Again, I was referring to the series and seasonal files, not the thumbnails for the individual episodic files. I think I explained some of the possible issues earlier.
"I was referring to [Series] and/or [Season] artwork. What I meant is that if the standard naming convention decided upon is [Series].jpg for all artwork (for example) and there is no [Season] folder in the user structure, then this will be overwritten for each Season that gets downloaded.
Well, I really was going to let this go for tonight, but you know sleeping dogs and all that.
This still doesn't make sense, Justin.. Think about it.
There's no such thing as
Season artwork, so there's no point in really discussing that in detail. There isn't support for cover art for any arbitrary tag in the database, and I wouldn't assume they would ever add such a thing. So, if they ever add Season Art as a feature, they'd already be adding something new and special. I think it would be reasonable to assume that whatever filename they choose to have MC use would contain both the Series and the Season names.
But you weren't talking about Season art. You were referring to
Series art, but you were acting like it should be
Season specific. It isn't a folder.jpg file, it is art that applies to the whole [Series]. If the user sets the series art to something for one file in the series, and then changes a different one to something else, I'd assume that
it would change the art for ALL files with the same [Series] tag (a relational field)..
So, overwriting the old JPEG
would be the desired behavior in this case. The same would be true for Season art as well, if they ever implemented it.
The Big Bang Theory
only has one Series artwork file. To change it, can pick any file tagged with BBT and change it for that file, and the rest automatically update.
That said, I'm certainly not opposed to them providing an
option to let people create a catch-all /metadata/ subfolder structure, if they want. I just wouldn't use that option myself, and I wouldn't want it to be that way or nothing.
I actually think that, if you have any choice at all, there should maybe be
three options that apply to all cover art and sidecar files in MC:
1. With the media files (Sidecar files)
2. In a Metadata subfolder with the media files.
3. In a specific folder (Automatic)
All three should offer an additional separate option to create folder.jpg files (for Widows Explorer support). And another one to also store images in file tags when possible.
I think #1 should be the default, because it is the most foolproof and cross-compatible.
Number three would work like it does now, sort of. Except that:
1. It would default to a "Media Art" folder in your My Documents folder (rather than buried in the hidden AppData directory). See the other thread for more.
2. MC would take control of the naming structure inside that folder, black box style. JRiver just decides themselves what file and directory structure to use in the specified folder, and it is just designed so the user doesn't have to know they are even there or care, but so that they can all be stored in one spot away from the media files.
If they want to design it so there is
no user-option at all, however, then I think the best option is certainly the sidecar method. I agree with Rick, that there aren't many cases where that doesn't work just as well, and I don't see why not to just standardize on that. I know you would rather not though, and you might not be alone.