Topic: NEW FEATURE: Artist images (Read 20201 times)

Matt · « **on:** January 21, 2011, 07:17:09 am »

Media Center 16 adds the ability to get and display artist images.

Artist images are stored in an 'Artists' subfolder under the configured cover art folder.

The cover art folder can be configured in Options > File Locations.

To get artist images from Last.fm, select files > right-click > Cover Art > Get Artist Images From Last.fm...

Currently artist images are used in Standard View when displaying artist thumbnails. They will be used in Theater View, Gizmo, etc. at a later date.

Here's a sample screenshot:

Alex B · « **Reply #1 on:** January 21, 2011, 08:35:59 am »

Mine put the artist images in C:\_MJart\Artists\. I probably have had MC15 (or earlier) set to use that folder when I have tested something. My normal and current cover art location is "in the same folder as the file".

I already have lots of artist images in the "Album Artist (auto)" root folders in my usual [Album Artist (auto)]\[Album] folder structure. Naturally it would be nice if I could use them and also select the preferred image if the folder contains more than one. In addition I have folders that do not follow the usual rule so manual linking should be available as an option.

I tried the feature with a few "multiple artists" albums (224 artists). The results:

The number of downloaded images: 214 (of 224)
File sizes: 6 KB - 4278 KB
Average file size: 137 KB
Dimensions: 200x134 - 2716x1835
File types: jpg (192), png (14), gif (8 )
One of the files is empty (0 KB, invalid image)
About ten of the files contain cover art instead of an artist image (some last.fm users do not follow the rules when the upload images).
Two of the files contain a "Keeps Stats Clean" message (one of them is attached).

Alex B · « **Reply #2 on:** January 21, 2011, 09:29:13 am »

dcwebman · « **Reply #3 on:** January 21, 2011, 10:32:15 am »

Quote from: Alex B on January 21, 2011, 08:35:59 am

Mine put the artist images in C:\_MJart\Artists\. I probably have had MC15 (or earlier) set to use that folder when I have tested something. My normal and current cover art location is "in the same folder as the file".

I also keep my cover art "in the same folder as the file". Since this is a new computer with Win7, it put mine in C:\Users\myname\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 16\Cover Art\Artists. Since you probably can't rely on how people's folder structure is, it might make sense to have the ability to specify where the Artists folder is instead of relying on the covert art location.

I agree with the other comments from Alex.

Is there going to be a way to go back to the album cover art view though for a particular artist?

Now to see who makes the first TrackInfo using the artist image.

Alex B · « **Reply #4 on:** January 21, 2011, 11:46:07 am »

Quote from: dcwebman on January 21, 2011, 10:32:15 am

Now to see who makes the first TrackInfo using the artist image.

I think that person could be Matt.

Step 1: Design a system that can import/store artist images and maintain a relational database of them.

Step 2. Design a system that can present them in useful ways. "Artist thumbnails in the Artist view" is one useful way.

The main display during playback would be another way. I'd like to (once again) request an automatic slideshow feature. Its options could include: artist, cover art, and any additional images that can be found in the album folder, in a specified subfolder, and perhaps also in the parent folder (e.g.: .\covers; ..\ ). The parent folder option wold work with my Artist images in the [Album Artist (auto)] folder. MC would then load a new slideshow on each track change.

A third way would be "inside an artist bios display". To test the "relational field" feature I set the Bios field to store one value for each artist and added the AMG biography of Peter Gabriel. Unfortunately MC cannot display the complete biography in the popup (see the attached screenshot). It would be nice to have a way to scroll the text and and also see the artist image in the same display.

Matt · « **Reply #5 on:** January 21, 2011, 12:28:45 pm »

Quote from: Alex B on January 21, 2011, 11:46:07 am

I'd like to (one again) request an automatic slideshow feature. Its options could include: artist, cover art, and any additional images that can be found in the album folder, in a specified subfolder, and perhaps also in the parent folder (e.g.: .\covers; ..\ ).

We've wanted to do this for ages. Hopefully it will happen during v16.

I want to use the same system as Theater View's Playing Now to optionally get Last.fm, Google, etc. images along with using local images.

Alex B · « **Reply #6 on:** January 21, 2011, 12:52:15 pm »

Just keep in mind that that it should not be just a visualization. Most of my additional images are high resolution back cover and booklet scans. I would like to have the usual slideshow controls available: pause, back one, forward one, and enlarge (+drag to reposition) so that it would be possible to actually read the liner notes.

