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View Full Version : Scan experiences with the internal squeezebox server of the Touch (USB-HD)


perro6969
2010-04-19, 05:57
Hello,

I would like to open this thread to collect experiences of scaning times of your music from an external USB HD using the internal squeezebox server of the Touch (Touch as a stand alone player using an external USB HD).
I've already posted my experiences in another thread, but I would like to open this one, so we can get an overview of how the touch behaves depending of the mount of data to be scaned or the type of USB HD (2,5 or 3,5 external HD's).
Maybe we can get something usefull from this for the developers of the server software...

USB-HD: Toshiba 2,5", 500 GB, AC powered
Files: ~50000
Scan time: ~9-12 hours
Scan results: sucessfull, but when trying to play something, the server stops, restarts and begings to scan the USB for new files
Scan for new files time: ~9 hours

If you have any solution to reduce the scan times, we will be very glad to hear about it! (please don't write "to have less files")

You can use this template for your results:

USB-HD:
Files:
Scan time:
Scan results:
Scan for new files time:


Thanks and regards!

Nacho

PS: To the moderators, if you think this is a bad idea, just ignore this thread, but if you think this can be usefull, please create a "Sticky", to have it always on the first page.
pounce
2010-04-19, 06:07
Have you updated the firmware after unboxing?
perro6969
2010-04-19, 06:52
Have you updated the firmware after unboxing?

The firmware is up-to-date (first thing done after starting the touch for the first time), but what do you exactly mean with "unboxing"?
pounce
2010-04-19, 07:01
Unboxing means what happened after you got the unit. You took it out of the box and set it up. Was just wondering if you had connected it to the internet and updated the firmware before doing your HD scan.
perro6969
2010-04-19, 07:10
ah...ok. Thanks!
...and how is your experience with the scaning?
pounce
2010-04-19, 07:21
Too slow for my preference. I don't think anyone with a large collection or a collection that changes a lot is going to want to use the internal SBS at this point in time.
perro6969
2010-04-19, 07:37
and what about a small NAS solution? how faster is it? Is there any not too expensive (more or less 100 EUR) NAS HD, in which the squeezebox server can be installed? I've already seen the list on the wiki, but they all are too expensive and big.
Any experiences with this?
krochat
2010-04-19, 07:52
USB-HD: 2TB 3.5" Samsung
Files: 38000
Scan time: 9 hrs
Scan results: completed, but no artwork for some reason
Scan for new files time: 90 minutes
Firmware: 7.5.0 r8673

USB-HD: 750GB 3.5" Seagate
Files: 3400
Scan time: 15 minutes (more or less, it was pretty quick)
Scan results: completed
Scan for new files time: 2 minutes
Firmware: 7.5.0 r8673

I was going to try swapping two USB drives in and out since my library is too big to fit on one drive, but once I saw the 90 minute rescan time after detaching the reattaching the first drive I abandoned that idea.

I think there should be an option to disable or bypass the new file scan once the database has been created. It could even prompt with "scan for new files?" when a drive with an existing scan database has been newly attached (or the Touch has been rebooted).
krochat
2010-04-19, 08:10
USB-HD: 750GB 3.5" Seagate
Files: 7000
Scan for new files time: didn't try


Correction - I had the number of files wrong - I was thinking of a different drive. The correct number of files with "scan for new files time" is:

USB-HD: 750GB 3.5" Seagate
Files: 3400
Scan time: 15 minutes (more or less, it was pretty quick)
Scan for new files time: 2 minutes

Kim
perro6969
2010-04-19, 08:20
I think there should be an option to disable or bypass the new file scan once the database has been created. It could even prompt with "scan for new files?" when a drive with an existing scan database has been newly attached (or the Touch has been rebooted).

yeah...I would say they should add an option to disable the scan at all, or to choose between a deep scan (ID3 tag scan) or a simple folder and filename scan (no ID3 tag, only file structure). The search modul should then be able to search for folder or filenames. The ID3 Tag information could be read from the file and be displayed directly while playing the title.
perro6969
2010-04-19, 08:31
USB-HD: 750GB 3.5" Seagate
Files: 3400
Scan time: 15 minutes (more or less, it was pretty quick)
Scan for new files time: 2 minutes


That is pretty fast! I think if we make a graph with the results, we would get a beautiful curve.
jo-wie
2010-04-19, 08:51
I was going to try swapping two USB drives in and out since my library is too big to fit on one drive,...

On a filled up HD the Database will be on the slow end of the disk I guess. You could try to split your Data 50:50.
krochat
2010-04-19, 09:28
On a filled up HD the Database will be on the slow end of the disk I guess. You could try to split your Data 50:50.

Actually, the 750GB drive I mentioned is a "FLAC -0" experiment to see if I can play 96/24 files off an attached hard drive. (Not satisfactory, stuttered for a couple of seconds at the beginning of each track unless played into from the previous track).

My actual library is split across two 2TB drives, each with at least 500GB free. I only had the patience to run the scan on one of the two 2TB drives.

Regards,
Kim
RichardLittlewood
2010-04-20, 11:48
I believe it takes about 4 or 5 hours to scan 30000 files (240 Gbyte) on a 320 Gbyte 3.5" freecom USB HDD. I could live with that once but it rescans the lot if you eject the USB. Why can't I manually control the scan (and the scan folders for that matter)? Why should it need to rescan if I haven't added any files?

