Easy way to speed up Fanart browsing

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by Dargason

It seems pretty clear that the files are being cached somewhere else for extenders (or not being cached at all... but it acts like there's a cache somewhere).

Look in the Sage.properties and clients/extenders properties files for Phoenix directories configuration it might be possible that you have to manually add/change the "caching" directory there...alternatively you can ask to the Phoenix developers...

Eddy

[Dargason]

I didn't see anything in there.

At this point, I'm pretty well convinced that the cache exists within the java heap. Caching stuff to the hard disk doesn't make any sense unless the images are being rescaled or otherwise processed.

[Fuzzy]

You are correct, and caching is only done IF scaling is done - which most of the plugins DO perform - some just scale, some scale and actually transform the images in the caching process (rounding corners, for instance) - That or in client installs, it makes sense to cache the files locally on the client instead of pulling them fro the server every time, whether scaling is performed or not.

[gabrielcab]

Saw the video and it is very impressive.

Will this tweak works with everything or is just oriented to using the phoenix theme? I'm using Diamond and MyMovies, will this tweak helps those plugins too?

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

Saw the video and it is very impressive.

Will this tweak works with everything or is just oriented to using the phoenix theme? I'm using Diamond and MyMovies, will this tweak helps those plugins too?

You can cache anything you want and don't mind to loose really (it's a RAM Disk drive) and is not tied to Phoenix whatsoever, in fact, I should move this thread somewhere else. The video is not Phoenix STV, I'm using THIS plugin for my Fanart and the scripts in this thread are mainly designed for that, but can be customized to your requirements.

If you want to speed up Fanart caching, an SSD is one choice, but not the only one, RAM is cheaper these days.

Eddy

[routerunner]

...whether anyone is having good time with this? Does it work for you? Have you been using this to accelerate others part of you system? If so which one?

About me I'm very happy about it and so far no more circle of death whatsoever...

[gabrielcab]

I'm getting this error:

Error creating C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\userdata:
Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

Error creating C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\GeneratedThumbnails:
Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

Any idea?

[gabrielcab]

Originally Posted by routerunner

As requested, please find in attachment version 3 of the FanartRamDisk script. Basically I've just commented out the part that copy the Fanart files into your RamDisk drive, the rest of the script is the same as v2. Also, despite the file size, the script is not evil at all

To summarise you need to do this:

• Download OSFMount from here
• Install the OSFMount with defaults, but please do not run the OSFMount as requested during the installation process.
• Download the junction software in attachment to post #14 of this thread.
• Install the junction software in "C:\Program Files\Junction\" as the batch assumes that directory.
• Unzip the "FanartRamDisk v3.zip" file in attachment into your SageTV installation folder.
• Edit the "FanartRamDisk.bat" batch file and configure your RAM Disk drive size and RAM Disk drive letter as appropriate (Default is F:\ WARNING! The RAM Disk drive will be formatted, so please make sure the assigned drive letter is not used already).
• Run the "FanartRamDisk.bat" batch file.
• You should have two directories in your new RAM Disk drive which will be soft-linked to their original place into your SageTV installation directory.

Please let me know how you're getting on...

Eddy

After doing this, how SageTV knows where to fetch data from the "new" cache directory?

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

After doing this, how SageTV knows where to fetch data from the "new" cache directory?

It is completely transparent to sage, the Windows junctions are the equivalent of Linux soft links, so basically you're telling the OS to redirect any R/W request to those directory into the RAM disk. Once you understand how they works you can customize the script to your requirement.

Which Windows version are you using? Please bear in mind that I don't use diamond or Phoenix STV, so it might be possible that your fanart cache (not the fanart repository) is stored in a different place...

I'm currently using the "Phoenix Fanart for SageTV by JREkiwi" plugin

[gabrielcab]

Originally Posted by routerunner

It is completely transparent to sage, the Windows junctions are the equivalent of Linux soft links, so basically you're telling the OS to redirect any R/W request to those directory into the RAM disk. Once you understand how they works you can customize the script to your requirement.

Which Windows version are you using? Please bear in mind that I don't use diamond or Phoenix STV, so it might be possible that your fanart cache (not the fanart repository) is stored in a different place...

I'm currently using the "Phoenix Fanart for SageTV by JREkiwi" plugin

I'm using WHS v1 and the Diamond plugin for the movies and recordings but i have "Phoenix Fanart for SageTV by JREkiwi" plugin installed so the script should work?

edit:
This lines is getting errors:
C:\Program Files\Junctions>rmdir /S /Q %SageTVDirectory%userdata
The system cannot find the file specified.
The system cannot find the path specified.

Error creating c:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\userdata:
Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

I'm using WHS v1 and the Diamond plugin for the movies and recordings but i have "Phoenix Fanart for SageTV by JREkiwi" plugin installed so the script should work?

edit:
This lines is getting errors:
C:\Program Files\Junctions>rmdir /S /Q %SageTVDirectory%userdata
The system cannot find the file specified.
The system cannot find the path specified.

Error creating c:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\userdata:
Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

I suspect you need double quotes in the names...Also, I recall I said this already, try "rd" command instead of "rmdir" as they are equivalent and the latter maybe not supported in WHS1...

