Thumbnails : slow slow slow

[timd1971]

it's BS period. Synology needs a solution for this problem period. Mine is still running.... probably take a frickn MONTH!!!!!! or more?! who knows!

This is just after copying all my photos/mpegs home movies over...I still need to organize THOUSANDS of of them and once I do that...I guess the whole CONVERT process will begin again for monthes... I still cannot view 95% of those photos iusing the ipad DSP Photo app...or the web based Photostation. but at least i can using a DLNA device or another pc. jeez. CRAP. the overall diskstation is quite wonderful...but i have to say...the CONVERT process running 100% for a unbelievable amount of UNCERTAIn time is not acceptable. FIX IT!

And that other so called jimmy rig solution to DUPLICATE all your photos, but reduce them via pc, then CONVERT vias NAS again...may be faster CONVERTing...but total crap solution also... I don;t need DUPLICATES of photos movies!

Good thing I didn;t spend the extra $$$ for the DS111...even with a double faster cpu and double memory... i hear it still TAKES A REDICULOUS amount of CONVERT time anyways!

btw, the Upload Assisitant isn;t much faster either. especailly via wireless 300N. and no.. i am not running CAT cables through all my walls for this. I can view, work with etc my photos just fine via wireless....but this CONVERT thumbs thing has GOTTA GO.

Soon I will be writing a VERY bad review about this one feature alone at www.newegg.com where I got it. SO Synology needs to move this problem to the top and fix before many potential buyers get a good idea what the hell is going on with the CONVERT thumbs problem.

this problem will surely effect sales.

FIX IT!

[Dalle]

I am afraid I have to second that.

My DS209 has been creating thumbnails for two weeks now and by the speed of it, it seems it only does about 100 per day, and there are 49000 to go! I think my had drives get to their MTBF far before that - they are on continuously. I tried setting the 777 permissions, no avail. I tried to disable PhotoStation, but apparently forgot the MediaServer. It seems I must do the Photo upload thing, unless it's possible to kill this process.

Synology, I really hope you are listening to this thread and gives us some option to kill, disable, or fix this thumbnail problem.

[timd1971]

wow...seems eventually the CONVERT process may KILL my drive. Thanks Synology.

Also... the ONLY work around Synology has done is in the 3.2 beta... try out the DEMO and u can find the new PhotoStation settings in the control panel... some effort made here...but not a solution at all.

apaprently u can stall the CONVERT process... but doing so I would assume my ipad app DSPhoto and the PhotoStation via web will not show my photos...so whats the fricking point? i think maybe a status also?

In a DLNA or via PC, can view the photos... but what about the DSPhoto app and web PhotoStation???? Those (2) things need fixed.

all in all... i guess I shouldn;t haven;t traded off the smallness of the Synology (DS110j) for a small server with MUCH more processing power to do it's job. Apparently the CPUs in these NAS units are pure $hit. it it's going to take several monthes of hard drive grinding to spit out thumbnails... then Synology has FAILED here COMPLETELY.

[klen]

The solution can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=24083#p102578

A rather elegant solution that will work immediately on any images that are still waiting to be processed.
It takes a bit of Unix knowledge but the poster wrote the steps out for you.
This fix will create thumbs much faster, by supplying some different arguments to the convert program than Synology does. The tradeoff is that the quality is less. The speed improvement is significant.

Use with care, but it works, did it myself.

It will not survive a DSM upgrade, though, so document those steps and copy the new perl file to a location on /volume1 as well, like in your home dir or in /volume1/photo or so.

[timd1971]

Thank you Klen.

Will definitely take a look at that. SOunds to be a good solution for now until Synology gets with the program and incorporates those settings into the DSM. Can't quite figure out WHY the hell they haven;t done it yet... guess they will learn in lost sales as the trade off.

Since DSM is in BETA, WOULD BE REAL FRICK'N NICE IF THEY WOULD JUST GO AHEAD AND ADD ALL THE EXTRA SETTINGS TO CONTROL THE THUMBNAIL OPTIONS NOW. (i.e. sharpen, ON/OFF; size, CONVERT ON/OFF, etc etc.) Not in a future release, but NOW.

