DVDpedia 6.1.0 M1 hangs when I try to open movies

[udo]

I installed DVDpedia 6.1.0 on my Mac Book Air 10,1 M1, MacOS 11.0.1 and imported my library from DVDpedia 5.7.0 from the old MacBook (MacOS 10.13.6).
(I use this older version because I already couldn't open links to VIDEO_TS folders in DVDpedia 6.0: https://www.bruji.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7321&p=27345#p27345)

When I try to open movies on the disk attached to my AirPort Extreme DVDpedia hangs and beachballs.
If I click "Show in Finder" I get the correct file.
When I open the movies manually in Finder everything works as expected.

Standard player on the M1 is VLC.
My links are formatted like this: file:///Volumes/FILME/movietitle.mp4

[FineWine]

I installed I installed DVDpedia 6.1.0 on my Mac Book Air 10,1 M1, MacOS 11.0.1 on my Mac Book Air 10,1 M1, MacOS 11.0.1

Is this the app store release of DVDpedia 6.1.0 ?

If not give the stable beta release ago DVDpedia 6.1.0 Beta 190 at https://bruji.com/beta/

Also Big Sur MacOS 11.2.1 is the latest release.

As well you might be familiar with my following adages:

It is always good protocol to do some house cleaning every once in a while here are some maintenance tasks you could try.

Regular visitors to these forums will know I am big on the following:

1 - When I am updating App's to a new WHOLE number version or upgrading to a new OS version, or I know that there has been a major rewrite of the App such as with the case of all the pedia's for 64 bit technology and Apple's new OS 11.0.0 Big Sur, I do a complete uninstall of the old version prior to update. I achieve this by using a FREE program called AppCleaner which you can download from here. On using this App place a check mark IN ALL the boxes EXCEPT: ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia , which is the second line down from the top. This is where your data base is located. Ensure that is NOT ticked. You will loose your Preference settings though but they only take a couple of minutes to redo. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS

2 - These are the Folders and Files that should be in ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia/ .

Covers
InfoTemplates
Plug-ins
Templates
AddMultiple.xml
autofill.xml
backup1Month.*****pd
backup2Months.*****pd
*****pedia Backup.zip
Database.******pd
Database.******pd-shm
Pocketpedia.******pd
Pocketpedia.******pd-shm
Pocketpedia.******pd-wal

The above entries in blue are Folders do not delete them or their contents.

AND of course do not delete: Database.*****pd OR Pocketpedia.*****pd

NOTE: ***** represents the particular pedia - Book, DVD, CD or Game

The Files with the suffix; .shm & .wal can be deleted as they are changed and recreated automatically again on each starting up of your pedia. You can think of them as a temporary index cache files. The Database and Backup files are self explanatory so not advisable to delete those. The .xml are again a type of index file for your autofill fields and are important so do not delete those two. You can clean these up to some extend within each Pedia's Preferences > Autofill.

3 - There is also one other thing you can do and that is to use, what I call a "Grease & Oil Change" maintenance program called Onyx. This is a FREE program that is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more. I always use it prior and post system OS updates and about once a month. Also especially in this case concerning the new macOS 11.0.* Big Sur.

This program is available here: Titanium Software - Onyx. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR YOUR macOS

It is available in many languages and is regularly updated (about once a month).

4 - Also there are some hidden menu tasks that you can perform: 'hold down the option key and click on the main Help menu in each program once and select - each in turn: 'Verify Database', 'Remove Orphaned Covers' and 'Clean Duplicates in Fields' these may not solve your problems but it wont hurt either.

5 - And finally if your particular pedia is actually crashing do check for the Crash Logs. You can find the relevant logs in your Home folder under: ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

Send them to Bruji Support: support@bruji.com

AND of course always carry out a general machine BACKUP first. Remember that all the pedia's also have the ability to create individual data base backups: File > Export Collection > Backup > Location of your choice

Hope you find these Tips & Hints helpful

[udo]

Thanks a lot

Well I noticed something:

I had installed the native Version for M1 of VLC. I now tested with the latest Intel build of VLC and got a pop-up notifying me that DVDpedia wants access to control VLC (paraphrasing because my MacOS is in German), after allowing this everything works as expected. I don't get a pop-up with the VLC for M1.

I also noticed while working on this reply:

VLC(M1) actually starts in the background and sits there doing nothing, no file in playlist.

This seems to be significant.

To test I changed “Open with:” for a movie to QuickTime. It starts playing inline in DVDpedia.

I also tried the native version of IINA and that works too. Problem is, that version is still buggy.

So DVDpedia and VLC(M1) seem to have problems talking to each other. Is this only on my machine, or on other M1s as well?

I did the tests as well in regular release as in the beta. The difference in the beta is that the program doesn't hang/beachball. Otherwise same as above.

Finally I updated MacOS to 11.2.1 (20D74) and tried all the above again in regular release as well as the beta: No changes.


My answers to your other questions/suggestions:

Is this the app store release of DVDpedia 6.1.0 ?

No, download from bruji.

If not give the stable beta release ago DVDpedia 6.1.0 Beta 190 at https://bruji.com/beta/

Exactly same behaviour.

These are the Folders and Files that should be in ~/Library/Application Support/*****pedia/ .

When I got the exported backup from the old Mac I already deleted most of that stuff, I just tried once more with latest release as well as beta and kept only the necessary data.
Keep in mind this is a new machine.

Also there are some hidden menu tasks that you can perform: 'hold down the option key and click on the main Help menu in each program once and select - each in turn: 'Verify Database', 'Remove Orphaned Covers' and 'Clean Duplicates in Fields'

That didn't help either.

And finally if your particular pedia is actually crashing do check for the Crash Logs. You can find the relevant logs in your Home folder under: ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

There I can only find files with names starting with: “CloudServicesTopic…”, “KeySyncTopic…”, “NetworkingTopic…” and a file relating to AdGuard.

[FineWine]

Thank you for comprehensive reply - very refreshing.

I have let conor know about this post and your problems with VLC(M1) and DVDpedia.

[udo]

Sure thing.

I have let conor know about this post and your problems with VLC(M1) and DVDpedia.

I also tested to open links to VIDEO_TS folders (which worked in 5.7.0 but not 6.0.1):
Both regular and beta open Apple’s DVD-Player in background, neither hangs or beachballs, DVD-Player sits there doing nothing.