[Macworld]

Post your comments for Sharing your iTunes music with Simplify here

[bradlowens]

I've downloaded every update of Simplify for my 2.6 MBP and every time I boot it up, it locks up. I have a large iTunes library of around 16,000 songs and it booted great the first run with no problems. Then each time after that, it freezes and does not respond. My family members using XP have no problems. Could it be because i have my library on an external drive?? Who knows. Great program but just can't get it to work on my Mac

[sheilanolan]

It does seem to be working better for me since the desktop version updated. Previously, it would unexpectedly close although that might have been more a problem with Vista. I didn't know about the protected tracks bit, maybe that explains why some albums don't appear in the iphone app which is a bit annoying. Still, it's very impressive for something that I got for free.

[OneFastStang]

Similar Issues. Be wary of this program. I have about 5000 songs in my iTunes Library. Whenever this is loaded on my iMac where are the songs located the CPU percentage jumps up to 60% or higher and stays there. The iMac is an Intel 2.4 core 2 duo with 4GB of RAM and nothing else running. Attempting to contact support has been useless. If you check on the internet, you will see that this is not an isolated issue as there are many posts about this issue. This would be a great program if it wasn't such a processor intensive program when you have a lot of songs, it would be nice. Maybe one day the author will admit the issue and correct it.

[Chris Breen]

It certainly hits the processor, but I haven't been hit as hard as you. On my 2x Dual Core Mac Pro it hovers around 20% CPU when it's streaming. And that's with a mess of applications open and a library of over 17K tracks.

[jaynelson]

I love the concept as well. Unfortunately, I have the same problem as OneFastStang -- maybe worse. Simplify tends to take over 100% of one of the two cores in my 2.5GHz MacBook Pro. And that's after weeks of having it installed, so I know it's not doing any kind of indexing. Because of that, I tend to leave it turned off now. It's a pity. (BTW, other people in my group of friends report the same behavior.)

[Chris Breen]

Huh, I'm just not seeing it. (Though I do have two more cores than you.) Are you using the latest version? 1.0.0.1080?

[zenwave]

yeah, Simplify doesn't deal with large (30K tracks) libraries, and/or libraries located on external drives.

[jaynelson]

Chris, I did some testing last night with the latest version, and it exhibited behavior that I couldn't predict. When connecting to a new friend, it spiked to >90% use of one processor. I assume that's because it was indexing his iTunes catalog and delivering it to my iTunes.
After that, it settled down to a much lower CPU use while I was listening to his music -- anywhere from 7% to 30%. Whenever one of us would access a new track on the other's computer, it would spike up again to around 100% and sometimes higher. But then it would settle down again.
All of that seems predictable and understandable. But occasionally its CPU use would ratchet up to much higher levels for no reason I could discern. And then there was the kernel panic this morning when I tried to fast-forward through a track. (I was testing that for a friend -- I don't recommend fast forwarding through tracks when using Simplify Media. Clicking farther down the timeline seems to work OK, but pressing the forward and backward arrows didn't make it happy.)
So heck! I don't know. I'm willing to give it further testing with other friends. The promise of the product is so huge, I don't want to give it up.
My favorite part: using the Simplify app on my iPhone, I can listen to anything in my home iTunes collection while I'm traveling. If Apple could build that into iTunes, to me it would justify the relatively small storage capacities of all the latest iPods & iPhones.

[greguva]

I have a 44k song library on an external drive - no problems here.

[pauljoyce]

Thanks for the comments! On Friday we released build 1087 (www.simplifymedia.com/download.html) and it has optimization for processor usage. Very large libraries are a challenge, and we are always looking ways to improve. If you have any problems, please contact us at support at simplifymedia.

[jaynelson]

The new build made a big difference. Now, Simplify hovers at a reasonable level when not actively seeking remote libraries (2%), and spikes to either 50% or 100% only when updating remote libraries. But that's only for a little while when first requesting access to a remote library, and for a few seconds when switching from one area of the remote library to another.
Overall, I'm really happy with its performance now. Thanks, pauljoyce!

[glennh]

Do anyone know of a program that will let you also stream the videos/movies/ tv shows in your library?