INTERACT FORUM
Windows => Third Party Plug-ins, Programs, and Skins => Topic started by: RhinoBanga on September 23, 2002, 09:46:23 am
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Due to popular demand AV is back.
It can be downloaded here:
http://www.zippy.eclipse.co.uk/av/av2.exe
And it's only 560k.
For those of you who don't know what it is it provides an "album-centric" view of your tracks where you can:
- View albums by artist
- View thumbnails of the album covers for a particular artist.
- Double-clicking on an album will play the album from the beginning.
- View the tracks for a particular album, and double-clicking on a track
will load the album onto the playlist but start from the selected track.
- View a complete breakdown of the tracks for all your artists complete
with the track's associated image, lyrics, notes, etc.
- Determine which artists/albums do not have album covers.
- A "favourites collection" view that just shows the albums marked as favourites
- A "new collection" view that just shows the albums marked as new
- An "entire colection" view that just shows album artwork
- An export facility
- Define external directory searching for artwork (very fast)
- Define custom thumbnail captions
- Quickly search for an album via the artist name, album name or genre
Other features:
- Multimedia keys support (Windows 2000/XP only)
- Customizable hotkeys to get the currently playing track to the clipboard
- Move "The" tot he end of an artist name
- Allow the override of artist name, e.g. set "Mike Oldfield" to "Oldfield, Mike"
- MJ Skinning support
- Background image loading for efficiency
- A user definable image size of artwork
- Fully customizable balloon tips showing artwork, album and track information
- Fully customizable tile view
Due to the work I've put into AV I am now making it shareware. The beta is time limited and will expire on the 6th October 2002 ... no other feature is disabled.
The full version will cost $10 and I'll (hopefully) get the details of how to pay sorted out by the next beta.
Here are some screenshots of 2.0:
Overview Screen
(http://www.zippy.eclipse.co.uk/av/Screen Overview.jpg)
Album Details
(http://www.zippy.eclipse.co.uk/av/Screen AlbumDetails.jpg)
Tile View Configuration
(http://www.zippy.eclipse.co.uk/av/Screen Options - TileView.jpg)
Balloons Configuration
(http://www.zippy.eclipse.co.uk/av/Screen Options - Balloons.jpg)
Hotkeys Configuration
(http://www.zippy.eclipse.co.uk/av/Screen Options - Hotkeys.jpg)
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Forgive me if I am wrong, but, I think that you might be a Mike Oldfield Fan. ??? ;D
Great work on the Plugin Rhino.
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LOL ... whatever gave you that impression? ;D ;D ;D
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Looks great Rhino...
I have to admit being a bit let down when you said you can'ed development... Even if v9 does all this and more... I like AV with 8 right now :) !!!
Downloading now...
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Nice :D and nice size to
~mouse
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Yeap ! Welcome back AV2.
"Nice :D and nice size to "
And certainly worth the 10$ !!
Yves.
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Will you be doing it for v9 also?
I installed it not thinking (as usual) and now v9 won't load. Says:
Assertion Failed!
this->GetSafeHwnd()
Program: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Media Jukebox.exe
File: C:\Development\C\AlbumView2\PaneMain.cpp
Line: 66
Then I get:
m_ptbrMain->GetSafeHwnd()
Program: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Media Jukebox.exe
File: C:\Development\C\AlbumView2\PaneMain.cpp
Line: 113
Then this:
m_ptbrMain->GetSafeHwnd()
Program: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Media Jukebox.exe
File: C:\Development\C\AlbumView2\PaneMain.cpp
Line: 191
then crash.
I don't have a c:\development directory, installed in the default one.
I would think v8 plugins would work for v9. This must be a MJ bug if v8 works. If for some reason they don't, will you be making an album view that uses v9 new features?
I think you should. I'll definately buy this if it will work in v9.
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I don't have v9 installed but it doesn't surprise me one bit that it doesn't work under V9.
V9 is new and constantly changing and I'm sure plugin support is the last thing on J River's minds.
As far as a V9 port is concerned well I'll wait till the database has been finalised and Matt/Nikolay release some documentation for developers on the differences (if any).
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Hi Rhino,
PLEASE consider making this available for V9. If you read the feature set, it sounds like most of the features of AV2 are going to be included in v9, but at this point of the game AV2 is MUCH MUCH more eloquent, user friendly and visually friendly than the current build of MJ9. To be fair, it's still in alpha, but you seem to have solved a lot of interface issues that they are still struggling with.
