INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => Media Center 17 => Topic started by: BartMan01 on December 13, 2011, 04:11:14 pm

Title: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: BartMan01 on December 13, 2011, 04:11:14 pm
Since we got a PC for downstairs a few weeks ago, I have started really using Theater View for music playback.  One thing I find very disconcerting about the artwork display in Theater View is that it seems to 'zoom in' and/or crop the images in ways that just don't work.  This frequently results in getting a nice full screen view of the artists forehead.  Are you zooming/cropping to the center of the image, or just using from the top down to the bottom of 16:9 fit?
Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: wig on December 15, 2011, 01:11:20 pm
Since we got a PC for downstairs a few weeks ago, I have started really using Theater View for music playback.  One thing I find very disconcerting about the artwork display in Theater View is that it seems to 'zoom in' and/or crop the images in ways that just don't work.  This frequently results in getting a nice full screen view of the artists forehead.  Are you zooming/cropping to the center of the image, or just using from the top down to the bottom of 16:9 fit?

There have been a couple threads on the Media Slideshow feature.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68051.msg458012#msg458012

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=65610.msg442158#msg442158

Apparently cropping from the center of the image would result in frequent decapitation  :o



Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: glynor on December 15, 2011, 02:28:14 pm
I've noticed this too.

I actually got used to it and now I kind-of like it.  I ends up with a nice effect sometimes.  It would be cooler if it could do an auto-Ken-Burns effect on larger images instead of cropping them, but that might be too resource intensive.

The only bad thing I've seen with the auto-generated slide show is that every once in a while, with the wrong [Artist] or [Series] pulled up, I've gotten Porn in the background slideshow.  I can't think of what Artist or Series ended up causing it, but I know I've seen it a few times.  When I did, I immediately understood why the image search would have resulted in that based on the Artist or Series in question, but still...

Luckily, I'm not too prudish, so it doesn't bother me.  It does give me pause about using the feature on my work-machines though!
Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: JimH on December 15, 2011, 02:30:35 pm
The only bad thing I've seen with the auto-generated slide show is that every once in a while, with the wrong [Artist] or [Series] pulled up, I've gotten Porn in the background slideshow.
It uses Google's safe search, so the images would be found in a browser search as well.  I think Google may have a tough time keeping things "safe".
Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: glynor on December 15, 2011, 02:46:11 pm
It uses Google's safe search, so the images would be found in a browser search as well.  I think Google may have a tough time keeping things "safe".

Yeah.  I remember when it happened, that I pulled up Google, enabled Safe Search (which I normally keep turned off), and tried a few searches and got similar results.  So I wasn't blaming you guys.

Also, while not porn, you do get some amusing and sometimes disturbing results with oddly named Artists.

Bright Eyes, for example, ends up pulling up quite a few pictures of teenage girls (with their eyes wide open).  Mildly disconcerting.
Of Montreal pulls up lots of cool pictures of Montreal, including a few old blueprints of buildings and churches in the city (which is cool).

EDIT:  I was looking, because I was curious, and I just found one that'll do it.  [Artist] = Girls (which is a band).  They're not all strictly hardcore "porn" but many of them are certainly NSFW.
Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: pcstockton on December 15, 2011, 02:50:20 pm
Odd views and porn aside, is there ANY chance the number of images could be increased.  The novelty of Theater View is wearing off a bit given the repetition of the same images over and over.  It doesn't seem to be culling all of the various pics it could from either LastFM or Google. 

Please??

Thanks!
Patrick

Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: BartMan01 on December 15, 2011, 04:14:23 pm
How about not cropping at all, using the 'blurry sidebar' effect like they do now when showing 4:3 content in a 16:9 show on TV, or panning around the image.

As to the content itself, I have personally turned off Google from the searches.  Often results in few or no results found, but keeps the really random stuff from popping in.
Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: The Mastermind on December 15, 2011, 11:38:07 pm
A zoom and pan type slideshow might work. Although I don't mind the effect of the artists peeking over the top of the screen.

I've switched off Google, it ruined things with irrelevant images.
Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: BartMan01 on December 16, 2011, 12:35:57 am
I've switched off Google, it ruined things with irrelevant images.

Even after turning off Google, I was still getting odd results.  Think I've traced them to the HTBackdrops page.  Playing an album by Rush for example, I am still getting non-Rush images.  If I go to HTBackdrops and search for 'Rush' I get images for anyone with 'rush' in the name somewhere like 'DJ Krush' or 'Econline Crush' or 'Jennifer Rush', etc.
Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: pcstockton on December 16, 2011, 01:20:06 am
oh yeah...... HDBackdrops was turned off on day 1 after 7 Corvette Pictures of no relevance.
Title: Re: Theater View artwork being zoomed in to 'odd' views.
Post by: Matt on December 16, 2011, 09:08:10 am
In a coming build:
Fixed: Theater View music backdrops from HTBackdrops.com uses more exact artist name matching when searching to reduce or eliminate the possibility of incorrect artwork.