What's really retarded, is WHY the HELL would SHARPEN even be an option for generating the thumbnails on CPUs that are just slow and PURE crap? Processing should be made as simple as possible on weak CPUs to eleviate stress and INTENSE AMOUNT of time needed in order to do so? It's a frick'n thumbanil for gawds sake?! ANd aparently to top it off, CONVERT is also creating addiotnal sized images to go along with the original? Jeez, just create the bare minimum THUMBNAIL so u get the idea of what u will download before streaming to your device whatever it may be... it doesn;t need to be sharpened and high resolution.... defeats the purpose of a "THUMBNAIL"?!?!?!? Just need one ultra low res unsharpened thumbnail for each image...that's it...nothing more. DOn;'t need additonal storage space wasted, and time consumed to do so! Get your head out of your A$$ Synology! You have excelled for the most part, but in this area, have TRULY FAILED. FIX IT TO TRULY EXCEL!!!!! (we'll your at it, make your Ipad apps play ALL (or almost all) video formats, INCLUDING MPEG1,2, AVI, MKV etc etc. ANd make the DLNA play MP4, MKV VEN if the SONY Blu-ray players won;t let it via DLNA network)

It's definitely nice to have as much customization as DSM allows...but shouldn;t ahve to learn LINUX or whatever it is to get it to work right... just more crap to deal with and UNNECESARY WORKAROUNDS (jimmy riggings).

Thanks Klen...sure this will help many that stumble across this thread...seems to MANY similar obviously...searched but never found your most important link u provided.

[Niusao]

The only real way is to put your existing DS into the bin, and purchase another DS with Float Point Processing Unit. Like the DS710+, check their specification, if "Float Point: Yes" then that's it. Devices without this spec will be very slow running Photo Station, there is no solution at all by upgrading software, the CPU just not having enough power to process.

So in conclusion, if you like PhotoStation, you have to spend more money to buy their higher range model with Float Point Unit Built in.

[Niusao]

Don't balme Synology, you just didn't buy the right product, if you buy a DS710+ which come with a Floating Point Processor. DS211 doesn't.

[JeroenVanOmme]

Why not use the DS Assistant?

[in2survive]

I have a DS211j, just got it a few days ago and you guessed it! I still don't have all thumbnails.

I first copied my photos to the shared folder, which turned out to be a mistake. As everyone on this post has seen it, generating thumbnails on the box is just not an option. The reason we buy a NAS is because we have tones of data and it can NOT generate thumbnails for 100G of photos/movies.

So I'm not doing the recommended approach via the Synology Assistant, which generates the thumbnails, etc... It has now been 24 hours and I'm at 14%. So this is going to take about a week to finish!

I would think this must be a priority for Synology, since so many users complain about it. As someone mentioned before, I could care less about the thumbnail quality, just make it faster and I mean MUCH faster.

SYNOLOGY: This is a great box, don't get me wrong, but don't add a feature that it can't support. Remove the thumbnail generation process all together. Simple put, IT DOES NOT WORK. I understand the CPU is not designed for it, you need to keep it that way to maintain the lower cost, so please, at least improve the process to upload from a computer and remove the feature from the box (e.g. multiple instances of Photo Uploader running on the PC). This is not rocket science, just apply some common sense.

Everyone goes through this while building their box and it is just frustrating going through all the forums trying to find a solution.

[peterjvh]

I have a 712+and is still real slow. Please don't mislead us into thinking a floating point processor will solve the problem.
It takes approx. 5+ seconds per thumbnail at best!
I just started uploading 7,000 pictures and my wife is trying 35 measly pictures but she has to wait until mine are done. At 5 sec per picture, my 7,000 will take 24 days. I don't know about your wife, but mine isn't real patient and does question why I spent the extra for a 712+. The answer "a faster processor" is looking quite lame right now.
Woe is me.

