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[Steviewunda]

Hi - Album art and Artist images won't display with normal sequential playback (MC28). If I stop and restart playback - no problem, Album art and Artist images display correctly. I have only noticed this very recently, it was fine before.
Cheers
Steve

[HPBEME]

So what is displayed? nothing... literally a blank screen? Std View, Theater View, Display View? Are you using a TrackInfo template, or the std built-in Cover Art display?  Maybe provide a screenshot to illustrate what you are seeing explicitly.

[Steviewunda]

Standard view and Display view screenshots are attached. Lyrics usually show. I don't imagine this would make any difference, but I am playing to an Allo USBridge with DietPi OS. I believe I am using the standard builtin  Cover Art Display. How do I check that?

[HPBEME]

Your first pic is the Display View, and it shows the generic MC icon, which means that track does not have cover art associated with it.  Even though one typically thinks of cover art for an entire album, MC allows you to assign unique cover art to each track if you wish.  To learn more about how cover art works, where it is stored, etc. Check these two things:

See:  Options/File Locations/Cover Art
See:  https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Cover_Art

To select among the different options for what you can show in Display View, right click on that big blank area, and you will get a menu with a number of items you can pick from, including cover art.  I am pretty sure you already have cover art selected, but as I stated above, it would appear none is associated with that particular track. Again, check out the link above.

As for your 2nd pic, you don't see the cover art in mini display view in the tree for the same reason... no cover art is associated with that particular track.  Navigate to the full album that the track belongs to, and show all the tracks.  If one or more of has cover art associated with it, right click copy the one you want to use, and paste it onto all the tracks for that album.  If none has art, then you will have right click "get from internet" or manually search for a cover art .jpg manually (and paste that onto the album).  Read the link above, experiment with a handful of albums, and you will start to understand how it works.

[Steviewunda]

But if I stop the track playing and restart it the cover art and artist images show in both Display view and mini Display view. If there was no cover art associated with the track, stopping and restarting it wouldn't show art that wouldn't display before. Maybe the last update changed something - cover art and artist images were displaying correctly until very recently, and I haven't (knowingly) changed anything.
As I say, if I Ctrl P or double-click to play a track all cover art, lyrics and artist images display, but Ctrl N or double-clicking to play another track while one is playing results in NO art being displayed

[HPBEME]

whoops... you are right.  I got tunnel visioned on my reply and forgot the part about it working for different workflow!  sorry.  That is indeed bizarre, and I have never experienced anything like that.

I need to think about it some more. That said, I don't use MC server or have NAS drives, and both of those environments seem to generate a myriad of weird issues. If you are using those, it may be a factor.  Based on various threads I have read, many times it is related to NAS drives spinning up or down or whatever, but I am definitely not an expert on that. Maybe someone who is an expert will read my bumbling reply and feel compelled to provide a better answer. 

[Steviewunda]

No worries - thanks anyway

[Steviewunda]

A reinstall (after a backup) of MC shouldn't do any harm, should it    I also have recent drive images I could revert to, but it would be nice to work this out. It could still be good old user error, but it could also be a bug. The fact that I seem to be the only one in the forum experiencing it doesn't really rule out either possibility

[HPBEME]

Instead of reinstalling, why not just restore one of the auto-generated backups MC makes from a couple days prior?  You said it just started happening, right?  Just make sure you to check the box to Restore Settings too, as it may only be that you inadvertently changed a setting that is causing it.  Though, I don't know of a setting that would cause the behavoir you are seeing.  Either way, it only takes a couple minutes to do a restore (unless you have a couple hundred thousand tracks, then it might take 10 minutes).  Either way, try that before reinstalling - reinstalling very seldom fixes issues.

You never did say whether you are using MC Server or NAS - that info will help others (possibly) decipher your issue.

[Steviewunda]

Ok I tried restoring earlier backups (with settings) but no change. Further experiments show that this behaviour is peculiar to the 'Dietpi' zone, a dynamically created (UPNP?) zone within MC to enable playback through the Raspberry Pi-based Allo Usbridge network bridge. When I view the Audio Path it says 'Not using JRiver audio engine' for both input and output. You would think that if that was the reason for not displaying artwork, that it wouldn't display at all - not only when changing a playing track. Is there a better way to incorporate the network bridge (which definitely offers sonic benefits) that would avoid this behaviour? All suggestions gratefully received

Sorry HPBEME, I forgot to say that my music is NAS-based...on an unRaid server. And the Allo network bridge is only connected by ethernet cable.

It also appears that after stopping and restarting a track, the artwork and Artist images WILL update if the following tracks are allowed to follow on without interference - but double-clicking a track or hitting Ctrl N for Next track results in no artwork or artist images

[JimH]

If you're using UPnP to play to a device, it's up to the device to display artwork.  It might have limits on file types or image size.

[Steviewunda]

Are there any alternatives to DLNA/UPNP for using the Allo Usbridge device for audio playback with my topology (Windows 11 HTPC with JRiver MC28, Unraid NAS where all media is stored, ethernet-connected Allo USBridge Signature network bridge, DAC, amplifier, speakers?)

[Steviewunda]

Bump - is there an alternative to DLNA connection to the Allo USbridge device, whereby I would be able to use all MC's processing capabilities?