EDIT

My third suggestion, "inside an artist bios display", is actually the least important to me. I doubt I will add biographies to thousands of artists. I can always read them online. More important would be to have live hyperlinks. The global AMG, Wiki, etc links are nice, but sometimes I would like to add dedicated links. It could be a new data type in the field options: Hyperlink (semicolon delimited list). E.g. http://petergabriel.com; http://realworldrecords.com . Then it would be possible to add links that actually work (right-click the link to select functionality: open inside MC, open in external browser, copy link, etc)

Jaguu · « **Reply #7 on:** January 21, 2011, 03:56:18 pm »

Will it be possible to use an artist image also for images/videos (especially personal videos)? I have many image collections from professional photographers and artistic painters in my library. So I would like to have picture of Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Cézanne, Dali, Dürer, Rembrandt, Rubens etc. as head of their images/paintings collections, probably not automatically drawn from the internet but selected personally. Would that also work? They are not necessarily organised by albums. Have not yet tried MC16.

leezer3 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 21, 2011, 05:27:47 pm »

Thanks, this is looking really nice

Can I request the availability of these for TV Series?
I'd really like to be able to show a boxset cover when browsing be series under Theatre View. I could probably do this by rewriting my field arrangement a little, but it would be neater this way.
My field arrangement looks like this FWIW:
Artist (Star Trek)==> Series (Voyager Series 1)==> Episode (Episode 1)

Shifting on from this a little, with the new relational DB, it'd be nice to be have the Info Panel in theater view available at Artist/ Series level with all this new relational info

-Leezer-

gappie · « **Reply #9 on:** January 21, 2011, 06:10:45 pm »

i think this could be very nice.. i use an artists field. wich, ofcource has a lot of the same images, but shows album art. it feels strange going from artists (album image)>artist(artist image)>albums (album image)
the same is true for genre>artist>album etc..

Should it not show the images from the layer one down?

and reading it right.. it is also here not possible to use ones own images?

gab

JimH · « **Reply #10 on:** January 21, 2011, 06:14:10 pm »

You can use your own image by saving it with the right name in the Artists directory (under the Cover Art Directory). The name has to match the artist name. This should get easier in a future version. Multiple images per artist would also be nice.

gappie · « **Reply #11 on:** January 22, 2011, 08:43:47 am »

would it not be nice if this would result in an option to use the images saved for artist as a background image in theaterview? i really have some nice images i would like to use.

gab

MrHaugen · « **Reply #12 on:** January 24, 2011, 05:08:32 pm »

I vote for making something similar for Series and Season, when Artist image is fine tuned

Leezer also brings out a good point about being able to use this new relational fields in a better way for the Theater View info panels. We could add this today, but the series/season info would be presented on all panels I guess.

Other ideas here like live links would also be great. Just thinking of IMDB trailers as an example. Yummy.

mojave · « **Reply #13 on:** January 28, 2011, 09:12:33 am »

Is there an easy way to undo artist image? I see the Remove Cover Art option, but no Remove Artist Image option. Do I have to manually delete the artist image file in order to get back to showing CD covers?

MrHaugen · « **Reply #14 on:** January 28, 2011, 09:30:08 am »

Would it be impossible so have an option to "link" images to the Library field? That way you could attatch images to most things. And if the view supports tumbnails, that image is shown.
An exaple would be Genre image linked to Genre, Artist Image linked to the Auto Album Artist field and the normal Album cover art as is. Another example could be Series image linked to the Series tag, Season Image linked to the Season tag and then the normal thumbs for Episodes.

This would open up alot of possibilities. After the "link" options on the library fields is set, you could easily add some generic rules for file placement or naming rule. Might be some work, but very flexible, no?

pcstockton · « **Reply #15 on:** January 28, 2011, 10:55:16 am »

Just to be clear.... Right now my existing artist.jpg in each album folder, will not work?

It would be good to allow artist.jpg to work as do all of my folder.jpg. It is fairly standard I think.

leezer3 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 28, 2011, 05:27:17 pm »

Correct

I concurr that artist.jpg in the folder is a good idea for one of the basic search paramaters.