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I'll have a look at V9 tomorrow.
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Rhino,
You might want to wait on V9. The interface isn't ready.
Congratulations and thanks!
Jim
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Okay I Need Help..Plugin Looks Great..But Does It Work When Connected Thru Media Server?...I Cant Get Anything To Display Even Tho It Says Everything Is Loaded..What Am I Doing Wrong As Usual
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But Does It Work When Connected Thru Media Server?...
Have a look at this thread, could answer your question
http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1032752557
Yves.
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Perhaps this is a stupid question, but I installed the plugin and created a database. However, when go to the plugin, it only shows an Activity Log... and I don't see any artwork anywhere. What am I doing wrong?
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::) I have the same problem as Rockstar outlined just above. I'm missing some vital step and need some help.
Thanks if you have any suggestions.
Holden.
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On the top right of the screen there is a "Go To" dropdown.
Click that.
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Now that you point that out, I see it in the pic in your post... however, it's not there in my MJ. All I have is the icon size pulldown.
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Never mind... got it. Thanks!
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Yo dude, It's looking V. NICE!!
Love the overview you threw in there.
Glad you finished it off. It's totally worth it.
Only other thing I gotta suggest:
A list box for: Sort By
I'd like the options:
- Album Name
- Artist Name / Album Name
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Hi Nila,
Sorting of the Album Details screen is controlled by clicking on a column heading in report view. This affects the icon and tile views also.
I will put in right-mouse support in both the Album Details and Overview screen to select the sort order but I'm not too sure how to implement dual column sorting. I'll have a think.
By the way ... you checked out the credits screen in the about dialog ;D ;D ;D
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Hi Rhino
I don't know if this is a bug, or a problem with my setup.
If I choose an Album, then select Album Tracks in the middle lower window. Then double click on a song from that list to play, all of the Album view disappears as the song starts playing. I can get it all back immediately by clicking anywhere in the Left hand panes( Media Library window. Do you think this a problem with my computer? I can't remember it happening before with Album view, previous to this release.
Cheers
John C
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I'll take a wild stab in the dark and say that you have MJ skinning enabled.
Try it without MJ skinning enabled ... if it works fine then its a bug with MJ.
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Hey Rhino. You are spot on with the diagnosis. I turned off skinning and it works fine. Sorry.
John C
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what about internal covers???
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Internal images are supported.
If AV cannot find any external artwork it looks for artwork in the first track only and uses that if it exists.
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Scrolling.....
Is there any way that you could make the album cover scroll bar scroll vertically? Horizontal scrolling is very "unnatural". Maybe a preference?
BTW: Are you working on the skinning compatibility problem?
Thanks!
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Wooooooooooooow !!!
Looks and works great!!
Some time ago, I posted an article called "My perfect media player". Now, I realize I was thinking in MJ8 with AV2...
Thanks!
Just one little sugestion, you could include "<AlbumPath>\folder.jpg" as a second default folder to look for covert arts.
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Rhino,
Congrats on Version 2. I am sorry to say that it is not working for me.
I have created a data base.....however all I can see is the default image !! The artwork is in the corect file....however I can not see any of the cover art!
What am I doing wrong.
-Pilzner
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Congrats on Version 2. I am sorry to say that it is not working for me.
I have created a data base.....however all I can see is the default image !! The artwork is in the corect file....however I can not see any of the cover art!
What am I doing wrong.
The same thing happened to me. AV2 does not read the image tag MJ uses, it looks for the image in a directory you specify while creating the databse.
In my case, I added this directory to the list:
"<AlbumPath>\folder.jpg"
Then, it worked very very very well.
Hope, it helps.
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Quisp
Is there any way that you could make the album cover scroll bar scroll vertically? Horizontal scrolling is very "unnatural". Maybe a preference?
I'll look into it.
BTW: Are you working on the skinning compatibility problem?
It's an MJ issue and not AV2 ... all I do when skinning is enabled is set the colours/fonts to match.
There was a posting in the developers forum about this but no-one from J River has responded. I'll put another post in but the more people who do it the better the chance of a response.
Polonio
The same thing happened to me. AV2 does not read the image tag MJ uses, it looks for the image in a directory you specify while creating the databse.
Not quite right ... AV looks for artwork using these directories and when it cannot find artwork for an album it looks for an image contained within the albums first track.
