Reduce storage size of 'thumbs' folder (MovPic + TVSeries) (3 Viewers)

[edterbak]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

Just my experience with this. I gave the script a try for the arguments sake. First I was pointed out to the fact the team mediaportal folder wasnt found, and I had to manually adjust the cmd file. Did it, and it worked.

Result is subjective ofcourse. (I would like to see this work)
Before running the script MP has trouble catching up during scrolling the list (290 movies). When continously pressing the down arrow, the scrolling motion downward would halt 50-60% of the time...
After running the script and clearing the cash folder, I have to say the downward scrolling motions is halted about 40% of the time.

My subjective conclusion would be that it does seem to have an effect. It doesnt fix slow scrolling speeds 100% but it is helping a bit in my case

btw, i use x-factor + mp 1.1b(latest svn) + moving pictures 1.0 beta2. OS=XP32bit

 

[RoChess]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

First I was pointed out to the fact the team mediaportal folder wasnt found, and I had to manually adjust the cmd file. Did it, and it worked.

Do you have a custom path?

If not then please provide me with a few tech details, mainly the "set" environment variables, because I use the %AllUsersProfile% setting for XP and %ProgramData% for Vista/Win7 to locate where MediaPortal stores its data. If these vars are named different on a Dutch version of Windows, I'd be interested to know. Of course my script also relies on installing MediaPortal with the default paths.

I could have scanned the entire harddisk for the existence of mediaportal.xml and extrapolated the path, but that seemed like way too much work for those rare situations with a custom path. And most users who use a custom path are also capable of editing the CMD file

 

[edterbak]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

Im not using dutch os but xp32 english

Original version contains:
SET ThumbFolder=%ProgramData%\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal

I just copy/paste the path in the explorer bar of the mediaportal location and it seemed to work.
New version contains:
SET ThumbFolder=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal

 

[RoChess]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

Im not using dutch os but xp32 english

Original version contains:
SET ThumbFolder=%ProgramData%\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal

I just copy/paste the path in the explorer bar of the mediaportal location and it seemed to work.
New version contains:
SET ThumbFolder=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal

Yeah, the first few lines verify if mediaportal.xml exists in the Vista/Win7 location, but if it can't find it, it goes on to check it for XP. However your full folder paste made me realize that I forgot to add the "\Application Data" part to the path. It's silly because %AppData% does contain this folder, so I overlooked it.

Fixed it and attached correct version in first post

 

[2BitSculptor]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

I LOVE the idea of rescaling fanart and poster images. For those of us who still are using a 4:3 TV, the benifit of such large files are completely lost. For me, I've been manually rescaling fanart to 800x450 and posters to 300 tall (by batching in IrfanView) - it's quite adequate for my display, loads quick, and saves space.

If MoPi could save images downloaded to a user defined size for each of the two, that would be great.

Looking forward to the next release!

Chuck

 

[scorpie]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

Hi,

I converted the covers to a size of 175xXXX and 8bit (they are still looking good) and went down from about 400-500 to circa 30kb each, but I have to do the same for the backdrops. Scolling thru the list without backdrops keeps my cpu up to 40% with backdrops 90% (its a Intel core 2 duo 4300 - I believe).

Under backdrops there a 2 folders fullsize and thumps (this folder is empty) and under cover there are also these 2 folders. I am not sure why. which size is used for the covers.
the Movie Manager of MoPi says something about 175xXXX (thats why I used this size) Is it that MoPi looks for a bigger size of the covers and resize them automatically?

 

[RoChess]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

If MoPi could save images downloaded to a user defined size for each of the two, that would be great.

Now that fforde has finally found a solution for the corrupted image download, there are indeed new enhancements on the horizon to do just that. But it's a balance between how important it is and how much time it takes to program it in. So until it is a part of the plugin, you can just keep using your existing method. Eventually I plan to modify the script I've made in this post to do just that, because indeed for those running MediaPortal in a 4:3 SD setup on an older computer, it might slow their system down too much using the large fanart images.

