Author Topic: Local artist pictures for Theater Mode  (Read 1444 times)

MikeMail

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I've read all the posts I can find about Local Artist pictures, and still can't get it to work (yet).  Most of the posts on local pictures are for Landscape pictures not related to artist.  What I want is for each song to start with my local photos of only that particular artist, then once all of the LOCAL photos of that artist have displayed once, it will display internet search photos of that artist.    

(1) That's how it's supposed to work, right?  

I've got my photos in the MusicBee\Plugins\TheaterMode.List\Default.Rotation, and named with the artist name...

(2) I assume the filenames are required to start with the artist name that matches the ID3 tag artist field, right?  (or anywhere in the filename? Case sensitive or not?  I saw the post about not using odd characters like amersands.)  
(3) Does it matter if in the filename the artist name is followed by other info (location, date, etc.)?  

I've started with the Default Tweak TM which works fine with the default 45 sec rotation for internet pictures.  When I change tags="artist" to tags="artist:local" in Default Tweak, not only do my pictures not show, but the internet pictures stop rotating (only first one displayed).  After the change, I've got this line:  
<element type="Gallery" x="1" y="1" widthDock="Panel" width="-2" heightDock="Panel" height="-2" aspectRatio="zoomKeep" interval="30" tags="artist:local" ></element>

(4) Suggestions on what I need to do to make it work?  

Thanks,   -=- Mike

frankz

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I think it uses photos from the Artist Pictures folder in the same directory as your library, not whatever folder that is where you put them.

They should be named <Artist>.jpg or <Artist>_1.jpg, etc for multiple.

MikeMail

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Ah!  I thought I was following instructions in a different post.  I don't have an Artist Pictures folder.  Do I need to create one?  Under TheaterMode.List or under Default.Rotation? 

So they have to be named with a sequence number? 
Jimmy Buffett_1.jpg
Jimmy Buffett_2.jpg
Jimmy Buffett_3.jpg
(?)

One of the wishlist items is to allow it to point to another existing folder, but that would require everyone to rename all their photos.  I'm hoping that won't be the case... I have thousands. 

Thanks for the help.     -=- Mike

Steven

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The local pictures are retrieved from the musicbee artist pictures folder in Preferences/Tags(1)

MikeMail

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Frankz: 
Here's the post that said to put them under the Default.Rotation folder: 
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=23182.0
But maybe Redwing was talking about only landscape photos... not sure. 

Steven: 
I can't believe I missed that folder location in Tags(1) as many times as I've looked for it!  Sorry about that.  The $64,000 question... Can that be configured to point to my existing large collection of artist photos in subfolders with existing filenames that have the artists' names in them, but also other info (date, location)?   

Thanks

The Incredible Boom Boom

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Steven: 
I can't believe I missed that folder location in Tags(1) as many times as I've looked for it!  Sorry about that.  The $64,000 question... Can that be configured to point to my existing large collection of artist photos in subfolders with existing filenames that have the artists' names in them, but also other info (date, location)?   

It should work, but backup your ..\Library and ..\AppData beforehand.

MikeMail

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With those clues, I've managed to get it to work (at least for a small sample size so far).  For the benefit of other folks, this is what I've found from experimentation.  

The rules are:  
Artist picture filenames must start with the artist's name, and match the artist's name in the ID3 tag.  
To have more than one picture, of course, the filename must include a numeric counter.  2-digit and 3-digit counters work (didn't experiment with others).  
Spaces are OK in the artist name, and between the artist's name and the counter (underscores work but aren't required).  
Other information in the filename (date, location) are not allowed before or after the artist name.  

Because other locations aren't allowed, I didn't experiment with redirecting the folder.  I'm going to have duplicate photos anyhow, because I must keep my originals with date and location in the filename.  I was hoping to avoid duplication, but that's not possible with the current version.  Also, artist picture collections will be more labor-intensive to sync, as I accidentally add new photos to one folder but not another.  But... the final product is still great.  

Thanks, guys.