Just one little sugestion, you could include "<AlbumPath>\folder.jpg" as a second default folder to look for covert arts.
I'll do that along with <AlbumPath>\*front*.jpg which should cater for a lot of people.
But since you've already installed it has "logged" your settings so when I release the next version you should uninstall and it will use the new settings.
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Hey Rhino,
Just checked the credits.
Thanks :)
Love what you did with the credits although I do have to admit, I liked the whole Matrix style credit you had in there before. It was trippy :)
One other idea Rhino,
Should have thought of this one a LONG time ago.
It'll be esp. useful with v9 when 'imported date' is added to song fields. It's a shame they're all going to start when v9 is released as it means that all albums up to this point will be considered new.
Anyway, As well as Entire Library, Completed only, favourites etc,
How about one called: Singles that basically just showed everything that wasn't an album.
That way my whole library would be returned to it's 'Real' State whereby everything's either a new album I've got or it's some new song that's just come out that I really like (a single). Mixed with import date it'll be a perfect way to keep track of new songs as I get them and hear about them.
It should be pretty easy to implement I'd imagine and would give full access to 'all' songs from within MJ.
Also, could there be an option to automatically go to your 'playing now' list when an album is clicked.
Oh yeah, last point :) - I swear (for now anyway)
could we right click on the items in the tree to rate them etc instead of having to go to the details pane.
Thanks - LOVING the plugin :)
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Quisp
Is there any way that you could make the album cover scroll bar scroll vertically? Horizontal scrolling is very "unnatural". Maybe a preference?
Done ... it will be in the next version.
Nila
Just checked the credits.
Thought you'd like it :D
How about one called: Singles
Doesn't really make sense ... how could you really tell if it was a single and not an album with one track? For example Mike Oldfield's Amarok is one track that lasts 60 minutes.
Also, could there be an option to automatically go to your 'playing now' list when an album is clicked.
Do you mean clicked or double clicked when you play it?
could we right click on the items in the tree to rate them etc instead of having to go to the details pane.
It's on the todo list ... I'll try and get it done this lunchtime.
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Rhino
Not quite right ... AV looks for artwork using these directories and when it cannot find artwork for an album it looks for an image contained within the albums first track.
Why don't you also look at the cover art location filed included in the database? It could be pointing someplace different that the default one. Different files can even point to different folders.
In my case, all songs have the cover in the "<AlbumPath>/folder.jpg", and MJ shows me always the artwork. That was why I was surprised when AV2 didn't automatically detected the cover art location...
Anyway, it is a minor issue. It works great to me.
POLONIO
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Why don't you also look at the cover art location filed included in the database? It could be pointing someplace different that the default one. Different files can even point to different folders.
It does ... the default setting is:
<MJArtworkDir>\<Artist> - <Album>.jpg
Where <MJArtworkDir> is the MJ artwork directory ... and this value is picked up from the registry.
When you ran the wizard it will have told you what it would look at in the sample box ... what did this show?
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Quisp
Done ... it will be in the next version.
Thanks, Rhino!
While you are getting things done...;)...
I'm not sure how integrated plug-ins can be with MJ and it may already be a feature that I've missed, but is there a way to get to an album or file's properties from within AV2?
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You can see most of the information in the panes ... but as far as popping up the MJ properties dialog ... J River provide no facility to do this.
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Rhino - about the singles,
it'd be really simple really,
Anything that wasn't being shown right now in your plugin as an album would be a single. I didn't mean to try and work out what was a single and what wasn't, just basically anything that's not classed as an album = a single.
This basically: single = SELECT * FROM theWholeMjMusicLibrary NOT in TheAlbumViewMusicLibrary
anything that matches that is a single :)
It's just mock SQL code to show what I mean :)
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That's the issue ... everything *is* in an album of some sorts, i.e. if it has an album name then it's classed as an album. If the album name field is blank then it's placed in the "(Unassigned)" album list.
Also I could not assume that anything that was in the MJ database and not in the AV database was a single as you can subset the AV database (see step 2 of the db creation wizard).
What album name do you give your singles?
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Rhino
It does ... the default setting is:
<MJArtworkDir>\<Artist> - <Album>.jpg
Where <MJArtworkDir> is the MJ artwork directory ... and this value is picked up from the registry.
I mean the image file location contained inside each song. It has not to necesary match the MJ artwork directory.
