Multithreaded and GPU-accelerated 'Search' function

[lnminente]

Mine is 7,81 mb too (windows 7, cpu with two cores, using very small covers and still having big delay)

[Sigma]

I was messing around with this today and doing the following in this specific order seems to sort this issue out, for the most part.

Here's what I did: -

I copied the following folders to my desktop, so that I had a backup: -

C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee
C:\Users\Steve\Music\MusicBee
C:\Users\Steve\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee

Then I uninstalled MusicBee via Programs & Features. I checked to make sure that all that was left behind was the MusicBee folder in "Music" inside my user profile folder, and that was the case.

Then I ran the 2.1 installer, and at the final stage, I unchecked the box to automatically launch MusicBee and I did not run the program. Then I ran the 2.2.5012 update EXE from THIS thread, but I still didn't launch MusicBee yet, then I downloaded the latest update ZIP file and unzipped that to the main MusicBee directory, overwriting the files that were there.

Next I launched MusicBee and it automatically picked up my library as it was still present from the previous install. I switched to Artwork view and allowed the artwork cache to rebuild itself. At this point, I was now on the latest version, except now the scrolling is fast, not slow, only I had lost all of my program customisations.

Finally, I closed MusicBee and copied these 2 files from my backed up folders.....

MusicBeeSettings.ini
StartupSettings.ini

....to the Roaming folder, so that next time I started it back up, the skin/UI was back to exactly how it was before I started this process. So now I'm on the latest version, but with fast scrolling.

I had tried this previously a couple of times, but I think the difference was, after initially installing 2.1 I think I launched the program. When I tried it previously, it didn't fix the slow browsing issue as when I scrolled up and down with the mouse wheel I had the "artwork disappearing and then filling in" thing that was really noticeable. Following the steps above, there is just a minimal bit of flicker, but it's nothing like what you saw in my previous videos.

So, to OrB or any of the other guys that have seen the artwork display speed worsen after upgrading to a newer beta, give this a go. Even if you've tried totally fresh installs before, try it again, but follow my exact steps, because I had tried fresh installs before, including nuking my entire library and re-importing all my music and it didn't fix it.

[Sigma]

Here's a video of how it performs after following the above steps: -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVc6My0pVyQ

If you watched my other videos, you can see that it's much better now! This is what it was like previously: -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU04R0SWRwY

[redwing]

Glad to hear you finally sorted it out!

So what's your thought about 4973 and the latest one?

[Sigma]

Glad to hear you finally sorted it out!

So what's your thought about 4973 and the latest one?

It's weird, cos as I said, albums added to MusicBee before upgrading to 4973 displayed "instantly", but any albums I added after that exhibited the slowness. It's as if 2 different caching methods were being used at the same time. That's what prompted me to play around today, as I've been adding a bunch of new albums to my library and while a lot of the artwork was "instant", all the new albums were in the "empty box for a split-second, then they appear" category. Going forward, I knew this would bug me, haha.

But yeah, comparing older "instant" versions of MusicBee to the latest one, I would say that the latest one compares very favourably now. While it is definitely just a fraction slower, the difference is so minimal that I don't care. There must be a particular install/upgrade path that borks it so that the artwork is slow, which is why people like me and OrB experienced the exact same slowdown issues, but others didn't. Hopefully, if OrB tries the steps I posted above, he'll find that it goes back to being fast again too.

[redwing]

Maybe part of the issue was you used both versions in your system not as two independent portable versions, which could have caused caching problem. Anyway glad to hear that!

[lnminente]

@Sigma: So now you have two different copies of MB of the same subversion but one of them is fast and the other is slow?

If that's true could be interesting looking for differences between these two installations. http://www.clonespy.com/ can help for deleting identical files

[Sigma]

@Sigma: So now you have two different copies of MB of the same subversion but one of them is fast and the other is slow?

No mate, I just have one that's fast!

Basically, what happened is this: -

I noticed the slowness issue with the new versions, so I went back to 2.2.4973. However, with that I noticed that only artwork that was already present when upgrading to 2.2.4973 was fast, while anything added after that was slow, almost like it was using the old "fast" caching method for existing art, and a "slow" caching method for anything added from that point on.

But what I have done today is completely uninstall MusicBee, then reinstall it as described above. That has fixed the slowness issue, even though I'm using the latest version that was previously slow for me.

