Foobar2000 - Support and Discussions

Guybrush · 03-26-2010, 01:07 PM

Oh right, I see now .. Well, it's better than nothing perhaps. I never browse all artists in my artist filter, so for me it's not much of a problem at least.

Although I realize it's not the desired solution, perhaps this is the time to advertise playlist tree? With a little configging, it should be easy to make it look basically like a filter.

gotjuice · 04-11-2010, 03:12 PM

Resurrecting this thread with a persistent issue that google is failing me on:

For whatever reason, about a month ago, periodically when I would start foobar, some of my album art would have this ugly gray/white border on the top/bottom. I.e.:

It used to be that I could close/reload foobar and it would revert back to normal. Now, however, I can't get it to go away at all. Even though only a few albums are affected, it's still kind of annoying (I'm pretty OCD about my music collection, especially album art

). Any ideas on what could be causing this?

EDIT: Playing around with it and I'm realizing that this new skin I'm using is set up to read album art as a separate folder.jpeg file instead of embedded album art. Found the thread on the hydrogenaudio forums where he describes how to change the script, but I'm super confused on where exactly to find what he's talking about.

Quote:

@kelkor

You will have to install foo_covers. Set %path% as the cover path in PSS (%el_group_first_path% in ELP). Then search PSS for the $drawimage() lines, that include $get_ps_global(cover.path), replace

nokeepaspect
with
artreader_front nokeepaspect

IN ELP, search for the $imageabs() lines that include $get(e.cover), replace

nokeepaspect
with
artreader_front nokeepaspect

noise · 04-11-2010, 11:07 PM

no idea there, i'm afraid. that skin dives far into foobar's scripting territories, where i have not dared to venture.

Tore messes with that stuff though, hopefully he can help

gotjuice · 04-11-2010, 11:19 PM

Hopefully. Going to be a shame if I can't figure this out because I really like the skin. The old one I posted was really slow and would freeze at points, this one has the same functionality, looks just as good if not better, and is 10x faster to boot.

noise · 04-11-2010, 11:31 PM

can't you solve the issue on the other end? by fixing the album art with the albums that are problematic?

the issue is with the aspect ratio of the art. so if it's embedded art that's giving you trouble, use MP3tag to export it, fix the aspect ratio, then embed it again. that way you don't have to mess with the skin at all.

it's definitely a nice-looking setup!

gotjuice · 04-12-2010, 01:11 AM

That's not really the issue, the issue is that the skin is scripted to search for album art by a separate .jpg in the folder. I'm not sure how or why it's displaying the embedded art in my existing albums, but I added a new Don Caballero album today and it wouldn't display the embedded artwork at all, I had to temporary stick the separate .jpg in to get it to show.

noise · 04-12-2010, 02:30 AM

there is usually a hierarchy of sources where foobar looks, and if it doesn't find art in the first source, it moves on to the second. since most of your artwork is displaying fine, i assume this is the case.

look into the tracks that are giving you problems. remember that mp3s can have more than one image embedded in them.

without understanding how the skin was built, it's going to be difficult to change the way it functions, so you should consider just fixing the cover art for the problematic albums.

anyway, there are advantages to using external album art. embedded art will dramatically increase the size of your music collection since you have as many copies of the image as there are tracks in an album. plus, external art is much easier to change/manage...

Guybrush · 04-12-2010, 03:26 AM

Like noise, I definetly prefer external files for cover display. My own foobar downloads cover art for me which is very useful, but I don't know how I'd go about getting that to work with embedded art.

Anyways, looking at the problem, the first thing that strikes me is that it looks like a problem with aspect ratio and background colour in the panel that shows album art. Can you right click and get properties up? See if you can change the background colour to the dark grey which is used in the rest of your skin.

As noise said, there's a hierarchy and so have you checked if this is a problem that happens when an album doesn't have embedded art? If so, it could move on to the next thing, external art.

Anyways, fixing the script according to the hydrogenaudio forum shouldn't be too hard, but it's tough to do from here where I can't see it. The person refers to two panels. PSS is the Panel Stack Splitter, a panel which holds other panels inside it - such as the album art display panel. The other is the ELPlaylist which is highly scriptable. If you can get into the config areas for these two, you should be able to find the bits of script they suggest changing.

Still, I would think that the white/grey colour is either a background color issue in the panel or that the white and grey is part of the folder.jpg. The easiest fix then is to download new folder.jpgs or set the background colour in the art display panel right!

noise · 04-28-2010, 05:54 AM

how do you guys display track artist for compilations?

right now i add it to the track column, using something like this:

[%artist% - ]%track%

it's not ideal but it's better than having a full column dedicated to %artist% that normally sits empty.

anyway i'm curious to know what others have worked out

Guybrush · 04-28-2010, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noise

anyway i'm curious to know what others have worked out

The album header shows Various artists, probably, then the tracks show up like this :

01. Track title - Artist

Specifically, this is what goes on :

This bit here is in the elplaylist scripting :

Code:

$if(%VACHECK%,,$if($stricmp(%album artist%,%artist%),$puts(VA,0),$puts(VA,1)))

It looks a bit tricky. Basically, it checks whether album artist is different from artist and if yes, there's also a check for the presence of a VACHECK variable. If it's not present, the album is treated as a mixed artists compilation album.

