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Not a very troublesome issue, but..
Fishy - 4-21-2004 at 01:08 AM

a little annoying..

Every time when the albumlist is done loading ej takes a break (freezes for about 3-5 seconds) and uses 100% of available cpu power. For some strange reason it always happens immediately after loading the complete albumlist (around 1500 albums now) and not after just listing a sample of the collection, for instance from a specific genre, year etc.


I do think that this issue has accompanied me through all ej version I've tried and that the problem is not related to the increasing amount of albums. But I am not 100% sure. The amount of albums could be an explenation since it doesn't happen when I list the albums by genre for instance.
It also occures when I choose "do not separate albums by artists".

Can this problem be replicated by others or is it my personal entirely? :)


Audiosoft - 4-21-2004 at 03:07 AM

eJukebox saves the 'Full List' to disk after it is 100% loaded so that if you then close the album list and click "Album" at the top to reopen it - it doesn't have to re-load the list album by album - instead it just brings up the saved list all at once. The saving of the list is what eats up CPU for a couple seconds.


Pirk - 4-21-2004 at 11:59 AM

Quote:

Can this problem be replicated by others or is it my personal entirely?

I also have the same problem, exactly like you Fishy (computer frozen)...

Audiosoft,
Yes that only occur the first time the Albumlist is open, but that also occur each time you load a different "big" genre... or else if you load again the full list after loading a specific genre. In this case the backup of the full list seems to be lost, so it takes a long time to reload again (120s for 894 albums), plus a new freezing (28s !) at the end...


Fishy - 4-21-2004 at 03:53 PM

The albumlist caching to disk is great and a function to be kept and praised :). But as Pirk points out, is there a way to make this happen only at the first loading of the albumlist. In short: keep the albumlist on disk all the time and not recache it on every load somehow?


Pirk - 4-21-2004 at 04:12 PM

Quote:

The albumlist caching to disk is great and a function to be kept and praised.


Of course i agree, the albumlist caching is already a great function! :) Furthermore, maybe my old computer make the problem worse...


Fishy - 4-21-2004 at 04:57 PM

Old slow computers always make
problems at least 5x harder to handle ;)


Pirk - 4-21-2004 at 05:51 PM

What is surprising, is Windows XP run very good on it! and any basic programs too... :)


Fishy - 9-8-2004 at 07:35 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Audiosoft
eJukebox saves the 'Full List' to disk after it is 100% loaded so that if you then close the album list and click "Album" at the top to reopen it - it doesn't have to re-load the list album by album - instead it just brings up the saved list all at once. The saving of the list is what eats up CPU for a couple seconds.



Actually I think it could prove handy to have the possibility to disable this cache. I realize that the cache is handy in many ways, but the time interval, where ej is frozen at albumlist load finish, increases for each album one add. At systems with less than, let's say 500 albums this pause is barely noticable, but in larger albumlists the story is different. At my system (1700 albums) ejukebox freezes for around 30 seconds after loading is finished (on a pretty fast computer).

Since I seldom close the albumlist, once it's opened, it would be terrific to avoid this unwanted 'pause' by having an *option*which could disable the mentioned cache. If this will not effect anything else than the situation with "closing and re-opening" the tradeoff isn't that huge. At least not from the perspetive of those with huge and evergrowing album collections.

Any chance of seeing this in the next revision?


Audiosoft - 9-9-2004 at 01:19 AM

Maybe we could change it so it prompts the user and asks if you want to cache the album list - when you click the close album list button. Instead of automatically caching when the list finishes loading.


Fishy - 9-9-2004 at 06:44 AM

That makes sense in a way. Because that's when you're really going to need this cache. People might get irritated of getting this question every time they want to close it though? Especially if their answer to it is consistent, "yes" or "no" every time. Just thoughts..

That's why I would prefer an tickable option like "cache albumlist before closing" or something simular. Allowing for a one time, more permanent, setting. However, since I close this list so rarely, I have grown to prefer the prompting sollution suggested over the current sollution already. :)


Fishy - 11-8-2004 at 01:47 PM

Are there any news on this one? I guess the best sollution would be if we could keep the cache and get rid of ejukebox being frozen while building the cache... If possible.. This is kindof out of my field, but is it not possible to throw the cache building to a separate thread or something? ;)


Fishy - 2-12-2005 at 06:45 AM

Audiosoft, could you please please please with sugar on the top, do something about this? :)

And if not, maybe add a progressbar. That would at least show that something is going on when the program freezes.


Fishy - 10-26-2005 at 09:03 PM

Up! :)


Pirk - 10-30-2005 at 03:42 PM

Quote:
Message original : Fishy
That makes sense in a way. Because that's when you're really going to need this cache. People might get irritated of getting this question every time they want to close it though? Especially if their answer to it is consistent, "yes" or "no" every time. Just thoughts..

