Covers not displaying and constantly flickering

Something is locking one of the files in your image cache. Birkoff’s suggestion of anti-virus is a possibility. Also, be sure you don’t have something open somewhere that is locking the file. I have found that just having an explorer window up on a directory will sometimes keep the system from deleting a file in there.

Here’s some more logs that show that it continually retrieves the coverart:

10:43:02.427 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Image for Accidentally On Purpose being processed by CoverArt. Path is: \\UBUNTU\videos\TV Shows\Accidentally on Purpose ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:02.437 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Getting frame for series/default ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:02.647 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Image for Arrested Development being processed by CoverArt. Path is: \\UBUNTU\videos\TV Shows\Arrested Development ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:02.667 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Getting frame for series/default ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:02.867 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Image for 30 Rock being processed by CoverArt. Path is: \\UBUNTU\videos\TV Shows\30 Rock ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:02.887 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Getting frame for series/default ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:03.107 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Image for Accidentally On Purpose being processed by CoverArt. Path is: \\UBUNTU\videos\TV Shows\Accidentally on Purpose ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:03.127 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Getting frame for series/default ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:03.327 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Image for Arrested Development being processed by CoverArt. Path is: \\UBUNTU\videos\TV Shows\Arrested Development ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:03.337 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Getting frame for series/default ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:03.507 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Image for 30 Rock being processed by CoverArt. Path is: \\UBUNTU\videos\TV Shows\30 Rock ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:03.527 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Getting frame for series/default ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:03.737 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Image for Accidentally On Purpose being processed by CoverArt. Path is: \\UBUNTU\videos\TV Shows\Accidentally on Purpose ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator
10:43:03.747 PM 2/6/2010 , Info , Getting frame for series/default ,  , 25 , Worker thread for Aspect Ratio Calculator

Is it possible you have setup some sort of circular reference in your library? Like a folder with a shortcut in it that points back to a parent of that same folder…?

If I clear all the cache items and run mediabrowser it runs perfectly on the home screen. As soon as I enter any of my libraries the strange behaviour begins and doesn’t go away. Even the home screen starts exhibiting the behaviour. If I exit mediabrowser and then enter it again, the problem stops occuring on the home screen.

I also did a clean uninstall as per FAQ and installation of 2.2.2. The problem does not occur. This is extremely strange.

Please tell me what information you need from me so we can solve this.

Screenshot:

Logs:

• log1
• log2
• log3
• log4
• log5

Adam,

The watched indicator I see on that poster suggests that you may be either using shared playstate (maybe on the LAN), or you've saved the playstate folder and restored it after your upgrade. Or maybe you've tried watching that during testing, hard to say. I also don’t see the playstates folder being loaded in the log for some reason. But, if you have done any of the above, do the following as a test:

• Go backup your Playstate folder (yes, it’s precious to me as well)
• Manually clear the entries in the playstate folder
• Clear your cache for Media Browser again, including IMAGECACHE
• Open Media Browser with the Default theme (EHS on) and wait for the new Green Indicator to go away from the EHS
• Enter one of your problem areas and try scrolling around

If you're not using shared playstate, but you have been copying the playstate files back to the mediabrowser\cache\playstates folder, please do not do that for this test, it needs to be empty for this.

Edit:

I just took a closer look at the log files in your last post (somehow missed them before). It doesn’t appear that you're using shared playstate, so none of what I said may make any difference. :) I'm still interested in if you are restoring playstates from anywhere after a clean install.

Regards,

-Sinjen

I've been instructed to mark this as confirmed and set the milestone to Orion. Since there are multiple issues that all relate to Cronos and TV Series, there is probably a bug somewhere.

Here’s a discussion topic about it.

Right now, there are 2 options. Either revert back to 2.2.3 until there is a solution or further troubleshoot the problem on your machine, allthough I personally have no idea what else we can test.

Maybe there’s a problem with the permissions on the actual folders / files in the media collection.