So, when the album is a confirmed various artists album, this happens after the track number and title :

Code:

$ifgreater($get(VA),0, - $replace($meta(artist,0),;, /),)

Might look a bit tricky, but it just fetches the first value in the artist field. If it's a WMA or some other format that doesn't support multiple values, it'll separate the artists with a / .. although of course such files shouldn't really have multiple values so that bit is not too important. Unless perhaps if I decide to change meta(artist,0) for %artist%, but I think the semi-colons become commas then.

edit :

Note that I don't have any columns (atm) by the way

Mixed artist albums also have both artist and album artist on all tracks.

I should perhaps elaborate why I have the VACHECK variable there as well. Some of my albums are collaborations between different artists where they essentially act like a band. F.ex Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco De Lucia's album "Friday Night in San Fransisco".

In my library tree, I would like this album to show up under all three artists :

Code:

\A\Al Di Meola\1981 - Friday Night in San Fransisco
\J\John McLaughlin\1981 - Friday Night in San Fransisco
\P\Paco De Lucia\1981 - Friday Night in San Fransisco

As well as :

Code:

Al di Meola, John McLaughlin & Paco de Lucia\1981 - Friday Night in San Fransisco

So the solution is to use multiple artists in the artist field, like so :

Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin; Al di Meola; John McLaughlin; Paco de Lucia

And then use only "Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin" as album artist which is what appears in the albums header. The check in my previous post would now treat this as a mixed artists album if I didn't tag it with VACHECK .. so that's why it's there.

03-26-2010, 01:07 PM	#81 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	Oh right, I see now .. Well, it's better than nothing perhaps. I never browse all artists in my artist filter, so for me it's not much of a problem at least. Although I realize it's not the desired solution, perhaps this is the time to advertise playlist tree? With a little configging, it should be easy to make it look basically like a filter. __________________ Something Completely Different

04-11-2010, 11:07 PM	#83 (permalink)
noise thirsty ears Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Boulder Posts: 742	no idea there, i'm afraid. that skin dives far into foobar's scripting territories, where i have not dared to venture. Tore messes with that stuff though, hopefully he can help __________________ my flac collection

04-11-2010, 11:19 PM	#84 (permalink)
gotjuice Rose City til I die! Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Boise, ID Posts: 366	Hopefully. Going to be a shame if I can't figure this out because I really like the skin. The old one I posted was really slow and would freeze at points, this one has the same functionality, looks just as good if not better, and is 10x faster to boot. __________________ I used to be carried in the arms of cheerleaders...

04-11-2010, 11:31 PM	#85 (permalink)
noise thirsty ears Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Boulder Posts: 742	can't you solve the issue on the other end? by fixing the album art with the albums that are problematic? the issue is with the aspect ratio of the art. so if it's embedded art that's giving you trouble, use MP3tag to export it, fix the aspect ratio, then embed it again. that way you don't have to mess with the skin at all. it's definitely a nice-looking setup! __________________ my flac collection

04-12-2010, 01:11 AM	#86 (permalink)
gotjuice Rose City til I die! Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Boise, ID Posts: 366	That's not really the issue, the issue is that the skin is scripted to search for album art by a separate .jpg in the folder. I'm not sure how or why it's displaying the embedded art in my existing albums, but I added a new Don Caballero album today and it wouldn't display the embedded artwork at all, I had to temporary stick the separate .jpg in to get it to show. __________________ I used to be carried in the arms of cheerleaders...

04-12-2010, 02:30 AM	#87 (permalink)
noise thirsty ears Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Boulder Posts: 742	there is usually a hierarchy of sources where foobar looks, and if it doesn't find art in the first source, it moves on to the second. since most of your artwork is displaying fine, i assume this is the case. look into the tracks that are giving you problems. remember that mp3s can have more than one image embedded in them. without understanding how the skin was built, it's going to be difficult to change the way it functions, so you should consider just fixing the cover art for the problematic albums. anyway, there are advantages to using external album art. embedded art will dramatically increase the size of your music collection since you have as many copies of the image as there are tracks in an album. plus, external art is much easier to change/manage... __________________ my flac collection

04-12-2010, 03:26 AM	#88 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	Like noise, I definetly prefer external files for cover display. My own foobar downloads cover art for me which is very useful, but I don't know how I'd go about getting that to work with embedded art. Anyways, looking at the problem, the first thing that strikes me is that it looks like a problem with aspect ratio and background colour in the panel that shows album art. Can you right click and get properties up? See if you can change the background colour to the dark grey which is used in the rest of your skin. As noise said, there's a hierarchy and so have you checked if this is a problem that happens when an album doesn't have embedded art? If so, it could move on to the next thing, external art. Anyways, fixing the script according to the hydrogenaudio forum shouldn't be too hard, but it's tough to do from here where I can't see it. The person refers to two panels. PSS is the Panel Stack Splitter, a panel which holds other panels inside it - such as the album art display panel. The other is the ELPlaylist which is highly scriptable. If you can get into the config areas for these two, you should be able to find the bits of script they suggest changing. Still, I would think that the white/grey colour is either a background color issue in the panel or that the white and grey is part of the folder.jpg. The easiest fix then is to download new folder.jpgs or set the background colour in the art display panel right! __________________ Something Completely Different

04-28-2010, 05:54 AM	#89 (permalink)
noise thirsty ears Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Boulder Posts: 742	how do you guys display track artist for compilations? right now i add it to the track column, using something like this: [%artist% - ]%track% it's not ideal but it's better than having a full column dedicated to %artist% that normally sits empty. anyway i'm curious to know what others have worked out __________________ my flac collection