Refresh Entire Library taking WAY too long
#1
I'm trying to find an efficient way to manage my Library, which should go something like:

- Initial import in XBMC - scrape for 12 hours (I can live with this theoretically one-time inconvenience)
- Export Entire Library (separate XMLs)
- Check/Update/Edit metadata on OSX with ViMediaManager
- In XBMC (I'm running Raspbmc), remove that source, then add it again (i.e. how the wiki suggests you should refresh the library)

The problem is, I was hoping it would just go through the NFO files and update the media library, but NO, it's taking forever because looking at the logfile it seems to need to create and resize images the entire time (for the thumbnail cache).

This is not an efficient process, to have to wait for all that each time I update more than a handful of movies' metadata in viMediaManager and want to just refresh everything. The thumbnail generation process on a Raspberry Pi takes WAY too long, and ideally this doesn't need to happen. All of the import time is directly due to this, an unnecessary step.

The question is, how do I set things up so that it doesn't have to generate thumbnails every time? Can't the thumbnails be generated once and be stored in the same folder as the movie? Is there a setting for this? Why is it not on by default? Especially if this source is mounted to the machine running XBMC ?

Cheers
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#2
As I understand you export nfo from OSX?
Why delete the source? This is only a solution if you have problems with your library, not if you just want to update it!

Just refresh the library (without deleting the source!).
You might need to clean the library every now and then but this is fast as well.

This is actually my setup. I keep XBMC on macbook updated and export nfo´s from there.
Then I update library on Raspbmc and since it will only add the new stuff this is fast.

Edit:
Ok I think I misunderstood, you scan from Raspbmc, then export nfo´s from Raspbmc, then edit your xml´s from OSX?
To update the info on changed nfo´s in Raspbmc you will need to update each movie separately or do as you said, delete source and add it again.

Suggestion;
Use OSX as your "main" XBMC for scanning, editing and exporting (this is what I do).
After export, update your library on Raspbmc.
If you change info on something after export my guess is that it is just one or a couple of movies, then update these separately (info->refresh and choose no when it asks you if you want to scan from internet).

If you export thumbs and fanart as well you might want to look into changing sizes on images (advance settings.xml) to keep library smaller (Raspbmc for example use 720/540).
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#3
Quote:Refreshing the library

Note: XBMC only scans each video once for information. The next time you update it will only add new videos, but won't download new art/summaries/etc for existing videos. To refresh the information for existing videos:

Did I understand this incorrectly?

The thing is, what if I import movies, then realize their meta data is wrong? Then I edit it in viMediaManager. But the docs above say that once it has scanned an NFO, it doesn't rescan it.

I tried this, updating some metadata, but it didn't work.

It's not about the new stuff, it's about refreshing what already exists. And if I make say 25 edits in viMM, the only way to get this to work is to write down which 25, then find them all in XBMC by hand and click refresh (terrible user experience == YES)

It just seems weird that a media library app doesn't have such a basic function as "update all" but provides functionality for "update one".
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#4
(2013-03-19, 23:22)horseshoe7 Wrote: - In XBMC (I'm running Raspbmc), remove that source, then add it again (i.e. how the wiki suggests you should refresh the library)

Removing the source and adding it again to refresh just a few items is nuts.

Can't you just remove from your media library the items you have updated, then update your library to pick up the new XML?

Edit: Yes I agree it's a suboptimal solution for more than a few updates, but still better than deleting the entire library.
Texture Cache Maintenance Utility: Preload your texture cache for optimal UI performance. Remotely manage media libraries. Purge unused artwork to free up space. Find missing media. Configurable QA check to highlight metadata issues. Aid in diagnosis of library and cache related problems.
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#5
highlight a file.
press "i"
press "refresh"
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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#6
You understood it correct, I misunderstood you at first.

But as I said, if you change metadata on a couple of movies you can just refresh those separately instead of rescanning your whole library.
If you refresh info on a separate movie and choose no when it asks you if you want to scan from internet, it will rescan the nfo and change the info accordingly.
And I suggest, as you already use OSX and XBMC, that you use your computer for scanning first time and exporting instead as this will speed up things a lot.

