Mezzmo Kodi Addon Update

[RonB]

Hi Jeff,

The latest release (n) is a few seconds faster.

My TV shows, Documentaries, and Concerts folders are now loading within 1-2 seconds; very nice.

My two movie folders are opening a few seconds faster than before. (takes about 9 seconds to load ~300 movies, was about 12 seconds before).

Nice improvement for sure.

Thanks for your hard work,

Ron

[jbinkley60]

An updated version of the Mezzmo Kodi addon for both Kodi v18 (v1.0.9.1) and Kodi 19 beta
v2.0.0.0o) have been posted on GitHub. These versions contain a number of database changes
to allow the addon to differentiate between movies and TV episodes.

Here's the list of enhancements and bug fixes:


v1.0.9.1 Kodi 18

• Fixed issue with Kodi database cache clearing where not all records
in the cache table associated with Mezzmo were being deleted.
• Improved handling of TV Episodes in the Kodi database so that they
now appear as TV episodes vs. movies, with the proper season, episode
and similar information when an actor search is performed.
*** If the Add TV Episodes option has previously been enabled a
Kodi database clear on startup is required to repopulate with
the proper tags. ***


v2.0.0.0o Kodi 19

• Fixed issue with Kodi database cache clearing where not all records
in the cache table associated with Mezzmo were being deleted.
• Improved handling of TV Episodes in the Kodi database so that they
now appear as TV episodes vs. movies, with the proper season, episode
and similar information when an actor search is performed.
*** If the Add TV Episodes option has previously been enabled a
Kodi database clear on startup is required to repopulate with
the proper tags. ***


There are separate links for the Kodi 18 and Kodi 19 versions. The Kodi 19 version is based upon the
latest Kodi 18 v1.0.9.1 code.

Kodi 18 link

Kodi 19 link

Click on the download source as a zip option and then to add it to Kodi by using the install from zip file option.

These releases should be the last changes for a bit unless a bug is reported. There are no new features
on the request list. When Kodi 19 is officially released the version numbering will be better aligned.

Feedback and feature requests are always welcome.


Jeff

[jbinkley60]

Hi Jeff,

The latest release (n) is a few seconds faster.

My TV shows, Documentaries, and Concerts folders are now loading within 1-2 seconds; very nice.

My two movie folders are opening a few seconds faster than before. (takes about 9 seconds to load ~300 movies, was about 12 seconds before).

Nice improvement for sure.

Thanks for your hard work,

Ron

Thanks Ron. I appreciate the feedback. I am thinking longer term about the database sync activity being a background process vs. real time as you open playlists. That's a bit more coding effort. I do have a question. If you disable the change detection option but leave actor copy and caching enabled, how does that change the performance numbers above ? I believe some of the performance is greatly impacted by the individual device CPU processing power and storage type for the Kodi database. I don't have an nVidia Shield to test with.

Thanks,

Jeff

[jbinkley60]

An updated version of the Mezzmo Kodi addon for both Kodi v18 (v1.0.9.2) and Kodi 19 beta
v2.0.0.0p) have been posted on GitHub. These versions contain a minor bug fix.



v1.0.9.2 Kodi 18

• Fixed bug introduced in v1.0.9.1 which would cause invalid metadata
changes to be detected in TV episodes. The only impacts were a slight
slowness loading large TV episode playlists and erroneous Kodi log
messages stating that a metadata change was detected.


v2.0.0.0p Kodi 19

• Fixed bug introduced in v2.0.0.0o which would cause invalid metadata
changes to be detected in TV episodes. The only impacts were a slight
slowness loading large TV episode playlists and erroneous Kodi log
messages stating that a metadata change was detected.


There are separate links for the Kodi 18 and Kodi 19 versions. The Kodi 19 version is based upon the
latest Kodi 18 v1.0.9.2 code.

Kodi 18 link

Kodi 19 link

Click on the download source as a zip option and then to add it to Kodi by using the install from zip file option.



Feedback and feature requests are always welcome.


