[Skin] GPU Accelerated loading of fanart/images (1 Viewer)

[DJBlu]

This is instructions on how to convert your files to DDS and to integrate them into Moving Pictures.

This is only for testing.

For the following %Program Data% is your MediaPortal Data directory.

If you search the internet for

NConvert

Copy this file to these locations:

%Program Data%\Thumbs\MovingPictures\Backdrops\FullSize\
%Program Data%\Thumbs\MovingPictures\Covers\FullSize\

Open up Command Prompt

then Type

cd %Program Data%\Thumbs\MovingPictures\Backdrops\FullSize\

now type

nconvert -out dds -resize 2048 1024 *.jpg

this will convert all your backdrops to dds files

now type

cd %Program Data%\Thumbs\MovingPictures\Covers\FullSize\

now type

nconvert -out dds -resize 512 1024 *.jpg

this will convert all your covers to dds files

The hard bit.

You need Firefox to do this.

Make a backup of your MovingPictures.db3

Download and install the following

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5817/

Restart Firefox when installed and click Tools --> SQLLite Manager

Open your MovingPictures.db3

Click on the tab "Execute SQL"

Insert the following into the text field

UPDATE movie_info SET coverfullpath = replace(coverfullpath , '.jpg', '.dds') WHERE coverfullpath LIKE '%.jpg%';

Click Run SQL

Now type in

UPDATE movie_info SET alternatecovers = replace(alternatecovers , '.jpg', '.dds') WHERE alternatecovers LIKE '%.jpg%';

Click Run SQL

Type

UPDATE movie_info SET backdropfullpath = replace(backdropfullpath , '.jpg', '.dds') WHERE backdropfullpath LIKE '%.jpg%';

Click Run SQL

 

[DJBlu]

I have noticed an improvment in scrolling in List View

Let me know of your experiences.

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

I am trying your instructions on my ion2 now.

I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks,

J.

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

Some quick feedback - the speed is far better!

The client I am testing on is an ion2 with a ssd (movies/contents is remote) - so it was reasonably ok before with jpg's (local thumbs/covers)

But now its quicker, I can reduced the MovPic delay down from 250ms to 100ms.

The MovPic gui is definately better.

Will this "change" work for other parts of MePo (and TVSeries)?

Thanks,

J.

 

[matejdro]

Can you explain, how you get sizes for the images? I'm trying to resize backdrops to 720p since there is no point of displaying 2048x1024 image on 720p TV. I have did "nconvert -out dds -resize 1280 720 *.jpg", but images cover only part of the screen with blackness around.

Also i think that this should be easy to add into Moving Pictures code. Just add simple nconvert command line that will convert images after downloading them.

 

[DJBlu]

Can you explain, how you get sizes for the images? I'm trying to resize backdrops to 720p since there is no point of displaying 2048x1024 image on 720p TV. I have did "nconvert -out dds -resize 1280 720 *.jpg", but images cover only part of the screen with blackness around.

Also i think that this should be easy to add into Moving Pictures code. Just add simple nconvert command line that will convert images after downloading them.

The sizes are power of 2.

if you have 720 width the 2 values nearest to this are 512 or 1024, the next is 2048 which covers 1920 widths.

You can reduce down to 512 if you wish but the only difference is 0.5meg per file.

 

[matejdro]

Ah damn, power of 2

I was thinking about multiplier of 2.

 

[DJBlu]

Hi there,

Some quick feedback - the speed is far better!

The client I am testing on is an ion2 with a ssd (movies/contents is remote) - so it was reasonably ok before with jpg's (local thumbs/covers)

But now its quicker, I can reduced the MovPic delay down from 250ms to 100ms.

The MovPic gui is definately better.

Will this "change" work for other parts of MePo (and TVSeries)?

Thanks,

J.

It should in theory speed everything up reference plugins, MediaPortal is cached and loaded into Memory as a Texture so there isn't any images loaded on the fly.

I am looking at MyTVSeries at the moment.

 

[matejdro]

Okay, just tried it out but speed feels sort like the same. When reducing delay to 100ms like guy above said, it's almost impossible to scroll. It takes around 1-2 seconds to load images. It's loading dds since i moved jpgs to another folder.

Did i screw up something here or my ION just have slow hard drive?

Well anyway, thank you very much for discovering this.

 

[Airshark]

AW: GPU Accelerated loading of fanart/images

Does it also improve speed on ATI cards?