folder.jpg shares vs database

[PC_Pal68]

Hi,

Still pretty new to MP. I'm just starting to understand the "Views" section. I've always used the "Shares" view up to now.

I've been working on folder.jpg for all my artists in my mp3 collection. I didn't want to leave the icons nor did I want to use a (random) album cover to represent a band/artist. I decided to dl a pic for every artist I have in my collection.

\Rush (dedicate folder.jpg\ Moving Pictures (covert art as image)\ track listing

For some reason, the Artist image shows well in "Shares" view but aren't showing in any other database view (Arsitist, Title, Top100, etc). Instead I see only icons with a few images that I can't remember where they came from and where they are stored. The are no .thb in the artist's folder.

I've worked many hours to collect those artiste/band image (folder.jpg) and I would like to see them in all different views weither it's Shares or others.

I'm using SpinSafe 1080 v0.4

Regards.

[PC_Pal68]

OK


Tried to clear cache and the rescan collection (files are on a dedicated server) but I can't get the folder.jpg files to show up (unless I'm in Shares view).

If I select an album, do a F3, choose right info I do have album info and cover art that appears (as expected) and I unexpectedly have an artist image that appears on the "artist folder". No file appears in the folder (must be in a thumbnail folder somewhere I do not know).

I've tried using another skin (blue two wide) but with same result.

Anybody has an idea what's going on ?

Regards.
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TV-Server Version:
MediaPortal Version: 1.0 RC1
MediaPortal Skin: SpinSafe
Windows Version: XP SP3
CPU Type: P4 2.66 @ 3.0
HDD: Seagate 320G
Memory: 512MB
Motherboard: Asus P5LD2
Video Card: 6800GT
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card:
Sound Card AC3: Optical Out
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card:
1. TV Card Type:
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Ahanix D-Vine Serie
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: Logitech Harmony
TV: Sharp 32 LCD
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI

Also

After a cache clear (via Setup - General - Thumbnail) and a rescan, the "Artist" images collect through F3 still appear. Aren't they supposed to be cleared?!? I've also tried unselecting "Create cache on demand" so that no more info is added to the db and folder.jpg are used/taken as is. No difference...

It is as if any info added to the database was stuck in it and that the database has priority over folder.jpg files (except in Shares view).

[rtv]

Is your artist and album subdir of \Thumbs populated after scanning?

[PC_Pal68]

I haven't seen a Thumbs folder. Should it be in the root of MP?

I've also unselect all options for thumbnail creation except the folder.jpg (so I removed *.jpg and *.png as well as ID3tag option).

[Oatz]

I think RTV is referring to the directory:
C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\thumbs\

Which has Albums, Artists and Genre directories (on my install).

If it is of any consolation, I too have had problems with thumbnails for my music directories. I used to use the folder.jpg system, but now have embedded high quality images inside my Mp3s, which seem to be the most universal method for media apps to reliably pickup the album art from my collection. That said the system or logic MP uses to produce thumbs, in both Share and other views, escapes me. It works well for certain artist directories and others it does something else, seemly at random.

My collection is like yours, I think.
\Music\Artist\Album

I'm using the a pre RC1 version of MP, so I'm hoping when I get down to installing the RC1, I will be able to figure out what's happening. When that happens, I'll post my results.

Good luck!

[PC_Pal68]

Oatz,

Tx for your reply.

If I understand, you've chosen to embed images in mp3? I didn't want to do that because I didn't want to increase the size of mp3 files. It's not a problem when the file is on the server and used with MP. But it's not the best option when you want to use the fileson a mp3 player or if I wanna to burn them on a CD.

I'll give it a try just to see if I can "control" what image is displayed. But it looks like a db problem since I have full control of which image is displayed as long as I use the Shares view.

Anyone else has an explanation / suggestion ?

Regards.

Anoher info that could help is that most "Artist" folders have a thumbs.db in it (not all of them). This file is roughly 7-8k. Sometimes there is a folder.jpg in it also and some of them I didn't copy an image to it.

[PC_Pal68]

As I'm looking at the main directory of MP I do not see any Thumbs folder.

See attach screenshot of MP root.

Am I missing stuff ??!?!?!??!?!?!

Regards

[Paranoid Delusion]

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Appdata\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal

Try looking there.

[PC_Pal68]

OK got it !

Well there are alot of thumbs in there. Going in Music we have (album - artist - folder - genre). Most of the thumbs in there are grayed except for the artists I've used since installing MP. All these thumbs were downloaded probably after a F3 to artists or albums. Also, if we only look at the Artists folder, all images grayed out are in double. The only one that is not grayed out, is not doubled (single image).

None of the images I've dl and named folder.jpg in the Artist's folder are showing in this section.

We're making progress.

Keep it coming... tx all

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Update....

I removed the files In section My Doc \ Team MP \ MP \ Music \ Artist. No file came from the folder.jpg I downloaded myself. Probably images captured via the F3 artist / group folder.

In the config app, for "Thumbs Creation" I selection folder.com (recommended) and I unselected "Use album art for artist image" to make sure that no image
from the album directory is used.

I rescan the collection and ...................... nothing.

Now I have no image in the artist folder. The image folder.jpg are therefore absolutely not used by the db to create the thumbs (at least not the artists directory).

I really do not know what else to try.

Any suggestions?

If I do not have other alternatives, I'll reformat and return to version 0.2.3 hope to have better results.

I can not believe I'm the only person to use the tech folder.jpg .... more so given that this is the technique recommended.


Thank you pouir your help and your suggestions.

[rtv]

Did you rescan the shares from the config app or from within MP?

It's a bit stupid that the wiki isn't updated for this important section...
"Use _existing_ albums thumbs to" [create artists preview thumbs] does exactly what it reads - if you do not want to use a collection of album pics to identify artists you have to populate the \thumbs\artist dir by yourself or use the audioscrobbler artist art grabber.

The folder.jpg is used everywhere where applicable. This mechanism does work and is a common standard among many apps.
This is why MP can even create a folder.jpg in your album directories if it has images in its \thumbs dir.

Embedding into mp3s comes with another disadvantage: The standard expects only 64x64 px thumbs to be embedded - therefore there may be problems with other players if you embed too big pictures.