Can you reset the permissions on the parent folder and make sure the permissions are inherited to the children folders.

Long shot I know, but I can think of nothing else at the moment.

Would a list of my folder structure be useful? A file list? Just trying to think of ways I could help.

Had a similar issue to this today where certain movies would crash me out of mediaBrowser as soon as I tried to navigate to them. from checking the logs I worked out that there backdrop files had become corrupt in the imagecache. So I deleted the imagecache folder and let mediaBrowser rebuild it. This seemed to have fixed the issue.

It then occured on my other HTPC later in the day so I did the same thing and deleting the imagecache and letting mediaBrowser rebuild it worked again…

Admitedly neither of these were fresh installs they were upgrades from 2.2.3 but it looks like something in Cronos may be locking or corrupting images in the imagecache or it may have just been a corruption from the update…

If it happens again to either machine I will investigate further and let you know…

I'll put my hand up and add to the list of those this is affecting.

• I updated from 2.2.3 to 2.2.4 – not a clean install.
• I use the SQL Support (will try without this enabled also)
• I deleted the cache.db prior to upgrading
• I had the following plugins installed: Chocolate, Diamond, Harmony, Maelstrom, Simplicity & Vanilla themes as well as MediaInfo Provider & Music Support.
• Due to never using them, I deleted all above themes except Diamond, leaving MediaInfo Provider & Music Support as the only other plugins – issue remains.
• HTPC is not online, and as such, does not have ANY antivirus installed.
• I have never compiled an instance of Media Browser.
• I do not, nor have I ever used EHS.
• I do not, nor have I ever used the watched / unwatched playstate function.
• My Media (and folder permissions / file structure) is stored on my media server – none of these permissions were changed prior to the upgrade to Cronos, and have never had any issue’s with prior releases.
• This happens across the entire collection, movies as well as TV series folders.

So in a nutshell…nothing changed in my entire setup between Pegasus & Cronos and this issue arose – so as far as I can see, it’s an issue with the way this release handles something – not the users personal setup. As soon as I get a spare 5min, I'll be reverting to Pegasus or older until this is resolved, as I'm turning into an epileptic trying to navigate through my collection.

On the odd occasion this doesn’t happen, I'm finding I need to enter a folder, whether it be TV series or movie (or even the media browser main screen), go back, and then into it again before I'm able to see or select anything…it'll either show the folder icons and info ect, but be un-selectable – or it will show nothing at all. As soon as I go back and then enter it again, it’s fine.

• I just noticed – when preparing to take a screenshot of the last issue there, that after dropping media center out of full-screen mode, everything showed up and was selectable…without needing to go back and then in again…very odd. Happened again in windowed mode (see screenshot) however maximising it fixes it again :-s…I should probably start a new thread for this, but I feel it’s linked as when it’s flickering – it’s as if it’s going in and out of this “mode” of nothing at all, and everything as usual.

Turn off the clock…

Could this be related to strange metadata issue (not being read)?

Does the behaviour change if you perform a library update through the new configuration menu button “Update Library”?

I'm using the DIAMOND theme, and when I go back to the home screen from a library, I get a large X in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, and a frame around the whole screen.

Is this the same problem as above, or a new one ??

I thought perhaps it was MB trying to tell me something, such as an upgrade for a plug-in is available, but they're all up-to-date now.

I can’t seem to capture a screenshot to show what I mean.

I'm also getting a rotating symbol, similar to a synching GIF in the bottom left-hand corner – is this just MB updating the libraries ??

Okay, everyone having this issue, please list their screen resolution. Thanks.

Ok, I turned the SQL support off (removed my cache.db file, as well as the sql.dll file and turned the experimentalsql suppprt off in the config) This also didn’t help the issue.

Just as a wild shot in left field can one of you with this issue try the version linked here and see if anything changes…?

