Slow Response using NAS

[mccuthom]

Starting at Beta 9 or so I have been having problems in working with PTE. All of my JPEG images slowly show up on the screen when the files are stored on a Network Attached Storage device.

I copied the JPEG images to the desktop and all works fine.

I generally have around 300 images in a slide show and with this many images it also takes around 5 minutes after pressing preview for the slide show to start.

Just wondering if there is a new setting I should change to make the Network Attached Storage unit work again.

Never had this problem in V4, or earlier V5 Beta's.

Thanks

[Igor]

Please temporarily disable File Tree in PicturesToExe (Main menu | View | Show File Tree), restart PicturesToExe and try again. Let me know about result, please.

Also how fast starts EXE file with slide show if you placed it on Network Attached Storage unit?

[mccuthom]

Please temporarily disable File Tree in PicturesToExe (Main menu | View | Show File Tree), restart PicturesToExe and try again. Let me know about result, please.

I disabeled "File panel as thumbnails" and "Slide list as thumbnails" and display response was normal. Show File Tree has no effect on performance. The program is having trouble with diplaying thumbnails. I have tried this on 2 different computers with the same result.

Also how fast starts EXE file with slide show if you placed it on Network Attached Storage unit?

I created an .exe from 8 JPEG images and launched it from the NAS. Program started like normal. No delay in startup.

[Igor]

1) Please make a little another test:

- Start PicturesToExe

- Disable File Tree.

- Set Thumbnails view for Slide and File lists.

- Close PicturesToExe

- Start it again.

- Click Preview button.

How long it will generate preview?

2) Another test.

Same as above, but disable thumbnails for File Panel (leave thumbnails only in Slide list)

Restart PicrturesToExe.

How preview will start now?

3) Disable thumbnails in Slide panel (leave thumbnails only in File list).

Restart PicrturesToExe.

Try to Preview.

p.s. I tested with images located on attached network disc and it works perfectly.

[mccuthom]

1) Please make a little another test:

- Start PicturesToExe

- Disable File Tree.

- Set Thumbnails view for Slide and File lists.

- Close PicturesToExe

- Start it again.

- Click Preview button.

How long it will generate preview?

2) Another test.

Same as above, but disable thumbnails for File Panel (leave thumbnails only in Slide list)

Restart PicrturesToExe.

How preview will start now?

3) Disable thumbnails in Slide panel (leave thumbnails only in File list).

Restart PicrturesToExe.

Try to Preview.

p.s. I tested with images located on attached network disc and it works perfectly.

Reply to 1) 8 JPEG images 1024 X 1542 take 11 seconds to start preview in this test.

Reply to 2) 8 JPEG images 1024 X 1542 take 11 seconds to start preview in this test.

Reply to 3) 8 JPEG images 1024 X 1542 take 11 seconds to start preview in this test.

It takes 25 seconds to display 20 thumbnail images in file panel after starting program. (V5 B13A)

It takes 10 seconds to display 8 thumbnail images in slide list after starting program. (V5 B13A)

It takes 3 seconds to display 20 thumbnails in file panel and 16 thumbnails in slide list. (Total time to display all) (V4.48)

It takes 1 second to start preview (8 images) (V4.48)

[Conflow]

SIZE RATIO,

You might have a Graphics problem with your 'Screen Size Ratios' ~ it could also be a bug.

Standard 'Size Ratio' is 4:3 (4 wide:3 high) example:- 1024 x 768 pixels.

From your posted figures your Picture ratio is actually higher that wider 1024 x 1542

and even if you reverse this to 1542 x 1024 your ratio is non-standard at 3:2 ratio.

All Standard Monitors and VDU's are designed to display with an aspect ratio of 4:3 and the

'Monitor Driver Software' is designed to anticipate this usage. Non-Standard ratios push the

Graphic Card Memory to its limits and consequently things slow down drastically.

Try re-sizing a few pictures to 1024 x 768 and repeat the Test and see what happens ?

(The same aspect ratio must also be used for Thumbnails)

Hope this may be of help....

Brian.Conflow.

[Igor]

Currently I have no ideas why File and Slide lists and Preview work slower that in v4.48 We almost didn't modify this code and on many PCs where I tested I didn't notice any difference.