Jeff

[jbinkley60]

I’ve been testing some early background tasking code for the Kodi addon. Before I get too far into development in this area I’d like to get some feedback on what folks might be interested in and a better understanding on how folks use their Kodi clients.

I am looking at 3 potential features for background processing:

• Loading the remaining TV episodes for a series whenever you click on a TV episode for the first time. Currently the Kodi database only gets updates with the episodes in the playlist you are browsing. As you browse more seasons it gets updated.
• Checking existing movies in the Kodi database to see if they have been deleted from Mezzmo or if there are any metadata or codec changes . Right now the only way to delete a movie in the Kodi database that has been removed from Mezzmo is with a database clear function. Metadata and codec changes are currently detected at playlist browse time if the feature is enabled in the addon options.
• Full Mezzmo and Kodi database synchronization.

One of the big questions around any background tasks and the timing of the tasks is understanding whether folks generally leave their devices powered on when not watching video content or whether you turn them off. Kodi provides the ability to background task only when videos aren’t playing to avoid impacting the performance of the device but the devices need to be powered on for background tasks to run.

I am curious to get feedback on the features above and your current usage. Also if there are any other similar features you might be interested in seeing.


Thanks,

Jeff

[jbinkley60]

An updated version of the Mezzmo Kodi addon for both Kodi v18 (v1.0.9.3) and Kodi 19 beta
v2.0.0.0p) have been posted on GitHub. These versions contain bug fixes found during bulk
synchronization testing between Mezzmo and Kodi using ~12,000 files in a single update.


v1.0.9.3 Kodi 18

• Fixed 2 bugs found in streamdetails change detection and title checking
during bulk Mezzmo/Kodi sync testing which would cause Kodi not to be
updated with Mezzmo data when browsing playlists and would abort the
upcoming Mezzmo / Kodi sync process feature.
• Updated TV Episode dupe checking to match on series name, season and
episode. This eliminates duplicates in the Kodi database due to episode
naming and display title differences across playlists.


v2.0.0.0q Kodi 19

• Fixed 3 bugs found in streamdetails change detection and title checking
during bulk Mezzmo/Kodi sync testing which would cause Kodi not to be
updated with Mezzmo data when browsing playlists and would abort the
upcoming Mezzmo / Kodi sync process feature.
• Updated TV Episode dupe checking to match on series name, season and
episode. This eliminates duplicates in the Kodi database due to episode
naming and display title differences across playlists.


There are separate links for the Kodi 18 and Kodi 19 versions. The Kodi 19 version is based upon the
latest Kodi 18 v1.0.9.3 code.

Kodi 18 link

Kodi 19 link

Click on the download source as a zip option and then to add it to Kodi by using the install from zip file option.



Feedback and feature requests are always welcome.


Jeff

[jbinkley60]

I've begun testing and preparing for a background sync process which will sync Kodi's
database to Mezzmo. As part of this I've been using a Mezzmo database which has around
12,000 video files including movies, TV episodes, home movie video files, instructional DVDs
and more. I noticed that syncing some of the later categories caused some Kodi error
messages in the logs. Those have been cleaned up in this release. I've also completed
sync timing testing across a few common Kodi client platforms. The results indicate that
the disc storage speed is the key factor but since this is planning to be a background
process it shouldn't be as important. Smaller databases will sync much faster.

Sync times

Vero 4K+ Wireless *********** 5 min 29 secs
Vero 4K+ Wired ************* 5 min 27 secs
Raspberry Pi 4 Wireless ***** 18 min 40 secs
Intel NUC Wired ************* 1 min 24 secs
PC ************************** 57 sec


An updated version of the Mezzmo Kodi addon for both Kodi v18 (v1.0.9.4) and Kodi 19 beta
v2.0.0.0r) have been posted on GitHub. These versions contain bug fixes found during bulk
synchronization testing between Mezzmo and Kodi using ~12,000 files in a single update and
the first release of the background task feature..


