Thumbnails : slow slow slow

[axj]

As I wrote earlier, I have never (really) used the upload-function in DS-Assistant, but now I have indeed!!
Not for pictures, but for video in mpg-format taken from tv-signal converted to mp4-format
(it takes also time - 4m8s for 30m video) but the upload was worse:
5,5 min for the first percent
3,5 min for the next
3,0 min for the next
2,0 min for the rest (incl a little pause about 80%)
----
14,0 min total!! What is that time used for - I can't see any difference between original and the uploaded file!!!

[e.huijs]

Hey everybody,

Till a few weeks ago I only used my 410j for backups. As I recently found that some great tools as SABnzbd and Plex have extensions for this NAS, I also found out my 410j had become rather slow and decided to upgrade to a 412+. I recently bought a 212+ too. One of the fun pieces of software available is photostation... A tool I love to use, especially since there is a neat app for iOS for it too!

Downside: thumbnailing speed, which is (don't really need to say it here...) extremely slow and next to that images that have no thumbnail yet, cannot be viewed at all...

I found out that the 412+ (which has the intel Atom dualcore proc.) is remarkable faster than the 212+. The 212+ seems to need a few minutes for one image (having the processor work at 100%, making the NAS slower overall...) Like I said, the 412+ does it's trick fast compared to the 212+ (it produces 4 to 6 thumbs per minute) and the processor will not go over say 40% while doing so... This makes the 412+ somewhat acceptable compared to the 212+ (which really disappointed me in being so much more slow than it's big brother) but it still means that a big image collection will need the 412+ to work days or even weeks before it's done. (this all after I managed to get the 'unsharpen...' lines out of the .conf-file of both the 412 and the 212).

It would be really nice if the thumbnail-software would be optimized / changed. I don't need it to run hundreds of images per minute but a few minutes to run max 1 image is far too slow and not acceptable imho...

I've used the Assistant too and yes it's faster than the NAS itself, but it feels like it still could be a whole lot faster... (anyone seen Picasa create thumbnails on a normal pc / mac??). In this process the uploading of thumbnails of each separate image seems to take up the most time by far. I'm not good at coding, but if I would be, I'd write some code that does the thumbnailing local and send a complete folder to the NAS when it is done... (I have seen some scripts up here, but I have no clue on how to go about those... and I also recognize the fact that one needs disk space on his or her local machine for it too...)

It's hard to believe that a product that does so well (I really love everything else about my 412+ and 212+) seems to be so bad at making thumbnails...

[e.huijs]

Ah, one more thing (not sure if this was pointed out here before). I noticed that if you disable the the indexing- and thumbnail-daemon on the DS you are sending your images to through the assistant, this speeds up the process too...

You can disable them before uploading and enable them after you are finished. (you need the indexing daemon if you want the images to show up after you uploaded them with the assistant... if you don't need the DS to make thumbnails because you use the assistant, you can leave the thumbnailer daemon off...)

use ssh to log onto your DS and type the following:
stop the indexing:
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S66synoindexd.sh stop
stop the thumbnailing:
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S77synomkthumbd.sh stop

After finishing you can enable them again
start the indexing:
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S66synoindexd.sh start
start the thumbnailing:
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S77synomkthumbd.sh start

[bobbyo]

I just purchased a ds212+, which I got partly for the faster processor.
I am using the Photo Upload feature of Synology Assistant to upload ~6,000 photos from my laptop.
The upload is still slow, 5-20seconds per photo while creating thumbnails and uploading photos, and my CPU is mostly idle during the process.

So it seems something is drastically wrong with the thumbnail creating code, not the processor speed, in the Synology applications.

[Jeremie]

As mentioned in previous posts, thumbnail creation can put a heavy load on the CPU of your DiskStation when uploading a large batch of photos.
To transfer this load to your PC's CPU, we recommend using either:
1. the "Upload " function in Photo Station's interface
2. "Photo Uploader" in Synology assistant.

Please note the following limitations when uploading directly through Photo Station:
• converting videos is not handled
• there is a 100-photo limit per upload, you won't be able to upload large batches in one go

Steps:
-For uploading directly in Photo Station:
1. Position yourself in the right folder
2. Go to: Add > Upload from my Computer > Browse
3. Select the photos to upload, then click "Upload"

-For uploading with Synology Assistant:


Once you have opened Synology Assistant, if you can't see the tab "Photo uploader", you will need to activate it in: Preferences (blue icon to the right) > select "Photo Uploader" click "Ok"

Then, in Photo Uploader, you will first need to connect to the DiskStation you want to upload your photos to (if there are more than one on the network), simply follow :
1. Click "Add" > select your DS
2. Click "next"
3. Choose the shared file to upload to, and key in your password
4. Click "finish",
5. Choose the photos you want to upload

Final tip to speed up the thumbnail conversion, choose a lower "thumbnail quality"
In DSM, Control panel > Media Indexing service > Conversion Settings > Thumbnails settings => choose "normal quality", the conversion will take less time without sharping the images.