[OrB]

Hey Sigma
thank you for instructions - they work for me - the empty boxes-effect is gone and all works fine
the difference i cleared with the seeker 'Everything' so i needed to rebuild database-file
hmm .. its a kind of metaphysic what you are doing

[Sigma]

Hey Sigma
thank you for instructions - they work for me - the empty boxes-effect is gone and all works fine

Excellent! I'm glad it worked for you man.

[redwing]

@lnminente:

If you still have a delay issue with the latest version, you might want to try a similar complete clean up.

[mrad]

All these messages have lead to confusion. To clarify...

1) Is it correct to say that there was no actual bug.

2) However, an issue did arise from mixing MB 2.1/2.2 regular and portable installations. Where the fix is to remove old installations, including portable installs, and then install the latest version in regular or portable mode (but not both) in order to produce one full speed (i.e. instant) MB instance that is ready for a 2.2 upgrade ?

Thanks in advance.

[Sigma]

1) Is it correct to say that there was no actual bug.

No. There are definitely install/upgrade paths that cause this issue to occur. As Steven releases betas almost daily, it's pretty much impossible to track down exactly how this issue is caused, but it is caused by simply updating to a newer beta version of the software.

2) However, an issue did arise from mixing MB 2.1/2.2 regular and portable installations. Where removing old installations, including portable installs, and then installing the latest version in regular or portable mode (but not both) will produce a normal full speed (instant) MB that is ready for a 2.2 upgrade ?

The issue isn't caused by mixing installations or using regular and portable versions at the same time or anything like that. The issue is caused simply by using the regular version and upgrading it with newer betas.

Here is my situation explained as plainly as I can: -

1. I did a regular install of MusicBee. The artwork scrolling was perfectly fine.

2. Over time, I updated MusicBee using newer betas that Steven uploaded. The artwork scrolling was still fine.

3. Steven released a beta that made the artwork scrolling noticeably slower on my machine (and the machines of a small group of other people, while others had no problems - some even said it was faster), then he released several more that attempted to fix the issue, but none did, even though some improved the situation.

4. I went back to using an older version. However, I noticed that only artwork that existed at the time of updating to that version was "fast", while artwork for any new albums added after that point was "slow", almost like MusicBee was using 2 different methods of caching the artwork.

5. I did a fresh install, installing MusicBee 2.1. Without running it, I upgraded it to 2.2.5012, using the EXE file Steven posted in the Latest Versions section. I still didn't run MusicBee, then I updated it to 2.2.5020 using the ZIP file that Steven had uploaded as the most recent beta. Then I ran MusicBee for the first time and noticed that it fixed the slow scrolling issue. I posted those instructions on here and OrB, who was having the exact same issues as me, said that it fixed things for him too.

Some people are not affected by this. If you're not, I wouldn't worry about. If you are, then you can try the steps I posted in post #271, which have fixed the issue for me and OrB and may work for you too.

[mrad]

Excellent (told you I was confused)

You have cleared that up though, so thank you

[redwing]

Just to clarify things, I'd like to elaborate on my previous post.

Maybe part of the issue was you used both versions in your system not as two independent portable versions, which could have caused caching problem.

Before fixing the issue, Sigma uploaded a YouTube video comparing 4973 and the latest version. How did he do that? And how did he test the performance of later versions? My guess is that he simply used different MusicBee.exe on his one and single installation instead of using different installations. If so, he indeed used mixed installations at least regarding artwork caching. And I suspect that's the main reason why he had the delay issue with the latest version.

When I did the comparison between 4973 and the latest version, I used two independent portable installations. So they didn't affect each other with artwork caching, and the latest version showed no delay issue on my machine.

Then what about a combination of a normal installation and a portable? To make things complicated, one of the previous version once used Username\AppData folder for storing artwork cache even for a portable mode. A later version cleared that folder for a portable mode, but if the user was using a combination of a normal and a portable installations, it could have been possible they were mixed or tainted at one point.

So I think it would be safe, if any user wants to have multiple installations on the machine, to use only portable installations in different partitions/drives to prevent any unforeseeable accidents.

And if any of you still have the artwork delay issue with the latest version, I would recommend to completely remove all installations from your system and follow Sigma's re-installation instructions.