Media scanning badly implemented

Mr Topdown added a comment - 10/Jan/12 9:49 PM Totally agree here. The current implementation leaves a lot to be desired, and it is something that has bugged me for some time. Scanning should just be a case of getting the contents of the scan source, and comparing it against the existing library and resolving differences only. To get a folder in linux of my media would take less than a minute. Boxee takes 15min, and here I'm not including the obvious and necessary lookup and resolution of data from IMDB sources. If necessary then media meta data such as duration, bit rate, dates and resolution could be obtained and cached. If these are not already peformed I suggest they should be (so as to facilitate filtering per my other request, and also to fill in where IMDB data is missing)

Ami Ben-David [Boxee] added a comment - 11/Jan/12 3:18 AM This issue is awaiting review from Boxee Product Management. If you are keen to have this feature implemented, please Comment and Vote for it.

Mike Scattergood added a comment - 12/Jan/12 2:57 PM This is one of the most sensible feature requests I have seen to date. Thanks Mr Topdown!

Magnus Marshall added a comment - 12/Jan/12 3:48 PM Sadly by the comment above this is unlikely to happen. Seriously its a improvement that would massively reduce load on the box and improve responsiveness. The box would feel smooth and usable rather then the sluggish mess it is when you have more then a few movies and tv shows. Yet they want comments and votes!!! If something can improve your product and make the public happy you do it you don't put it to a bloody vote. These product lives and fails on how the public feels about it, just like many many other products do. How does the public feel about it the boxxe products? Lets see they totally pissed off the base of people who made them popular with a buggy and shit final piece of desktop software (nice slap in the face to them) The box has been out for over a year and it still has many of the core issues it had upon release. They want us to buy a new addon for a product that itself doesn't work as should..(yes lets put more workload on the box that already sluggish as hell when it scans) Whats really bad is they can't seem to see it but if you go into a store these days and ask about it they well tell you to buy something else. If the people in the stores are unimpressed with it then its usually a good hint you need to step up your game and improve the product.. Whats a kicker here is boxee aware of the fact scanning is a major reason for playback stuttering ans slowdown so they block the box from scanning during playback now. Instead of actually addressing the reason scanning is so intensive and fixing that. I work for a major tech company and if we did something like that we get fired so fast out butts would leave skid marks going out the door. The firmware has always been beta and its going to remain that way no matter what label is slapped on it. Xmbc which boxee is based on has been improved to a new slicker version to fix the issues boxe still got. The new ui looks nice but if you look closely at boxee behavior you find is windows dressing for the most part and deals very little with fixing things. A good example is manually identifying a show..Before you loose the icon for identifying if boxe grabbed a thumbnail preview..a glitch but no biggy. Now when you manual identify there is no thumb preview...ohh wait it turns out the no ui is merely that just a new ui and its still basically the old boxee firmware underneath.. Because you still loose the manual identify icon because the system is still trying to generate a thumb preview but the new ui just hides that. Fix the box boxee and stop with the new ad-dons and windows dressing tell you do. Your reputation is seriously trashed and you need to seriously push hard to improve the product to keep competing in this market. If you think i am being harsh then ask around . A product like this at this cost has no chance in the market when much cheaper boxes perform better and improve at a much faster rate.

Effrin Herrera added a comment - 15/Jan/12 4:52 PM Please implement improvements in this area as scanning slows my box down so much that it takes days to scan even one drive!

Magnus Marshall added a comment - 15/Jan/12 5:46 PM - edited  The first scan is never going to be blindingly fast since everything added needs to be scanned but all fellowing scans should not be this dog slow or cpu intensive. A lot of the reasons for slow downs and sluggish behavior would be resolved by updating the scanning. Unfortunately as we see they rather we vote on if a upgrade should happen or not rather then do the smart thing and fix the problem. When the hell do people actually vote on improvements that could actually improve peoples outlook on your product...lol.

Simon K added a comment - 16/Jan/12 3:49 AM Yes, it's a very clumsy implementation. No idea why it was done this way, aside from it being easier I guess.

Magnus Marshall added a comment - 16/Jan/12 4:52 AM It goes back to the source xmbc which is sometime ago. It worked for the time but by todays standards its a efficient crude bit of work. Boxee has done little to the base of what it once was and it shows. Reboots Freezing Sluggish behavior Slow scanning and so on. What they done now is stick a new ui on it and ad live tv to a already inefficient mess. They need to focus on the core and get it ready for prime time as its still barely above pre-release levels. There are ways around some of the bugs but seriously a 180 box is suppose to work as advertised and people aren't suppose to have to do work arounds to get it usable.. There a good reason the box has almost never made it in the top 5 of any media streamer reviews. You can have a top of the line computer but like this box its only as good as the software on it. Or boxee can kiss any tv deals goodbye and watch the box fail this year..its already headed that way but its up to them still to decide where it goes.