If your fanart, thumbs and nfo´s are already exported, Raspbmc´s scan is MUCH faster.
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#7
Or set up mysql and never scrape with your raspbmc again.
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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#8
guys. please. why accept a terrible user experience? blaming the user is not good software design. I'm also a software dev. there is no "update all" button.

I propose Ctrl-Shift-i. Big Grin

I'm almost there, but the problem is with the Pi always trying to generate thumbnails, because setting content to none triggers a library clean, which presumably kills all my thumbnails, then setting it back to movies requires it to generate thumbnails again.

tonight I'm going to write an Automator script on OSX that generates the thumbnails itself and sets them to .tbn (where size is set in advancedsettings.xml under the thumbsize tag) and hope it uses these 'custom thumbnails'

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=thu...Thumbnails

Thanks for the suggestions, but what you propose is not a real workflow. "remember what I edited in the one app, then go in to XBMC and then press i on each one of them"
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#9
Though you have to be clear on what you want, which I think is not "Update All" but "Update Modified". You already have "Update All" - delete your library - but there is no way to "Update Modified" (where Modified obviously refers to local content only, ie. modification date on some file, either artwork or the NFO).

If re-caching thumbnails is your issue (I thought it was the inability to bulk reload modified local XML?) then see this utility. Assuming you can determine which movies/tv shows have changed, then it should be possible to feed the names of the updated media items to the script (eg. search for an image with option s, then remove it with option d) and once all modified items have been removed, re-cache the artwork automatically (option c).

Something like "find . -ctime -1" would find all files modified since yesterday.
Texture Cache Maintenance Utility: Preload your texture cache for optimal UI performance. Remotely manage media libraries. Purge unused artwork to free up space. Find missing media. Configurable QA check to highlight metadata issues. Aid in diagnosis of library and cache related problems.
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#10
If I understand correct you want to be able to refresh all nfo´s without touching other info such as fan art etc.

We suggested workarounds on what is possible and explained just that, your approach is not correct.
Now you know that what you want is not possible today but there are workarounds, is this not good to know?

If you wanted solution that does not exist, and you already knew about this, I suggest that you make a feature suggestion to the dev-team or, as you suggested yourself, create your own solution and by all means post it here if you make one!

It might be a "terrible" user experience for you but this does not mean that it is for others (probably most). I have 500 movies in my library and I have changed info on maybe 5 of them. Refresh them is not a biggie, and I would never delete my library to fix this.
And I try to see to that the correct info is there already on first export -> never have to bother again.

If you are to scrape a lot I still suggest that you export thumbs and fanart from your computer with same settings for fanart sizes as in Raspbmc as it will not have to resize everything. This speeds up everything a lot and is good if you have to make a fresh install as well (for me it shortens a complete scan from 12 to 2 hours).

By the way, there is a solution; MySQL. But if you are like me, who don´t want to have a server running all the time, it´s not my solution.

P.S: Regarding your comment about tbn and thumbsize, this is changed in Frodo. Check the wiki for a correct solution;
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Adv...umbsize.3E
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Fro...cal_images
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#11
Smile 
I'm having pretty much the same issue though slightly different...

I use XBMC "standalone" on various systems and setups. At home I use XBMCBuntu streaming from NAS, when i work offshore on my laptop from an external harddisk. Before i go offshore i export my library at home (multiple files, incl thumbs etc), i then sync my external harddrive with my NAS and everything (incl nfo, thumbs etc) is on my external drive. On all XBMC versions in advancedsetting.xml i have set "importwatchedstate" and "importresumepoint" as TRUE, so whatever i've already watched at home (movies, serie episodes) will also be set watched on my laptop after updating the library.

Now the point where i have the same issue. When a movie or series (episode) was already in the library, only the newly added will be set accordingly to the nfo file because of what was said above, xbmc doesn't scan existing/changed nfo's... This means i have to remember what i've watched instead of xbmc doing that for me Wink

A shortcut or command to refresh the entire library purely on the locally stored nfo's would therefore be ideal to me
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