Requesting Media Manager Tips

[Media Manager]

I am posting this message to collect any best practices rules or suggestions for using Roxio 10 Media Manager.

 

I have several large video and image folders and I am finding that navigating with Media Manager is proving somewhat difficult. I am not sure if the database is experiencing problems or something else. Perhaps my folders are too large. Some are small but others contain thousands of files. Breaking them down would be a monumental work.

 

I have what I believe to be a fairly fast system. Intel QX6850 overclocked to 3.6 GHZ. Two Atlas 73 GIG 10K RPM in (true) RAID-0 array and 2 Atlas 300 drives. 4 GIG of Corsair TX DDR3 (I didn't know I was going to waste 1 GIG on a 32 bit processor ... next time I'll do 64 bit). MS Vista Ultimate.

 

Yet, Media Manager hangs up for hours while it seems to collect whatever information it needs. I see RoxMediaDB10.exe using 25% of one of the 4 processors for quite a while. Eventually it does what it needs to do and I am able to operate and navigate Media Manager.

 

Of particular problem is the "My Media" section which is delayed by several hours upon each request. Otherwise the folder navigation seems to be "somewhat" responsive. But not as responsive as the native windows browsing.

 

Any suggestions for tunning or optimizing the Media Manager database will be appreciated. Thank you.

[RunCorp16]

I have not changed the defaults. I am not scanning the whole drive. Some of the media folders are large, yes. It does not seem that Roxio can handle it. Don't know why since there seems to be other programs out there available able to handle large sizes.

[Big_Dave]

I have MM running and I just attached my 300gb external USB drive to my laptop. I am monitoring two folders containing about 2gb of photos and 12gb of mp3s. Each of the folders have many nested folders. Navigation with MM is very quick. Photo thumbnails just fly up on the screen. I don't use LiveSharing or MediaSpace sharing. I am running EMC 9.1 so it may not be apples to apples with your software. You can see my specs below.

[RunCorp16]

Mine was like that too as long as I only used the Folders browsing feature. EMC10 has a new view: My Media "Smart Views". These are media file groupings automatically created and maintained by MM. When I started trying to use this view is when things started to go south.

 

At this moment MM is completely unresponsive and is preventing me from using the suite alltogether. Somehow the RoxMediaDB10.exe program crashes after a few hours.

[jeanrosenfeld]

Yeah, that will help.

 

So what is the correct way to disable MM ? I disabled RoxMediaDB10 on MSCONFIG. There are other services from SONIC there but I am not sure if they are needed for other programs. What needs to be disabled exactly to completely remove MM?

 

That will the the actual first Best Practices listed here.

 

First off, please don't use msconfig to disable services (as opposed to startups). For services use the services applet in computer manager. Or click start, run, type services.msc, click OK or press enter.

Second, do not disable the RoxMediaDB10 service: set it to manual. It is started by most (if not all) Roxio apps when they need it.

 

To stop Mediamanager from scanning and updating its database:

 

set all Roxio services to manual in services applet

remove roxwatchtray from startup items.

In Media manager, Tools menu, set it to stop watching folders (also stop PnP, live sharing)

[Media Manager]

I've had to disable MM I've given up on it.

 

I tried ACDsee for media cataloging and browsing. WOW!!! If anyone from ROXIO/Sonic reads these postings. Take a look at that program and copy whatever you can from it and make it part of your next release (replacing the MM portion only ... obviously).

 

I'd much rather keep one suite and I think Roxio's EMC's are the best out there. With a program like ACDsee ... Roxio EMC 11 would be unbeatable!!!! Copy shamelessly if you have to ... or buy them out (before Microsoft does) ... I don't care how you do it as long as your lawyers don't mind.

 

My comments are my opinion only and are not meant to offend anyone. I just think that MM is not very good. That MM puts a black mark on an otherwise excellent suite. And I don't think that all those people who do product reviews really know how to use the product. They don't have enough time to really use the programs on a day to day basis like the people on this forum.

[bimicher]

I've had to disable MM I've given up on it.