That's why I would prefer an tickable option like "cache albumlist before closing" or something simular. Allowing for a one time, more permanent, setting. However, since I close this list so rarely, I have grown to prefer the prompting sollution suggested over the current sollution already. :)


Me too! I never close the albumlist after loading... So I also would like an option avoiding that eJukebox freeze during 40 seconds each time I buid the Albumlist. That would be a big improvement!

Please Audiosoft... :)

PS: I have another idea:
When eJ starts, why not an option to reload the last saved Albumlist instead of rebuild it each time ?

That would speed up eJukebox like a rocket! :o
So eJukebox doesn't need to rebuild the Albumlist just after its starting up. :)
The Albumlist would be really rebuilded only if the database has been modified, or when the user launch a rebuilding manually... using the fabulous Autolist builder! :D


Pirk - 10-30-2005 at 11:22 PM


Fishy - 10-31-2005 at 10:26 PM

Sure looks like a good idea!! Really hope that audiosoft does something about this, would be a fantastic improvement. Thinking about that these pauses will slowly increase with the albumcollection size, something really needs to be done..


Pirk - 11-1-2005 at 04:06 PM

Yeah, I think it's the best solution for the users -like us :D- who have a very large collection: 15000, 20000 songs or more... and who may, in spite of the great "autolist builder", ALSO like to enjoy the full list! In this precise case the full albumlist, like it works currently, becomes really too slow and unusable!
-> EACH TIME we run eJ, it takes almost 1 minute to build the full albumlist, plus eJ FREEZE during 40 seconds... (Total: 1 min 40s for 37000 songs!! :()

For those who wouldn't understand my flowchart:
The benefit of this solution is once you have your habits fixed (often using the same albumlist... even the full list!) the start of eJukebox and its albumlist is IMMEDIATE. :) No need to slowly rebuild the same albumlist each time eJ starts if not necessary... [I restart my PC everyday] And similarly, no need to save again the same albumlist each time eJ is closed! A little logic can't harm...

So a real progress to be done certainly!!

PS: I want to break the eJukebox reputation for slowness. :P

Thanks.


Fishy - 11-11-2005 at 07:26 AM

Audiosoft: Have you given this some tought? :)


Audiosoft - 11-11-2005 at 08:43 AM

yes....i was trying to get eJukebox to load the cached albumlist on startup today....but ran into the problem of first needing to save and reload the albumlist jump locations for each letter....which eJukebox does not do yet. I am thinking about making the cache always come up when you click Full List then if a cached page is showing the button would say Re-List instead of Full List.


MTownley - 11-11-2005 at 09:41 AM

I like the sound of this - the speed of the album list has been one of my two major complaints with eJukebox.

Thanks, and keep up the good work :D

p.s. Any ideas about my only other major complaint? The one about why scrolling text in the album view uses up so much CPU?


Audiosoft - 11-11-2005 at 09:51 AM

RE: p.s. Any ideas about my only other major complaint? The one about why scrolling text in the album view uses up so much CPU?

Scrolling of text in the albumlist is no longer the default in v3.99 and later. If it uses too much CPU just disable it...there is no way I can make it use less cpu when enabled.


MTownley - 11-11-2005 at 12:04 PM

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have disabled it on one of my machines.

The only thing I noticed is that one one machine it is fine (1.4GHz Centrino), but it is terrible on the other (1.7GHz P4).

Both machines have similar-ish CPUs, and that is why i was wondering if something else causes the high CPU usage.


Pirk - 11-11-2005 at 02:15 PM

Quote:
Message original : MTownley
The only thing I noticed is that one one machine it is fine (1.4GHz Centrino), but it is terrible on the other (1.7GHz P4).

Both machines have similar-ish CPUs, and that is why i was wondering if something else causes the high CPU usage.

I also have a Pentium 4 (3Ghz), and I think this is Intel who are running on the wrong way with their P4 series: In sustained use they overheat so much than PCs are turning hoover...


Fishy - 11-11-2005 at 02:48 PM

Aha! Thanks a lot pirk!!!!

I have had a lot of problems lately. When ejukebox starts from a cold boot albumlist scrolling etc. usally is very fast.

The responsiveness of ejukebox declined a lot, when I ran a few programs (web-browser, mail client etc.). I had the speed of my cpu-fan turned down a lot.

Your comment made me think "why not increase the speed a little?". And guess what, scrolling the albumlist is suddenly as fast as from a cold boot, even though my pc has been on for a few days now. Guess I have to live with a little more noise, to get a faster ejukebox :D

Yes I feel incredible stupid. I should have seen this connection a long time ago. Guess the moral is: Don't play with things you know nothing about :D


Pirk - 11-11-2005 at 02:58 PM

Quote:
Message original : Audiosoft
yes....i was trying to get eJukebox to load the cached albumlist on startup today....but ran into the problem of first needing to save and reload the albumlist jump locations for each letter....which eJukebox does not do yet. I am thinking about making the cache always come up when you click Full List then if a cached page is showing the button would say Re-List instead of Full List.