Peter Lewis added a comment - 02/Feb/12 9:37 AM Agree the above improvement in the scan would be nice. However it is not the only improvement which would remove the sluggishness to the UX due to scanning. How about instead (or in addition) voting for the following JIRA http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-11722 which is relating to the ability to specify a set time of day for the scanning to be initiated, in this way, you schedule routine scans for when you are unlikely to be using the box. Just like you would specify functions on your PC to perform virus scans, or archiving of email, or synchronisation with network drives etc. At the moment automatic daily scanning is performed at inconvenient times (e.g. every time you manually re-scan, you reset the timer). As manual re-scans are performed when you are infront of your TV, then it is likely that the next scheduled scan will be performed when you are infront of your TV also... ...Peter ...Peter

Silent337 added a comment - 03/Feb/12 7:58 PM Peter, A time scheduler would be nice, but would still cause issues for me as it take many HOURS for my box to complete a scan of the sources. The box is really only designed for small libraries and still kinda feels gimmicky. I think the ability to stream online TV and the ability to grab online content is outstanding, but the streaming of local media feels like an after thought........ and I think still is. There seems to be a real reluctance from the Boxee development team to resolve the scanning issue, even when the immediate performance gains and community support seem so evident. Perhaps there are more financial gains for the company behind having full scans that they are not coming forward about. Either way, this is just another box that doesn't meet it's potential in a market that is crying out for someone to step up with a product that is easy-to-use, well designed and versatile. Most products in this sector only display one of these characteristics, the Boxee Box fits this pattern.

Magnus Marshall added a comment - 03/Feb/12 9:39 PM The problem is the boxee file system is read only so creating a cache for the scanner to compare media to becomes a issue. Now they could have it do so onto a thumb drive plugged into a usb and you could drastically improve scanning speed. Unfortunately this is also unlikely to happen since they would rather use the usb to make more money with addons. If its a choice between the user or making more money then its the money every time and they seem to have this inability to see that such short term view is going to cost them in the long run.

Mr Topdown added a comment - 03/Feb/12 10:00 PM @Magnus, not so sure I agree here. There is obvisouly a cache of some sort because the list of existing media is available along with cover images when the box is turned on with no network available. @Peter, I agree a defined time scheduler would be nice, but as a developer myself I can't see this being much easier or rewarding to implement than fixing up scanning. If scanning was quicker you would have no need for your request. Scheduled scans also require the constant power on of the device which is not desired by many users including myself, especially in light of the power requirements of the box (sleep mode consumes about the same as playing content).

Magnus Marshall added a comment - 03/Feb/12 11:12 PM Your getting cover art and a cache for the media confused there not the same thing. The problem isn't the time of the scan but the speed of the scan and if you want a perfect example try media center master. After the the first scan is run which takes between 20 and 30 min to grab all the info for tv/movies (varies depending on what i doing at the time) it takes just a little over 30 sec to rescan every single movie/music. Tv shows are slightly different but you get the idea of just how it should run compared to how it does run. Now there maybe some kind of cache for the media in some form but the system is very outdated by todays standards. Finding info for any new media takes a min or two depending on how much you add each time. If the scanning was updated then setting times for the scan though nice would basically bee unnecessary since it would take so little time to scan for new media. It not like a lot of power is required either since i can do this on my netbook without it making much of a impact. The drastic time difference between how boxee scans and how a program created by one guy scans gives you a good idea of just how outdated boxee scanning is.

Mr Topdown added a comment - 04/Feb/12 12:27 AM "Your getting cover art and a cache for the media confused there not the same thing." --- could be; all depends how the developers have implemented this, but I have no knowledge of XBMC source code so I don't know if they are distrinctly seperate. I was simply addressing the statement that there is local storage space on the device to store such a cache. Such a cache, being non-binary (eg image) data would be imensely small in any case. Agree, re time of scan vs speed of scan. This is a speed issue only for me. I could write the code from scratch in 20minutes, which is why it is so frustrating that a commercial product like Boxee can't do this. Re "Finding info for any new media takes a min or two depending on how much you add each time" - yes could maybe be improved, but given I expect minimal new media is added it is not a big problem for me; the main issue at hand is the rescanning of existing unchanged items, and the speed with which it does it. Having said all this however, Boxee Box firmware 1.5 is a HUGE leap over previous versions so we can only hope they continue to monitor these forums and issue trackers for further improvements.

Magnus Marshall added a comment - 04/Feb/12 3:25 AM The speed is appalling and a source of huge problems for the firmware. Like you i am wondering why they haven't fixed it since its hardly the biggest bit of code to make or even hard to do.

