I have tested the latest trunk. Playing starts when everything, also the
cover art is loaded. I think, that is the better behavior.
The long skipping times seem really to be caused by the cover art.
Skipping without covers takes about 1 second. Skipping with covers
takes about 6 seconds. Do you think, that this is caused by converting
the cover? The most covers were used earlier and mediabox already
created an item in the album folder. I don't think, that this is caused
by the sdhc card.