[gabrielcab]

Originally Posted by routerunner

I suspect you need double quotes in the names...Also, I recall I said this already, try "rd" command instead of "rmdir" as they are equivalent and the latter maybe not supported in WHS1...

My sagetv configuration "Diamond Plugin" seems to only create and use cache data from "C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\cache" Inside this cache folder i have differents folders for all the posters of my movies and tv recordings.

I think that what i need to chache are these folders:
"C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\GeneratedThumbnails"
"C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\cache" --> with all the child directory that is inside

But I have no idea of how to write a script

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

My sagetv configuration "Diamond Plugin" seems to only create and use cache data from "C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\cache" Inside this cache folder i have differents folders for all the posters of my movies and tv recordings.

I think that what i need to chache are these folders:
"C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\GeneratedThumbnails"
"C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\cache" --> with all the child directory that is inside

But I have no idea of how to write a script

Just replace in the script version #3 the lines where "userdata" word is used to "cache". I suspect that Diamond will auto create the sub-folders if they doesn't exists. The "GeneratedThumbnails" is always there as is part of SageTV original installation.

EDIT:
I'm also a bit confused as you said that you're using the "Phoenix Fanart for SageTV by JREkiwi" same as me which definitively uses the "userdata" directory, but Diamond uses "cache" for movies and recordings? But then what you need the "Phoenix Fanart for SageTV by JREkiwi" for as your movies cache is already sorted out by Diamond, unless by movies you're not intending the "Video" menu in SageTV v7.? Please clarify as it might be possible that you need to cache both folders (userdata & cache). Also there is the possibility that the "Phoenix Fanart for SageTV by JREkiwi" is clever enough to use "cache" for everything if does exists?

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

But I have no idea of how to write a script

I've got an idea, to cut a long story short, can you please take a snapshot of your exploded tree structure from "C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV" onwards and send it to me? I'll then make a script file tailored to your situation that you only need to modify to suit your SageTV installation directory (if not standard) and RAMdisk drive letter if different from default "F:"

Eddy

[gabrielcab]

Originally Posted by routerunner

I've got an idea, to cut a long story short, can you please take a snapshot of your exploded tree structure from "C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV" onwards and send it to me? I'll then make a script file tailored to your situation that you only need to modify to suit your SageTV installation directory (if not standard) and RAMdisk drive letter if different from default "F:"

Eddy

Here

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

Here

- From the tree it looks like that you successfully managed to make the junction to "userdata", was it the "rmdir" to "rd" change suggestion or the double quotes suggestion? Please confirm.
- Also it looks like that you disabled the "GeneratedThumbnails" being a junction in the script, was intentional?

Please let me know and I'll attach the new script

[gabrielcab]

Originally Posted by routerunner

- From the tree it looks like that you successfully managed to make the junction to "userdata", was it the "rmdir" to "rd" change suggestion or the double quotes suggestion? Please confirm.
- Also it looks like that you disabled the "GeneratedThumbnails" being a junction in the script, was intentional?

Please let me know and I'll attach the new script

I changed rmdir to rd, but i didn't did the double quotes. Do i have to put ""..."" to everything that has "..."?

For the second question I just run your batch file v3 but didn't make any change so if i made any change was not intentionally

[routerunner]

Hi,

in attachment a new FanartRamDisk v4 which will work with Diamond as well as the "Phoenix Fanart for SageTV by JREkiwi".

ASSUMPTIONS
===========

- The destination RAM disk drive is "Y:"
- The default RAM disk size is 1024Mb
- The default RAM disk allocation unit size is 64K
- The default SageTV installation dir is "C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV"

Please change the above to suit your requirements.

In order to confirm that everything did work as expected, please open a DOS command prompt and "CD" to the SageTV installation directory, you should see the following directory marked as <JUNCTION>:

- cache
- userdata
- GeneratedThumbnails

Also, please bear in mind that after executing the script the "whole" current cache is deleted, so if you don't want to loose it for any reason, I suggest to make a copy somewhere of the above directories first and after running the script copy back the same directories into the RAM disk.

Enjoy!

Eddy

[gabrielcab]

Originally Posted by routerunner

Hi,

in attachment a new FanartRamDisk v4 which will work with Diamond as well as the "Phoenix Fanart for SageTV by JREkiwi".

ASSUMPTIONS
===========

- The destination RAM disk drive is "Y:"
- The default RAM disk size is 1024Mb
- The default RAM disk allocation unit size is 64K
- The default SageTV installation dir is "C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV"

Please change the above to suit your requirements.

In order to confirm that everything did work as expected, please open a DOS command prompt and "CD" to the SageTV installation directory, you should see the following directory marked as <JUNCTION>:

- cache
- userdata
- GeneratedThumbnails

Also, please bear in mind that after executing the script the "whole" current cache is deleted, so if you don't want to loose it for any reason, I suggest to make a copy somewhere of the above directories first and after running the script copy back the same directories into the RAM disk.

Enjoy!

Eddy

Now i'm getting only one error at the end of the script:

Error creating C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\GeneratedThumbnails:
Access is denied.

Everything else is ok

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

Now i'm getting only one error at the end of the script:

Error creating C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\GeneratedThumbnails:
Access is denied.

Everything else is ok

That is because the directory is being in use or SageTV service puts privileges on it. What I normally do in the morning is to run the script with the sage service off first...