MPG Export crashing

[Rayco]

I don't know if any one else has been having this problem but the more reports the better.

Everytime I export an MPG (usually to MPG4 for use in MegaSeg), kJams freezes. And I mean EVERYTIME unless I do a single file at a time.

Most other features seem to work OK apart from sorting being to slow to actually use 'Live' in a pub.

I have been a DJ for 32 years, KJ for 25 years and a Mac user for 22 years and know my way arround, but I still have to transfer my files and use MegaSeg for live work as if the Gig is busy at all kJams just can't keep up.

Hopefully this will be addressed in v.2

[dave]

export an MPG4 [...] kJams freezes [...] unless I do a single file at a time

Please send the log file from that session
i'll look at this tonight, thanks

kJams just can't keep up

this worries me. I wish you'd instead tell me what kJams needs to do to meet your needs, rather than just think "oh that's the way it is" and switch to MegaSeg. What *exactly* is too slow? Also I need to know: What processor(s) do you have (ppc or intel) and what speed, how many songs, and how much memory do you have?

I presume you have turned OFF "update search results as you type" in the prefs?

Technically, sorting is actually instant (less than half a second to simply load the pre-sorted table) after the first time you sort. kJams automatically sorts name, artist and album when it starts up, so those should sort instantly. if you're talking about search, i suspsect: 1: you have PPC instead of Intel, 2: you have LOTS of songs in your kJams library and 3: you don't have enough memory. Fixing these things would cause kJams to utterly scream.

[Rayco]

The reason I have to use MegaSeg 'live' is that sorting has to be quick.

I have 10,000 karaoke files, 25,000 audio files, over 1,000 music videos and about another 5,000 other clips. MegaSeg handles these no problem on the Powerbook I use 'mobile.

In the office I use a PowerPC 2.5 Quad, and these work fine with 40,000 plus files in MegaSeg. An Intel laptop would be great but the cost a damn site more and the don't have the s-video out that I use for the large screen projectors.

If the operating program gets so 'bloated' that you HAVE to have the latest Intel machine it does limit your market quite a bit.Lots of people I know are still using G3's.

kJams really struggles with sorting even with only 10,000 of so CDG files loaded and the 'store' switched off. It can take two or three seconds to find a specific song.

To be clear 'sorting' is not to bad but to search for one file and get it playing when the current song is about to end is a real no-no.

[dave]

You didn't tell me how many songs you have in kJams. I'm surmising you have 41,000 songs in your kJams library.
You didn't tell me how much memory you have.
You didn't tell me if you have "update search results as you type" turned off in the prefs.
You didn't tell me your CPU speed of the karaoke machine. I'm guessing it's a PPC because you said "Powerbook"
You keep saying "sorting" when you mean "searching", sorry this is confusing.

To be technically accurate, i must inform you that "bloat" is a separate subject from "optimization". kJams, IMHO, is not "bloated". However, it is true that it is not yet "optimized". The database search uses Unicode for string compares (which is slow) and it is not pre-indexed (meaning i hand-compare against each meta data item in each song every time). I have had plans for a long time to re-write the DB using SQLite, which would provide for pre-indexed searching (ie: practically instant), i think this is the feature that you're waiting for. I have moved this up on the list. Be careful about calling something "bloated" when that is just an emotionally charged opinion rather than fact. kJams is in fact feature packed, but i don't waste time adding useless features and I certainly don't do anything un-necessary in the search code. That said, i heartily agree with you that it is quite ripe for optimizing.

[Rayco]

You didn't tell me how many songs you have in kJams. I'm surmising you have 41,000 songs in your kJams library.
No, lower down it said 10,000

You didn't tell me how much memory you have.
5Gb

You didn't tell me if you have "update search results as you type" turned off in the prefs.
Tried both, having to type 'return' wastes even more time.

You didn't tell me your CPU speed of the karaoke machine. I'm guessing it's a PPC because you said "Powerbook"
Yes 1.5, but even slow on my 4x2.5 PPC

You keep saying "sorting" when you mean "searching", sorry this is confusing.
Both sorting and searching are slow, but sorry yes it is 'Searching' that you you more on a karaoke night so it has to be quick.

[dave]

okay with 10,000 songs, 5GB RAM (are you sure?) and a single 1.5GHz PPC and 'update search results as you type' turned off you should be able to search very quickly.
there must be a bug. Would you be interested in making an appointment tonight so i can look at your karaoke machine and try to find the problem? You're right this should search much quicker than what you're reporting.

having to type 'return' wastes even more time

this is very confusing to me. doing a search may take one second. with "update as you type" turned ON, if you type an 8 letter word to search for, it may take 8 seconds because it does a new search for every key press. pressing return probably takes 1/10th second. with "update as you type" turned OFF you can type that 8 letter word, AND press return (taking up another 0.1 seconds), and the search will take 1 second. I can't see how 1.1 seconds is greater than 8 seconds.

[Rayco]

Don't have much time tonight, just finishing installing a Mac MIni that i'm going to put into a flightcase, so finally going 'Intel'.

Still have 11 PPC Macs here though (I run a signwriting business as well).

The tower has 5gb, I think the laptop has 2gb and I run a Lacie 320gb HD on firewire to hold the music files.

Only comparison I have is iTunes which I have 27,000 songs on just now and it is lightening quick.

[dave]

iTunes uses something akin to SQLite or CoreData for it's DB, so you can expect the same performance once i get that feature in. Note: optimizing usually happens during beta.

still with 2gb you should be getting much better performance than you're seeing, we'll try to figure it out!

My appointment availability is on thursday nights, so my next available time is next thursday evening. PLEASE call or write during that time, or set up a time ahead of time. Since i'm not personally experiencing this issue, i can't debug it without your help!

http://karaoke.kjams.com/wiki/Office_Hours

-dave

[dave]

I just tried QT Export with the MPEG4 encoder. I exported 4 songs at once, they all exported without a hitch. Since i can't reproduce your bug, i won't be able to fix it. I'll need to get more details. To start with please email me a screen shot of your QuickTime preference panel.

-dave

[cfspinner]

Just to thow my two cents in...I have over 25,000 songs my kjams library running on a first gen intel core duo macbook w 1gb of ram. No problems with performance whatsoever. True, when search as you type feature is on, it is slower, but I have it turned off and works fine.

[dave]

[Rayco]

The big problem I have is that kJams is so slow with only 20,000 songs. Megaseg handles over 40,000 no problem.

And of course iTunes sorts and searches all my files almost instantly. If that is the benchmark, that is what users are going to expect....

[dave]

i have 60,000 songs and it seems to work just fine. i have turned OFF "update search results as you type", of course. and yes, it takes a second or 2 for it to filter when i do a search, but other than that, kJams runs quite fast.

having said that, you should know that i'm working on the speed thing:
http://karaoke.kjams.com/wiki/Slow_Searching