Performance expectations with a USB Stick and FLAC

[arthurb]

Hello,
I am thinking of getting a Touch and using it with a 64GB memory stick, at least initially, using FLAC encoded files exclusively. Performance with the local TinySB may be a problem though; can anyone advise me on what sort of start-up/scan times I might see with, say, 50GB-odd of music in around 2-3K files (probably 4 or 5 directory/folder levels). I do not use playlists or shuffle, will not need to search often, if at all, as I only play music as albums, but I am concerned about how quickly I might scan a folder of, say, 100 artists, with between 1 and 10 albums to each in the next folder level down (and thus probably 5 to 15 tracks below them).

Basically I am asking if this would be usable, assuming that I ensure that I get a USB-stick with good performance - I have read the Wiki and the thread here about 'Touch with USB drive'.

I will be grateful for all advice and guidance.

[Kuben72]

The Touch can only use 32 GB sticks.

[arthurb]

The Touch can only use 32 GB sticks.

As someone new to the subject of the SqueezeBox Touch I am reluctant to disagree with you, but, at least as I understand it, there is no limit to the size of USB disks that may be attached (other than the limitations of the formatting applied) and thus there should be no problem with using USB memory sticks greater than 32GB. I understand that SD cards are limited to 32GB, presumably because the Touch only has SDHC support (SDXC would be necessary for more).

[JohnSwenson]

You have to remember that there are two types of scans, the initial full scan and then the "quick scan" which is invoked every boot after that.

The first time you plug in a drive with a bunch of music it will not have a database on the stick, so it will do a full scan of all the files, it reads all the music files looking for tags and processes all the cover art. This can take a long time, anywhere from 1/2 hour to several hours.

From there on when the Touch boots it does a quick scan of the files, at this point it's just looking up the file name in the database and seeing if the date matches. This can take 30 seconds to a couple minutes at most. IF it finds files that are either not in the database or which have a newer date than what is in the database, then it will do a full scan on these files only.

If you leave the Touch on all the time and leave the USB stick permanently connected then it will never have to do the quick scan and you can instantly get to any of your music.

That initial full scan can be a problem for some people. For some reason some people's files seem to cause problems with the scanner (frequently related to cover art) which causes the scanner to crash so it never finishes the initial scan, which means it's always taking a long time to start up after a boot because it's always running the initial scan. Interestingly the same files scan just file when the server is on a real computer.

Some people will try and play music while the initial scan is in progress, this is a recipe for disaster, this radically increases the probability that the initial scan will crash.

John S.

[garym]

As someone new to the subject of the SqueezeBox Touch I am reluctant to disagree with you, but, at least as I understand it, there is no limit to the size of USB disks that may be attached (other than the limitations of the formatting applied) and thus there should be no problem with using USB memory sticks greater than 32GB. I understand that SD cards are limited to 32GB, presumably because the Touch only has SDHC support (SDXC would be necessary for more).

yes, you can certainly use USB drives much larger than 32GB (1 or 2 TB for example). I know someone with a 500GB attached drive. I suspect the other poster was thinking cards rather than drives. (or perhaps I'm confused as to how a USB stick is different from a USB drive)

[Kuben72]

As someone new to the subject of the SqueezeBox Touch I am reluctant to disagree with you, but, at least as I understand it, there is no limit to the size of USB disks that may be attached (other than the limitations of the formatting applied) and thus there should be no problem with using USB memory sticks greater than 32GB. I understand that SD cards are limited to 32GB, presumably because the Touch only has SDHC support (SDXC would be necessary for more).

Of course you can. I misread your post. Sorry about that.

[arthurb]

Thanks JohnSwenson, that was exactly the sort of information I was looking for; although I assume that your estimates were based on USB disks, I would not expect much worse with, say, a SanDisk Ultra 64GB stick, so it doesn't seem to be a problem.

Do you, or does anyone else (garym?) know how long it would take to scroll through an folder of Album titles with, say 500 entries (each having 5 to 15 tracks in the next level down), as that is still concerning me a bit?

Thanks again.

[garym]

Thanks JohnSwenson, that was exactly the sort of information I was looking for; although I assume that your estimates were based on USB disks, I would not expect much worse with, say, a SanDisk Ultra 64GB stick, so it doesn't seem to be a problem.

Do you, or does anyone else (garym?) know how long it would take to scroll through an folder of Album titles with, say 500 entries (each having 5 to 15 tracks in the next level down), as that is still concerning me a bit?

Thanks again.

scrolling through thousands of albums is effectively instantaneous for me, but I'm running LMS on a computer (and not using a USB drive connected to TOUCH, using "tinyLMS"). I have a bit over 5,000 albums, around 70,000 tracks, and browsing artists or albums with squeezeplay on computer or ipeng or squeezepad apps on ithings is very fast. browsing on LMS webGUI is a bit slower because it shows only so many items "per page" so I have to click on "A-D", E-H, etc. in the webscreen.

[arthurb]

Thanks for all of the replies; I am about to get an SBT to play with...

[jmschnur]

Let us know how it works out. Imay try the same configuration as you will try.


J