Furthermore my albumart has only worked intermitently and I've had plenty of problems with it hanging showing "scanning stopped with a problem" or it says its still scanning but the HDD isn't rotating. I believe the GUI may be generally unresponsive because it always seems to be scanning.

So, although the device shows promise it's unusable for me at present.
sckramer
2010-04-20, 12:11
I wonder if a simple "Music Folder" mode could be added, instead of scanning and building a database-- for now until they figure out how to optimize it.
toby10
2010-04-20, 12:16
I wonder if a simple "Music Folder" mode could be added, instead of scanning and building a database-- for now until they figure out how to optimize it.

It's there, no scanning needed...
Touch > My Music > Music Folder
Mnyb
2010-04-20, 12:20
It's there, no scanning needed...
Touch > My Music > Music Folder

But can you stop the initial scan ? or rescan ?

with BMF the album will be scanned once browsed to, so you be building your dB one folder at the time..
toby10
2010-04-20, 13:14
But can you stop the initial scan ? or rescan ?

with BMF the album will be scanned once browsed to, so you be building your dB one folder at the time..

Don't think you can stop just the scan, you can only stop TinySC that I'm aware of.
I don't have the huge libraries that others here have, but my My Music > Music Folders were all available very quickly, even during the scan. :)
perro6969
2010-04-30, 06:34
I sent the squeezebox touch back.
They can't be serious that a simple HDD should take more than 9 hours to be scaned! I’m really disappointed about that.
If you want the touch as a stand alone player, just forget it!
mlsstl
2010-04-30, 08:10
While I'm very pleased with the performance of the Touch with my external music server (46,000 songs) I've not had a successful scan by the built-in server in three tries with two different copies of the external backup drives. The first scan ran 14 or 15 hours before I gave up. The next two tries seemed to scan through the drive in 4 or 5 hours only to have the internal server crash at the very end. (And yes, firmware is up to date.)

I did try it with a 2 GB USB flash drive and it all worked very nicely.

Since the Touch works extremely well for the purpose I bought it for, I'm pleased. However, I can't say I'm impressed with the Tiny SBS function, especially since this was the cause of the four month delay in product release.
crimscrem
2010-05-01, 06:56
While I'm very pleased with the performance of the Touch with my external music server (46,000 songs) I've not had a successful scan by the built-in server in three tries with two different copies of the external backup drives. The first scan ran 14 or 15 hours before I gave up. The next two tries seemed to scan through the drive in 4 or 5 hours only to have the internal server crash at the very end. (And yes, firmware is up to date.)

I did try it with a 2 GB USB flash drive and it all worked very nicely.

Since the Touch works extremely well for the purpose I bought it for, I'm pleased. However, I can't say I'm impressed with the Tiny SBS function, especially since this was the cause of the four month delay in product release.

I have a 1.5 TB Western Digital Elements external hard drive. The scanning process is not bad. But I'm having a lot of trouble with the Touch staying connected to the hard drive by USB. And when connected, it's taking 40 seconds and longer for the Touch to pull up and then play songs. This can't be right.

I have about 600 GB of songs (roughly 22,000 songs). The long delays and the regular problems connected through the USB is making the Touch very unusable for me.
realmassy
2010-05-01, 07:29
After reading of all these issues I think I'll pass on this, and I'll wait for a firmware upgrade.
Any chance to build the database on a pc and then re-attach the drive?
As for the scan on the built in server it shouldn't be too difficult implementing a basic scan for artists and album only to build the index and then "decorate" the files with all the other tags the first time the user access to them...a sort of lazy loading strategy.
crimscrem
2010-05-01, 08:01
After reading of all these issues I think I'll pass on this, and I'll wait for a firmware upgrade.
Any chance to build the database on a pc and then re-attach the drive?
As for the scan on the built in server it shouldn't be too difficult implementing a basic scan for artists and album only to build the index and then "decorate" the files with all the other tags the first time the user access to them...a sort of lazy loading strategy.

I haven't tried running it through my computer, because that defeats the point of having the Touch for me. I want it to work well with my external hard drive directly connected to my Touch.
realmassy
2010-05-01, 08:17
I haven't tried running it through my computer, because that defeats the point of having the Touch for me. I want it to work well with my external hard drive directly connected to my Touch.

This is exactly my thought: If I wanted to use my pc to listen to the music I would have built a music server with a Mac mini.
crimscrem
2010-05-01, 08:22
This is exactly my thought: If I wanted to use my pc to listen to the music I would have built a music server with a Mac mini.

I gotta tell you, this is getting really frustrating. Doing my second factory reset. Don't know why my Touch is having issues with my hard drive. not even doing wireless. I've got 600 GB of songs so doing resets are annoying having to wait the several hours for rescanning.

If it worked, it would be awesome. Love the interface and the specs of the Touch.
bingcrosby
2010-05-02, 08:29
Yeah, I am going to pass on the Touch until they get the internal server working correctly. Sadly, I just can't do the whole network thing in my house. Couldn't one create a database on the external USB hard drive using a PC, and then just hook it up to the Touch and go?