[audioqueso]

Hello Everyone,

New MP user here. I'm trying to set my music so that I can browse album with art.
I've searched for what I am looking for, but can't seem to find the solution.
First, here is my setup:
My D: drive has all my music in individual folders for each album. So I have something like:
D:/Alicia Keys - The Diary of Alicia Keys
D:/Eagles - Hell Freeze Over
etc.

For the past 5 years I've been using Meedio and accessing my music via My Music folder under My Documents.
Example:
My Music (1st folder tier)
Classical, R&B, Rock, etc (2nd folder tier)
m3u playlists (inside folders)

1) Main problem is that my root folder is My Music folder, and in that folder, I only have m3u playlist.
That's how I navigate for my music. Is there a way to show the album art while browsing through m3u playlists? The songs have coverart embedded into them, and the root folder for that album has folder.jpg, but that does not show through the playlist. So that's my first question/option.

2) If there isn't an answer for option 1, I know I can put the root folder as the a the D: drive, but that would mean reorganizing the folder structure. I don't want to do that. However, if I have to do that, is there a way via MP to select a particular music folder, and as soon as I select it, it starts playing like a playlist does?

And lastly with playlist (this one I may have missed, but I'm still researching), how can I set it up to go straight to Now Playing once the playlist is selected?

Thank you everyone.

[audioqueso]

Originally Posted by audioqueso

1) Main problem is that my root folder is My Music folder, and in that folder, I only have m3u playlist.
That's how I navigate for my music. Is there a way to show the album art while browsing through m3u playlists? The songs have coverart embedded into them, and the root folder for that album has folder.jpg, but that does not show through the playlist. So that's my first question/option.

Well, I've been testing and testing with different configs modification on the xml files, but so far it doesn't seem possible. There is one last option for me to try, as suggested by someone... so I have one last try on this one.

Originally Posted by audioqueso

2) If there isn't an answer for option 1, I know I can put the root folder as the a the D: drive, but that would mean reorganizing the folder structure. I don't want to do that. However, if I have to do that, is there a way via MP to select a particular music folder, and as soon as I select it, it starts playing like a playlist does?

I am pretty close to figuring this one out. I will post results.

Originally Posted by audioqueso

And lastly with playlist (this one I may have missed, but I'm still researching), how can I set it up to go straight to Now Playing once the playlist is selected?

I figured out this is possible, but I'm still in the process of sorting out every single hyperlink in MP. Once I have that, I can assign any button to jump to any location I want. I will post results.

[hwahrmann]

Why don't you scan your music colection, so that the tags are stored in the database an then use one of the database views for navigation?
if your files are tagged well and they have all covers included, then we will extraxt them and present hm accordingly.
There is no need for folder restructuring then.

[audioqueso]

Scan how? I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
What I'm trying to do is set it up so that when I click on My Music, I see folders for all the different genres. Then when I click that, I see alphabetical listing for all artist - albums in that category.

[hwahrmann]

In Mediaportal, you have the Shares View, which is the representation of the physical HD layout.
And you have the Database Views, which list per Artist, Album, Genre, Year, etc.
The database must be filled of course, before it can be used.

so in Configuration -> Music -> Music Database, start a scan of your defined shares.
you'll find a number of check bixes there, dealing with Cover art.
Make sure that "Treat tracks in an individual folder as album" has been checked to keep compilations together.

After the scan is finished, you're able to browse by database views and you should also find your cover arts in the Thumbs\Music folder.

[krikkit]

also do not forget to enable the musicsharewatcher plugin, so that the database will be automatically updated when the files change..

[audioqueso]

Ok, I did a test.
I went to configurations>music>music database.
I checked C:/CM as a test. I have 9 folders in there. 2000 all the way to 2008.
I opened up MP, and switched to Genre. It lists things just the way I want it. I can select Rock, Classical, etc.. and then it shows the artists. Two things.
Is there a way to show Artists - Album?
What I'm getting is that I have to go Genre>Artist>Album. Is there a way to list Genre>Artists - Album

Second thing... compilations albums. It splits it to every different artist. How do I prevent that?

[hwahrmann]

Use the AlbumARtist field, to prevent splitting of compilations OR have all the compilations in a folder of their own and check the "Treat tracks in an individual folder as album".

No, there isn't a way to have Artist - Album. the amount of data returned woulld just be to big.

[audioqueso]

I do have each album in its own folder. And I did check "Treat tracks in an individual folder as album"... but it still splits it up. I tried viewing by Genre, by AlbumArtist, by Artists, but it still shows a listing for every artist. I've double checked that every file had a tag showing the same album name, and it does. I've doubled checked that the only things different in the tags are the artists and track title. Yes, if I list by Artists, AlbumArtists, Genre, Years, whatever, I get a listing for every artists. So with about 15 different artists on the album, it shows 15 different listings, and then on each of those 15 listings, it shows the album name.

And why would Genre>Artist - Album be so difficult? I don't understand why you say it will be huge? It would already be sorted by genre. It would be no different than Genre>Artists>Album... just not categorized after Genre>Artist. Another way to look at it is by Genre>alphabetical order, inside of Genre>Artist>Album. This way, if you click on a particular genre, it will show all listings under that in alphabetical order. So that if I have the folder named Eagles - Hell Freezes Over, then when I sort by Genre, I click on Rock, then it shows all my listings and I see Eagle - Hell Freezes Over.

With over 100 albums that are Various Artists, I really wouldn't choose this path of having all the artists split. It would be very annoying to have 100+ compilation artists split all over the place. I'll keep looking at this though.

[hwahrmann]

ok, then you MUST have set the AlbumArtist field in a wrong way.
if you have a compilation with 15 different artists on it, make sure that ALL 15 tracks share the same AlbumArtist value. (e.g. the name of the compilation / sampler).
If the AlbumArtist field is empty, then we will categorize them under "Various Artist".
From what you explain, it looks like that you have Artist = AlbumArtist in your tracks.

Maybe you should have also a look at the "Music Views" section in Configuration and change all the occurences of "Artist" in the various views to "AlbumArtist" since that is what you'Re probably searching most of the time.

I don't say that it is difficult to have Artist - Album, it is just not the way MP works. It is not designed for.
With the amount of data returned i mean that it makes no sense for me to click on genre "Rock" and then get returned maybe several hundred items and i need to scroll then down 20 pages to locate an a specific album for "The Rolling Stones".

I understand your concerns, but the product is simply not designed for that type of operation.

P.S you could remove in "Music Views" the Artist Level in the Genre view, then you will have listed all albums for the genre along with the artist. But the sorting is in a different way, which is not correct for you. the sorting is done per album and not on artist.