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[Shike]

Greetings,

I'm trying to use a custom expression but note that cover art doesn't appear when using it.  Effectively what I'm trying to accomplish is as follows:

* I have multiple series that fall in the same "story" or "in universe"
* I have a special tag added to these in addition to series called "story" so that the parent can be defined at a higher level
* Under videos I have a library view for Series for all TV media
* Under custom view I have it set as categories, then have an expressions as follows:
Level 1: if(isempty([Story]), [Series], [Story])
Level 2 is just the series field (no expression)

When using the top expression, none of the series cover art displays but instead first episode thumbnails till I go down a level.  For those that are not a "Story" I would like this top level to have cover art display - personally I'd like to add artwork to the other "story" parent as well but it seems that's likely not doable.

Do expressions prevent TV Series cover art from displaying, or is there a specific function I'm not familiar with?

[Shike]

Maybe I should rephrase based on the area the problem is:

Is there a way to get covers to display for Series and not video thumbnails when using an expression under customize view rather than the standard "Series" library field?

EDIT:

TVInfo(SeriesDisplay) works if no additional logic is used.  When logic is used it displays the series name and first episode thumbnail :|

[RoderickGI]

Is this by chance for Anime series, where each year (Season) of episodes gets a new name, and the Story that you have created is actually the world that each season belongs to, such as with "Code Geass"? I know very little about the structuring of Anime programs, but I know it is very different.

Perhaps provide a couple of example programs for what you are trying to do.

Basically though, what you have done isn't going to work. The [Series] and [Season] tags have specific functionality built around them for Cover Art. Episodes always have their own Cover Art, and it will always be in a file next to the video file. The same as for any video, including Movies.

But [Series] and [Season] Cover Art is stored in the location defined in "Options > File Location > Cover Art > Folder", in \Series and \Seasons sub-directories. The the "Right-click > Cover Art > Get from internet" function after selecting the Series name in MC Standard View, Shows , or an Episode under that, will gather Cover Art and place your choices in the correct sub-directory, and rename the Cover Art images files appropriately. That Cover Art functionality isn't going to work with the [Story] field you created, at all. MC won't store Cover Art for any field other than Series, Season, and Episode, for video.

Depending on your answer to my first question above, a better solution may be to use the [Series] field for the Story, and the [Season] field for annual name used for that year's Episodes. Both the [Series] and [Season] fields are actually String fields, so for example you could put;

[Series] = Code Geass
[Season] = Hangyaku no Lelouch R2
[Episode] = 1 to whatever, using either Absolute episode numbers for the whole story, or just sequential numbers within the season.

But my example may be bad, and it is actually best to look at how TheTVDB stores the data about the program you are working with, and try to conform to that structure, so that the "Get Movie & TV Info..." function, which gathers metadata from TheTVDB, works normally.



So, first step, what programs are you working with?

[Shike]

Is this by chance for Anime series, where each year (Season) of episodes gets a new name, and the Story that you have created is actually the world that each season belongs to, such as with "Code Geass"? I know very little about the structuring of Anime programs, but I know it is very different.

It is predominately anime, Monogatari and Fate as a lot of stuff isn't based on seasons and some having odd airing makes tvdb sometimes not as accurate to what's considered best practice by the anime communities unfortunately.

But [Series] and [Season] Cover Art is stored in the location defined in "Options > File Location > Cover Art > Folder", in \Series and \Seasons sub-directories. The the "Right-click > Cover Art > Get from internet" function after selecting the Series name in MC Standard View, Shows , or an Episode under that, will gather Cover Art and place your choices in the correct sub-directory, and rename the Cover Art images files appropriately. That Cover Art functionality isn't going to work with the [Story] field you created, at all. MC won't store Cover Art for any field other than Series, Season, and Episode, for video.

So the thing I'm noticing is this.  If I have my expression as:

TVInfo(SeriesDisplay)

I get a standard series view.

