Tricks to Make Things Respond Quicker
#1
Here is the set-up: I currently run XBMC on an old PC while I save money to upgrade. I use 2 external HD's holding my visual media and have my audio files on the PC. I use Frodo 12.3 and Aeon Nox 4.1.9.
It runs good, but a little laggy when scrolling through movies and TV shows. Are there any tricks I can do inside XBMC to make things respond a little more snappy? Or something I can do or move in my visual files? Any suggestions is appreciated. Thanks.
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#2
Well, that version of Nox is pretty heavy. You need a fairly snappy system to run it smoothly - I'm not saying bleeding edge tech or anything, just quick. If you're media is stored on external USB 2.0 connected drives, that may be a contributor to the lag. However, thumbnail caches are held locally on the system drive, but I don't believe that all image types are cached in the same manner, i.e. clearart, discart, etc. vs. posters and fanart. So if Nox has to read from external drives every time you enter a different Video node, than it has to spin up those drives and read each time, and USB 2.0 may be a culprit.
I'm just brainstorming here though, so hopefully some more clarity can be brought forth.
Quick Links: debug log (wiki) | userdata (wiki) | advancedsettings (wiki) | adding videos to the library (wiki)
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#3
Upgrade to the v13 Gotham beta (wiki) and check out Aeon NOX 5. It will be a lot more snappy.
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#4
There several things you can do.

Preload the texture cache using the script in my sig to optimise the user experience when browsing your library.

Use lighter weight skins (Amber, Aeon Nox 5) that are optimised for low power systems, reducing lag.

Upgrade to Gotham.
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
I used Xperience1080 on a crappy Atom machine and it worked with very little lag - Aeon Nox was just not usable.

On my new HTPC which isn't that powerful I find that all skins work, but the best choices are Amber, Xperience1080, one of the many 720 mods for skins posted around and Aeon Nox 5.

I would also upgrade to Gotham and not use an external HDD for image caching. I think my whole user directory is around 3GB and that's all the addons, images and other items cached for around 18,000+ video files.
Please read the online manual (wiki) & FAQ (wiki) before posting.

Skins: Estuary | Xperience1080
Opinion: Never purchase HTC products
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#6
Thanks everyone for the quick responses! It looks like a software upgrade and some system maintenance is on the agenda for today.

I will definitely upgrade to Gotham this afternoon.

I'm still fairly new to XBMC and HTPC's, for that matter, but sounds like moving my image files (Fanart, Logos, etc) to my internal HD will help too. Looking at the Wiki it looks like it says to put them in the "userdata/Thumbnails folder." Is that the correct folder?




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#7
So, I upgraded to Gotham and played between Amber and Aeon Nox 5 and decided to stick with Aeon Nox. Things are definitely running with a lot less lag. It was recommended to maybe move my image files (.jpg, .png) from my external HDs to my internal HD.

Do I straight put my files into the userdata/Thumbnails folder? How do I separate the the movie ones from the television ones? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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