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[Jakobkraft]

I just noticed that when I launch a folder containing mp3s from the Media Center context menu option in Windows Explorer, MC 14 adds not only the music files to the Playing Now but the 'Hidden' album art files as well. This causes the visualization to change to a shot of the cover art fading in and out at different sizes. And when I relaunch MC, I have to switch back to my usual visualization, which is a bit annoying.
Since my cover art is embedded in all my mp3s, I don't need MC to read or detect 'Hidden' album art files (which were unfortunately generated my WMP 10 many moons ago and are too many to count, much less delete).

Is there a way to get MC 14 to NOT add (or even detect) 'Hidden' album art files to Playing Now when launching music folders via context menu option in windows explorer?
Thanks in advance!

[Matt]

If there is art in the file tags, Media Center will use that before using external art (like folder.jpg, etc.)

Perhaps some files don't have internal art, or it's failing to be loaded for some reason?

What does the "Image File" column show for those files?  Does it change if you do "Update Library (from tags)" on the files?

Thanks.

[Jakobkraft]

MC DOES use the art in the mp3 tags (I deleted 'Hidden' album art files from one music folder as a test) but what it ALSO does in my other music folders is that it ADDS any 'Hidden' album art files to the Playing Now list, which causes my visualization to change to a fading in-and-out image of the cover art (probably since the Playing Now list is then not a music-only list anymore). It detects the 'hidden' album art files and treats them as items to be 'played'.
 
This issue would be fixed if there was a way to get MC to NOT detect 'Hidden' files. Is there not a way to do that?
Using Windows 7 Ultimate, btw...

[Alex B]

Matt,

I think he is experiencing the automatic slide show feature.

Probably the complete contents of the folder including the hidden WMP generated images are added to the playback queue and MC plays the images in a slide show simultaneously during music playback. (I have not tried to reproduce this and I don't know if it can happen only when certain conditions are met.)

It is a nice feature for intended slide shows.

My advice would be to not "right-click > play" complete folders from Windows Explorer. MC offers several other ways for playing unimported files.

Naturally, the best way would be to import the files and browse them inside MC.

[Jakobkraft]

Despite the quite good internal MC library, I also like being able to reliably use explorer (especially given the very nice 'Libraries' feature in Win7).
Most other media players I've used, if you right-click on a folder in explorer and select 'Play' or 'Add to...' it does NOT include any 'Hidden' files.
That just seems like strange behavior of MC to do that...

So I guess there's no way to force MC to NOT detect 'Hidden' files?

[Matt]

So I guess there's no way to force MC to NOT detect 'Hidden' files?

Not currently, but it would be an easy change if others agree that it makes sense.

If you explicitly select a file that's hidden and right-click 'Play', should that work?  Is it only files retrieved recursively inside a folder that should be filtered?

Thanks.

[Jakobkraft]

If you explicitly select a file that's hidden and right-click 'Play', should that work?  Is it only files retrieved recursively inside a folder that should be filtered?

Thanks.

Yes, it's 'Hidden' files from inside a selected folder that I feel should be filtered.
I'm not quite sure how I could directly select a file that's hidden - I would have to Un-hide it, and then it wouldn't be a 'Hidden' file anymore.
Nevermind, I just realized if I had 'Show Hidden Files' selected in Control Panel, then I could easily select a hidden file. Ok, so yes, I think that should be filtered also.
I need coffee

[marko]

Nevermind, I just realized if I had 'Show Hidden Files' selected in Control Panel, then I could easily select a hidden file. Ok, so yes, I think that should be filtered also.

I don't.

When "playing" a folder, not playing any hidden files sounds fine to me, but, if I specifically ask MC to play a file(s) with the 'hidden' attribute set, it should do as I ask.
I'll have a coffee too, milk and one sugar please

-marko.