Jeremie

[Jeremie]

I just purchased a ds212+, which I got partly for the faster processor.
I am using the Photo Upload feature of Synology Assistant to upload ~6,000 photos from my laptop.
The upload is still slow, 5-20seconds per photo while creating thumbnails and uploading photos, and my CPU is mostly idle during the process.

So it seems something is drastically wrong with the thumbnail creating code, not the processor speed, in the Synology applications.

Hi Bobbyo,

With Synology Assistant, the average time per thumbnail should be closer to 5sec, 20 seconds is a bit long, you might want to check in settings> thumbnail settings that you have ticked: "Normal Quality" instead of "High Quality", this may help.

We'd like to let you know we are aware of the thumbnail conversion performances and are working on improving this aspect of DiskStations.

Jeremie

[bobbyo]

In fact on my brand-new DS212+ I am uploading ~6,500 photos, a part of my photo collection, using the Synology Assistant Photo Uploader. Over the first 100 photos it averaged 6.1 photos per minute, with my cpu on my laptop staying almost entirely idle during the uploads.
(This is on a fast wireless network with little/no other traffic).

I also tried using the 'SD copy' feature to copy files from the SD card slot, and it does not seem to work well with photos. A 4GB card itself copied very quickly, in minutes or less, and "ejected"/unmounted from the system so I could remove it. But the DS212+ CPU immediately went to 100% and stayed there. So if 100% CPU usage on the DiskStation is a problem, then the DS212+ is probably not suitable as a way to back up your camera's SD cards.

[axj]

It is only slow when the target is the shared folder /photo! That's the reason for using lesser photos (described in another thread) and I use 1200*900 to upload to /photo while the original photos is saved in another folder as a backup!
The change from 3648*2736 to 1200*900 takes short time using WinXP rightclick to 'resize pictures' (that function is gone in Win7, but Win7 Pro can run XP). On my computer 80 secs for 100 photos and 206 MB reduced to 12 MB!

[BeJay]

At last, it's good to see a response from Synology, I really do hope they are taking this seriously and will give us all a proper solution to this.

Their suggestions to either use Photo Station or Synology Assistant to help overcome this tedious problem is just not an option for a lot of us as this process changes the file dates of the photos from the date taken to the date uploaded!

The whole photo storage feature needs addressing.

[axj]

It will be a good thing! Your last comment about the dates of the photo is not correct! The dates of my photos is not changed.

[BeJay]

It will be a good thing! Your last comment about the dates of the photo is not correct! The dates of my photos is not changed.

It may not change the EXIF date information, but it does change the Modified & Created dates.
I prefer these dates to match the date & time the photo was taken.

[axj]

Funny! Using Win7 Pro, I have 3 dates: Modify-date, Creation-data and Date, which I think is the exif-date.
1) The Date (exif) looks Ok to me!
2) The modifying-date looks also Ok! It changes by renaming and else equal the Date!
3) The creation-date is the date for upload!! (I normally don't see this date).
Weird - weird!!

[bobbyo]

Thanks, Jeremie.

I am using the Photo Uploader from my PC, and I left the quality to 'normal' when I set up the DS212+. (Note: I also upgraded the OS when I configured the system a few days ago, so I'm running DSM4.0x).

Since running last night, Photo Uploader has uploaded 2,897 of 6,358 items, and the DS212+ CPU has remained pegged at 100%. This seems to make the DS212+ unusable, as I try to upload files using the FileStation app from within Firefox and the files transfer at <100kb/sec. I started with my laptop on wireless and the DS212+ connected to my router, but a few hours ago I connected my laptop by cable as well (this did not help, even though the connection is 1GB ethernet on a brand-new high-end Asus router).

Should I expect that the DS212+ File Station web-browser app will have ~20-100kb transfer speeds (effectively making it unuusable for file transfer), and the CPU remain at 100%, while photos are uploading from the Synology Assistant Photo Uploader app?

Is there any fix to set the thumbnail generator to "really low quality, but fast" so that the DS212+ does not become unusable during photo uploads via the Synology Assistant Photo Uploader?

[bobbyo]

Also, Jeremie, I have noticed as others have posted that on my DS212+ using Synology Assistant Photo Uploader the file timestamps on all of my photos are of the date they were uploaded (e.g. yesterday & today) rather than the original file timestamp.

Keeping the original file time stamp is important to me. Is there a way to keep the original timestamp?

[axj]

The exif-timestamp is not changed and there is a lot of programs used to see this date!
There is a program (free) named NAMEXIF, which can rename the photos to something depending on the exif-date i.e. 2012-04-22 19.52.27 or whatever you want.