[pedram]

Sorry if this is a noob question, but it wasn't clear to me from the initial instructions. Do I have to create a advancedsettings.xml file in my userdata folder and then put those tags inside it?

I wasn't sure what file to put the tags in (i.e. does the file already exist? Do I have to create it, and if so where do I put it)? From searching the wiki a bit I came to the conclusion above, so I just wanted to see if it was correct or not. Thanks.

[jmarshall]

Create the file. Put the tag in it. Restart XBMC.

[pedram]

Create the file. Put the tag in it. Restart XBMC.

OK, thanks. Works great.

Really fast, though I noticed a small degradation in quality with detailed features, like if a picture has a bunch of (small) faces in it. The compression makes them look a bit more... grainy (for lack of a better word). It's a bit different than regular JPG compression artifacts. Pictures with larger features are fine though.

I'll take a slight amount of degradation any day though for the huge speed boost! Now I just wish there was a way to automate going through all my movies one at a time so the fanart will get picked up and converted

[OwlBoy]

So I should expect this to work in Dharma b1 on a fresh install with that advancedsettings.xml tag put in?

[arco]

So I should expect this to work in Dharma b1 on a fresh install with that advancedsettings.xml tag put in?

That's correct.

[OwlBoy]

I am happy to report it is just that easy. Got home from work, put that in the .xml and rebooted. Speedy fanart on my Acer Revo. Thanks XBMC team!

[Sinnocence]

I've got a fairly eclectic video library; avi, mpg, iso, vob, etc. This is spread over a few hosts. After enabling the advanced setting option a bunch of dds content was produced for some content from all of the available shares (some hosts were powered off) and xbmc's log reported errors accordingly, e.g.:

Code:

08:57:49 T:2668 M:1036513280   ERROR: Couldn't connect to \\<host>\Movies, error code 53
08:57:49 T:2668 M:1036509184   ERROR: CWINFileSMB: Unable to open file '\' Error '53

After powering up those systems, restarting XBMC, and accessing the library again (and browsing content) no additional files were produced under the dds directories. The XBMC log stopped reporting the above error but each time I exit&enter the library I see the following error in my log:

Code:

09:31:25 T:2988 M:999813120   ERROR: InputStream: dvd streams not supported for thumb extraction, file: smb://<host>/Movies/<movie_name>/VIDEO_TS.IFO

If I'm understanding the rest of the thread correctly, and please correct me if I'm wrong, the dds content is generated per-movie/video when you hover on (i.e. select) it? That being the case I find it unlikely that 1 title (that I haven't navigated to or selected) is 'blocking' the rest of the files being generated? Bare in mind that content from shares other than the one with the above error haven't had any/all dds cache files produced.

If the issue is that 1 file can block all others being converted (which would be very weird) then all future content would be blocked (and so there's little point in me manually creating dds files for remaining content).

I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning but I didn't clear the existing thumbnail cache before turning on the dds setting (I haven't seen any reference to removing the old cache being necessary).

Thanks for any and all help.

[jmarshall]

That "error" has nothing to do with dds art conversion. The conversion happens if and only if you display a fanart or poster image in XBMC. If you haven't viewed an image, a dds version of it will not be created.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[Sinnocence]

Thanks jmarshall - I guess I'm looking for an error since, having viewed images, dds conversion doesnt take place for them.

There's no other errors that I can see - is there anything else which would preclude a file from conversion?

[jmarshall]

First thing to check if no .dds images were produced at all is whether or not the setting is actually being read - the Debug Log will tell you.

[Sinnocence]

Code:

09:52:30 T:2616 M:837767168  NOTICE: Loaded advancedsettings.xml from special://profile/advancedsettings.xml
09:52:30 T:2616 M:837763072  NOTICE: Contents of special://profile/advancedsettings.xml are...
                                            <advancedsettings>
                                              <useddsfanart>true</useddsfanart>
                                            </advancedsettings>

It looks like it's picking it up fine.

Anyway, leave it with me. I might just zap my thumbnails and library. I spent a few hours yesterday cleaning up movies, re-adding support materials (fanart, nfo, etc) and removing it from the library, re-adding it, etc to no effect. When I get it figured out I'll leave a note with the solution (or description of how I managed to feck up such a simple process ).

Thanks jmarshall.

[DaveHope]

Running svn33324, I went from a 2s wait for fanart to load to none at all.

In terms of image quality, I can't see any on my setup (37" LCD, 1080p) and the load time improvement far outweighs any negligible degradation of image quality.

Great work jmarshall, you've greatly improved my xbmc experience.

[Oddsodz]

So I have added this like to my "advancedsettings.xml" file

<useddsfanart>true</useddsfanart>

Now I have had it there for a few days now. I read somewhere that it takes a few to get it self in shape. But I have not seen any speed increase. In fact, it seems to have slowed my setup down.

So I was thinking. Is it due to the fact that I am using the "ExtraFanArt" system with about 3 to 10 images in some folders. Will the DDS cashing system work with the "ExtraFanArt" system?

Hope somebody has some info on the matter.

Oddsodz.

[Maxoo]

Nope, it won't work with extrafanart.

[Oddsodz]

I Will I turned it off yesterday and my system reposed far better now.

so the moral of the story is. "ExtraFanArt" is only for the faster setups.