Fanart Handler (1 Viewer)

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cul8er

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    Hi,

    The Fanart Handler plugin is a plugin originally created to push fanart of now played or selected music to the your skin. The scope has expanded and this plugin now also supports more formats (read more on this in the text below). The plugin also enables scraping of music artist fanart from the internet site Home Theatre Backdrops */*Home. The good thing about this plugin is that it push image names that can be used in a skin by the "image" control. To use cycling images in the past you had to use "multiimage" and this control consumes alot of memory.


    The scope of this plugin has expanded and the current scope are
    • Push music fanart for now played music track
    • Push music fanart for browsed music artist in myMusic plugin
    • Push music fanart for browsed music artist in GlobalSearch plugin
    • Push music fanart for browsed music artist in Music Videos plugin
    • Push music fanart for browsed music artist in mVids plugin
    • Push music fanart for browsed music artist in YouTube.FM plugin
    • Push movie fanart for browsed video title in myVideo plugin
    • Push scorecenter fanart for browsed category in myScoreCenter plugin
    • Push cycling fanart from the following folders for use anywhere in a skin for

      [*]thumbs\MovingPictures\Backdrops\FullSize
      [*]thumbs\Fan Art\fanart\original
      [*]thumbs\Skin Fanart\games
      [*]thumbs\Skin Fanart\pictures
      [*]thumbs\Skin Fanart\movies
      [*]thumbs\Skin Fanart\music
      [*]thumbs\Skin Fanart\plugins
      [*]thumbs\Skin Fanart\tv

    Requirements
    • MediaPortal 1.0.2 or later
    • Fanart Handler Plugin
    • A skin that supports the Fanart Handler.
    NOTE! This plugin only supports JPG images.

    Guide
    Wiki for MP End Users
    Wiki for Skinners

    Download
    [http://code.google.com/p/fanart-handler/downloads/list"]Fanart Handler[/URL]

    Best Regards
    cul8er
     

    emphatic

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  • August 25, 2006
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    1. Does it work with the following characters:

    Code:
    å ä ö á à ë and '

    It would also be nice if it can have a low threshold for characters like these when running a match search, so that if

    "José González" is in the mp3 Artist tag, the fanart named Jose Gonzalez will still be used.

    2. Will there be a "fallback" setting for the plugin, so that if you are missing artist fanart, you can use another tag for it, like "genre".

    Case scenario: Artist fanart is missing, the plugin loads a genre matching artwork instead.

    3. If you would make it push images to Basic Home as well, would that fix the "multiimage on Basic Home goes black when using a mouse" issue?

    These are really exciting times, GUI wise. Thanks for your awesome work.
    Emph
     

    cul8er

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    • #3
    Hi emphatic,

    Thank you for your feedback.
    1. I will look at this and see what I can do.
    2. I'm not going to focus on this in the first release but will keep it for later because it is a really good suggestion.
    3. The mouse issue that exist in for example x-factor is not an issue because the skin does not support mouse only keyboard and remote. This has to do with the visibility tags and not the multiimage and there are currently no way of handling it in MP.

    best regards
    cul8er
     

    joz

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    The good thing about this plugin is that it push image names that can be used in a skin by the "image" control. To use cycling images in the past you had to use "multiimage" and this control consumes alot of memory. The downside to using an image is that fading between images is not possible.
    Just thinking aloud here regarding your downside;

    What if we are to define 2 images for fading's sake, so you will load image id x thru your plugin on startup (or window entry) and after x amount of time you will load an image to an imagecontrol with id Y, which xml wise is on top of id x. You can then unload x (if possible). After amount of time you will unload Y and load x.
    When loading the different image controls you will set visible to false of the unloaded image (or some dummy control). In skinfile we will have a conditional animation which will be controlled by the visible state of the images (or a dummy control) so you can have a fading animation?

    Does this make any sense?

    ----EDIT----

    PS was just a little faster. And like he said, really looking forward to this :D a lot!
     

    cul8er

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    Hi,

    Thank you for the suggestion but I don't think this is possible. You can do this in TVSeries because you have a skinfile with ID corresponding to your Windows plugin but what we have here is a process plugin that you can use anywhere in any skinfile. I don't think it is possible to set visibility of controlls in a process plugin only windows plugins. But if anyone can prove me wrong and tell me how to do it I would be gratefull because then we have a really good solution.

    best regards
    cul8er
     

    emphatic

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  • August 25, 2006
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    Hi,

    Thank you for the suggestion but I don't think this is possible. You can do this in TVSeries because you have a skinfile with ID corresponding to your Windows plugin but what we have here is a process plugin that you can use anywhere in any skinfile. I don't think it is possible to set visibility of controlls in a process plugin only windows plugins. But if anyone can prove me wrong and tell me how to do it I would be gratefull because then we have a really good solution.

    best regards
    cul8er

    How about a Windows plugin called "xfactor.fadeimage" in addition that does this, i.e. interact with "xfactor.fanart.handler" (the process plugin)? Or would that mean that you'd have to have several Windows plugins, one for each category (music, movies, etc)?

    Emph
     

    cul8er

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    • #8
    Hi,

    I think I have solved the fading problem and we can still use a process plugin. The plugin with above specifications is 90% done;)

    cheers
    cul8er
     

    joz

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    wohoo can't wait. :D again cul8er
     

    Dadeo

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    Great stuff cul8er! Will the plugin grab fanart as well? The artist images from last.fm that you get via Audioscrobbler plugin (Cover Art Tab download) are pretty hit and miss. You never know what size or orientation you will end up with. These are the same images you get via NowPlaying altlhough I think MP overwrites your images when Last.fm finds a new one. Alas, it does not keep the previous one.

    Don't forget Showtimes which also downloads fanart automatically and the Music Videos plugin may do so again soon.

    The fading between images will be fantastic! I've been wanting that for ages! Thanks for all your efforts. Let's hope this helps to standardize fanart/backdrops a bit more.
     
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