-Leezer-

rick.ca · « **Reply #17 on:** January 28, 2011, 09:03:29 pm »

Is there a reason why artist.jpg should be saved in every album folder? Where the parent folder is the artist folder, it seems to make more sense that one image be saved there. And if there is no artist folder, wouldn't that be because the artist only exists as a member of a compilation album—in which case their image would have to go in \Cover Art\Artists anyway?

Perhaps the best solution would be to look in the relevant album folder(s) first, and then the parent folder if no artist.jpg's are found. That would allow the use of an artist image from the same era as the album it's associated with. So if the view included only early albums of an artist, it would display an image from that time. If it included only recent albums, it would show a recent image. If it included all albums, it would show the image found in the parent folder (if there was one). If there were multiple relevant images, I suppose one would have to be picked arbitrarily. Or they could be rotated—as album covers currently are.

I'm thinking, of course, this would be very cool for artists with long careers like the Rolling Stones. Seeing a recent image of Mick Jagger or Keith Richards while listening to something like (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction might be a little unsettling. But it would also be a way just to add some variety to the images used for artists with shorter or recent careers.

dcwebman · « **Reply #18 on:** January 29, 2011, 12:11:31 pm »

Quote from: mojave on January 28, 2011, 09:12:33 am

Is there an easy way to undo artist image? I see the Remove Cover Art option, but no Remove Artist Image option. Do I have to manually delete the artist image file in order to get back to showing CD covers?

At this time I think the only thing to do is delete or rename the artist image file. It would be nice to have an option per artist whether you wanted artist images or album images shown.

pcstockton · « **Reply #19 on:** January 29, 2011, 01:48:08 pm »

VERY good points Rick. Well put.

I often use different artist.jpg for different albums given the era of the performer. Zappa, Stones, Zorn all come to mind... Anyone who has had a nice long career.

-patrick

sunfire7 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 31, 2011, 01:51:11 am »

Quote from: MrHaugen on January 28, 2011, 09:30:08 am

Would it be impossible so have an option to "link" images to the Library field? That way you could attatch images to most things. And if the view supports tumbnails, that image is shown.
An exaple would be Genre image linked to Genre, Artist Image linked to the Auto Album Artist field and the normal Album cover art as is. Another example could be Series image linked to the Series tag, Season Image linked to the Season tag and then the normal thumbs for Episodes.

Very nice I like it!

BTW, if an Album Artist group (in the default Artist view) has different Artist (Same Album Artist, but Different Artist inside) it doesnt show the artist image, just the classic album thumbs, or is just me? (if I change the Artist Album tag to match Artist tag it does show artist image immediately)

Alex B · « **Reply #21 on:** January 31, 2011, 10:32:39 am »

IMO, the most important points are:

- MC should allow to configure the location. If "in various places according to a rule" is too complex, at least the single location should be configurable. For instance, a shared folder on a server should be possible.

- MC should allow to override the default name & location rule for each individual file. Perhaps a library field that is similar to "Image File" would do the trick. It should allow to easily link any image file. This would make possible to link images like "young artist" and "old artist" when the collection contains releases from different time periods. It would also provide a workaround for identically named, but different artists. (some are listed here: http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Identically_Named_Artists_History )

- MC should show "fanned" artist thumbnails when more than one artist image is linked to the files.

Once these basic things work properly, the next step could be the new visualization feature.

glynor · « **Reply #22 on:** January 31, 2011, 10:57:18 am »

Quote from: Alex B on January 31, 2011, 10:32:39 am

- MC should allow to override the default name & location rule for each individual file. Perhaps a library field that is similar to "Image File" would do the trick.

I agree completely, but in particular I think this is key. We now have the relational-style fields, and this is a perfect use-case for that type of library field.

WolfWalker · « **Reply #23 on:** February 01, 2011, 02:32:25 pm »

it would be nice to get some kind of message when doing lookup from lastfm

how about adding it to the last eight commands

how about increasing the last 8 commands to 10

HTPC4ME · « **Reply #24 on:** February 01, 2011, 09:38:19 pm »

First Off I love this feature!

My suggestions\questions:
In version 16\future versions making things simplistic for the "average Man\Market" JRiver is beyond tweakable for us experinced users. But for those coming from itunes\windows media player\xbmc etc.. some things should just be simple... example here we have artist images a great new feature. Alot of us users here have taken different routes in our artists\dvd image locations. Myself personally i use folder.jpg and all my dvd backgrounds\posters get stored within folder location as well. (there is no use for these backgrounds\posters yet. But Autometa plugin grabs them. so ive kept them. Hoping eventually they will be usable.