I wrote a plugin that retrieve french trailers and similar problems occur with Cronos. All recent items indefinitely flicker in the EHS. It used to work fine with 2.2.3.

if tou want to test this plugin: http://www.media-center7.fr/download/Plugin/AlloTrailerPlugin.dll

After testing the 2.2.4a release with no luck – while I have to reinstall MB, I'll be rolling back to a stable release so we can actually watch something lol. I will install Cronos on my laptop for further testing. Res will be 1280x800 & Trend Micro Internet Security will be installed (but can turn on/off to test) – all other settings will be set exactly the same.

not sure if this will help but you could try viewing the images for read errors a quick way is to use irfanview http://www.irfanview.com/

slideshow

down the bottom is include subdirectory (for add all) tick this goto media folder an add all play slideshow this should errror if the image file is corrupted

All,

I've added a possible workaround to this. Please take a look at the workaround tab and report back any positive or negative findings.

Regards,

-Sinjen

Using Process Explorer I can confirm two things when this bug occurs:

1. There are a large number of threads used by media center (30+)
2. There are plenty of occasions where multiple media center threads are trying to access the same jpg file at the same time

Are all you guys having trouble using Windows 7, if so, is it Home, Enterprise, Ultimate?

In some testing today (at work during lunch no less), I ran across an issue with a particular backdrop coming from themoviedb.org. I reproduced this issue 3 times.

In a nutshell, McAfee on my company laptop with Win 7 enterprise, detects this background image as a trojan.

The detail:

• I installed a fresh copy of the official 2.2.4 (only thing changed was I turned off automatic updates on the first run, otherwise MB ran with defaults.
• Created some TEST MEDIA
• Opened Media Browser
• Selected Movies/Superman

The details page for Superman comes up and the first background appeared, then when MB rotates to this background, BAM, McAfee throws a Trojan Detection message and deletes the file that MB generated.

What is even more puzzling, inspection of the IMAGECACHE folder reveals that the deleted(trojan) background was actually cached, but in PNG format. What generated this file???? In what situation would MediaBrowser take a .JPG and cache it as .PNG? When you visit tmdb.org, none of the backgrounds for Superman are in .jpg format and the deleted file in the Mcafee screenshot is clearly a file with a .JPG extension. The file size of the original background in question on tmdb.org is around 160k, the PNG that is generated is almost 2000k. What gives?

If you are so inclined, I zipped up the MediaBrowser folder right after I received the McAfee message to make sure I captured the MB config that produces this.

What I find REALLY interesting, is this does NOT happen on my Vista machine here at home running AVG with the same MB config and testmedia files. The problem background that is detected on my Win7 laptop as a virus caches as a .JPG here and is not detected by AVG as a virus.

Could this issue with corrupt image files be something specific to a win 7 .net api that’s being used to generate the cache images?

-Sinjen

Hey all,

I'm having the same issue.

I am using Windows 7 Ultimate. My covers stutter for about 30 seconds then come good. I've actually got “Allow Internet Providers” unchecked and use media Center Master to get the metadata. The covers load fine in Windows 7 Media Center without a hitch.

I have no virus scanners set and no plugins, just the stock standard install.

EDIT: I noticed my cpu usage was a steady 100% for the entire time that the covers were flickering and then dropped to 10% once they stopped and were accessible.