If I have this as my expression:

if(isempty([story]),TVInfo(SeriesDisplay),[story])

Everything - including series that would normally display cover art - shows thumbnails.

I'm including two images to show what I'm talking about:

Using the if:


using tvinfo(SeriesDisplay) alone:


There are no tag differences between these.  So as you can see Baccano! being the first in the list in one shows the cover just fine (using tvinfo(SeriesDisplay)) but when using the if statement it seems that expressions can no longer resolve the cover art.  Not sure if this is related to how information gets passed in the expression, but that's what it's doing.

Depending on your answer to my first question above, a better solution may be to use the [Series] field for the Story, and the [Season] field for annual name used for that year's Episodes. Both the [Series] and [Season] fields are actually String fields, so for example you could put;

[Series] = Code Geass
[Season] = Hangyaku no Lelouch R2
[Episode] = 1 to whatever, using either Absolute episode numbers for the whole story, or just sequential numbers within the season.

But my example may be bad, and it is actually best to look at how TheTVDB stores the data about the program you are working with, and try to conform to that structure, so that the "Get Movie & TV Info..." function, which gathers metadata from TheTVDB, works normally.

So, first step, what programs are you working with?

It seems that might be worth investigating, it's not perfect but likely closer to what I'm wanting if the expression is limiting cover art from displaying properly and this resolves it.  What I was expecting to happen with the expression was those that do have cover art at the series level would render with that art, while those following under "story" would use the stacked thumbnails.

[Hendrik]

The automatic coverart only works in pure series views. If you just want to change the text thats being displayed, but keep the same pure series grouping, then you can use "Expression to group by" and  "Expression to display" to do that without disturbing the coverart  magic. However it appears you want to actually change the grouping - in which case the automatic cover art stops working. Its cover art for Series afterall, not any arbitrary construct created by an expression, and due to the nature of expressions, its impossible to know which cover art it should look for - hence, it only works in simpler views.

[syndromeofadown]

Hi Shike
You should be able to accomplish what you are trying to do with the [Artist] field.
Select all your videos then paste your expression into their artist field with an equals sign before it.
You will have to manually copy the art to the "Artist" cover art folder.
You can even use multiple values separated by ";".

It used to get requested quite frequently for JRiver to add another field that supports art and multiple values. It would be perfect for things like this. I would still love to see this happen. Call it "Group", "class", "category", or something else generic.

[RoderickGI]

Hendrik's response is pretty much definitive, which is why I suggested using the Series and Season fields as I did.

Using the Artist field sounds like an interesting idea to test, but I suspect that it won't work when the [Media Type] is set to "Video". MC won't look for Cover Art that matches the Artist field. Worth testing though.

It is predominately anime, Monogatari and Fate as a lot of stuff isn't based on seasons and some having odd airing makes tvdb sometimes not as accurate to what's considered best practice by the anime communities unfortunately.

I've had a look at some Anime recently, and I'm thinking of adding some to my collection. But I'm usually confused about the naming and numbering. Do you have a link to somewhere that described "Best Practice" for Anime?

As you say, TheTVDB doesn't seem to follow even its own guidelines, and apparently won't currently allow people to add an Alias to an Anime program, which makes collecting English metadata using the Japanese name impossible. A common issue from what I have read.

[syndromeofadown]

Using the Artist field sounds like an interesting idea to test, but I suspect that it won't work when the [Media Type] is set to "Video". MC won't look for Cover Art that matches the Artist field. Worth testing though.

It works fine with video, data, audio, and images. I have quite few views using series and artist art like video games, books, and family photos.
For series you can only use one value, but for artists you can use multiple values separated by ";".
Like I said before one or two for fields like this would be awesome.

[RoderickGI]

Thanks syndromeofadown. Good to know. I shall have to keep that in mind.