If we (or new user when they first setup jriver)goto our tools\options\file location\cover art we are all offered 3 options
in same folder as file as folder.jpg, in a specified folder, in the same folder as the file. Is it not possible to just make it work? (You have to forgive me sometimes i don't now how tough my suggestions may actually be to accomplish) meaning which ever choice a user chooses, EX. jriver will be able to associate folder.jpg as a cover art. backround.jpg as a DVD background, poster.jpg as a DVD poster. Artist.jpg or just any other .jpg file would be the artists images and when a user is in theaterview\or standard view and chooses to play\or show artists files\movie images it would just scan that file location for those filenames. (jriver will see those keywords and know. hey he's playing a video file, in the folder where those files are there is background.jpg folder.jpg and poster.jpg when song starts to play show folder.jpg in display view, after 20 seconds remove folder.jpg and start the search for background.jpg and poster.jpg and play those images. same for atists.jpg in our music file locations all folder.jpg users would have that folder.jpg show up as artists cover art, and all remain .jpg's would just be the artists images.

By doing so, i think this would just make jriver a more enjoyable platform for newbies, because its just a darn cool feature that would just work. and for us users who have been here for awhile we wouldnt have to redo all our files\folder structures, or go back through multiple HDD's to re add those images.

Thanks
I'm so Excited to see where Ver. 16 is going to bring us!

MrHaugen · « **Reply #25 on:** February 02, 2011, 05:04:18 am »

Very good points Xtacbyme! Simple and very useful. Just don't forget about those series and season images

HTPC4ME · « **Reply #26 on:** February 02, 2011, 08:32:27 am »

Quote

Just don't forget about those series and season images

Those Too

mark_h · « **Reply #27 on:** February 04, 2011, 01:42:28 am »

Quote from: Matt on January 21, 2011, 07:17:09 am

Media Center 16 adds the ability to get and display artist images.

Artist images are stored in an 'Artists' subfolder under the configured cover art folder.

The cover art folder can be configured in Options > File Locations.

My cover art is set to 'same folder as file' and yet my artist art is ending up in:

C:\Users\Mark Harding\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 16\Cover Art

wig · « **Reply #28 on:** February 04, 2011, 07:58:14 am »

I can't find any way to have artist images appear in 'Playing Now'. Am I correct in assuming that hasn't been implemented yet?

Do I have to click on each Artist I want to retrieve images for?

bwaldron · « **Reply #29 on:** February 04, 2011, 01:20:28 pm »

Quote from: sunfire7 on January 31, 2011, 01:51:11 am

BTW, if an Album Artist group (in the default Artist view) has different Artist (Same Album Artist, but Different Artist inside) it doesnt show the artist image, just the classic album thumbs, or is just me?

I'd also like to see the artist images when grouped by Album Artist (as my main audio view is).

Nice feature.

Tolga · « **Reply #30 on:** February 04, 2011, 08:01:36 pm »

I requested this feature a couple of months and I am very excited that it has been implemented.

I would love to have this feature customizeable for all fields. There are similar fields like orchestra, band, composer, and I love to use custom fields, often calculated ones. This feature could even make sense for abstract items genre, that don't have a real life genre, but we the user could choose custom picture to seperate ROCK from MUSICALS.

There are several possibilities for picture paths. One solution is that they are customized similar to thumbnail text, in a nearby menu.

MrHaugen · « **Reply #31 on:** February 05, 2011, 05:54:56 am »

Quote from: Tolga on February 04, 2011, 08:01:36 pm

There are several possibilities for picture paths. One solution is that they are customized similar to thumbnail text, in a nearby menu.

Are you thinking of the media context? If so, no. That can be changed, and then the files would not work. The easiest way I see it is to have a couple of options extra for each library field, where you can set Image properties associated with the field. As I mentioned earlier.