Here is some code using the MJ COM object...
s = MJFile.GetImageFile(IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE)
This code will return the path of the image. In my case the image files are called "folder.jpg" and are located in each album folder. That information is contained inside each individual files
When you ran the wizard it will have told you what it would look at in the sample box ... what did this show?
It says: "C:\Archivos de programa\J River\Media Jukebox\Data\Cover Art\Mike Oldfiel - Ommadown.jpg"
But, as I said, that information is also located in the "Ommadown.mp3" file. And, eventually, it can point to a different folder.
I must insist. In my case, I have not trouble, it is working fine to me. But I think if you look for the image using
s = MJFile.GetImageFile(IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE)
It will always work to everyone who has his files correctly tagged. If it works under MJ, AV2 will always show the image artwork correctly.
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Here's what I said earlier ...
Not quite right ... AV looks for artwork using these directories and when it cannot find artwork for an album it looks for an image contained within the albums first track.
And here's the code it uses when that situation occurs ...
// Try checking the image
AlbumView::MYW2A( pAlbum->m_strThumbnailFilename,
pTrack->m_pMJFile->GetImageFile( IMAGEFILE_IN_FILE ) );
I don't use IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE as I need to know if the track actually does have artwork ... which *_IN_DATABASE can't tell you.
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I don't use IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE as I need to know if the track actually does have artwork ...
I do not want to be annoying. So here is my point, and whatever you will decide is great to me.
AV could look for artwork in three different ways. If first way fails, it could look second way. If this also fails, AV could try last way. If it also fails, the album do not have artwork.
Here are the three ways I can think to:
1. Look for artwork using those directories
2. Look for an image contained within the albums first track.
3. Look for the imagefile in database for the albums first track.
If GetImageFile(IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE)
still return cero length string (or null, or whatever), then that album do not have artwork.
The point about this idea is that if MJ displays an artwork for an album, AV2 will also display it does not matter what.
Thanks for your attention.
POLONIO
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I call most my singles: Random Songs :)
For the DB Creation wizard though I set a min of 5 songs to make it an album, therefore there would be quite a few songs that have album names but aren't shown in AV.
But having something that gives a list of all these songs that are subset would be useful.
It would mean that we could use the wizard to make an ablum collection, but then still have access to all our other songs from within av that we didn't want classed as albums :)
Also, now that the db for v9 is finalised, you think your gonna make it v9 compatible? :)
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Polonio,
Just for you I've put in IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE support ... but note that the album's image filename is stored in the AV2 database so if you go and change the location of the image after building your AV database it won't pick up the changes.
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I call most my singles: Also, now that the db for v9 is finalised, you think your gonna make it v9 compatible? :)
Depends on how much of AV like functionality J River implement.
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Just for you I've put in IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE support ... but note that the album's image filename is stored in the AV2 database so if you go and change the location of the image after building your AV database it won't pick up the changes.
Wow, thanks a lot. I think this way everyone will see the cover art without any manual input intervention.
About the sincronization problem, I guess same thing will happen if someone renames an album or an artist. It seems periodic rescaning is needed.
Congratulation for your product. It is great.
POLONIO
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Rhino,
I can't thank you enough for AV! It rocks!
A question though: I went through it and noticed that the album "Northern Star" by Mel C was actually set as Various Artists/Northern Star. When I looked into it I saw that AV2 put together two albums, first the one with Mel C and Groove Armada's album "Northern Star". Is there any way to avoid such misunderstanding? Both albums are in different folders named "Melanie C - Northern Star" and "Groove Armada - Northern Star (1998)"
Suggestions?
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An album gets put under various artists if the artist name tag in the tracks are different.
Check that. If that's not the issue then zip up and email me your Mediafiles.JMD file (from the Data folder in your MJ installation folder). The addy is jamie@jdnet.co.uk
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The tags are different of course. I wouldn't for the world mix up Mel C with Groove Armada ;)
Here's an example (taken from my head, I don't remember the titles correctly):
Artist: Melanie C
Album: Northern Star
Track#: 04
Title: Come on
...and on the other side...
Artist: Groove Armada
Album: Northern Star
Track#: 04
Title: Next to Willies
So, the songs up to 11 or 12 even have the same track#! Then AV shouldn't be confused to put it in the same album, would it? And, to make another difference between the two albums, they have different cover art...
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Looks like I missed a chunk of code when I moved the code from VB to C++ :o
Duplicate album processing will be in the next release.
