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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 28 for Windows => Topic started by: A.K. on August 08, 2021, 10:43:50 am

Title: Stack cd box sets in to one?
Post by: A.K. on August 08, 2021, 10:43:50 am
Is it possible to “stack” box sets under one album cover so that each individual album retains its own unique name?
This would reduce clutter in the album cover view.
For example this 5 disc cd box each disc has it's own individual name but belongs in to one larger cd box set:
"Pathways of Baroque Music, Disc 1: The Emergence of Instrumental Music"
"Pathways of Baroque Music, Disc 2: Chamber Music"
etc.
 
Title: Re: Stack cd box sets in to one?
Post by: EnglishTiger on August 08, 2021, 11:01:31 am
One way off getting only 1 Cover Art Image/Box Set would be to add a new field/tag called "Disc Title"

Then for your Pathways of Baroque Music" boxset :-
The "Album" would be "Pathways of Baroque Music"
The Disc # would be the sequence number of the individual disc
The "Disk Title" would be the name assigned to the individual disc i.e. "The Emergence of Instrumental Music" for CD1
Title: Re: Stack cd box sets in to one?
Post by: MikeO on August 15, 2021, 08:53:02 am
I defined 3 Custom tags

Box Set (name)
Disc (name)
Disc Volume ( things like the Beethoven edition where there are smaller Box volumes)

Then create a view where box set is not Empty,

To achieve what you want on this setup would be as English Tiger says , individual Album name becomes Disc Name then rename the Album to the box set name. So that would appear as one (big) album.

Take for example the Brendel Philips box , this works well. If you make the Box Set tag multi value, you can split a big box into smaller boxes while keeping the big box as well, eg split off the Haydn sonatas 4 cd box etc

I keep the artwork specific to the Album/Disc where it’s appropriate

One thing that’s missing in MC is the ability to apply an overall box set folder and Maintain the individual artwork. In this example you will get a “fan” of the artwork . It’s a feature request that would require a box set to be a distinct object ?

If you want some clarification then PM me , happy to share images
Title: Re: Stack cd box sets in to one?
Post by: A.K. on August 21, 2021, 11:22:08 am
Thanks EnglishTiger and MikeO. I tried creating custom tag fields but ended up restoring library backup, I somehow messed up default tag fields  ;D

It would be nice if you can give some screenshots or step by step instructions :)

I agree, some kind of "Box set" tag field would be nice out-of-the-box feature. Just set the base box set name and individual names & artwork for each discs.
Title: Re: Stack cd box sets in to one?
Post by: David Sydney on August 21, 2021, 06:54:31 pm
I have also created a custom field previously called "Disc Name" some time ago. Seems to be a trend - maybe it should be added as a standard field?
Title: Re: Stack cd box sets in to one?
Post by: ferday on August 22, 2021, 06:17:43 pm
One thing that’s missing in MC is the ability to apply an overall box set folder and Maintain the individual artwork. In this example you will get a “fan” of the artwork . It’s a feature request that would require a box set to be a distinct object ?

it works fine if you use [series] instead of a custom tag, and put the artwork in the Series folder in your AppData volume

personally i normally put the "disc name" as the album title, and have a box-set view that looks for series.  this way in an album view the box set explodes into individual discs (with individual art) which i prefer but in a box set view it's a single package with one art
Title: Re: Stack cd box sets in to one?
Post by: MikeO on August 23, 2021, 10:13:12 am
That's a great idea , I just tried it on a box.

Typically nit picking (absolute nit picking at that) , I see 2 issues comapred with my Custom tag approach

1. The Cover art is expecting video and shapes the art to a DVD Cover appropriately ,just looks odd, not wrong just odd.

2. The Series Tag is a Single value. I have my custom tag set up as a delimited list. If you take my Alfred Brendel Box as an example , the "Box" contains several "sub-boxes", using a delimited list you can show all the Sub Boxes as if they were individual boxes . The only oddity is in Disc# numbering.

I wonder if Matt can work his normal magic and create a Box Set tag that behaves like the series Tag but fixes these 2 issues . That would be almost perfect (well almost)
Title: Re: Stack cd box sets in to one?
Post by: EnglishTiger on August 24, 2021, 06:50:17 am
That's a great idea , I just tried it on a box.

Typically nit picking (absolute nit picking at that) , I see 2 issues comapred with my Custom tag approach

1. The Cover art is expecting video and shapes the art to a DVD Cover appropriately ,just looks odd, not wrong just odd.

2. The Series Tag is a Single value. I have my custom tag set up as a delimited list. If you take my Alfred Brendel Box as an example , the "Box" contains several "sub-boxes", using a delimited list you can show all the Sub Boxes as if they were individual boxes . The only oddity is in Disc# numbering.

I wonder if Matt can work his normal magic and create a Box Set tag that behaves like the series Tag but fixes these 2 issues . That would be almost perfect (well almost)

Mike - is MC reshaping the CoverArt or is it a track info plugin that is changing the shape? MC is reasonably good at respecting the aspect ratio of CoverArt images whilst most trackinfo plugins do not and will try to convert Landscape and Portrait images into Square Ones.

One of the shortfalls of "repurposing existing MC supplied tags/fields" is that you automatically become subject to the type specified for that tag/field, something MC are very loathe to change for very valid reasons.
Title: Re: Stack cd box sets in to one?
Post by: MikeO on August 24, 2021, 08:21:24 am
Hi

The artwork aspect ratio is obviously something to do with "Series" as a "keyword", I made the first Tag an expression = [Series] and named it Box Set (so it looked right) and the collation and Series artwork went wrong i.e. back to an Fan of the individual artworks, when I change it back to "Series" it returned to a single DVD shape cover.

I am not aware of any plug ins, certainly not of my doing . That said I can live with DVD shaped covers , but square would be nicer -- alas.

Sounds like a bit of Copy & Paste to make it square (Pretty please Matt). Its been one of my pet "thoughts" for years , I have literally 100's of box sets and nothing handles them properly as a first class Entity , I can only hope.