Under backdrops there a 2 folders fullsize and thumps (this folder is empty) and under cover there are also these 2 folders. I am not sure why. which size is used for the covers.

The fanarts are always shown full screen, so there is no need to keep a 'thumbnailed' version for that one. Perhaps a future enhancement is planned (like being able to select/download a different fanart easy as with the MP-TVSeries plugin), which would use the thumbnailed version then.

However for covers there already is a usage, and that is regarding the large cover filmstrip navigation and the small cover list navigation. But still even on a 1080p setup there isn't imho a need for cover images to be larger then 800 pixels in height for filmstrip/details view, and the developers do have ideas to make the resize function an option. Until then you can modify the pictures manually, either by using programs such as PaintShopPro/IrfanView/etc who all have build in batch functionality to resize/modify entire folders, or via the script that I wrote for this post.


Note: The slow scrolling can also be simply related to your computer. Due to the .NET framework a good chunk of memory is required to run MediaPortal and it helps if your videocard has DirectX Video Accelleration (DXVA) support. My HTPC consists of an AMD BE-2400 at the default speed of 2.3Ghz with 2GB of memory and a HD4350 videocard with full DXVA support. And I can scroll the list faster then my eyes can read it. I never actually scroll like that, because I'm in love with the SMS-style input method, so I just key in part the movie name, use the 0+Letter to jump to movies starting with that 'Letter', or I use the page-up and page-down to locate one fast, all in combination with the Category filtering (though I use 'All Movies' a lot of times). It is only on those rare occasions that I need to read all the summaries that I actually scroll the list one movie at a time, but the system has no trouble keeping up then due to all the reading.

PS: I just searched the Google SVN to find the existing issues regarding this.

Resize images @ http://code.google.com/p/moving-pictures/issues/detail?id=2
Download/Select backdrop @ http://code.google.com/p/moving-pictures/issues/detail?id=212

Please star and/or comment on those issues if you feel they need extra information.

 

[scorpie]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

RoChess

My videocard is a 250gts (to my knowledge with DXVA support) and I have 3gig ram - I think this should be enough. Maybe I need another CPU

 

[RoChess]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

Yes, the videocard is more than adequate for HTPC usage. The CPU you have is a dual-core 1.8Ghz, which should be more then enough.

Do you perhaps have a lot of processes running in the background? Like a virus scanner perhaps? If you scroll the list, the cover image is loaded, the backdrop is loaded, the movie information is loaded and tons of other little small things. So if you have a virus scanner (or something alike) running in the background that at the same time tries to scan all those files for a virus, you can imagine the slowdown this causes.

So perhaps all you need to do is 'tweak' your system and optimize it to run faster.

I've worked with computers that had 118 processes running (for all users), that after I was done with it were down to 45 and made things run fast again, because the owner like you thought he needed to buy a faster one. I'm logged in via RDP to my HTPC which my wife is using right now to watch movies with and it's running 46 processes and using between 7% and 59% CPU usage (this is including her playing a movie that I hear in the background).

Another impacting factor could be severe fragmentation on your harddisk. So download MyDefrag v4.2.7 which I've found out to be a much better alternative then the stuff that Microsoft bundles with their OS, and run the 'Slow Optimize' script. If you have all your large data files on the same drive then you could exclude those by creating a custom defrag script, so it won't take forever.

 

[scorpie]

Re: Reduce storage size of MovingPictures 'thumbs' folder.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes it is a dual-core 1.8Ghz.

I made my own XP with Nlite. I chucked out everything that is not needed for my htpc. The installation size (without pagefile and all driver) was about 1,3GB.

I disabled all unneeded services and all in all there are 21 processes running (mediaportal included). I don't have a virus scanner, because I don't use the pc for internet (only for movie details). Besides MP i just have zonealarm and teamviewer running.

To defrag my harddisk I use JKdefrag. The movies are stored on the same hard disk but on another partition. Maybe the disk WD15EADS 1,5 Tera is to slow, but I don't think so.

I think I have done everything t tweak my system.

How big are your backdrops, mine are about 2-4MB each. I think this could be the problem.