 

I tried ACDsee for media cataloging and browsing. WOW!!! If anyone from ROXIO/Sonic reads these postings. Take a look at that program and copy whatever you can from it and make it part of your next release (replacing the MM portion only ... obviously).

 

I'd much rather keep one suite and I think Roxio's EMC's are the best out there. With a program like ACDsee ... Roxio EMC 11 would be unbeatable!!!! Copy shamelessly if you have to ... or buy them out (before Microsoft does) ... I don't care how you do it as long as your lawyers don't mind.

 

My comments are my opinion only and are not meant to offend anyone. I just think that MM is not very good. That MM puts a black mark on an otherwise excellent suite. And I don't think that all those people who do product reviews really know how to use the product. They don't have enough time to really use the programs on a day to day basis like the people on this forum.

 

I use EMC 10 for doing video work and some audio CDs. Things like MM as well as several other programs in the suite are basically disabled. There are 3rd party programs that do a much better job. A program that tries to do everything in the end will wind updoing nothing properly.

[Captain Kirk]

I am a bussiness owner and rely on quality software to keep me afloat. I agree that ROXIO should make their best effort to make (ALL) of their programs usable. I do NOT agree with people who settle for less.

 

I too had to disable Media Manager. It is worthless to say the least. If it can be improved ... PLEASE ... fix it or drop it out of the Roxio Suite. I am not a programmer, but it is obvious that the database used is not very effective for handling large hard drives.

[RunCorp16]

Yeah, that will help.

 

So what is the correct way to disable MM ? I disabled RoxMediaDB10 on MSCONFIG. There are other services from SONIC there but I am not sure if they are needed for other programs. What needs to be disabled exactly to completely remove MM?

 

That will the the actual first Best Practices listed here.

[grandpabruce]

Yeah, that will help.

 

So what is the correct way to disable MM ? I disabled RoxMediaDB10 on MSCONFIG. There are other services from SONIC there but I am not sure if they are needed for other programs. What needs to be disabled exactly to completely remove MM?

 

That will the the actual first Best Practices listed here.

 

Shut all of those services down, in msconfig. You will still be able to use the programs when needed.

[RunCorp16]

Thxs Mr. GB. I took them out and re-booted. I still get a C++ Runtime Error from RoxWatchTray10.exe. I did not see that service anywhere. What else?

[RunCorp16]

Ah! I think I found it. It's called "CommonSDK". Will not be under Services. It is listed on the Startup Items tab.

[lynn98109]

I am a bussiness owner and rely on quality software to keep me afloat. I agree that ROXIO should make their best effort to make (ALL) of their programs usable. I do NOT agree with people who settle for less.

 

I too had to disable Media Manager. It is worthless to say the least. If it can be improved ... PLEASE ... fix it or drop it out of the Roxio Suite. I am not a programmer, but it is obvious that the database used is not very effective for handling large hard drives.

 

This is a user's Forum.

 

Roxio staff rarely drop by here. If you want to let them know your opinion, contact them -

this linked page has contact info for both North America and Europe.

 

Lynn

[tbrewst]

Media Manager should only be doing this the first time it runs.It runs through your drives looking for media files.

Several people have disabled it due to this.

If it's taking this long every time you try and use it I'm not sure what the problem could be.

[Media Manager]

Yes, the database does not continuously run. I believe that everything that needed to be cataloged is already done. The issue is with usability when accesing the classified media by type. It may be some optimizing issue.

[RunCorp16]

OK. My Media Manager performance has been really bad. Now it won't even start. The rest of the EMC 10 programs seem to still respond.

 

Is there a way to just uninstall the crappy Media Manager program and leave the rest? Does anyone know ... if so please advise. I am not talking about just disabling the folder watch. I mean a total removal of that component.

 

I'm starting to think that one of the best practices might be to give the competitor suites a chance. I've never had Nero before but I am curious to see if their programs stop working as often as Roxio's.

[Big_Dave]

When Media Manager (MM) starts, it will scan/monitor selected folders. I have never changed the default settings so MM is limited to just a few folders (documents, desktop and my personal user folder). If MM is changed to monitor the entire hard drive then performance could be less than desirable.

 

You can disable MM from starting in MS Services.