Proper location for Fanart - is the default location wrong?

[wayner]

The default location for Fanart in SageTV is within the SageTV server directory.

On Windows this is something like C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\userdata\Phoenix\Fanart.
On unRAID this is something like /appdata/sagetv/server/userdata/Phoenix/Fanart.

This folder can be quite large. On my ~ 5 year old system (which has inherited Fanart from my previous system) this folder is reported as 8.90GB in Size and 36.5GB Size on disk.

Wouldn't it make more sense to put this folder in a media share, not unlike where video files, photos, music, etc, are stored? For example /user/media/Fanart. The reason for this is that this will make backing up the SageTV folder much smaller and faster. It also means that you don't have to copy across all of the Fanart files if you have a new server (or docker) and you are reusing the data drives.

I know that you can change the directory location, but how many people bother to do that?

And same thing for GeneratedThumbnails. Although I don't know if you can change the location of that folder.

[egeller]

Originally Posted by wayner

The default location for Fanart in SageTV is within the SageTV server directory.

On Windows this is something like C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\userdata\Phoenix\Fanart.
On unRAID this is something like /appdata/sagetv/server/userdata/Phoenix/Fanart.

This folder can be quite large. On my ~ 5 year old system (which has inherited Fanart from my previous system) this folder is reported as 8.90GB in Size and 36.5GB Size on disk.

Wouldn't it make more sense to put this folder in a media share, not unlike where video files, photos, music, etc, are stored? For example /user/media/Fanart. The reason for this is that this will make backing up the SageTV folder much smaller and faster. It also means that you don't have to copy across all of the Fanart files if you have a new server (or docker) and you are reusing the data drives.

I know that you can change the directory location, but how many people bother to do that?

And same thing for GeneratedThumbnails. Although I don't know if you can change the location of that folder.

I agree that, for Unraid, the default location of Fanart is a problem as it ends up taking up space on cache drives.

I have moved Fanart a couple of times. It was a mini-project each time and worth it. On my Unraid setup I noticed that the default location was taking up more room than it deserved on my cache drives, so I moved it to the array.

In investigating Plex performance issues, I saw recommendations to move Plex to an unassigned drive, an SSD. I installed an extra SSD, defined it as unassigned drive and moved Plex and the SageTV fanart there. I then rolled my own code to backup what I thought I might not want to lose.

Regarding thumbnails, that never occurred to me. I just checked and it is only taking up 115 MB on my production server.

[wayner]

That makes sense, I guess that you likely still want to keep the Fanart on a fast SSD for performance reasons. It will make sense to create an unRAID share that is on a SSD or NVME. I guess it is kind of the same on Windows - slowish hard drives are fine for watching videos, but they could drag down the performance if your Fanart is stored there.

[KeithAbbott]

Yikes. Although I do not use Phoenix, just for grins, I took a look at the Fanart folder on my system. It's over 2 GB! Is there a setting where I can just disable/remove it?

[graywolf]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Yikes. Although I do not use Phoenix, just for grins, I took a look at the Fanart folder on my system. It's over 2 GB! Is there a setting where I can just disable/remove it?

+1 for those of us that care little for Fanart. If not having Fanart/Thumbnails would make it run faster/smoother I'd be all for it. Would increase WAF

[egeller]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Is there a setting where I can just disable/remove it?

Part of the charm of Fanart is that there is no built-in mechanism to delete fanart for recordings you've deleted. You can check the forum, but all the advice I remember seeing says to delete it manually. Maybe you need to do that periodically.

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by wayner

The default location for Fanart in SageTV is within the SageTV server directory.

On Windows this is something like C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\userdata\Phoenix\Fanart.
On unRAID this is something like /appdata/sagetv/server/userdata/Phoenix/Fanart.

This folder can be quite large. On my ~ 5 year old system (which has inherited Fanart from my previous system) this folder is reported as 8.90GB in Size and 36.5GB Size on disk.

Wouldn't it make more sense to put this folder in a media share, not unlike where video files, photos, music, etc, are stored? For example /user/media/Fanart. The reason for this is that this will make backing up the SageTV folder much smaller and faster. It also means that you don't have to copy across all of the Fanart files if you have a new server (or docker) and you are reusing the data drives.

I know that you can change the directory location, but how many people bother to do that?

And same thing for GeneratedThumbnails. Although I don't know if you can change the location of that folder.

For the thumbnail folder location check out this thread...

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/sho...63&postcount=2

K

[wayner]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

For the thumbnail folder location check out this thread...

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/sho...63&postcount=2

K

Thanks Ken. Time to set up a new share on my SSD drive to hold Fanart and Thumbnails.

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by wayner

Thanks Ken. Time to set up a new share on my SSD drive to hold Fanart and Thumbnails.

Actually from what I saw in that post you can only rename the thumbs folder...not move it unfortunately

As for fanart I would move it to an ssd or the array. Fanart is only read "once" and then cached and read from the cache after that unless not found so the cache is the main location that needs speed.