Do you really sure that v4.48 and v5.00 beta 8 right now work faster than v5.00 beta 13?

If we could test on NAS, but I don't know where to find it in our city.

[mccuthom]

Currently I have no ideas why File and Slide lists and Preview work slower that in v4.48 We almost didn't modify this code and on many PCs where I tested I didn't notice any difference.

Do you really sure that v4.48 and v5.00 beta 8 right now work faster than v5.00 beta 13?

If we could test on NAS, but I don't know where to find it in our city.

The speed change happended between beta 10 and 11A. I have no problem with the speed of thumbnail display and start of preview in beta 10. When I try the exact same files, on the same computer, over the same network, on the same NAS, I get slow results with beta 11A.

There is a difference between the beta's.

My NAS may be the problem, but there must be a code change starting at beta 11a that caused the problem.

I am using an Infrant ReadyNAS NV. It is setup using RAID 5.

I also tested on Buffalo Terastation, which is using RAID 0 and had no problem with speed.

It appears to be compatibility issue with Infrant ReadyNAS NV.

I hope there is a fix for PTE to get back to beta 10 performance.

Thanks

[Igor]

We just prepared special beta, probably it will work faster on your PC, please try it:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_28-05-2007.zip

[mccuthom]

We just prepared special beta, probably it will work faster on your PC, please try it:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_28-05-2007.zip

I have tried this special BETA. There is no difference. It did not fix the problem of slow performance.

Thanks for trying though.

[Igor]

Please help me in solving this problem. You said me that beta 10 worked fine and beta 11A already had this problem. I can prepare series of beta versions to find moment when this problem occured and we'll fix this problem.

Here is a first beta NAS1:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_NAS1.zip (2 MB)

Thank you in advance,

[mccuthom]

Please help me in solving this problem. You said me that beta 10 worked fine and beta 11A already had this problem. I can prepare series of beta versions to find moment when this problem occured and we'll fix this problem.

Here is a first beta NAS1:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_NAS1.zip (2 MB)

Thank you in advance,

This beta works fine. No problem with slow response.

Thanks for not giving up.

[Igor]

Please try beta 16 NAS2:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_29-05-2007.zip (4 MB)

[mccuthom]

Please try beta 16 NAS2:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_29-05-2007.zip (4 MB)

Tried this BETA with same results as BETA 15. Took over 4 minutes to preview 176 images. Very slow thumbnail preview.

There is definately a difference in performance between NAS1 and NAS2.

Thanks

Hope this helps.

[Igor]

Thank you for the help!

Please try this beta 16 NAS3:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_NAS3.zip (2 MB)

[mccuthom]

Thank you for the help!

Please try this beta 16 NAS3:

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_NAS3.zip (2 MB)

Tested this BETA NAS3 and it works fine. Normal thumbnail display performance and 176 image slideshow takes 4 seconds to preview.

Thanks again

It appears that you have located the problem.

Any comments on what it was?

[Igor]

I almost found code where this problem occurs.

Please try this beta 16 NAS4

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_nas4.zip

If it will work fine, we found reason of this problem and will rewrite one small module.

[mccuthom]

I almost found code where this problem occurs.

Please try this beta 16 NAS4

http://www.wnsoft.com/test/apr-deluxe_nas4.zip

If it will work fine, we found reason of this problem and will rewrite one small module.

This BETA NAS4 works fine also. JPEG images display properly and 176 image slideshow starts in 4 seconds.

Thanks again.

I will send file attached to e-mail as requested.

[Igor]

I'm very grateful you for your patience! Now I found exact reason of this problem and we'll try to rework new EXIF module which caused this problem.

I'll upload beta 16 tomorrow. Please let me know how it will work.

[Igor]

Please try PicturesToExe Deluxe v5.00 Beta 16:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr-deluxe.zip (4 MB)

[mccuthom]

Please try PicturesToExe Deluxe v5.00 Beta 16:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/apr-deluxe.zip (4 MB)

This beta also has no problem with performance.

I tested thumbnail display times and preview times and all is normal again.

Thanks

[Igor]

Thanks! I'm glad.

However it's a strange problem. This Network Attached Storage doesn't cache read operations. We wrote own memory manager for read requests and it speeded up reading EXIF information in JPEG files.