[Shike]

Hi Shike
You should be able to accomplish what you are trying to do with the [Artist] field.
Select all your videos then paste your expression into their artist field with an equals sign before it.
You will have to manually copy the art to the "Artist" cover art folder.
You can even use multiple values separated by ";".

It used to get requested quite frequently for JRiver to add another field that supports art and multiple values. It would be perfect for things like this. I would still love to see this happen. Call it "Group", "class", "category", or something else generic.

To confirm:

Copy the expression as:

=if(isempty([story]),TVInfo(SeriesDisplay),[story])

To the Artist field

Copy the art to the artist cover folder (for the story portion, the series portion, or both?)

What do I use for the category view?

Sorry, I'm trying to wrap my head around the logic and want to make sure I understand.

I've had a look at some Anime recently, and I'm thinking of adding some to my collection. But I'm usually confused about the naming and numbering. Do you have a link to somewhere that described "Best Practice" for Anime?

Unfortunately it's kind of a case by case.  The problem with anime is that some "seasons" (arcs is probably more accurate) have their own name entirely.  "Monogatari" is often a broad reference to the story which includes Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari, Tsukimonogatari, Owarimonogatari . . . etc.

Unfortunately when referring to the best practices before it was relating to watch order.  Monogatari for example has multiple orders you can watch it in, some are suggested to be watched back to back, some say to watch it in a different order if you space it out, etc.  On the same note I wouldn't want them organized by name because they will get scattered and make jumping to them a chore.

The "Fate" universe is another example, Gigguk does a full comedy skit about it here that is painfully accurate.  As such the concept of having a single "series" with everything following like Season 1, 2, 3 - doesn't always work.

Even worse is when a multi-series work has it's own seasons within.  So you may have two series or "arcs" that are dependent back to back, but each "series/arc" may contain a double cour (effectively a season).  So even though these could be watched back to back with the equivalent of four+ anime seasons you now get it spread across two series, even if the first one is expected to be watched and the second isn't self-contained in any way.  As you indicated even TheTVDB can't accurately figure out how to really handle these.

As such, the only thing I can think of is to group them together under a parent "universe" like Fate/monogatari and read on recommended watch orders as appropriate.  Not all will be nearly as complex as those two, but provide the most contrasting example.  That's why I wanted to have "story" as an additional grouping method - to me it made a lot of sense to keep track of "universes/settings" that get complex quick.

The easy ones are split cour in comparison following a more similar route to normal shows, they will have a break in the airing.  Generally the first ~12 episodes are a season and the additional ~12 after break is another.  There can be those with multiple cours beyond that, it's just 24-26 episodes is more common (Shonen is an example of those that have more cours typically referenced by "arcs" in fandom - One Piece, My Hero Academia, etc. are examples).  These I'd just use whatever TheTVDB recommends because they are linear and typically do not break out of the parent work IME.

//rant

[syndromeofadown]

To confirm:

Copy the expression as:

=if(isempty([story]),TVInfo(SeriesDisplay),[story])

To the Artist field

Copy the art to the artist cover folder (for the story portion, the series portion, or both?)

Correct. Use both.

What do I use for the category view?

For now just use 'Artist'. If it works the way you like you may be able to get fancier.

Let us know how it goes.

[Shike]

Correct. Use both.
For now just use 'Artist'. If it works the way you like you may be able to get fancier.

Let us know how it goes.

Copying the expression did some weird stuff, so I just did a move on Story to the Artist field.  Those that didn't have a "Story" had their Series copied to Artist.  After I setup categories to L1 being Artist and L2 being Series.  Finally I added the artwork from Series to Artists cover art folder (had to create), and added additional series artwork where needed.

The results:

It's perfect - both series and "story" display at the same time (based on using artist as a catch) and with artwork not requiring any episode derived thumbnails for the parents.  It definitely felt like a round robin getting there, and I'd eventually like to see possibility of allowing custom fields to link with cover art folders in the future.  For now though it works and works well.  Thank you.