[Linux] Initial navigation to Videos folder on SMB share really slow.
#1
Searched around but didn't see this issue come up.

I'm experiencing really sluggish response when first navigating an SMB network share where I keep my video media. It is as if XBMC is having to rebuild the thumbnails for all my media every single time I start up XBMC and navigate the folder for the first time. Once it is finished doing its thing, the folder list pops up, and I am able to navigate quickly, and I have no problems playing the media. Even HD content streams just fine. It is just that initial browse into the network share that takes forever!!!

Doesn't XBMC cache the information from the drives when it scans each time? It is really an inconvenience to have to go through this the first time I launch the folder.

I am running XBMC 9.11 r26018, Ubuntu 10.04 (Linux 2.6.32-23-generic-pae) i686, I installed from the PPA. I am running a 100Mb network, which I realize is why the caching takes so long in the first place, but I have no problems streaming HD content from the server. Again, it is only the initial browse of the SMB folder.

Please let me know if you require anything further or can point me to an existing post.

Thanks for your help!

-Marcos
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#2
A few questions for you (each in iteself might case issues, so take each with a grain of salt)....

FYI, I run XBMC LIVE with various nightly SVNs on my Revo 1600
-connecting to a Server 2003 box (2.4Ghz Celeron) - wired gigabit...
-12 shares for movies and tv -- using various techs for the HDDS (old IDE, SATA, USB - 4800, 5400 and 7200 RPM mixes - no raid, all single drives)
-each video source (video, tv) looks into at least 8 shares per source....
-I have 2000+ movies and 400 complete TV shows

I notice some delays in the listing of vids, but in my case the items below all factor into my slight delays (up to 15 seconds to display the complete tv or movie list using file browsing and about the same for using the internal mySQL engine in the latest SVNs.... its not that much different between library and file view for me........

What type of delay are you really talking about? 5 seconds? 15 seconds? 30 seconds? a minute? more?

anyway... some factors to consider.......

Are you using the library feature or just browsing files (generic 'Videos' menu)? (library might be faster since it takes out the server variable entirely but not necessarily will resolve the issue)

How many files are you talking about? 100? 1000? 5000? (the more, the longer of course)

How are the files saved on the server ? all in the root of the share or stored individually in their own folder (i.e. \\server\share\movies\MovieName\moviename.avi)?
The deeper the structure coupled with a ton of files can take a little longer.

Does your server sleep or sleep the hard drives?

Does listing your videos appear faster after you back out of the menu and go back in (possible sleeping drives issue on server)?

What are the harddrive speeds you are reading from? (files listing not library)

Is your server heavily tasked? (files listing not library)

Are you using multiple shares to view (i.e. your source has \\server\share1 | \\server\share2 .....\\server\share10 ? (for files this will add to the combining of the titles since it has to parse all shares before it can generate the list)

The thumbnails are saved on to your XBMC (unless you moved your thumbnails to another server via a sym link - if so, try moving them back locally), so the next question might be what is the read/write speed of your medium you have XBMC installed on?

Is it flash based and perhaps getting old?

If its a thumb drive, dd copy your install to a new stick and see if response increases.

Tons to consider....
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#3
glitch25 Wrote:I'm experiencing really sluggish response when first navigating an SMB network share where I keep my video media. It is as if XBMC is having to rebuild the thumbnails for all my media every single time I start up XBMC and navigate the folder for the first time. Once it is finished doing its thing, the folder list pops up, and I am able to navigate quickly, and I have no problems playing the media. Even HD content streams just fine. It is just that initial browse into the network share that takes forever!!!

I suspect its because you are not in Library mode. When in Library mode I assume it doesn't check the share, just the local library so its fast. However, when in Files mode it will have to check your files over he network. If you have a large library, you'll have to wait for it to scan through.
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#4
If I had to guess, I would say it is likely the spinup of disk(s) on the share and you are using a files view.
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[Linux] Initial navigation to Videos folder on SMB share really slow.0