v1.0.9.4 Kodi 18

• Added background task feature. Initial task feature updates the Kodi
image cache timers for Mezzmo images on startup and every 30 minutes.
Images which were recently viewed will have their timers reset to check
for a newer image. This will eliminate the need to clear the Kodi
cache to detect Mezzmo image updates. Image updates will now be
detected automatically.
• Improved category mapping logic to allow users to maintain complete
flexibility with Mezzmo categories that will be mapped into the standard
Kodi media type categories.
• Improved stream details change detection so that it now repairs missing
Kodi database stream details by resyncing with Mezzmo. Previously just
a log message was written into the Kodi.log file.


v2.0.0.0r Kodi 19

• Added background task feature. Initial task feature updates the Kodi
image cache timers for Mezzmo images on startup and every 30 minutes.
Images which were recently viewed will have their timers reset to check
for a newer image. This will eliminate the need to clear the Kodi
cache to detect Mezzmo image updates. Image updates will now be
detected automatically.
• Improved category mapping logic to allow users to maintain complete
flexibility with Mezzmo categories that will be mapped into the standard
Kodi media type categories.
• Improved stream details change detection so that it now repairs missing
Kodi database stream details by resyncing with Mezzmo. Previously just
a log message was written into the Kodi.log file.


There are separate links for the Kodi 18 and Kodi 19 versions. The Kodi 19 version is based upon the
latest Kodi 18 v1.0.9.4 code.

Kodi 18 link

Kodi 19 link

Click on the download source as a zip option and then to add it to Kodi by using the install from zip file option.

Once you install the new code you can determine if the background processing is working by looking for these
types of messages in your kodi.log file. The first one should be 10 seconds after Kodi starts and then every
30 minutes afterwards.

2020-08-06 08:18:36.276 T:29148 NOTICE: Mezzmo textures cache timers 631 rows updated.

I'd appreciate if some of you could install these versions on platforms I haven't tested and provide
feedback, especially Android based systems.

Feedback and feature requests are always welcome.


Thanks,

Jeff

[RonB]

Hi Jeff,

I haven't been able to do a lot of testing on release "R", but, what I have tried is a few seconds faster.

TV shows are loading almost instantly, and movies (~300) per folder are loading in about 7 seconds.
Initial loading of the add-on is a bit faster too.

I haven't looked over the log, so I don't have any feedback on that yet.

Cheers,
Ron

(Testing done with NVidia Shield - Kodi Matrix Alpha 1 Release)

[jbinkley60]

Hi Jeff,

I haven't been able to do a lot of testing on release "R", but, what I have tried is a few seconds faster.

TV shows are loading almost instantly, and movies (~300) per folder are loading in about 7 seconds.
Initial loading of the add-on is a bit faster too.

I haven't looked over the log, so I don't have any feedback on that yet.

Cheers,
Ron

(Testing done with NVidia Shield - Kodi Matrix Alpha 1 Release)

Ron,

Thanks for the update. My goal with the addon is to have a background sync process with Mezzmo so that as you scan your playlists you can disable the real time checking, which will provide maximum speed when browsing playlists. A couple of questions which will help me is knowing approximately how many video files are in your Mezzmo database and whether you leave your nVidia Shield on all the time with Kodi running or is Kodi only running when you are playiing videos ? Understanding folks usage and the size of their libraries will help me determine the best way to schedule the background sync process. I am hoping it will be available in the next release of the addon. Do note that the full sync feature will require a Mezzmo patch which Peter has provided me for testing and development.


Thanks,

Jeff

[RonB]

Jeff,

I've got about 800 movies or so. They are divided up as follows ~300 (A-M folder) and ~300 (N-Z folder) and the balance are in folder "Blu-ray"

TV shows are in there own folder, By show\season\episodes. Sitcoms are setup the same way. Together I've got about 6000 episodes.

I've got another folder for Documentaries. They are setup similar to TV Shows, and I've got about 2000 or so of those.


I leave the NVidia shield running 24/7 with Kodi (Matrix) always running.

Cheers,
Ron