FTP protocol and vfs.rar

[Sopor]

The new way vfs.rar works make it really slow to enter a folder with the FTP protocol. I can see that when i open a folder it has to open every RAR file to check if all files are there and not corrupted. If a video has 90 files we are talking about minutes before the folder will show the mkv file (it will be even slower over slower connections).

There was a reason for the old vfs.rar that was included in Kodi 17.6 (and earlier) to not check every RAR file. Instead it opened the folder almost instantly. If the first RAR file of the multi-volume archive was present in the folder and it contained only one file it was showing the video file instead of the RAR file(s), so it was easier to start the video file.

Kodi 19 with vfs.rar 4.0

[Stargrove]

Hi, I sign this. For me, the version included in 17.6 was the best. With the newer versions, it takes ages to see the files and often it stucks. I often check the logfile to see why this is the case. Sometime it crashed, sometime the playback starts after few seconds. I would love to send some debugs or input, but I dunno what to look for. Even in the case, playback never starts, I cant read anything helpful in the log (loglevel 9)
Is there an option to get the "old vfs rar" coming from 17.6. into never version or maybe turn off the rar check. I have the impression it really takes to too long because it tried to scan by entering the directory and again when it tries to playback.
Cheers...

[Stargrove]

Hi, I played around a little bit. Instead of using a FTP connection, I made a connections via sshfs and connected to the same ftp server. The behavior of rar support completely changed. Listing was quick, Kodi was able to play the file out of rar.
So it looks like, vfs-tat works fine. Maybe there is an issue with combination of ftp and vfs-rar.
my buffermode is set to 1 (butter all), but I will try other options.
Cheers

[B0ycee]

Does look like this needs some kind of optimisation for use over FTP then. In earlier releases of Kodi (<=17) this worked near flawlessly over FTP.

Looking at FTP logs, it looks like it is repetitively cycling thorough the parts of a multipart rar archive. Sometimes playback will begin, others it looks like it is indefinitely cycling.

[Stargrove]

maybe there can be a setting to change the behavior of the plugin (<=17 or later)