x2 great big lag when browsing media files

[mrbo]

Gday,
Ive been using xplorer2 alpha for a while now, and ive noticed a problem when entering or browsing to a directory that contains a lot of media files, like mp3s, video, etc. The most extreme example of this is when opening a partition of mine that contains about 40 three to four hundred meg video files, x2 takes well over two minutes to display, and it wont respond during this time. At first I thought it was a hard drive issue, but windows explorer displays the directory pretty much instantly. Am I alone in having this problem? I'd imagine large media directories are pretty common, so if its an x2 problem its probably come up before.

I think the problem might be the loading of preview info, and since I dont use it, im wondering if theres a way of turning it off.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned.

[nikos]

do you have the previewer pane on? Or any column that is slow, like checksum? For 40 files, the load times should be instant

another thing that could be the cause is the tooltip. Try having the mouse well out of the way to see if this changes things

[fgagnon]

I think the problem might be the loading of preview info, and since I dont use it, im wondering if theres a way of turning it off.

In case your statement meant "The preview pane is ON, but I don't want to use it.", You can turn it OFF with "ctrl+Q"

[Scot_Free]

Gday,
Ive been using xplorer2 alpha for a while now, and ive noticed a problem when entering or browsing to a directory that contains a lot of media files, like mp3s, video, etc.

-snipped-

I have noticed the same problem when attempting to access a subdirectory that contains 14000 .jpg files. 0.48 takes one minute and 17 seconds to display. Windows Explorer displays it in about 3 seconds.

[mimeryme]

Scot_Free, xplorer² alpha doesn't handle folders w/ a large amount of files, but it is not supposed to. The alphas are debug builds and include certain checks that slow down file listing when dealing w/ an abundance of files.

nikos did release a preview of a build w/o the debug checks and the speed was excellent overall.

[kev]

i have been wondering about this same point for a while - and i don't reckon mrbo has the preview pane turned on since i notice the same phenomenon when browsing movie and music folders (with the preview pane off!) i also assumed it was so well known that loads of people must have discussed it before... to see it clearly for urself u'll need a folder with a fair few large (700meg) divx movies or something like that.

i think maybe it is the loading of tooltip info or something, although it does not always precede a tooltip being displayed. if the pointer or keyboard is used to move around the files the cpu is thrashed for a few seconds (i have p3 1ghz) and it freezes. i think this would be fine once, but it happens repeatedly, almost as if x2 forgets it has already done it! or maybe it is an auto-refresh that rescans everything to see if anything has changed?

having said that it is no a big deal, sure nikos can fine-tune it, xplorer2 is still the most awesome file manager available, i just can't believe more people don't know about it!!

[nikos]

in XP you get infotips even when you are browsing with the keyboard. I think I saw a related KB article about a problem with explorer and large video files. I can add a size limit for infotips (rather silly) or you can disable them altogether like I explained in a different thread

[kev]

yes this problem does indeed occur in windows explorer.
i was just thinking the problem is not that the attributes for big files are being read at all, that is fine, but that they are being read repeatedly. i wonder why does xplorer2 insist upon re-reading these attributes every single time you move the mouse pointer? it would be better to change this behaviour than to put a limit on filesize.

[nikos]

it doesn't
once something is read it is never re-read untill you change folder or manually refresh

[kev]

ok well i was only trying to helpfully suggest possibilities for what it looks like is happening... so, sorry, i was wrong.

but that's not the point - something is happening. i wasn't trying to provoke a blunt argument about the cause, the main point is the symptom. and all i was trying to say is there appears to be no logical reason why the processor should be thrashed for a few seconds every time the pointer is moved over a different large media file, but it is. so if it is not re-reading some file attributes then u tell me, what is it doing?

whatever it is is what this whole thread is trying and so far failing to get at.

[nikos]

on my w2000 this doesn't happen -- for audio files at least
what you can check is whether the file(s) are refreshed so each time it is re-read as new (DBMON will tell you when items are automatically refreshed)

so it could be that whatever is reading the tooltip sets the modification date or something, forcing x2 to refresh the item and hence do another tooltip read from scratch next time round. I don't have XP anywhere nearby to test this

[mrbo]

thanks for the replies guys, i had meant to reply sooner but ive been busy with finals...

anyway, no I don't have the preview pane on. I dont think its tooltips either, since its a one time thing at first entering that directory. After that browsing in and out of that directory is fine, so I expect somethings being cached. My first thought is file properties.

It may not be x2 at all, It could be an XP thing, or a corrupt file thing, or my hard drive could have errors there. although win explorer seems to handle it fine, but its likely to have shortcuts built in.

I will move some files around, partition them into directories and see if that helps things.