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[Vocalpoint]

I am in the process of updating our audio library with 1000x1000 cover art for each FLAC based album.

I have a smartlist build to identify those albums in the collection that current do not meet the 1000x1000 criteria:

[Media Type]=[Audio] -[Image Height]=1000 -[Image Width]=1000 ~sort=[Album Artist],[Album]

But when I run this smartlist - I continue to see many albums returned in my view - that already feature 1000x1000 cover art.

I think the criteria is correct - because when I highlight an album that clearly has say 500x500 cover art embedded (I have the Image Height and Image Width fields appearing as columns in my view) and when I change the cover art to a 1000x1000 image - and refresh the view - the album that had 500x500 art suddenly does not appear.

But there are a large number of 1000x1000 FLAC tracks still showing up in the Smartlist - when their image height/width is being reported correctly. They should not be in the view.

So either it's something really obvious - like the Image Height and Image Width fields do not relate directly to the actual "cover art" height/width or something else is wrong. Bug? Wrong image height width in the file? Something else?

Appreciate any help from the field.

Cheers!

VP

[blgentry]

Are you trying to use the *exact* size of 1000x1000 as your standard?  So for example, 1000x999 would still be picked up by your smartlist as "invalid" ?

I take an alternate approach of looking for images that are less than a certain dimension.  For example, I would be looking for *either* image height or image width being less than 1000.  Actually, I usually fudge about 20 pixels, so I would look for less than 980 on each side.

I've actually built a custom view to do this for me.  I can switch on and off the criteria of less than my specific size.  I also look for images with no cover art.  I'm attaching a screen shot for illustration.

Because I might have art with unusual dimensions, I've also got panes to let me isolate by widths or heights.  This helps with unusual stuff like a very tall image (like for a boxed set), where it's plenty tall, but it has a small width.  Yet this is acceptable.

Which brings me to my final piece of the puzzle:  I have a custom field (Image Approved), that I use to mark cover art that falls outside of my specified size, yet I consider it to be good enough and I don't want to see it in my list of "invalid art".  One of the panes in this view turns on and off that feature.

Brian.

[ferday]

I approach this more like blgentry but use an ifelse(isrange(...)) to give me a quick visual...this way a 200x200 will get sorted before 500x500 so I can priority fixing it.  For audio I generally use just height as a cover art is "supposed" to be fairly square and its simpler

[~OHM~]

I am in the process of updating our audio library with 1000x1000 cover art for each FLAC based album.


Cheers!

VP

After finding what you want to replace, where do you go to find the replacements?

thanks

[Vocalpoint]

Are you trying to use the *exact* size of 1000x1000 as your standard?  So for example, 1000x999 would still be picked up by your smartlist as "invalid" ?

Brian,

Yes. My standard is exactly 1000x1000.

But this "view" is set to be targeting those files that contain an image that is NOT 1000x1000 - yet I continue to see albums/files in this view that are 1000/1000.

Here is the "smartlist" criteria:



And here the result:



clearly showing files with a 1000x1000 size embedded image showing when it should not be.

What am I doing wrong?

VP

[Vocalpoint]

After finding what you want to replace, where do you go to find the replacements?

I gather replacements from the internet or via our own cameras if a suitable replacement cannot be found.

VP

[ferday]

Hmm, will have to try that when I'm on my PC. 

I would still more likely use a less than 1000 statement rather than an is not, but it seems like it should work

[Vocalpoint]

I would still more likely use a less than 1000 statement rather than an is not, but it seems like it should work

I will switch to a "is less than" statement here and see what happens.

EDIT: Tried it - with "is less than 999" and the list still reports items back with an image dimension of exactly 1000x1000

EDIT2: Even stranger now. I opened the view and spied an album that I updated within the last month that for certain has a fresh 1000x1000 cover embedded.

When I ran the smartlist moments ago - I saw only 4 of the 8 tracks appear in the list - even tho the Image height/width are reported back as 1000x1000.

So I decided to replace the cover art again - on ALL files - with the same file I embedded a month ago and suddenly the album disappeared from the view.

Seems we have some sort of bug here. Has something changed in recent versions of MC with respect to how MC "sees" the actual embedded image dimensions?

VP

[blgentry]

Way, way, way back when I first did this kind of thing, using a smartlist, I had some strange behavior like you're seeing.  Then, some months later, I tried again and it all just worked.  My theory is that this has something to do with how MC updates it's database for image dimensions; specifically that it might be related to thumbnail building.

I would try rebuilding all thumbnails and then try again.  This is just a theory.

Brian.

[blgentry]

In case anyone wants it, here's the view I showed in my first post.  I call it "Cover Art Review".

Unzip the zip file to get the JVI file.  Then put the JVI file into your Library/Saved Views/ folder and you can then add a new library view and use that as one of the template selections.

Brian.

[~OHM~]

I gather replacements from the internet or via our own cameras if a suitable replacement cannot be found.

VP

If interested, I use this handy little app. Album Art Downloader

https://sourceforge.net/projects/album-art/

[blgentry]

If you are discerning about your album art (picky), I think Album Art Exchange has about the best selection around.  I've made a link for it in MC so I can just click it directly from an album cover I want to replace.

Brian.

[Vocalpoint]

If you are discerning about your album art (picky), I think Album Art Exchange has about the best selection around.  I've made a link for it in MC so I can just click it directly from an album cover I want to replace. Brian.

This is my "go to" as well. Since my standard is now 1000x1000 I do not consider any other sizes.

I use Google as a secondary now since I have found all sorts of awesome 1000x1000 or higher scans there. You just have to know exactly what to search for.

Then - if I am really stuck - I shoot the cover from an LP or CD via digital camera if we have a copy.

VP

[marko]

I've recently reviewed my sizes here. 1000 x 1000 artwork seems to cause problems for others. For example, if I add some music to the Jukebox in the Audi, coverart will not display if it is 1000 square or higher, likewise, the Soundspectrum visualisation plugins cannot seem to deal with coverart that's 1000 square or higher.

Looking at where and how MC utilises coverart, I couldn't really see anywhere that having it this size was beneficial as MC is never using it at 100%.
I moved to 800 square and since then, all is happy in my coverart world

-marko

[Vocalpoint]

I've recently reviewed my sizes here. 1000 x 1000 artwork seems to cause problems for others. For example, if I add some music to the Jukebox in the Audi, coverart will not display if it is 1000 square or higher, likewise, the Soundspectrum visualisation plugins cannot seem to deal with coverart that's 1000 square or higher.

Looking at where and how MC utilises coverart, I couldn't really see anywhere that having it this size was beneficial as MC is never using it at 100%.
I moved to 800 square and since then, all is happy in my coverart world

I always run MC in Theater Mode on many of our PCs and choose 1000x1000 as it is the perfect size to fill the screen correctly at what looks to me to be 100% sizing. Also works great in the new Toyota Highlander and on the iPods or JRemote on the iPads.

Anything less than this on my flatscreen TVs (Samsung 40 in the studio and Samsung 70 in the family room) are blurry when displaying 100% or simply too tiny when displayed at the correct ratio (my old standard used to be 500x500). If I had MC display this size with no scaling - I would end up with a postage stamp sized cover midscreen which served like purpose.

With 1000x1000 the full art is displayed with no blurruness on any screen and fills it top to bottom.

VP