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Thanks a bunch Rhino!
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Biggest thanks is for changing from vb to C - YES!!! :)
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Hay Rhino...
This thread is taking forever to load. Maybe it's time for a new thread? ?
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I'll start a new thread when the next version is released ... but it loads instantly here ... but then I always go to the last page.
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Hi Rhino - I have set up a new database but when it tries to load images it hangs at 55 % and then crashes MJ. This happens every time. Any ideas?? I have tried making a new database but with the same result..
Adam
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AV is crashing on load. It gets to 2% and then MJ crashes.
I went back to v8. I have my files in UNC format. Would that make a difference? I suppose some files were tagged with v9 also.
Media Jukebox PLUS 8.0.379
Install Path: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\
CPU: AMD Athlon 805 MHz MMX
Memory: Total - 196 MB, Free - 82 MB
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106
ComCtl32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer
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Adam
Hi Rhino - I have set up a new database but when it tries to load images it hangs at 55 % and then crashes MJ. This happens every time. Any ideas?? I have tried making a new database but with the same result..
Are you using v9? If so then try v8.
You can switch off background image loading by running regedit and navigating to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\James Dickson\Album View\2.0\Artwork
And set BackgroundLoading to 00 00 00 00.
Then when you browse you will get a rough idea as to what image is causing the issue and then you could email them to me (assuming they are external images of course).
dragyn
I have UNC files all over the place so it's not that. I am wondering if it's the same issue as Adam above. Are you using internal images at all or are they all external? Also at what stage was the 2% ... background image loading? If so then can you try the same as above.
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Hi Rhino,
Thanks for the reply. I am using version 8... I will try what you said next time I am at home. I only use internal images i.e. in the tags although there are external images in each of the folders for the benefit of XP. I will see if turning that off makes any difference. It doesn't crash the plug in as when the error message comes up I can still click in the plugin it actually crashes MJ itself so as soon as I click okay it shuts down the whole program. The fact that it is at 55% each time I am guessing it is one particular file although it may be difficult to find which one it is,
Cheers for the reply,
Adam
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It's easy enough to narrow it down ... use the search facility in the wizard to limit your database, e.g:
artist=["d
To only process all the artists who's name begins with d.
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I did the regedit setting and it does finish this time but when going to overview, it shows 3 albums and then crashes.
I do have internal and external images.
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dragyn,
Albums should have been shown in alphabetical order so can you guess as to what the 4th album was?
If so can you try limiting the database to:
album=[<albumname>]
Where <albumname> is the name of the album you suspect it is.
This should hopefully just create a DB with that one album that crashing AV.
When you confirm the album that is causing the issue can you check to see if it is using internal or external images.
If it is external images can you email me the pic please.
If it's internal can you try removing the image to see if that works ok.
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Hi Rhino,
It was a file that had an internal image. When looking at it through MJ, it said inside file but the image was blank. Removed the image and now everything is fine.
This also happens to be a file that, when I was using an older version of AV, the extraction wizard for internal images extracted this image but the image was also blank and would not view.
Could have just been a corrupted file.
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Could have just been a corrupted file.
That's the sort of thing I like to hear ... not an AV issue :D
But good thing you posted as you've reminded me to put the extraction wizard back into AV :o
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Turns out mine was a corrupted file too!! Thanks for the advice. I used the search criteris to narrow down the artist that was casuing problems and then it was just a case of finding which album...
Thanks for all your help
Adam
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Hey Rhino,
I'm just going through all my albums right now, getting covers for them all.
It's a long painful task.
As I was doing it though I've noticed that some of my albums are formatted perfectly:
- nice consistent naming format (artist - album - # - title)
- all with a .m3u playlist file for the album inside the folder
- all with a .sfv file inside the folder too so I could check the album for consistency at any point.
- all consistent quality (bitrate)
Others though were a mess, some of them had mixed naming formats (probably a result of accidentally hitting a button in MJ when I was learning how to use it), different bitrates, no .sfv or .m3u files :(
I was wondering, we talked about it before, putting a report back into AV. As well as the report saying which albums had unmatched bitrates, would it be possible to extend it to check the naming scheme of the album and also if there was a .m3u playlist in that folder (that is presuming people keep their albums in their own folders which I'd imagine most do).
And then have an option for it to rename all the albums found to a specified naming format and create a .m3u playlist.
