Playlists extremely slow Options

[lynott]

Playlists with 1000 + files (all mpr) are extremely slow. Takes about 20-30 seconds to open, start or change a song. Even to change a 800 mb xvid is faster.
Any tricks to fix this? Using M3u and Pls lists created from the same drive that contains the files (true path).

Thanks

[lynott]

Sooooo, am I the only one experiencing slow playlist handling?

[WDUser]

Not sure. I've never used such a large playlist, so I wouldn't know. What program are you using to create the playlists? Another user reported success with Playlist Creator. Try it and see. Also, what HDD are you using? Is it a USB-powered one? Have you tried with some other media to rule out the drive?

[lynott]

Not sure. I've never used such a large playlist, so I wouldn't know. What program are you using to create the playlists? Another user reported success with Playlist Creator. Try it and see. Also, what HDD are you using? Is it a USB-powered one? Have you tried with some other media to rule out the drive?

Hi and thanks.

Created a simple playlist with the recommended software, but it's still slow. It takes forever to load and to change tracks. The playlist is created on the drive where the files are. Also tried with a different (usb) har drive with the same result. The way it is nowm playlists are useles, and that's a shame. I mostly play music from playlists in random order, but on WD TV this is hopeless.

Is it a WD memory issue?

This is the drive I'm using: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-3-...K/dp/B000ND75C0

[WDUser]

That's one of the same drives I use (besides the FreeAgent 1TB and 1.5TB). I can confirm they're fast enough for everything else, so it's most probably not an issue with the drive. Do defragment your drive once though and see.

Have you tried with smaller playlists? Do those work fine speed-wise?

Do contact WD Support too and ask them if there's a practical limit on playlists that they recommend. Don't forget to post their response here if any!

I'll see if I can load up some music on my 500 gig drive later and test the issue for myself. Might take some time though as currently it's full of movies I wanna watch, so I'll have to do some juggling around.

[lynott]

Hi and thanks for your reply (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Jep, Freeagent is nice and quick to read/write when hooked up to my laptop, so that should not be the problem. Also, loading a large playlist from freeagent when connected to the laptop is instant, so I suspect a memory issue on the WDTV. Smaller playlists such as one album loads fast, although a tad slower than loading the album directly. Hopefully this can be resolved, since playing music from playlists was my main reason for purchase. Another solution would be to enable WDTV to load all albums for "Genre". Loading all for "Artist" is already implemented. Bugmail is sent.

[lynott]

My hard drive was Ntfs formatted, so i reformatted it to fat32. This increased the speed just a tad, but it is still way too slow.
No response from WD yet

[lynott]

Well, I guess I have to start looking for a media player that can handle playlists. The playlist support on WDTV is useless, and I'm sorry to say that so is the support from WD also (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) No reply from them.
I cannot accept to wait 50 seconds on track change, even on a playlist with only 100 mp3's in it. This is not flaming guys. Just expressing my disappointment in a product that was supposed to make my media-world simpler.

[WDUser]

We understand your frustration, and it's certainly not flaming. Do let us know if you find a better player, maybe in the "Other Media Players" sub-forum.

[lynott]

A week later this is WD`s reply:
"Dear Customer,
We apologize for the delay in responding to you. Due to heavy volume, we are currently beyond our normal turnaround of 1 business day.
We realize that some of you may have already found the answers to your questions. In an effort to respond to your needs more efficiently, please do one of the following:
If you have already found the answers to your questions and DO NOT REQUIRE a response from us, please DO NOT REPLY to this email.
If you have not found the answer(s) to your question(s) and DO REQUIRE a response from us, please REPLY to this email. In your reply, you can just state that you still need an answer to your questions. If you do not respond to this email, we will assume that you do not require a response from us.
Thank you for your patience and understanding
Sincerely,
Western Digital Service and Support"

Not realy an answer........

[WDUser]

True, but do respond anyway. Let's see if they eventually do get around to replying, so that it'll help others at least. I think they're swamped by angry customers with bricked Lives, but that's no excuse for not hiring more people if need be and at least attempting to keep their other customers somewhat happy.

[lynott]

I can confirm that this is a playlist problem, and not a playback problem. As mentioned, playlist are extremely slow at loading, changing tracks etc, but if i chose to play"Music - All music" it starts playback almost immediately and changing tracks takes no more than 2 seconds even with more than 12000 tracks in the database. So in short, it is clearly Wdtv's playlist handling that causes the problem.