Insanely slow browsing of shares

[e_razor]

Hello everyone...

I've been reading around the forums for quite some time researching this issue. There is a lot of talk about this and it seems to affect a lot of users. None seems to have a definite answer for how to diagnose or combat this problem.
I have a decent enough dedicated mediacenter pc, 3ghz p4 - 1gb DDR memory - Using a Radeon 9700 128mb at the moment (maybe the weakest component in the computer at this time) - 15000 RPM Ultra 160 Scsi drive. Using DVI to connect to my 42" plasma screen. Resolution at 1320x768. I've tweaked and optimized windows as far as it goes, patches, disabled unneeded services, tweaked away avi preview function for windows explorer and numerous other tweaks that should aid this. Cleaned up and optimized my file server in all sensible ways. Both computers are connected via a 1000mbit lan. Using the latest indigo 2.2 skin with latest SVN release of my tvseries.

When browsing the file server via windows explorer or total commander etc, the browsing is instant and has a very nice response. The media center PC is freshly installed with windows xp sp3, direct x 9.0c and everything up to date and the way it should be (using 1.0.0 RC2). I am using My Tvseries for my TV media and my movies for my DivX and such. My tvseries has a very acceptable performance, but my movies is sluggish as hell. No matter what view, whether list, large icons or filmstrip. Takes about 20-30 seconds to open the folder containing the DivX media. Not only the first time the folder is opened but every time, performance while browsing the elements inside the folder is also poor. I cannot for the life of me seem to find a reason why this should be so slow. Often when browsing trough the movies in a rapid rate mediaportal will crash for no good reason. Movies are added in the movie database function in mediaportal configuration.

So i'm reflecting a little, how exactly does mediaportal browse folders? Is it using windows explorer to do so or something entirely different? Cause browsing the shares with windows explorer is instant and no sluggishness at all (tested from multiple computers in my lan). There's got to be something in the code somewhere causing this, this insane sluggishness. Admittedly my mediacenter pc is not of what you would call supercomputer standards, but it should be able to handle a folder with say 300 divx in it.

The folder in documents and settings containing media portals databases and thumbs is barely 250mb, the VideoDatabaseV5.db3 is 2600kb wich is virtually noting to handle for this kind of computer. There's not any problems with playback once you get there and get started, it plays 720 hd content fine. I cant see that the computer specs should be too crappy for normal operation of mediaportal.

Looking for any kinda input, tweaks, bug reports or any info on this subject that will remedy this annoying flaw in mediaportal, wich in it self is the greatest HTPC software i've ever tried. This is not a rant of any kind. I just get the impression quite a lot of users have these kinda issues and we would really love if they were resolved so we can enjoy mediaportal to its fullest. I'll provide developers and forum users with any logs needed, just dunno wich ones are relevant for this problem.

Sorry for the wall of text ;-)
Hope someone with more knowledge than me can help me/us get to the bottom of this.

EDIT:
I installed mediaportal (and copied over the thumbs, databases and such from the meidaportal PC) on personal computer, core2duo E6600, 2gb ram, 15.000 rpm Ultra 160, Nvidia 7600GS. Its a little bit faster but still its rather sluggish for a task this simple.