I'd say a .sfv file too but that might be a lot more work if you dont already know how to create crc checksums. If you do though then possibly a .sfv file too :)
I was thinking about it a bit and realised that your plugin was def. the best place for such a feature as it needs to look at the mp3's as albums in order to do this and so your plugin already does the main part of the job.
What'd you think? any chance? :)
Also, a report for albums with missing covers to make it easy to work out which albums had covers missing. Along with a right click option 'update cover' which then basically ran the cover finding code again but just for that specific album. Would make it easy to add a cover to one album when u got a cover for it rather than having to run the whole wizard again.
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I was wondering, we talked about it before, putting a report back into AV. As well as the report saying which albums had unmatched bitrates
You already have the bitrate match column.
would it be possible to extend it to check the naming scheme of the album
Interesting ... I'll put it on the todo list and look at it after I release this version
and also if there was a .m3u playlist in that folder (that is presuming people keep their albums in their own folders which I'd imagine most do).
Easy to do ... I'll put that in as an option.
And then have an option for it to rename all the albums found to a specified naming format and create a .m3u playlist.
Ooooo ... big changes :D I'll put it on the todo list and consider it later.
I'd say a .sfv file too but that might be a lot more work if you dont already know how to create crc checksums. If you do though then possibly a .sfv file too :)
SFV files are easy ... I wrote a SFV file checker using memory mapped files ages ago as I wasn't happy with the solutions out there.
What'd you think? any chance? :)
Well I've put them on the todo list :D
Also, a report for albums with missing covers to make it easy to work out which albums had covers missing.
You already have that ... click on the "Thumbnail" column and all the entries with blank don't have artwork.
Along with a right click option 'update cover' which then basically ran the cover finding code again but just for that specific album. Would make it easy to add a cover to one album when u got a cover for it rather than having to run the whole wizard again.
That's defo on the todo list ... which is getting bigger by the minute :D :D :D
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Good good :)
Keep you busy.
I'd hate to see that to do list getting too small. You'd have too much free time on your hands and an idea mind is the devils playground as they say :)
But it'd make your plugin really powerful and give it some really nice options. It'd make it the perfect tool after ripping an album just to sort the album nicely.
I was also wondering, some of the info on AV2 is stored in your own db. What happens with rating etc when we do a fresh db scan from start so that AV can update to new albums we've added to MJ. Does it loose the old settings or what?
A very useful button might just be: Update DB.
Basically just rescan MJ and look for new albums without changing any of the settings or albums already added.
It could also report on ones that were now missing from MJ etc. :)
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LOL ... when was the last time you did a scan?
If you checked you would have seen a disabled button on page two. The caption reads:
"Should Album View preserve your current album settings, e.g. Rank?"
Again it's on the todo list :D :D :D
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That option is greyed out for me :(
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That option is greyed out for me :(
And that's why I originally described it as disabled :D
I've already thought about that facility and that's where it will be activated.
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Hi Rhino
I have been updating my albums with cover art, these I save in the tags. How do I refresh Album view to show these new covers??
Thanks
John C ?
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Just re-create the database for now.
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Thanks. That worked fine.
When you say 'for now', do you intend adding a button to refresh database??
John C
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For artwork I am considering adding the ability to refresh, i.e. follow thru the rules in step 5 of the wizard.
Another option I have is run-time resolution, i.e. if an album doesn't have artwork found at DB creation time then try and find it when you view it within AV. This has some advantages but the biggest drawback is speed ... and that's the whole reason for V2 of AV so I don't really want to compromise that aspect.
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Hi Rhino
Thanks for mailing me that copy of AV. It is terrific. I have no complaints, it works brilliantly. Been a madhouse here this last week, so long to get back to you. However, if you are considering further options, here are a few to kick around:
1. On double click on album, go to Playing Now
2. Random Album select and play
3. Hotkey for ballon on selected album in Overview
4. Push JRiver for a Toolbar Button
5. Default image = genre.jpg or default.jpg
I really do love this plugin!
Ilmar
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Hi Rhino
I have a problem with the listing of one album. I have checked the id tag info and it all seems OK. But when selected in AV, it doesn't show the album in track order, it is all jumbled. Where does AV read its information from?? In the Album folder the tracks are not listed numerically, is that the problem.
I tried re-numbering them, but still no good.
Thanks
John C
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By default AV sorts the tracks by tracknumber. This sequence is then held in the AV database.
