Excellent - thank you very much. I am planning on using MediaManager as much as possible but didn't like the long load time. I'll check this out.

Thanks again.

Other than memory usage, there is no other significant resource that is used by leaving the database service running (i.e. it is not a cpu hog in the background).

Huh. I had experiences contrary to what you're saying. I've got a gig of RAM here -- the sqlservr.exe uses a mere 16.5mb (as opposed to, say, the 62mb Firefox is using at the moment). However, I notice my machine gets hung up and laggy with the sqlservr process running. Now, perhaps this is as a result of my having a firewall running on the same machine? I've also got an antivirus program running, but active scanning is disabled (it only scans downloads and incoming emails).

Any thoughts on why the noticable lag? Advice for cures? I'd love to have the startup time reduced...

- jim

OK. Just tested this out. I've made two changes since I last tested launch times -- condensed the search results limit to 100 from the default of 1,000; and kept the sql service running in the background before launch. The difference? 10 seconds.

Still, that's 40 seconds as opposed to 50 plus -- I'd be more pleased if I could get it to 30 or below. Guess I'm going to have to upgrade? :)

Anyone here interested in reporting their launch times? I'd like to see how different machines stack up. I've been using my cell phone's stopwatch -- time's been measured from just after I've clicked the Vegas 6 quicklaunch icon to the moment the timeline appears usable (i.e. the "please wait" progress bar completes loading).

- jim

When I run Vegas 6 for the first time, it takes 30 seconds to load because it has to start the MediaManager Service. If I close Vegas and then open it right back up, MediaManager is still running and Vegas takes 10 seconds to load.

I am running a P4 2.8ghz with 512mb ram and RAID 0 drives.

Strange. We install the database service without networking and connect to it using the shared memory method so I'm surprised it would have any firewall interaction.

If you can narrow your experience down w/ specifics on firewall software, configuration, etc. I'd love to hear more on it.

I've used perfmon to monitor the sql service cpu use over night after leaving it running and found it to be completely flat line at 0 as long as Vegas or ACID isn't running. That's what led me to the conclusion that you're only sacrificing some memory resources for the faster start times.

The other tip would be to disable the Sony Sound Series reference library (if installed) when you are not actively adding Sony media files to your library. This setting is in the media manager options dialog - just set it to None (that way you can easily go back and activate it again without having to reinstall - you're only losing a bit of disk space in this case then).

When the reference library is active, the start time will be longer and the sql service process will use more resources since that library is rather large.

My firewall comments might've been premature -- I'm leaving the service running now, and things seem OK. I'm holding off on final judgement for a day or two -- if I had problems with it before, it may have just been the normal stutters and hiccups of a new app breaching the XP experience.

However, just so you know -- I haven't installed the Sony reference library, and have my default set to "None" in the prefs. I'm using Tiny Personal Firewall 2005 (it's great). A/V software is F-Secure AV.

Wow -- 10 seconds to load -- must be nice. Your system drive isn't on the RAID, right? Just your media drives then... ? I've got my system drive, an internal 7200 RPM drive, and three external 7200rpm drives in firewire enclosures.

Maybe jwf could shed some light on launch times -- are they more disk i/o dependent, or processor/ram?

- jim