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damiensmunki · Oct 27, 2006, 05:41 PM

So...I'm actually enjoying iTunes 7. I really like the CoverFlow feature, but I'm having a slight problem. I have a large library of lossless files. I'm steadily importing, but now I'm at 115GB. This is going to grow significantly. When browsing the covers, some take a couple of seconds to pop in. I'll slowly scan through and see cover, cover, cover, blank space, blank space, cover, blank space, etc. If I stop moving through them, the missing artwork will pop in. Any ideas what would cause this? Drive speed? The fact that I have yet to upgrade from 1GB RAM? Crappy implementation of the feature? What say you brilliant people? Thanks!
Rob

jamil5454 · Oct 27, 2006, 05:46 PM

You must have thousands upon thousands artwork files in your Coverflow library, so my guess is that they are loaded dynamically, meaning only the ones you're trying to view are loaded, and the ones you aren't trying to view are still on disk.

Otherwise, you'd need a large amount of RAM to load every piece of artwork and keep it loaded.

DKeithA · Oct 27, 2006, 06:05 PM

I have this exact problem too and my collection is only 1953 songs; only about 1/2 of them are Lossless. I can't figure it out either.

damiensmunki · Oct 27, 2006, 06:06 PM

Using Mac Pro. Current song count is around 4100, but I've got at least 150 CD's left to import. So...it's probably the RAM?

iMacfan · Oct 28, 2006, 04:03 AM

I'm not so sure - I've got a Mac Pro with 2Gb, but at least half of my files as of yet don't have artwork. I do see the same issue, but obviously not as much. I wouldn't be surprised that Apple realised that for anything but the latest machines it would be pretty demanding, and programmed in this 'cheat' to make it look faster for more.

David

analogika · Oct 28, 2006, 10:40 AM

This is a general issue. It appears completely unrelated to processor speed or system version, or size of library.

CoverFlow as a stand-alone program never had this problem, oddly.

TETENAL · Oct 28, 2006, 10:48 AM

It seems to happen only with covers that are not exactly square.

damiensmunki · Oct 28, 2006, 12:29 PM

I've noticed that it's usually the artwork I've chosen myself. Didn't really put two and two together about the shape of the artwork until now. So what systems are you guys using? I just ordered 2GB RAM in hopes that it would fix this issue. I know I need the RAM for other things, but this was just the final straw. Guess we'll have to wait for Apple to address the issue...?

damiensmunki · Oct 30, 2006, 04:18 PM

Nope...the RAM didn't fix the issue. C'mon Apple...

Hal Itosis · Oct 31, 2006, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

CoverFlow as a stand-alone program never had this problem, oddly.

Maybe not that problem.

But CoverFlow as a stand-alone program had a memory leak (or some similar mismanagement
phenomenon) the size of the Grand Canyon. Folks with 2 gigs of RAM and only a few hundred
song files in iTunes would probably never notice it though.

But take a (not so untypical) Mac with 768 megs o' RAM... add an iTunes library in the neighborhood
of 5000 song files, and keep MemoryStick open during CoverFlow's maiden voyage for good measure.

The result? 9, nine [sic] swapfiles!!!!!!!!! In the history of my OSX experience, I have never seen so
much as 3 swapfiles produced... ever. (Since Puma 10.1 while using Photoshop and several other
memory intensive apps).

Even after the dust settled (and several restarts later), on systems with less than 1 gig... CoverFlow
will kick up as much as 4 swapfiles just to run "normally". (And everything else gets bogged down).

No, CoverFlow was not without its share of screwiness... and
I fear iTunes7 may have inherited some of it in the process.
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