[stevellion]

I've been using XBMC for many years and now, tending to use the videos/files view, rather than database. (I'm running a shared db, with the main htpc as the server, and a few client devices).

The key reason I use the file view still, is because I haven't found a DB based (and wife/toddler friendly) way to split it up. My high level categories are Movies, Kids Movies and Asian Movies. So my kids can just click on a nice pretty icon and then see all their movies with fanart etc.

Recently though, as my db has grown (33 pages in fanart view in one of those categories) it's got slow to load, where I'm waiting to see cover images etc.

So, 2 questions.
1) should it really be slow to access via file mode (can I stop it rescanning on load)
2) if I use library view, is there any way to make an extra category split, in line with my existing 3.

Thanks.

[jmarshall]

It shouldn't be slow, but it depends on your system. A Debug Log will, as always, be useful in diagnosing whether the slowness can be improved or not.

[Vampirebat]

I've been using XBMC for many years and now, tending to use the videos/files view, rather than database. (I'm running a shared db, with the main htpc as the server, and a few client devices).

The key reason I use the file view still, is because I haven't found a DB based (and wife/toddler friendly) way to split it up. My high level categories are Movies, Kids Movies and Asian Movies. So my kids can just click on a nice pretty icon and then see all their movies with fanart etc.

Recently though, as my db has grown (33 pages in fanart view in one of those categories) it's got slow to load, where I'm waiting to see cover images etc.

So, 2 questions.
1) should it really be slow to access via file mode (can I stop it rescanning on load)
2) if I use library view, is there any way to make an extra category split, in line with my existing 3.

Thanks.

i have a media server at this point but what prompted me to build a server aside from the fact that i didn't like leaving my media pc on 24/7 so the other boxes in the house could pull content from it was that when all the boxes in the house were in use at the same time the "server" media pc would lag on menus and occasionally pause to load the buffer during playback.
as for the categories issue depending on which skin you use the following would work. (provided you already have these categories separated into different sources or genres which i assume you do since your using file mode)
anyways if you have them saved as separate source go into the files root menu and bring up a context menu for the sources one at a time and add them as a favorite.
once you have them all set as a favorite you can then go into settings>skin settings(or appearance depending on your skin) and add a custom button to your home menu for each source.
if you have them saved as a genre you can do them same only you go to the context menu for the category you want in the genres menu.
alternatively you could make separate profiles for you your wife and your kids and then you can only import sources for what they will be using.

[stevellion]

jmarshal, thanks I followed the "It shouldn't be slow" thought some more.

found that I had additional secondary sources (using multi sources per source) and the 2nd one had no content.
(a hangover from before I upgraded my NAS and had to spread files around a bit).

Anyway, once I'd removed the 2nd sources, so there was only one mount per source, then performance was as expected (fast) again.

XBMC rocks.

[jmarshall]

Great - glad everything is sorted

[scott967]

I've found that using the "tag" feature works well for this situation.

scott s.
.