10:12:35.374 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Using String Data from C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Localization\strings-en.xml ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:35.674 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Parental Control Initialized ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:35.694 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Watching folder D:\Movies for changes. ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:35.694 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Watching folder C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\StartupFolder for changes. ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:36.164 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Information DisplayText: Welcome to Media Browser ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:36.244 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Not Refreshing Library.  Interval of 24hrs has not passed.  Last Refresh: 10/06/2010 7:52:52 PM ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:36.304 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Successfully loaded fastload data for : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache\playstate MediaBrowser.Library.Entities.PlaybackStatus ,  , 11 , Worker thread for Fast Load Loader
10:12:36.784 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Finished validating : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache\playstate MediaBrowser.Library.Entities.PlaybackStatus ,  , 11 , Worker thread for Fast Load Loader
10:12:36.854 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Loading display prefs for C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\StartupFolder ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:38.964 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Loading display prefs for C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\StartupFolder ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:40.164 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Information DisplayText: Welcome to Media Browser ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:40.224 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\z2eed8dcc-e343-b66d-a6f5-bb406e961f44.1455x2250.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:40.284 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\z169cf28a-9b6a-513a-a6be-d7fd85b8211e.250x250.png ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:40.414 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\zc1c3939e-8a12-c8fd-16ef-ee2ee03f93db.1296x2073.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:40.854 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\2eed8dcc-e343-b66d-a6f5-bb406e961f44.41x64.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:40.864 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\c1c3939e-8a12-c8fd-16ef-ee2ee03f93db.40x64.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:42.484 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Loading display prefs for C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\StartupFolder\Movies.vf ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:42.524 PM 10/6/2010 , Info , Loading display prefs for C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\StartupFolder\Movies.vf ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:47.972 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\z55bf423a-5f09-82ce-74a2-eb4c9a080a91.2400x3500.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:47.978 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\55bf423a-5f09-82ce-74a2-eb4c9a080a91.150x220.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:47.979 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\z2eed8dcc-e343-b66d-a6f5-bb406e961f44.1455x2250.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:47.981 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\zc1c3939e-8a12-c8fd-16ef-ee2ee03f93db.1296x2073.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:47.988 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\c1c3939e-8a12-c8fd-16ef-ee2ee03f93db.137x220.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:47.990 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\2eed8dcc-e343-b66d-a6f5-bb406e961f44.142x220.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:53.194 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\c1c3939e-8a12-c8fd-16ef-ee2ee03f93db.143x220.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:53.209 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\2eed8dcc-e343-b66d-a6f5-bb406e961f44.143x220.jpg ,  , 1 , Application
10:12:53.211 PM 10/6/2010 , Verbose , Loading image : C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache\55bf423a-5f09-82ce-74a2-eb4c9a080a91.143x220.jpg ,  , 1 , Application

Since I can’t reproduce this until we figure out what it is you guys have in common that makes this happen, I need someone’s help in debugging.

Madbunny, you have the simplest setup so, if you can, you would be best to try this but please, anyone with this issue please un-install your current version and then install this. And post your log after the problem has occurred.

Thanks mucho…

AdamN said: I followed your instructions. Using your test media I have zero problems.

Dropping to a response so ebr is sure to see this.

Hmm…so all the metadata was built, posters were cached, and no flashing, even for the Lost series in that set? Very interesting.

If you haven’t already done so (point me right otherwise), can you describe how your media is stored and how you access it? Via the lan or local on the hard drive? If stored on the lan, what storage system have you employed. Could you post a screenshot or two of windows explorer where you've navigated to one of the problem tv series?

Edit: I see you're using Ubuntu. Using Samba or NFS?

Thanks,

-Sinjen

Okay, re-download the installer from the post above and try again. I don’t need to see the logs this time, just want to see if there is a change in behaviour. You don’t need to clear your cache.

I lied, I do need to see the log if you downloaded after you see this edit in this post. If you downloaded before this edit, please download again and then let me see the log. Thanks.

Sorry guys, have been, and will be a bit hectic over the last few, and coming days (father in law is down + work, blah, blah, blah…) I'll try and get some MB time in the next few days over the weekend though to test some of these theories. Just to throw in a quick answer to Sinjen’s question to Adam re: media storage.

My entire collection is stored on a server. They're laid out in the following format:

Did the clean install using the executable above. Same problem exists for me. My log file can be downloaded here.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7982803/1162010f82d0f8146b84931975797627e841057.log

Also, here’s a video capture of the problem. It’s not the best frame rate.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7982803/MB.avi