[jz1276]

First, remotes have lag, possible add more stress to the system also, so when using remote with a more "heavy/demanding" skin/view (Putiry+Showcase+ExThumbs) you end with this pause I figure. Don't know if you defragment your hd, but you should and this would help.

Anyway, the only difference between Night and Purity (and the reason I used the words "heavy/demanding") in this view are the backdrops (400kb dif) and the transparent PNGs icons if you have parents folders or no posters. This are the only real differences between each other, and in theory none of this are enough to make your htpc react in such a different way.

Let's make an experiment, copy the file (view) Viewtype_Showcase.xml from the folder of Night and replace the one in Purity, make a backup of the Purity files of course.

Thanks for all your help btw. Anyway, I swapped the vietypexml files and still had the problem.
I did however try "dark showcase" under view options and it browsed normally although the movies thumbs only loaded when I stopped browsing. Then I tried disabling thumbs in "extra thumbs" and it was about the same.
As far as defragging, this PC is only a few months old... and it's a linux machine running xbmc live, so I have no idea how to defrag anyways.

Are both Night and Night Purity equal in usage of RAM, etc?