Importing from emumovies is extremely slow, finally bought lifetime supporter sum for EM, So disappointed

[GiSWiG]

After probably a decade, I finally bought the Lifetime Supporter of EmuMovies. I pretty much only use Launchbox. I was excited to have all the videos and manuals.

Now I am so disappointed and I wish I did not get the Lifetime Supporter of EmuMovies. (although I don't mind supporting them)

Downloading from EmuMoveis is soooo slow in Launchbox. I only selected a few box images, cart images, manuals, low quality videos. In Launchbox, it takes hours, I stopped at over two for NES and it was not done. I searched around and this has been a problem for YEARS! I can't understand after seeing Launchbox progress so much over the years, this is still an issue. It is not a connection issue. I found EmuMoviesSync and was able to download the same amount of data in roughly 30 minutes. I even tried a vpn, using different countries (a suggested option) but that didn't help. I copied the files from EmuMoviesSync to the proper media folders but Launchbox does not 'see' the files. It just still wants to download and process the set from emumovies. I did see this submitted to Launchbox support, there is at least one old ticket. Working in a software company, I seen tickets go way to the bottom in priority and I've seen them get marked "won't do". It seems like this issue is one of these two.

Is there a workaround? Can a batch file be provided to import the files downloaded from EmuMoviesSync? Has someone already made one? I'm going to try Bulk Rename Utility to rename files downloaded through EmuMoviesSync, see if that works, at least for the majority. I'll rename those to what would be priority files, import them and then scan the media in LB and see how that goes.

[faeran]

On 9/6/2021 at 7:32 AM, GiSWiG said:

After probably a decade, I finally bought the Lifetime Supporter of EmuMovies. I pretty much only use Launchbox. I was excited to have all the videos and manuals.

Now I am so disappointed and I wish I did not get the Lifetime Supporter of EmuMovies. (although I don't mind supporting them)

Downloading from EmuMoveis is soooo slow in Launchbox. I only selected a few box images, cart images, manuals, low quality videos. In Launchbox, it takes hours, I stopped at over two for NES and it was not done. I searched around and this has been a problem for YEARS! I can't understand after seeing Launchbox progress so much over the years, this is still an issue. It is not a connection issue. I found EmuMoviesSync and was able to download the same amount of data in roughly 30 minutes. I even tried a vpn, using different countries (a suggested option) but that didn't help. I copied the files from EmuMoviesSync to the proper media folders but Launchbox does not 'see' the files. It just still wants to download and process the set from emumovies. I did see this submitted to Launchbox support, there is at least one old ticket. Working in a software company, I seen tickets go way to the bottom in priority and I've seen them get marked "won't do". It seems like this issue is one of these two.

Is there a workaround? Can a batch file be provided to import the files downloaded from EmuMoviesSync? Has someone already made one? I'm going to try Bulk Rename Utility to rename files downloaded through EmuMoviesSync, see if that works, at least for the majority. I'll rename those to what would be priority files, import them and then scan the media in LB and see how that goes.

Hi @GiSWiG. The issue stems from the api that is provided by EmuMovies, there are certain situations where it cannot handle the amount of media thrown at it. While we continue to improve the implementation of their api, we unfortunately have reached a point where a change would have to come from their end to improve the situation. Luckily, they are in the process of creating a more robust api that will hopefully solve the slow down and disconnection errors caused by their api.

While that doesn't help in the meantime, you can always use their own syncing program, like you mentioned. You do not need to rename the files as LaunchBox will read them natively, just make sure you place them in the correct LaunchBox folders.

[GiSWiG]

11 minutes ago, faeran said:

Hi @GiSWiG. The issue stems from the api that is provided by EmuMovies, there are certain situations where it cannot handle the amount of media thrown at it. While we continue to improve the implementation of their api, we unfortunately have reached a point where a change would have to come from their end to improve the situation. Luckily, they are in the process of creating a more robust api that will hopefully solve the slow down and disconnection errors caused by their api.

While that doesn't help in the meantime, you can always use their own syncing program, like you mentioned. You do not need to rename the files as LaunchBox will read them natively, just make sure you place them in the correct LaunchBox folders.

Do you lose anything not scraping/importing media through Launchbox? Launchbox doesn't rename the existing files so it wants to download a new copy of files from emumovies. I prioritize emumovies and Lunchbox media fills in the gaps.

Thanks for the info

[faeran]

5 minutes ago, GiSWiG said:

Do you lose anything not scraping/importing media through Launchbox? Launchbox doesn't rename the existing files so it wants to download a new copy of files from emumovies. I prioritize emumovies and Lunchbox media fills in the gaps.

Thanks for the info

You shouldn't lose anything. You can simply place the images within their respective image type folders, then refresh the images in LaunchBox and they will show up. Since LaunchBox allows you to have multiple images per game, if you scrap again, it will probably try and add additional images on top of the ones you already have. I would use the Audit tool, or Games Missing Media area to help fill in the gaps.

While it's all personal preference, I like to scrap using the LaunchBox DB, and then have Emumovies fill in the gaps.

[GiSWiG]

13 hours ago, faeran said:

You shouldn't lose anything. You can simply place the images within their respective image type folders, then refresh the images in LaunchBox and they will show up. Since LaunchBox allows you to have multiple images per game, if you scrap again, it will probably try and add additional images on top of the ones you already have. I would use the Audit tool, or Games Missing Media area to help fill in the gaps.

While it's all personal preference, I like to scrap using the LaunchBox DB, and then have Emumovies fill in the gaps.

So what about the amount of media downloaded. For example, emusync downloads ~40mb of box front images for the SMS. Launchbox, importing only from Launchbox is 300mb. The ROMs alone are 37mb total. If we look at just the Alex Kidd series, Launchbox downloaded three box fronts for Alex Kidd in Miracle World and one for the other three titles. So for four roms, we have six images. Also, the LB images are much larger on average. With emumovies, only two files are bigger than 200kb. With LB images, many are over 1.6MB and a Sonic one is over 6MB. Alex Kidd in Shinobi World from emumovies is 128KB but in LB images, it's over 1.3MB and is more faded. I did notice that the the 3D boxes from LB were consistent with boxes of the same size and angle facing right. emuumovies had many that were smaller and facing left. This is where grabbing from emumovies is more efficient spacewise. I would think doing that and then downloading individual ones from LB images might be more space conscious but would take more work.