Plex has always been fairly horrid at handling various artists, this is known. It’s gotten a lot better, but I think I found a pretty severe limitation.
I notice when I browse Plex on my LG TV (Switched to the built-in app instead of my Roku a while back - because, hey, one remote…!) it seems to have issues as soon as I load the compilation directory.
Essentially the app starts to lagg. A lot. I can even replicate it in plex.web where it’ll take a good long while to open the various artists category, so long that I thought it wouldn’t even display it at first. Oddly enough it works well on my Android phone, without even being on the same network as the plex server. Faster, even, than plex.tv browser.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
I usually grab a compilation when we’ve got guests over, for ease of use, and it’s not very easy to do when the input lagg is at the 3-5 second level. Eventually I had to just stick to the start of the list or it would take too long!
I wonder if it’s because Plex treats various artists as any other artist, and simply isn’t geared for that many “albums” in one folder view?
I can also time out searches on my tv when trying to search, assuming that also has to do with # of files. Basically it says it’s lost connection to the server and gives me a few options to retry etc. Retry just removes the last letter i input in to the search field and lets me carry on.
Server does not have capacity or performance problems.
Am I looking at a TV/Roku processing power limitation, or could it be that various artists might benefit from being handled differently?
I am an avid collector of Billboard Top Hits, Absolute Music, Now Music, OST records etc. So I may be a “heavy user” and one of the few experiencing this issue, but it’s essentially making it extremely difficult to even use Plex at this rate.
A very simple question. When’s the last time you optimized the database? If the DB queries are coming back slow, it will slow down everything. It is known that after adding or removing a large number of items to/from the database, optimizing it is highly recommended.
The classic "Empty, Clean, Optimize’ trio does a great job.
After this, check the log files. If you’re seeing “SLOW QUERY”, that’s something which needs to be looked at. Please grab those logs and attach back here.
I will try and do what you asked, and see the results. It’s just curious how it’s fast enough when browsing over Android…
I spoke too soon. I don’t use optimize and the server is set to ‘empty’ and ‘clean’ on a regular basis, per the settings. How would I force it manually?
I did check in the plex server log and found no slow query’s.
Well the playback doesn’t hang. It’s the browsing of the Various Artists library that’s practically impossible to do. The delay is awful.
The only “hanging” issue I’m experiencing is when attempting to search, and it seems to get bogged down to the point of thinking it’s lost connection to the server, prompting re-entry of the last search character.
But the playback does work. It’s the browsing that’s slow.
Here they are.
Enabled verbose in server.
Enabled in LG tv client app.
Reproduced both the “slow browsing” and the “search time-out” issues.
Stopped logging on client.
Exported logs from server.
The “SLOW QUERY” is your database. There is a known amount of time needed to return ‘N’ items. If it takes longer than that, SLOW QUERY is reported. That’s purely a ‘Optimize Database’ needed right there.
Server settings are set to optimize weekly, music library hasn’t been altered in a long time. And again, it’s only an issue with the LG Smart TV client, and the web player laggs a little bit too.
I’ve gone through all the options available, short of updating the library, it doesn’t seem to do anything though.
Optimization aside, the browsing issue is still there. It takes a good 15 seconds to load up “Various Artists” and browsing the category is an effort in futility.
I’m thinking it must be the LG TV app somehow. Plex Web takes maybe 5 seconds to display the category, but that does include all the albums. The LG app seems to load what’s visible. I tried holding down the navigation button so I’d “skip” to somewhere random, it didn’t get me very far and no album art was loaded, either.
@Froberg said:
Optimization aside, the browsing issue is still there. It takes a good 15 seconds to load up “Various Artists” and browsing the category is an effort in futility.
I’m thinking it must be the LG TV app somehow. Plex Web takes maybe 5 seconds to display the category, but that does include all the albums. The LG app seems to load what’s visible. I tried holding down the navigation button so I’d “skip” to somewhere random, it didn’t get me very far and no album art was loaded, either.
It’s probably an issue with the processing power of the TV then. Unfortunately TV processes having gotten all that great yet…although a lot better than what they used to be.