If you resequence you will have to regenerate the database *or* utilize the "Sort tracks by location within an album" in the options/general screen. This will only work if you physically name your tracks like so:
<TrackNumber> - <TrackName>
For example:
01 - Part One.mp3
02 - Part Two.mp3
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Thanks for the quick reply.
I removed the tick from ' sort by location' then re created my database. This sorted my problem.
Cheers
John C
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Hi ilmar!
1. On double click on album, go to Playing Now
I'll put that as an option in the next version which should be this week.
2. Random Album select and play
Hmmm ... not too sure about this one ... I'll have a think.
3. Hotkey for ballon on selected album in Overview
I'll put it in.
4. Push JRiver for a Toolbar Button
Would be nice but I doub't they'd do it and if they did it would probably be only for v9.
5. Default image = genre.jpg or default.jpg
I don't understand? Do you mean if you view via the Genre tree path then the default image should be genre.jpg?
If so then it may be possible but I think only you would use it :D :D
I'll see what I can do.
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Rhino,
If the database is scanned a second time, MJ consistently crashes. There's no problem with an initial scan.
Thanks for all of your hard work!
Shelly
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Rhino,
If the database is scanned a second time, MJ consistently crashes. There's no problem with an initial scan.
Thanks for all of your hard work!
Shelly
I've just tried it here 5 times in a row and it worked.
Maybe I've fixed something ... try it when the next version is out.
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Hi
Default image = genre.jpg or default.jpg
>I don't understand? Do you mean if you view via the
>Genre tree path then the default image should be
>genre.jpg?
You currently have a default image available in options, so that if there is no Artwork for a given album, this image will be shown...
I suggest that you could extend that to display default images based on the genre, or the default image if that "genre default" image does not exist. So you could have in the default image location 1, 5 or 50 different images to use where there is no artwork for a given album.
I still dont think I explained it right. :-/
Thanks
Ilmar
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I will put <Genre> as a token for the artwork directories section in step 5 of the wizard.
That should do it.
In fact I'll put all the tokens I know about, e.g. <Year>, etc.
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Hi Rhino
I told you I hadn't explained it right !!! At the moment only about 60% of my albums have artwork. So in Overview mode, I can see 60% of my albums with covers and 40% with the MJ Logo. I didnt like the MJ Logo much for this so I used the option for a default image, where I browse to a location etc. Now 40% of my covers are of this new default jpg file......
My thought was that it would be nice if that default jpg was variable, so that I would have a location (different to the cover art location) where I could design jpgs for different genres, where there was not original cover art to display.
So! in overview mode, I would have for example 10% of my covers using a cool NewAge design cover, 25% Classical and 5% Jazz etc. But the remaining 60% would be the correct covers where coverart - cover.jpg was found in the album directories.
Hey, maybe not such a cool idea after all. :-X
Ilmar
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Another idea :)
To go with that report one I mentioned earlier for checking albums.
I used chart finder thinking it'd be a smart idea and didn't really think about it much. Now I find it's changed the year of particular songs in albums to the year they charted in which really causes me problems when tryin to use MJ with Year/Artist/Album
So I've got like random songs in an album with different years and stuff.
Would it be possible to make that report also check the year of all the songs in each album and make sure they're the same (majority wins rule). Also the genre of each song.
Obviously make these optional as some people might want each songs release date set specifically. I personally like it all the same for my albums.
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Ilmar,
Maybe I'm missing something but surely using the <Genre> tag would do it?
For example if you put as the last search rule:
C:\My Music\Cover Art\Genres\<Genre>.jpg
The if all of the prior rules failed then it would try the one above ... and if that failed then it would use default.jpg.
Nila,
The way it works at the moment is that if the year/genre is all the same then it uses that value. If they are different then it shows Various and if they are not set then it's Unnasigned (or blank in the case of year).
I can add weighting options to the wizard but it's not a 5 minute job. I'll put it on the todo but don't expect it in the immediate future as I have higher priority items.
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Hi Rhino
Is that the dawn I see... ;)
I didn't know you could have different locations for cover art on an IF none then NEXT basis.
Wow that is powerful ! Brilliant!
Must play with that. Now where is my diary... :(
(..at the moment I need entries in my diary just to breathe)
Keep up the great work
Ilmar
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Rhino,
I'm not sure if you understood what I mean.
