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[beernuts]

I'm listening to Jack Johnson in theater mode tonite, and enjoying the background visualizations that the system is grabbing from the web.  Cool feature, don't turn it off.  However tonite it's found new content featuring Jack's Johnson - with some rather surprising content.  Also some hockey player with the same name.  Is there any way to provide feedback to flag the images of the hockey player for deletion? 
;-)

Cheers!
Dave

[Matt]

The images come from a Google search.  So the feature has the same limitation as Google -- you'll get some good and some bad results.  Some people enjoy the variety, and others don't care for it.  The feature can be disabled in Options > Theater View > Themes for anyone in the latter group.

Off-color images should be filtered out as we enable safe-search, but I think every once in a while one can still slip through the cracks at Google.

[beernuts]

I thought that's how it was working.  No fault of JRiver, just a technical limitation.  I'll leave it enabled.

Thanks for clarifying!
Dave

[fitbrit]

This is almost such a great feature for me. I love the mellow music of Seal. The experience is spoiled somewhat with images of little furry mammals being clubbed to a bloody mess though.

[gappie]

i dont use the background images. but it is possible to tinger with the search. there is a file in default resources in mc program files where you can change a bit how a particular artist is searched. when you make a folder 'custom resources' besides the default resources and copy the file ArtistSearch from the one to the other, you can change the search for for instance seal. in the file you can see some ways how you could do that. (i just changed the search for john zorn to madonna.. it does work )
there is one thing though as far as i see. when you make the custom resource file it wil not read the one in the default resource folder (as far as i justed tested) so when mc adds searches to to this file it wont be used until you update the custum search file yourself...  

 
gab

PS: i think that this is the original idea... from the 73 thread:

5. Changed: Theater View uses a replacement table to provide better a better online slideshow for artists like Kansas and Bush. (please submit improvements made to [MC Install Path]\Data\Default Resources\ArtistSearch.txt back to us)

[fitbrit]

Thanks, gappie!

[Sheugel]

It would be easier to fetch the artists images from a reliable picture database like Last.fm. At least make it an option.

It should be as easy as retrieving it from Google: http://www.last.fm/music/Bombay+Bicycle+Club/+images

[JimH]

It would be easier to fetch the artists images from a reliable picture database like Last.fm. At least make it an option.

It should be as easy as retrieving it from Google: http://www.last.fm/music/Bombay+Bicycle+Club/+images

Matt says he thinks the images are capped at something like 300x300 and wouldn't look good at full screen size.

[Sheugel]

Thanks for your reply, Jim. I see that pictures from Last.fm vary around 500x500.
Even if that's not enough to fit an  entire screen, I still think I'd prefer those smaller pictures than the holiday pictures of some unknown (and ugly) people... And I would be proud to show my classy media center to my friends ;-)
Please, consider this. I think it might look really cool if image is centered. It could be an option, a choice for the user between large but sometimes inaccurate images via Google or smaller but ad hoc pictures from Last.fm...
As an alternative, could you make it possible to keep the album art during the slideshow (as before).
Thanks,

Sheugel

[gappie]

Thanks for your reply, Jim. I see that pictures from Last.fm vary around 500x500.
Even if that's not enough to fit an  entire screen, I still think I'd prefer those smaller pictures than the holiday pictures of some unknown (and ugly) people... And I would be proud to show my classy media center to my friends ;-)
Please, consider this. I think it might look really cool if image is centered. It could be an option, a choice for the user between large but sometimes inaccurate images via Google or smaller but ad hoc pictures from Last.fm...
As an alternative, could you make it possible to keep the album art during the slideshow (as before).
Thanks,

Sheugel

i agree 100 % on all points. although i do not see keeping album art as an alternative, but as a nice extra setting, let background be background again. and when i would like to see the slide show from last fm, i can always select the coverart and hit right. now that would be cool.

i tried to add last fm to the ArtistSearch, but that does not work when the image is of lower resolution. and i still get high quality images from some bank boss with the same name.

 
gab

[gappie]

as a test for last fm i tried the band im listening to now.. news from babel. http://www.last.fm/music/News+From+Babel/+images/189346
i got the image from last fm (there is only one) and putted in my playing now folder in the themes.
here is how that looks (the first image) http://pix01.com/On%40NkiY
and it is not bad at all. at least better then what i get when i use what i get from the net.. image 2 (dutch football player called babel).. and none showing the band at hand.

i should add, i 'only' have a 1680 - 1050 display.

 
gab

[Alex B]

I'd like to see options for

1. querying the file folder for pictures
2. querying a specified location (e.g. a rule for a subfolder or static path)
3. starting with 1. and/or 2. and after showing all images use the default search
4. pausing the background slideshow and showing the current picture in the standard full screen image display.

1. and 2. would be useful for showing all locally stored cover art, booklet, artist etc images or showing a dedicated slideshow. E.g. if someone is having a big birthday party MC could show images from his/her personal photo album.