For example for Series/TV shows:
- A "Add image to library field" checkbox
- "Select Naming standard for this field" value = example: seriesart.jpg
- "Store image in a specific folder" checkbox
- Value changed depending on checkbox above = "Select folder" or if not stored in specific folder: "Select image file path" value = Examples: In series folder | In season folder | With each file

Four simple options, and you could add images to what ever you'd ever wanted. Couple this with a check in Theater View that shows this images, rather than thumbnails, if the view is right. That might also work with the Normal view. If it gets complicated, the you could simply add a List menu with Either "Show thumbnails" or Show "Custom images for associated field if available" to the View scheme options.

mark_h · « **Reply #32 on:** February 06, 2011, 08:44:01 am »

Just to echo some thoughts above.

Would love to be able to display the artist artwork in my TrackInfo view AS WELL AS the album cover.

(edit: Well I just implemented my own verision of this

How amazing is MC?! Set up a relational field call ArtistImage, tied to Artist, which is a calculated field that computes the file name within my filestore for any artist image. Then simply add the html code to my TrackInfo view to pull up the image, if available.)

Definitely need to be able to turn off the artist artwork or configure better when it's shown instead of album covers.

Would be good to be able to save artist artwork in the same way we can covers, eg from a link bar, browse google images and have the MC dialog screen with the option 'save image to artist'

Need to add artists to the JRiver server so we can 'Get From Internet' and choose the best image(s) to use.

Would be great to use multiple images and either randomly display one or slideshow them.

brossmac · « **Reply #33 on:** February 06, 2011, 11:44:35 am »

After I add images it doesn't add the command to the recent commands right-click pop-up menu.

sunfire7 · « **Reply #34 on:** February 06, 2011, 01:16:27 pm »

Quote from: brossmac on February 06, 2011, 11:44:35 am

After I add images it doesn't add the command to the recent commands right-click pop-up menu.

already reported since past version and still on .22 !

mark_h · « **Reply #35 on:** February 07, 2011, 05:05:12 am »

It's an interesting experience browsing a collection by artist image. It becomes very clear that I have a strong association with album cover work, so that I can quickly locate the album I want. This is association is broken when artist art is visible because I don't always recognise the people... Perhaps over time I will...

So while being able to collect artist images is a bonus I'm not convinced I'll use them for browsing...

dcwebman · « **Reply #36 on:** February 07, 2011, 07:13:35 am »

Quote from: mark_h on February 07, 2011, 05:05:12 am

It's an interesting experience browsing a collection by artist image. It becomes very clear that I have a strong association with album cover work, so that I can quickly locate the album I want. This is association is broken when artist art is visible because I don't always recognise the people... Perhaps over time I will...

So while being able to collect artist images is a bonus I'm not convinced I'll use them for browsing...

I thought the same thing. And with the thumbnails being small so I can see more on a page, in some artist photos, I could hardly tell there were people in there. I think the feature will become most useful during a slideshow while playing songs.

MrHaugen · « **Reply #37 on:** February 07, 2011, 08:06:31 am »

This is hopefully the beginning of something more. Much more. Artist might not be the best thing to browse by other things than cover art, but I'd sure like to have a view with this in theater view! It would be just so cool to learn the faces of the band members. And just think about other media files that can use this. TV Shows would be the best. Images for genre would also work well. Images for each Media Subtype. MmmmmmMmm. I'd give my pinkie finger for that!

struct · « **Reply #38 on:** February 15, 2011, 05:06:06 am »

Matt,

could you give any indication that you intend to extend the artist image idea forward to the tv series and tv season "need" that we have been waiting for? Or is it only going to be for artists and we should be trying to work around it as is (i.e. assign artists to tv series/seasons to trick MC). I should note that I am not expecting MC to get the image for me, just allow me to apply an image relationally (is that even a word?).

Thanks
Craig

Matt · « **Reply #39 on:** February 15, 2011, 10:02:27 am »

Quote from: struct on February 15, 2011, 05:06:06 am

Matt,

could you give any indication that you intend to extend the artist image idea forward to the tv series and tv season

Yes.

But first we need to work on performance and using artist images in places they're not being used like Theater View and Gizmo.

Alex B · « **Reply #40 on:** February 15, 2011, 12:02:30 pm »

I just did "Get Artist Images..." for 9649 artists (I selected all files in a "no duplicates: artist" smartlist).

It found 7074 artist images (1.09 GB in total).

In addition to my earlier notes and suggestions:

- It should be a background task. MC was reserved during the process (in this case during a very long time).