Basically - I used Chart Finder on my collection without realising what I was doing fully and it's changed the year of like 1 song in an album to be different from the year of the album itself. ALL the rest of the songs have the same year but now I've got like one song that Chart Finder changed that has a different year.
I was just wondering if AV would (at a later point if/when you build that album analysis I mentioned earlier that you said you might do) you could make it also change any random songs in the album that didn't match the rest.
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I am planning on having an Artwork menu item.
So you can select x number of albums, right click and pull up the menu, choose Artwork and it would show shomething like:
Set Image
Recalculate Image
I will add something similar for Genre and Year where you can enter the value you want.
Note that this will only set the value in the AV database ... not MJ ... although I may change it in the future that it does both, i.e. when you set year it will set all the tracks to the specified year as well as the AV album entry.
I'm not 100% sure I want to go down that path though as it opens up a can of worms.
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Sounds good :)
Actual updating of the id3 tags I think is going to have to be the final point for AV as otherwise all information is lost with the AV db or with songs being moved etc.
Saving the info into the songs is the only way to make it a more long term solution.
But I see why your worried about it, it is a BIG step and one that will obviously release a lot of worms :)
There's no rush to make it for a while either :)
Cant wait to try the next AV release :)
Keep up the great work and GOOD MORNING :)
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I don't know if it's been reported before...but I give it a shot :)
I sawa a thread about a memory leak from MJ...and come to think about checking myself...I found out that after 24h MJ just used about 400mb och swap file :/
But after uninstalling AV2, it didn't go over 20mb RAM and ca 30mb of swap...so I figure it COULD be AV2 that creates the leak... anyone else noticed this?
Otherwise...AV is supercool! Thanks!
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Hi
So thats why I get a virtual memory warning :o
I figured we were early in the Beta development, so it didn't worry me too much. Besides how d'ya measurehow much you leak?
Ilmar
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If it's this thread:
http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1033555426
Then you'll see that it was an MJ issue.
I haven't seen any memory leaks with this version of AV and I develop using memory checkers, e.g. Boundschecker ... but that doesn't mean they don't exist :D
I am wondering if it's to do with the number of images you actually have as Windows loads them all into memory. For each image you really have 4 versions of it. The Icon sized one, the tile sized one, the balloon sized one and finally the report sized one. All of these are bitmaps so are quite big (especially if you set the icon image size to 200x200) ... therefore if you have 400+ images that's a lot of memory.
As a test re-create your DB but in the artwork search rules delete all entries. This will just use one image.
Let me know if the memory issue is there after doing that.
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Ilmar: I just use the taskmanager and then view the process "MediaJukebox.exe"...you can add virtual memory to the columns as well :)
Rhino...I don't think it's the images that cranks the memory use up. Why would they increase by time? When MJ starts, it has normal mem values, but after some hours it's mad :)
I uninstalled AV temporarily and I have a little too much to do right now at home, so hopefully you forgive me for waiting til next version of AV to test again..? :)
Cheers!
/Martin
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It depends if you have background loading on.
If you don't then images are loaded as you view them.
I just looked at it here and my VM usage never went above 15mb and I loaded all my images at 150x150. That was with a small DB with 77 albums. I will try my 360 album DB when I get home.
Maybe it's something else ... what are your OS/machine details?
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Hi
Not convinced it is AV that drains the memory, as I have lots of other stuff running too, some of it suspect already.
I will keep an eye on it though.
Rhino: Have you made any changes to AV yet. It is difficult to tell as the number always stays the same.
Ilmar
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I have made loads bit I haven't released it yet ... maybe tonight ... if not tomorrow.
Here's the changelog so far:
Selecting multiple albums did not reset track details
Issue where sometimes playing now's track name got overwritten
Updated about box
Added <AlbumPath>\folder.jpg and <AlbumPath>\*front*.jpg to the list of default artwork directories
Changed Hotkeys dialog to give more room for "exotic" values
Can now set the width of the tiles
Switched tiles from scrolling horizontally to vertically
Added right-mouse menu to treeviews
Added MJ "database image" support for album artwork
Added border around track details images
Added support for <Genre>, <Year>, <NumTracks>, <Bitrate> and <Type> for artwork directory rules in wizard.
Added right-mouse click sort ability
Added keyboard menu button support so can popup right mouse menu
Implemented owner draw large icons and can configure text like tile view
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The new version is available:
http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Other_Plugins;action=display;num=1033677806;start=0