[gappie]

I'd like to see options for

1. querying the file folder for pictures
2. querying a specified location (e.g. a rule for a subfolder or static path)
3. starting with 1. and/or 2. and after showing all images use the default search
4. pausing the background slideshow and showing the current picture in the standard full screen image display.

1. and 2. would be useful for showing all locally stored cover art, booklet, artist etc images or showing a dedicated slideshow. E.g. if someone is having a big birthday party MC could show images from his/her personal photo album.

these ofcource are much more interesting alex. with the option to yes/no fade the cover. but i gave up hope on something local..  even using folders sounds a bit redundant having a program like mc with its nice search and database features. or as i said a while back:

i got backgroundimages that really gave me nightmares. bodys with some bodyparts blown of and laying beside..etc. you get the picture? yes, bands sometimes have silly names. but here i sit with the best media program with a very good database, and i get images from the sniff department of the net as my backgrounds, not the nice images i already have on my machine in mc.

 
gab

ps.. the search is gone.. 

[Matt]

Coming in build 101:

NEW: Last.fm artist images can be used for Theater View theme background images.
NEW: Theater View allows turning on / off each individual website used for Theater View theme images (Options > Theater View > Theme > Online media slideshow).
NEW: Fading out the playing cover art in Theater View > Playing Now is optional (Options > Theater View > Theme).

[gappie]

thanks you very much again..
looks good and cant wait to try... 

 
gab

[Sheugel]

Coming in build 101:

NEW: Last.fm artist images can be used for Theater View theme background images.
NEW: Theater View allows turning on / off each individual website used for Theater View theme images (Options > Theater View > Theme > Online media slideshow).
NEW: Fading out the playing cover art in Theater View > Playing Now is optional (Options > Theater View > Theme).

WAOW!
I just tested the Last.fm feature: it's WONDERFUL!!!
Thanks so much to the team, you're doing an amazing job.

Sheugel

[gappie]

Coming in build 101:

NEW: Last.fm artist images can be used for Theater View theme background images.
NEW: Theater View allows turning on / off each individual website used for Theater View theme images (Options > Theater View > Theme > Online media slideshow).
NEW: Fading out the playing cover art in Theater View > Playing Now is optional (Options > Theater View > Theme).

i really like this. last fm images are nice enough as a background and mostly fun. and since there is always something more to wish for: i do think the image changes are far to quick for my taste. and when there are only 2 or 3 images for an artist its even a bit dull. once a minute would be nice, or, for me only on track and/or view changes 

 
gab

[gappie]

besides that i think the slide show goes much too quick, i think there is a difference to the screen where you watch the slides and when going through the rest of Theater View. when i set the background on strong it looks good when the slide show is running, but makes other screens sometimes hard to read, when setting it to normal, the screens are good to read but the slide show images get very week and sometimes hard to see.

 
gab

edit.. it seems like this is do-able with skinning.. hope one day though that the Location="Playing Now" would referr to all playing now locations in thv..

[gappie]

i want to say how much i like how it worked out. a lot of nice images. and i like the exploding cover when i want to see them.
and it is true. i like guitars and bosoms, a pity though that it is not always clear to whom they belong. 
could it not be possible to get a bit more of the top of images.

 
gab

[Matt]

could it not be possible to get a bit more of the top of images.

We used to show the full image so there could be some blank area when the screen and picture had different aspect ratios.

Now we crop the image to the aspect ratio of the screen, and keep the center of the picture.

Perhaps it would be better to keep the top center, although I'm not certain?  I have seen some decapitated people with guitars, but only showing the top might have the opposite problem.

[gappie]

i understand the problem.
i do think how it is now, not showing fullscreen, is indeed better. of course there is the solution last fm radio uses. but that would drive me crazy.
is there no way inbetween, not top center, not middle center, 3/4 center or something like that. its very seldom that the faces are at the bottom part of the picture.

 
gab

[rick.ca]

is there no way inbetween, not top center, not middle center, 3/4 center or something like that. its very seldom that the faces are at the bottom part of the picture.

Face recognition!

[Blairis]

I'm loving the last.fm and htbackdrops feature in version 101.  I think we need to leave blank space so that the last.fm pictures don't keep cutting off Lady Gaga's head.

I also turned off Google images.  Playing my kids favourite Crazy Frog brings up some rather rude pictures like http://www.freewebs.com/thegrinningidiots/crazy%20frog%202.jpg

Keep up the good work!

[Blairis]

Version 113 is an improvement over 101 by displaying images from the top but my opinion is that black borders would be better when the aspect ratio doesn't match.  Now people's heads are often cut off below their eyes.

Thanks.

[rick.ca]

my opinion is that black borders would be better when the aspect ratio doesn't match.

Maybe a compromise would work better. Crop only half the excess dimension (vertically, from the bottom; horizontally, from both sides) and display the result centred (i.e., with "black borders"). That would avoid the opposite problem—that the image fills only a small portion of the screen.

[gappie]

and maybe the black fading at the right is a residue from times gone. cropping below fading at the right?