- It should resample and/or compress the downloaded images if they are too big. In the attached screenshot I have a library view of the largest image files (sorted by size).

Alex B · « **Reply #41 on:** February 15, 2011, 12:21:31 pm »

Perhaps it should also have a sanity check against low quality.

In the attached screenshot I have the smallest downloaded artist images.

syndromeofadown · « **Reply #42 on:** March 10, 2011, 01:37:37 pm »

This is a great feature. Thank you for implementing it.
The last.fm look up is a great way to get things started.
I used Google images to search for artists wallpapers and replaced many.
The wallpapers are nice because they are typically large images and have text overlayed on photos instead of just photos.

For the Artist "Does It Offend You, Yeah?" an image won't display because the image name cannot contain a question mark.
I don't care, I'm just putting out there. I can't think of any other artists with forbidden characters in their name, but I'm sure there are some.

In Options/File Location/Cover Art, it would be nice if there was one more option specific to artist image location.
I don't use a specific folder, I use folder.jpg.
So i had to change my cover art options to a specified folder then back to folder.jpg again once MC knew where my artist images were.
This works fine but could be a lot more straight forward.

Alex B · « **Reply #43 on:** March 10, 2011, 04:14:00 pm »

Since the web browser war is almost over perhaps the development of this is feature could be revisited...

Quote from: Alex B on January 31, 2011, 10:32:39 am

IMO, the most important points are:

- MC should allow to configure the location. If "in various places according to a rule" is too complex, at least the single location should be configurable. For instance, a shared folder on a server should be possible.

- MC should allow to override the default name & location rule for each individual file. Perhaps a library field that is similar to "Image File" would do the trick. It should allow to easily link any image file. This would make possible to link images like "young artist" and "old artist" when the collection contains releases from different time periods. It would also provide a workaround for identically named, but different artists. (some are listed here: http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Identically_Named_Artists_History )

- MC should show "fanned" artist thumbnails when more than one artist image is linked to the files.

Once these basic things work properly, the next step could be the new visualization feature.

- An "auto slideshow" feature with a few configuration options would be most welcomed.

Alex B · « **Reply #44 on:** March 10, 2011, 04:22:42 pm »

Quote from: syndromeofadown on March 10, 2011, 01:37:37 pm

For the Artist "Does It Offend You, Yeah?" an image won't display because the image name cannot contain a question mark. I don't care, I'm just putting out there. I can't think of any other artists with forbidden characters in their name, but I'm sure there are some.

Usually MC replaces illegal characters with underscores and detects/uses such filenames correctly. If that does not work with Artist images perhaps the function could be added.

Daydream · « **Reply #45 on:** March 10, 2011, 07:50:55 pm »

Echoing some of the posts above:
- images retrieved online are of any possible aspect ratio (landscape, portrait, whatnot) creating a view that's anything but uniform as opposed to album view (all square). The brain cannot store associations with these patterns.
- I would also say this Artist view looks too much like watching one of my pictures folders (various pic AR, same frame style, etc). Make them all with rounded transparent corners (no! 'cause it's too much like...; something original then, rounded hexagons; there) and then it may get some recognition "ah, this is the artist view".
- Linked to the above, there's a certain company around (that I dislike generally) that has the aspect of "look and feel" paramount to its business. One doesn't have to recognize what something is 'cause it's instantaneously evident. Might be worth considering that idea for a second. In general.
- there is no guarantee that what I retrieve online today is gonna be the same with what I'm going to retrieve tomorrow, making it even less likely to become familiar with this view. That leaves me with the option to make the "artist art" myself, to get some consistency. That will probably bring the numbers up to exactly 5 people in the entire world that would proceed to make their own art for hundreds and thousands of artists.
- the absolute good thing about the technicality of this feature is that it may apply really well to other things (props to MrHaugen for tirelessly repeating for more than 2 years "TV shows")

pcstockton · « **Reply #46 on:** March 10, 2011, 08:28:40 pm »

Quote from: Daydream on March 10, 2011, 07:50:55 pm

That leaves me with the option to make the "artist art" myself, to get some consistency. That will probably bring the numbers up to exactly 5 people in the entire world that would proceed to make their own art for hundreds and thousands of artists.

It couldn't be easier. Download "Album Art Downloader" at Hydrogen audio.
When you specify what to name the files use "artist" (rather than "folder") and only search "lastFM Artists". You can add Google to the search as well but it will return a few album covers. It will populate every album folder with an "artist.jpg".