William Block added a comment - 23/Feb/12 5:48 PM Can there not be a option in the settings for us to select to rescan the nfo's during a rescan. I have had so much trouble getting all my shows to identify correctly, that I have started putting nfo' for every show, but if one need to be corrected or altered, I need basically start again with a full drive rescan. With over 350 shows, this takes a very long time.

Cerra Fam added a comment - 01/Apr/12 10:37 PM Fix this! The UX here sucks and is the biggest black eye Boxee Box has imho. You download a video on your network. You are using Boxee's own Media Manager. You see the new video in Media Manger. Yay! Happy user! Then you fire up your Boxee Box and ... it's not there. You are forced to scan, and you do. You are told the scan is successful. And it's not there. You scan again. And it's not there. Boo! Confused user! Sorry, I'll put this bluntly: I love my Boxee Box, but you guys should be embarrassed!

Brian Kiser added a comment - 03/Apr/12 7:54 AM I don't know if we're talking about the same thing, but I have complained since I bought it back in December of 2010 that it doesn't scan correctly. It doesn't identify all my movies, or identify even properly. I gave up on the scanning long ago, and just watch everything from the "Files" section. At least that way, I know the movie will be shown. XBMC is SO much better at this. I can't wait until the Apple 3 is hacked and sold on ebay.

kaare mikkelsen added a comment - 07/Apr/12 7:05 PM Just upping the ticket. Seriously. If you're understaffed, get volunteers from the community or something, we're a lot of people who want to see this work. It doesn't right now.

Richard Pearson added a comment - 11/Apr/12 12:54 PM This is starting to annoy me too. As my library grows so does the time I have to wait before it appears in my library post boot! Please review this ASAP!

Brian Kiser added a comment - 15/Apr/12 10:15 AM My boot is extremely slow. I try to cut it on before I go to the bathroom or when I have to do other things. (It takes a few minutes.) It's so inaccurate with identification, I think I'm just going to turn scanning off. Hopefully, that will help with the performance. I really can't help but wonder if they tested this thing with large libraries. I have about 15000 TV show episodes alone, not counting movies, documentaries, or music. My music library is pretty big, too.

huhu grub added a comment - 13/May/12 10:22 PM Scanning operation is buggy. Media scanning no longer works ... why? I don't know why? Boxee doesn't report any issue, and just waits there with a status on a data source "Waiting to be scanned ..." which it will never do! The only solution is to reset back to factory default settings! Using the clear media database/cache does nothing to fix this. I then waste my time setting things up again ... even with basic user usage we are finding these bugs, they aren't obscure by a long stretch.... please fix em.

Magnus Marshall added a comment - 13/May/12 10:36 PM Don't hold your breath on it getting fixed anytime soon or as the boss here says ..maybe or if. Its hasn't been addressed because they want to keep track of user stats by having boxee go online for info even though there may already be info . It could have been easily been addressed ages ago but like many things its not about the user but about boxee. The whole cut the cord nonsense is just that. Your merely changing cords for one of boxee making.

Stdren added a comment - 15/May/12 10:20 AM I use PLEX to scan my movie folder on a share and the PLEX App on the iPad to check/choose the movie I want to watch (or my wife wants to watch for that matter). I then go into the file system on the boxee box and start the movie. Playback is fine. Why? 1) boxee box doesn't find all the movies i.e. I don't trust the scanning process anymore 2) some movies show up without a cover (never happens with PLEX) - cosmetic issue

Zachary Prewitt added a comment - 14/Jun/12 4:57 PM Adding my vote to get this fixed. In the meantime, I've heard that using NFS as opposed to SMB for file sharing helps. Has anyone tried this?

Richard Pearson added a comment - 14/Jun/12 5:11 PM I converted my shares to NFS from SMB - didn't make a noticeable difference. Perhaps slightly quicker but still taking upwards of 25-30 minutes over a gigabit Ethernet connection while XBMC running on a Apple TV scans the same share in 3-5 minutes over 200MB power line adapters! Clearly Boxee is doing something very wrong.

Magnus Marshall added a comment - 14/Jun/12 11:48 PM Its never been fixed because box goes online to boxee's sever and ignores any nfo files. Nfo files or any media info is only used if you do a manual identification. Otherwise boxee likes to keep a idea of whats being watched and has no desire to change that. Its would have been dead easy to fix the media scanning so that it was fast and speedy. They get what they want at the expense of the user and they don't much care to change it. Not to mention things have basically stopped in the bug repair error do to upcoming new hardware.

rob e added a comment - 15/Jun/12 9:25 PM Boxee Box is not gigabit capable. Similar failure with external ports; they could have used power over esata having each port double as USB and eSata. Boxee hopes to torture users into interweb use, view evil privacy raping ads, and abandon the idea of local media entirely. Why else would local boxee box choke to death when boxee servers are unavailable? I use ZERO online content through boxee box.