pyTivo Discussion Forum

krkeegan · Last edited by krkeegan on Sun Apr 27, 2008 5:58 pm; edited 2 times in total

This is a Deprecated feature of pyTivo - This feature was a benefit under previous designs of pyTivo. However it is no longer necessary under the current design of pyTivo. It is recommended that all users no longer use the precache feature

All uploaded, sorry about the delay.

This will cause pyTivo parse all files recursively in a share to load them into the cache. Currently this only works in the video plugin, but incorporation into other plugins that use a cache is very easy.

In the video plugin this causes pyTivo to run ffmpeg on EVERY video file in that share and stores that information in the cache.

Benefits: This greatly decreases the load time while browsing on the TiVo. For me a folder with 50 videos would take 18 seconds to load the first time I viewed it. Now it takes less than 2 seconds.
Drawbacks: This will create a delay in the startup of pyTivo while processing the files. For me I experienced a delay of nearly 2 minutes to parse 757 video files.

Usage:
Set the precache=true under any share. If the plugin does not support the precache setting it is ignored.

Example:
In the following conf file the share "Old TV" would be precached while "Movies" and "Photos" would not be.

[Old TV]
type = video
path = /store/TV
precache=true

[Movies]
type = video
path = /store/Movies

[Photos]
type = photo
path = /store/Photos

[Server]
debug = true
ffmpeg = /usr/bin/ffmpeg
hack83 = true
port = 9032

wmcbrine · Joined: 04 Jan 2008 Posts: 2008 Location: Maryland

And how does this deal (or does it deal) with the case of a new video being added? Does it it require a restart?

billdog79 · Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 57 Location: Gulf Breeze, FL

The initial load time isn't really a big deal to me because I leave pyTivo running all of the time on a separate computer. I only have to deal with it when I upgrade.

But there are probably many users who use this on their main computer and shut it down often. I was wondering if there was a way to have the cache saved between pyTivo sessions.

Would this be difficult or impossible to do?

That being said, even if the above isn't able to be done, I like Krkeegan's approach better to have all of the files scanned at startup, rather than a folder by folder basis. Get it out of the way all at once.

windracer · Joined: 04 Jan 2008 Posts: 219 Location: St. Pete, FL

PaulS · Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 184

The cache would need to maintain a list of the files in a given directory, as well as the "last modified time" for each of those files.

Ideally, when you navigate into that directory, you compare the current list of files/times with what you've got in cache. At that point, you only need to run the un-cached files or previously cached files that have been modified through ffmpeg, as well as updating the cache to include those changes. Should still present a very significant performance boost.

Alternately, there could be a background task which would periodically recurse through the shares and do the cache updating.

Either of these scenarios wouldn't require a restart to incorporate newly added files into the shares.

wgw · Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 284

I think it's safe to say we're all foaming at the mouth in anticipation of your new enhancement. Razz

Come on 8:30.

wmcbrine · Joined: 04 Jan 2008 Posts: 2008 Location: Maryland

krkeegan · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:17 am Post subject:

Ok all posted here

wgw · Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 284

The delay on my computer was 25 seconds for 200 files. Page down is very fast. Well worth the startup delay for me. Thanks. And no problems finding new files. Or removing deleted files.

TreborPugly · Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 55

Does this also combine smack's mini-fix for subfolders with hack83?

The big benefit I'm looking for is on my networked share, which is always slow, and the most likely to get crashy on me, and is fairly deeply subfoldered. (it also has my less-used stuff, so if I really want to show my kids something from there, I have the leisure to just add a specific sub-folder where the files in question are, or I can move them to a top-level directory, etc...)

But I have a new laptop waiting for me at home, running XP, and I'm planning to get pyTivo off this inexplicably slow Vista machine I've been using. (Everything is slow, not just pyTivo - either Vista really wants to screw me over, or I've got a processor going bad or something equally unpleasant)

krkeegan · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:00 pm Post subject:

wgw · Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 284

krkeegan · Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 3:49 am Post subject:

PaulS · Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 184

Wow! The combination of pre-cache and video.ext really makes for a significant performance improvement. Browsing around various pyTivo served folders in NPL is instantaneous. Excellent work, guys!

TreborPugly · Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 55

working well on my new laptop running Windows XP.

My old one is seriously messed up I think. When sending a file to the Tivo, ffmpeg was using 40% of the CPU time. On this new laptop, which has only slightly faster processors. (both dual core), it uses about 5% CPU time.

I just quickly went two subfolders down on my network share! No crashes, no funky listings, no waiting. I bow before your awesomeness!