It is easily automated. You can specify a size range.
If done manually, you can cherry pick different (era relevant) pictures for each album.

I did a few hundred artists that I hold dear manually. Then I auto-downloaded the rest of my library. Took a day.

-patrick

Daydream · « **Reply #47 on:** March 10, 2011, 10:41:52 pm »

Quote from: pcstockton on March 10, 2011, 08:28:40 pm

It couldn't be easier. Download "Album Art Downloader" at Hydrogen audio.

I'm speculating, but unless you mean to search and pick for every artist, there is a need for some 50 chars. long parameters for MP3tag and foobar in order to automate the use of AAD.
At any rate, you're describing another (good) way to retrieve artist pics. But can you show me that they didn't come out with 300 different aspect ratios like the current situation? (see the attachments by Alex B above). Because in my opinion, that is not right.

pcstockton · « **Reply #48 on:** March 11, 2011, 11:16:56 am »

I use Album Art Downloader solo, outside of any other program. I don't use it from within Foobar or anything.

I simply changed the file name to be saved to "artist", unticked everything but Google and LastFM ARTIST for the search engines. Then imported all of the albums I really wanted to pick unique artist picture. Then I simply automated everything else. Very easy.

Regarding photo size, you can easily set whatever parameters you want. For example mine is set to 500px Minimum and 1500px maximum.

Regarding aspect ratio, I don't think you can set that. You would need to manually select each one to get a ratio you like.

But, I personally like having different ratios and I like the looks above. It differentiates it from a "cover view". Also, the captions under the photos are all aligned so it gives that view consistency.

Lastly I like landscape type pictures for artist pic. It looks good in the background of my Foobar playlist.

-Patrick

csimon · « **Reply #49 on:** March 11, 2011, 03:12:19 pm »

I'd just like to add something...

This is a fantastic feature!

I'm just worried about the implementation of it. Perhaps Artist is actually a special case - as people have mentioned, you might want different artist pictures for different eras. It also depends upon MC being "intelligent" as to what folder is actually Artist level. For example, I have a Sort Artist field. Would MC know to present an artist image when at Sort Artist level, especially if there isn't a field called Sort Artist and the view step is defined as an Expression that uses another field? And what about Composers?

Ignoring Artists for the moment, let's consider artwork generally for any folder level. Such as the clapperboard icon in the DLNA server for the Video level folder.

When you define a View, you define Menu Items, and each Menu Item consists of a sequence of Categories.

For starters, I'd like to see an attribute on the Menu Item where you can define your own icon. Menu Items might be Audio, Video, Images, but there might be sub-items such as Music Videos, Movies, Camcorder Videos for example under the Videos menu entry. It would therefore be nice to be able to specify your own icon for each of these.

Then we come to Categories. These define how your library is to be grouped, sorted and presented to you. Artist is only one of a myriad of fields that you can use to group by. You might like to have a custom icon for each Genre for example. You might have categories of your media items such as Album, 7" Single, 12" Single, Compilation Album, Soundtracks - where it would be nice to depict each folder by a custom icon. TV Series have also been mentioned. So I'd like to see an attribute on each Category where you specify how the image representing that folder-level is to be generated.

It would take the form of a pathname, where you can use the value of a field in order to parameterise the image, e.g. C:\mediafiles\myicons\genres\<%itemvalue%>.jpg, if you have a directory of your genre images, the currently selected genre would be passed as the <%itemvalue%> parameter, e.g. C:\mediafiles\myicons\A-Z\rock.jpg. Perhaps one of your Categories is an A-Z index, you could actually define icons at theis level with large capital letters! e.g. C:\mediafiles\myicons\A-Z\<%itemvalue%>.jpg, where again your <%itemvalue%> placeholder is replaced by the actual value of the folder-level. So if MC is displaying a folder for the F index, this pathname would resolve to C:\mediafiles\myicons\A-Z\f.jpg

If no pathname is specified, or if no file can be found with that name, then MC would fall back to its default algorithm of looking up Artist artwork if it's at artist level, and finally as a last step generating the image from the artwork associated with the first media file found underneath that folder (which equiates to Album level).

Does that make sense?

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Author Topic: NEW FEATURE: Artist images (Read 20201 times)