I'm glad you work on this issue Audiosoft.
I hope my flowchart will help you! :)


Audiosoft - 11-13-2005 at 06:20 AM

Just finished the new album list caching for v3.991 final. :D
It works great...especially since you can now use the album list search box and then restore the cached list. The FULL LIST button will change to REFRESH when you are viewing the cached list. Clicking REFRESH rebuilds the list and saves it as the new cache as long as it finishes loading and was not stopped early. Clicking FULL LIST will restored the cached list. When you restart eJukebox it will start with the last cached list when you click the Albums button.


MTownley - 11-13-2005 at 08:45 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Audiosoft
Just finished the new album list caching for v3.991 final. :D

This is one update that I m really looking forward to - I don't think I have been so excited by an upgrade of 0.001 before :D


Audiosoft - 11-13-2005 at 08:54 AM

Another new feature:

While I was updating the album list cache I decided to implement an old idea: Clicking on an Artist in the Artist List will now jump to the album name, if it exists in the album list. If the album does not exist in the album list it loads the songlist like before. If you click the artist in the artist list again after it jumped to the album in the album list it will show the songlist for the artist.


Pirk - 11-13-2005 at 11:39 AM

Ah ah... Exciting Audiosoft! :o

I'm impatient to appreciate the time saved... :)


Pirk - 11-13-2005 at 12:11 PM

Quote:
Message original : Fishy
Aha! Thanks a lot pirk!!!!

I have had a lot of problems lately. When ejukebox starts from a cold boot albumlist scrolling etc. usally is very fast.

The responsiveness of ejukebox declined a lot, when I ran a few programs (web-browser, mail client etc.). I had the speed of my cpu-fan turned down a lot.

Your comment made me think "why not increase the speed a little?". And guess what, scrolling the albumlist is suddenly as fast as from a cold boot, even though my pc has been on for a few days now. Guess I have to live with a little more noise, to get a faster ejukebox :D

Yes I feel incredible stupid. I should have seen this connection a long time ago. Guess the moral is: Don't play with things you know nothing about :D


I missed this post..

Ah OK! :) That's great if I made something good for you Fishy! :D


Fishy - 11-13-2005 at 04:54 PM

Audiosoft: Great to hear that you've improved the way cache operates!! :D :D :D

Hmm maybe an option for this new feature would be great.

1. Use the new feature which jumps directly to the artist in albumlist (without using the songlist before clicking the artist in artislist once more).

2. Use the songlist (as it works now) and don't jump or do anything in the albumlist at all.

Personally I think I would prefer number 2 most of the time.


Pirk - 11-13-2005 at 05:18 PM

I like the Audiosoft new feature proposal:
First click jumps in the (maximized) albumlist only, second click shows the corresponding songlist too.

And when you don't want to go in the albumlist, you can still close it, so it will go directly in the songlist (as it works now).
But I'm not against an option for that, so you can keep the albumlist open but "inactive"!


Fishy - 11-13-2005 at 05:31 PM

Still I advocate that both ways should be possible. What I don't like about it currently is that it BOTH jumps to the artist in the albumlist while loading albums in the songlist. It takes too much time :

I would love to see an implementation where one can choose if it should work like audiosoft proposed, OR load albums in the songlist directly (while the albumlist is open) and don't do anything in the albumlist.


Pirk - 11-13-2005 at 07:07 PM

No problem Fishy! It's still better when things are not rooted: Each one can do like he prefers. So each one will get the best jukebox, for him... :)


Fishy - 11-13-2005 at 09:20 PM

Or her.. ;)


Pirk - 11-13-2005 at 09:38 PM

Yes.. :D


Audiosoft - 11-14-2005 at 05:14 AM

Quote:

While I was updating the album list cache I decided to implement an old idea: Clicking on an Artist in the Artist List will now jump to the album name, if it exists in the album list. If the album does not exist in the album list it loads the songlist like before. If you click the artist in the artist list again after it jumped to the album in the album list it will show the songlist for the artist.


I have decided not to have eJukebox function like that because it was too slow (since the jumping to the album check needed to happen before creating the songlist) and would be confusing to the user. Instead I have optimized the way eJukebox worked before so it is faster.


Pirk - 11-14-2005 at 12:41 PM

OK... But nevertheless, maybe you could make so that if the user maximize and pin the albumlist, then "Clicking on an Artist in the Artist List will jump to the album name, if it exists in the album list", and NOT jump in the songlist; unless he click on a album or a artist in the albumlist itself, or he un-pin the albumlist.

What you think? :)


Pirk - 11-20-2005 at 02:01 PM

Quote:
Message original : Pirk
-> EACH TIME we run eJ, it takes almost 1 minute to build the full albumlist, plus eJ FREEZE during 40 seconds... (Total: 1 min 40s for 37000 songs!! :()

Since v3.991 eJ takes 1 min to reload my full albumlist, without any freezing! QED :D

And even better: Since I've defragmented my HDD... it only takes 28s to reload the full albumlist! (2783 albums)
And even... my HDD noise management is in quiet mode!

Great! :cool: