'll look into it.

Another possible reason: Is the drive a NAS drive or external USB drive? It is possible that the drive has gone into it's sleep mode and it requires a few seconds to wake up before Mezzmo can get the list of files. Try turning off sleep mode on your drive's settings and see if this helps.

[Gus]

Hi Gus,

Sorry - we have not done any work on folder.jpg files as yet. My guess is that it is not the reason for the slowness. To confirm this, you could rename your 'folder.jpg' files to (say) '_folder.jpg' and then try browsing the folders again with your DLNA device to see if it is any faster. My guess is that it will be the same. Let us know your findings.

When you first browse a folder in Mezzmo or on your device, Mezzmo gets the list of files and adds these file into your Mezzmo library (including getting the text metadata and artwork). The metadata and artwork are stored in the Mezzmo database for fast retrieval. When you browse the folder again, Mezzmo already has the metadata and artwork so this step is skipped (meaning your folder.jpg files should not be accessed again). The slowness you are experiencing would be coming from accessing your drive, getting the list of files & checking for any changes. That is where we may need to address speed issues. We'll look into it.

Another possible reason: Is the drive a NAS drive or external USB drive? It is possible that the drive has gone into it's sleep mode and it requires a few seconds to wake up before Mezzmo can get the list of files. Try turning off sleep mode on your drive's settings and see if this helps.

Sorry i should have explained it a little better, my slow issue isnt with the DLNA device, its slow in the Mezzmo app. When i click the TV folder there is a 30second delay when nothing happens, then all the folders are shown as covers. If i click another folder and come to TV, the same delay every time.
As a test, i have renamed all the folder.jpg files and the TV folder now shows in about 3seconds. No other change made, only renamed the folder.jpg in all subfolders in TV. About 30 subfolders.

Lastly the disk is local and mounted in the server so not USB or NAS.

Cheers

Gus

[Paul]

Understand now, Gus. Thanks - we'll test this here and speed it up.

[Gus]

Paul,

Just installed the latest version 3.0.2.0. and the thumbnail delay is now gone. (I reinstated all the folder.jpg files) The first display of the TV folder took just a few seconds which is great. However going back to the TV folder it shows almost instant every time.

Superb result.

Really appreciate it.

thank you.

-Gus

[Paul]

Great to hear, Gus. Thanks for the testing feedback.