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[eric999]

I'm a new user of MediaCenter and have what I hope is a simple question -

I have tracks that I want to have two cover art images (the front and back of the original lp). I can easily add a single cover art image under tool - cover art - add from file. When I try to add the second image it appears to be replacing the first, not supplementing the first.

Can I have two cover art images for a single track? If so, how do I do this? And how would I select which would be the primary cover art image for display purposes? Would there be a simple way to switch back and fourth between the images?

Hoping for help. Thanks.

Eric

[kewe65]

I had a similar request - except that i would like to have multiple images for an album, and they rotate while songs from the album are played.  The make a playlist suggestion is only practical if you want to do this on an adhoc basis, during playback.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=42729.msg291210#msg291210

I'd like that to marry up in Theater View with displaying additional text content - custom tags included - so I can move away from having two wine bottle crates of cd inserts, as well as with non-commercial live recordings that don't have inserts...

[Alex B]

MC can embed or link only one cover art image to each audio file.

Personally, I scan a complete set of cover art images if the liner notes in the booklet or other printed parts contain useful information or if I just happen to like the art. Typically I  scan images named as Back, Inlay, Booklet 1, Booklet 2, Booklet 3 (...etc), CD 1, CD 2 (...etc).

I store the image files in the album folder and import them to the library as images. I tag them with the Artist and Album tags so that they can be viewed together with the album's audio files in a view that is not restricted to a single media type.

The standard cover art plugin can show only single cover art image, but MC has always been able to show an image slideshow during audio playback. I use that feature for displaying multiple cover art images when I play a complete album. A running slide show can be controlled by using the right-click menu commands (pause, start, next, previous), mouse wheel zoom features, and left-click positioning (click and hold the left button and drag to position an enlarged image).

I created some screenshots that demonstrate the above:


Click to access the gallery.

[kewe65]

Thanks

How do you apply the album folder of images to the tracks of the album so that MC plays the images while playing the album?  The options under right-click Cover Art don't display anything other than assigning one image to one file.  I assume this part is only for the display in the library views, though?

[Alex B]

How do you apply the album folder of images to the tracks of the album so that MC plays the images while playing the album?  The options under right-click Cover Art don't display anything other than assigning one image to one file.  I assume this part is only for the display in the library views, though?

MC can embed or link only one cover art image to each audio file. ...

.... I store the image files in the album folder and import them to the library as images. I tag them with the Artist and Album tags so that they can be viewed together with the album's audio files in a view that is not restricted to a single media type.

The image files became a part of the album in the library. To access all these album files you need to create one or more views that can show audio files together with image files.

When I want to play an album including several images I can "right-click>play" the album like in this screenshot:



It is also possible to just select the image files and play them (= start a new slideshow) if an audio file is already playing.

[Alex B]

I have posted lots of replies that explain what I do. You can find some links here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=42646.msg290527#msg290527

[Alex B]

After seeing all the nice 3D display things, I wonder if it would take less than half an hour of Matt's time to code a simple display plugin that would automatically cycle all image files that exist in the audio file's folder. It could use the existing slideshow function (with the right-click and other mouse control features) and start a new slideshow on each track change.

It would make the tedious manual work I do quite unnecessary and probably be useful for all users who store more than one cover art image in the album folder.

[kewe65]

That was going to be part of my reply to your previous message.

I was able - through an hour's worth of trial and error, and reading your posts - to figure out how the library view needs to be set up for the slideshow to work.

It would be a much slicker approach to have a setting in the playback options that enables slideshow of images in an album's folder, and a button allowing launch of the slideshow playback settings that one could make as default settings for audio playback.

In any case, it works - so thank you...  excellent sort of reverse logic use of the tool.  when i thought of image slideshow first and having music play in the background, it become much easier to decipher the setup.

[JimH]

It would be a much slicker approach to have a setting in the playback options that enables slideshow of images in an album's folder, and a button allowing launch of the slideshow playback settings that one could make as default settings for audio playback.

This isn't a bad idea.  It might work.  But there are people who store a lot of files in a single directory and the image playback might not be appropriate for the audio being played.  If we could be fairly certain that the folder contains an album, it would probably work.

[Alex B]

This isn't a bad idea.  It might work.  But there are people who store a lot of files in a single directory and the image playback might not be appropriate for the audio being played.  If we could be fairly certain that the folder contains an album, it would probably work.

I think people would use it if and when preferrred. There's no need to worry about their file organization.

I wouldn't want it to replace the standard cover art display plugin. It should be an additional option in the menu. Just like any other visualization option.

If I recall correctly, there was a third party visualization that was able to play a kind of slideshow from the audio file's folder, but it didn't work well enough for my needs. MC's built-in slideshow function has excellent control features and it does not have problems with displaying huge image files smoothly during audio playback.

[kewe65]

yep, not replace - in addition to...    such as in addition to the option of also storing images in the tag, storing images in the album folder and then the option to have image playback based on that selection...

[Alex B]

...such as in addition to the option of also storing images in the tag, storing images in the album folder and then the option to have image playback based on that selection...

Those features would be nice (and the request is on-topic here), but I think we should do baby steps first. Creating built-in functionality for storing multiple images in the file tags, for storing them on the disk, and for for displaying them would require a complete redesign of the cover art logic and big changes to all decoder plugins (which are responsible of file tagging). The new features would need to be carefully designed considering all possible options and they would need to be fully regression tested.

What I am requesting now is just a simple auto-loader that would refresh the slideshow on each track change. It would query the audio file's folder and populate the slideshow with the found images. Otherwise it could be exactly like the standard slideshow with all the current slideshow features.

It would be up to the users to place suitable image files in the audio files' folders. If preferred, MC's image handling capability could be used. The files would be just standard image files in the library, but you could create custom views like the view in my screenshot for tagging and file organization:


Click to enlarge.

After clicking the above link that leads to Pix01.com you can demonstrate a cover art slideshow by clicking the "Start Slideshow" text on the top right corner. The first 12 images are from MC's built-in slideshow. The full size images are big and may load slowly. On a second run, after the image files are cached, the slideshow should work smoothly.

[Johnny B]

What I am requesting now is just a simple auto-loader that would refresh the slideshow on each track change. It would query the audio file's folder and populate the slideshow with the found images. Otherwise it could be exactly like the standard slideshow with all the current slideshow features.

+1
Asked for this already years ago...

[dcwebman]

If it was something simple like suggested to display a slideshow, it would definitely give me more incentive to scan more images for the album/artist.

[Quixote]

What I am requesting now is just a simple auto-loader that would refresh the slideshow on each track change. It would query the audio file's folder and populate the slideshow with the found images. Otherwise it could be exactly like the standard slideshow with all the current slideshow features.

+1 for this also

[koo]

i would like to ask if it's possible to add to the new upgrades possibility of reading the cover arts named differently than
[Artist] - [Album].jpg  and Folder.jpg, for example it would be nice if Front.jpg and Cover.jpg are also readable, especialy because most of us that have more images in folder fave it named fornt/back/cd/inlay/ect.