K

[wayner]

How many files can it keep in the cache? When I go to build the cache on my production server there are 2691 images. Can it keeps these all in the cache?

Here is the output:

Processed: 2691 Media Items
1884 Posters
0445 Banners
1605 Backgrounds
1884 Full Posters
1605 Full Backgrounds

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Yikes. Although I do not use Phoenix, just for grins, I took a look at the Fanart folder on my system. It's over 2 GB! Is there a setting where I can just disable/remove it?

I assume you use the phoenix core services for other reasons other than fanart. If so, you can go into BMT into configure and under Phoenix, Fanart/MetaData Options you can uncheck Fanart.

K

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by wayner

How many files can it keep in the cache? When I go to build the cache on my production server there are 2691 images. Can it keeps these all in the cache?

Here is the output:

Processed: 2691 Media Items
1884 Posters
0445 Banners
1605 Backgrounds
1884 Full Posters
1605 Full Backgrounds

It keeps them all.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

I assume you use the phoenix core services for other reasons other than fanart. If so, you can go into BMT into configure and under Phoenix, Fanart/MetaData Options you can uncheck Fanart.

K

Thanks, I'm glad to hear it is configurable after all. I found the following checkboxes related to fanart, they are all currently checked:

• Fanart Enabled
• Season Fanart Enabled
• Local Fanart Enabled
• Automatic Fanart/Metadata

Which one should I uncheck or do I just uncheck them all?

[VCRUser]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

I assume you use the phoenix core services for other reasons other than fanart. If so, you can go into BMT into configure and under Phoenix, Fanart/MetaData Options you can uncheck Fanart.

K

When I've tried that, it seems to disable all metadata scanning, which I think comes from Phoenix core. I just want to prevent fanart from cluttering up my system, since I have no interest in it. I've deleted it, but it just keeps coming back. That is, fanart and metadata seem to go together; I'd like to get rid of/prevent fanart downloads while keeping metadata. In the end, I decided to just grit my teeth and put up with the fanart bloat.

[jusjoken]

Re fanart disable... I don't know but I can check the code and see what each of them do and let you know. If Metadata is tied to it then I can see how we can allow Metadata without fanart.

May take a bit as I have a few balls in the air right now.

K

[VCRUser]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

Re fanart disable... I don't know but I can check the code and see what each of them do and let you know. If Metadata is tied to it then I can see how we can allow Metadata without fanart.

May take a bit as I have a few balls in the air right now.

K

Thanks - if there's a way to separate them and keep the metadata while ditching the fanart, that would be helpful.

[Steve20A]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

Thanks - if there's a way to separate them and keep the metadata while ditching the fanart, that would be helpful.

This would be good for me, as well. I get an error almost every night running my backup process. One of the image files always get an error either backing up or, within the backup file collection, when being deleted. Not sure what the issue is, as it is always a different file that fails. Not creating/keeping these files at all would solve the problem (even though the root cause would remain unknown).

Edit to add:

If it's of any interest, these are examples of the files and the error messages I get:

ERR 2022-01-17 05:05 Couldn't copy the file "C:\Program Files (x86)\SageTV\SageTV\userdata\Phoenix\Fanart\TV\Wild Kratts\Posters\2b8314531c0882bd96b8fc3494dfc78a-216851-1.jpg": An unexpected network error occurred

ERR 2022-01-23 05:06 An error occurred while deleting "\\DATASERVER\Miscellaneous\LASH Media Server\SageDirectory\SageTV 2021-12-26 05;00;03 (Full)\SageTV\userdata\Phoenix\Fanart\TV\Vienna Blood\Backgrounds\834ffe861d6ee72995467a7025b2998f-62087581.jpg": An unexpected network error occurred

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

Re fanart disable... I don't know but I can check the code and see what each of them do and let you know. If Metadata is tied to it then I can see how we can allow Metadata without fanart.

May take a bit as I have a few balls in the air right now.

K

I checked the code and the disabling fanart only affects if the fanart and metadata providers are different.. Which never happens with the current setup.

When I work on this code for the TVDB changes I will make it stop storing the fanart for the same provider as well.

K

[VCRUser]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

I checked the code and the disabling fanart only affects if the fanart and metadata providers are different.. Which never happens with the current setup.
K

Not sure I understand: are you saying that disabling fanart always disables metadata also because the providers are the same? I'm not sure where I'm getting my metadata (and the unwanted fanart alongside) - it's whatever Phoenix grabs when it does whatever it does - which is, I think, is when it scans for imported videos, but maybe it works on recordings too?

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

Not sure I understand: are you saying that disabling fanart always disables metadata also because the providers are the same? I'm not sure where I'm getting my metadata (and the unwanted fanart alongside) - it's whatever Phoenix grabs when it does whatever it does - which is, I think, is when it scans for imported videos, but maybe it works on recordings too?

Right now disabling fanart will do nothing. I will make a change to resolve that as time permits.

The default providers are TVDB for Series and TMDB for Movies.

K