Metadata Panel Causes Sluggishness

[Darius1968]

This is a longstanding issue I've been having with IMatch that I'm just pointing out right now about its Metadata Panel causing sluggishness with respect to the video frame refresh rate crawling almost to a halt.  This is an issue only when the panels of Media & Folders, Categories, Timeline, and Collections are visible, and hence, if they are in auto-hide mode, the problem would disappear. 

To be more specific about the problem, if the metadata panel is docked and I try to resize it, it seems to move very slowly and in increments, which takes a long time.  This is the norm even if the MD panel is the only one open at the time.  None of the other panels manifest this behavior.  The problem will also disappear if I undock the metadata panel and then resize at will.  In addition to resizing the MD panel, resizing the whole IMatch app itself is problematic under these conditions. 

I'm on a Windows 11 64 bit computer with an i9 processor, 16 GB RAM.  I run IMatch on a 2 TB SSD. 

[Mario]

(...) to be more specific about the problem, if the metadata panel is docked and I try to resize it, it seems to move very slowly and in increments, which takes a long time.

When you resize the Metadata Panel, it will update to match the new size, recalculate all layout options and perform a large number of internal  operations. It reacts on the "Window resized" messages sent by Windows.
The "increments" are intentional delayed updates the Metadata Panel employs to reduce the number of full recalculations and layout updates required while the user is dragging the mouse. Otherwise it would be way to slow to drag the window borders, since Windows can send "Window size changed" dozens of times per second.
It the user pauses dragging the mouse for about 250ms, the panel performs a full layout recalc and update, applies the layout settings, repaints completely etc.

This can be slightly slow-ish, depending on many factors, e.g. your Windows version, screen resolution, the layout you use for the Metadata Panel, your graphic card, PC speed and other factors. For example, it will be slower when you use the Browser layout that shows hundreds of tags than using the Default layout.
The Metadata Panel is one of the most complex panels in IMatch, except maybe for the Keywords Panel.

But how often do you resize the Metadata Panel?
Often? How often? How many times per hour?

I resize it occasionally, especially on smaller screens, but I have never considered the 250ms wait for a full repaint and update to be of any concern. And as far as I recall, no user ever has reported this as a problem. Maybe your graphic card causes problems or the PC is busy doing other things at the time you resize the panel?
I keep the Metadata Panel and the Keywords Panel docked top on top and I can resize them both without any issues. IMatch is behaving normally and after a very short delay both panels update and adapt to the new window size.