[ZwaaiHaai]

I feel your pain, can I join the complain room?
My DS411j is now converting for about 4 months (!)

All was fine and converted and uploaded to the DS via Synology assistant, but after upgrade to 3.1 and now 3.2 the diskstation decided for me that is was nessecary to do a re-convert in case I might have an iPad. (wich i Don't)

I Did the upgrade in July and it now is.. yep, still everytime the DS spends 99.9% of its processor power to Convert.

I tried to re-upload all the pictures again using the Assistant, but after that, still CONVERT all the time. :-/
There is no way to view where it is (stuck??) and no word of Synology on a decent fix.

I -WAS- a Synology fan, But I guess the second DiskStation is going to be a different brand.

I have 400GB on pictures, Is that to much? I guess Synology developers live in the time where people take 800x600 pixels and only a dozen on vacation once a year.

[fordgt40]

Just purchased a DS411J and am very disappointed with Photo Station. The thumbnail generation process is totally inadequate and indeed a disgrace - it is dysfunctionally slow. I now need to change to a PC based photo management programme with the photos held as data on the diskstation.

What a fiasco and to think I paid money for this!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shame that the product is so bad in this regard that I am compelled to complain on my first post!

Come on Synology, you will be judged on how effectively and quickly you resolve this

David

[BeJay]

Got to agree this process is a joke.

After upgrading to 3.2 my DS spent all weekend processing thumbnails.
I added approx 130 photos today and waited nearly 3hrs for that to complete.

In comparison, I've been trying out Tonido Webshare (free), on my PC with a folder containg 50 photos and that creates the thumbnails in a matter of seconds.

http://www.tonido.com/applications.html

Hope you're reading these messages Synology, this has been going on for too long and needs addressing urgently.

[Dad Man Walking]

I have a 712+and is still real slow. Please don't mislead us into thinking a floating point processor will solve the problem.
It takes approx. 5+ seconds per thumbnail at best!
I just started uploading 7,000 pictures and my wife is trying 35 measly pictures but she has to wait until mine are done. At 5 sec per picture, my 7,000 will take 24 days. I don't know about your wife, but mine isn't real patient and does question why I spent the extra for a 712+. The answer "a faster processor" is looking quite lame right now.
Woe is me.

I am not sure why there's so much hate happening here, and I also don't quite get your math. 7000 files at 5 seconds/file would be about 9 hours. A long time, sure, but not 24 days.

Seems to me that lots of people are expecting the low-power processor of a DSxx or DSxxJ to do this processing as fast as a full-boogie desktop PC, which it isn't. If you need them in a hurry, use Synology Assistant with a good PC. If you can wait, drop them into the /photo folder via a mapped drive and save yourself the step. Simple as that. Like another poster said...if you need thumbnails faster and you can't run Synology Assistant (maybe you are uploading the files remotely, for example)...then the DS you bought isn't adquate for you needs. That's no reason to condemn the company, because the down-spec'd versions work for a lot of their customers who appreciate the lower purchase cost and lower power consumption of the less powerful units.

EDIT: I posted this comment about two weeks ago. Since then, I decided (for reasons other than speed of thumbnail processing) to give the Wordpress blog tools a try. What I learned in doing this is that the Wordpress thumbnail generation process (both with the native image tools and the NextGEN gallery plug-in) are significantly faster than Photostation's thumbnails. So it would appear that the hardware limitations are not holding other thumbnail generators back.

[asims_uk]

I have this problem also. What a pain in the ass! If the system cannot create thumbnails in less than 60 seconds per photo then they should disable this feature.

I understand that I may be able to use "Photo Uploader" from Synology Assistant to speed up this process, however:

1) I have already copied over my photos to the NAS. Nowhere in the documentation or help does it warn that you should not do this and should use the photo uploader.

2) The photo uploader is in fact hidden by default when you install synology assistant, so how the hell are you supposed to know it even exists?

I guess I now have to delete all my photos from the NAS, then re-copy them using the photo installer, then I will have to re-import them into iPhoto. Massive pain, poor poor poor.