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Topic: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator (Read 420583 times) previous topic - next topic
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iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #425
Jose, excellent challenge- I like it
I knew you would. 

Cover1.jpg is common to 11 discs: Disc 01 to Disc 11
[...] Cover9.jpg is common to 44 discs: Disc 127 to Disc 170
Exactly.

(I would have actually have 170 different Artwork from the CD Cover but that's besides point )
Um, sure but... well, if somehow you find the time to scan all 170 similar CD covers, give me a sign. That's too much for me ! 

Am I right to assume, creating 170 dummy mp3 files is a must for both automatic or workaround method?
Yes, that's exactly what I have done.

You select disc 01 to 11 in iTunes.
Right click in iTunes, Get Info and browse for your Cover1.jpg
Yes... or copy Cover1.jpg with Windows, then back to iTunes, right-click on the cover part, and paste.

repeat for 9 categories (Volumes).
Right.

Now select all 170 mp3 files in iTunes
Using iTunesiTSfv, create Artwork in the Album folder with the pattern %album artist% - (%year%) - %album%.jpg
YES ! That's exactly what I have done !!  (with iTSfv, not with iTunes of course)

Is this another workaround or a solution - I am not sure but I didn't
- Copy / paste them for all other mp3 (01-01 goes to 01-02 ... 01-11, and so on)
It's the solution I have used yesterday, and it works. 

See the other thread for my thoughts on tagging.   

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #426
Quote
Hey McoreD,

I've been getting .NET Framework errors with the new 5.51 build.
This happens when i'm getting artwork from the iTunes store that didn't download with my own tags.

.NET give this error: Unhandled exception, Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
I added the whole thing at the end here.

I suspect it might have something to do with the fact that iTunes is busy 'determining gapless playback information' when I have iTSfv add a dummy mp3 to grab the artwork.  Not sure, but that seems to be a pattern.

Didn't seem like a good idea to dump the dump in the thread, hence the pm.  Feel free to copypaste whatever you deem interesting back in the thread.

Cheers

Code: [Select]
See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  at iTSfv.mBwJobsIT.mfExportArtworkIT(IITOperationStatus job, String dirPath)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.bwApp_RunWorkerCompleted(Object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
  at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnRunWorkerCompleted(RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
  at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.AsyncOperationCompleted(Object arg)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 5.51.3.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreIndexer
    Assembly Version: 2.9.7.0
    Win32 Version: 2.9.7.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreIndexer.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
yqlli7rt
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Assembly Version: 1.12.1.1
    Win32 Version: 1.12.1.1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.ITDETECTORLib
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.ITDETECTORLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.10.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.10.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Web
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_32/System.Web/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Web.dll
----------------------------------------
CustomMarshalers
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_32/CustomMarshalers/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/CustomMarshalers.dll
----------------------------------------
taglib-sharp
    Assembly Version: 2.0.3.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.3.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/taglib-sharp.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.


Hi NearlyGod,

Thanks for the concern and I wrapped the error in codebox tag.

Could you please temporarily turn off volume levelling and let me know if it works? I have Volume levelling on and also I guess the gapless playback determination is happening for all the tracks that are added. I will try to catch the error in the upcoming builds.

Jose,

Great to know it works out for you that way. I will check the other thread for the Box set tagging practises.

Cheers,
McoreD

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #427
> I suspect it might have something to do with the fact that iTunes is busy 'determining gapless playback information' when I have
> iTSfv add a dummy mp3 to grab the artwork.  Not sure, but that seems to be a pattern.

Could you please temporarily turn off volume levelling and let me know if it works? I have Volume levelling on and also I guess the gapless playback determination is happening for all the tracks that are added. I will try to catch the error in the upcoming builds.


Assuming that levelling is what iTunes calls 'Sound Check', I've never had it switched on 

I don't have a 100% score for reproducing this, but it does seem that it only occurs when I have Photoshop CS3 open at the same time (which I have set to use .NET for some dialogues), never when it's not running.

I wouldn't spend too much time tracking this down, I'll try and get better crashes 

EDIT: Hm.  Might want to scratch that last comment  Not running Photoshop this time, and my first attempt at grabbing albumart today:

System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80010001): Call was rejected by callee. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80010001 (RPC_E_CALL_REJECTED))
  at iTunesLib.IITOperationStatus.get_Tracks()
  at iTSfv.mBwJobsIT.mfExportArtworkIT(IITOperationStatus job, String dirPath)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.bwApp_RunWorkerCompleted(Object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
  at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.OnRunWorkerCompleted(RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
  at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.AsyncOperationCompleted(Object arg)

Very reproducable, because so far, it's happened every time I wanted to download art!

NG

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #428
NearlyGod,

That's strange. Errors such as "Rejected by Callee (iTunes)" means there was some window open in iTunes  or iTunes was too busy processing information. Has anybody else experienced this issue?

I have handled the error preventing crash however this doesn't mean iTunes Store artwork will be successfully retrieved.

How does your debug file look NG?

20080328T135119 Job Started: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL
20080328T135125 Temporarily added dummy file with Artist: "Various Artists", Album: "100 Best Relaxing Classics"
20080328T135125 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 6.5936292 Seconds
20080328T135125 Cleaning Temporary Files... in G:\Users\McoreD\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\
20080328T135130 Saved Track Artwork as G:\Users\McoreD\Desktop\Various Artists - (2007) 100 Best Relaxing Classics.jpg
20080328T135130 Job Finished: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL




Meanwhile I was adding so many songs to iTunes and played with running two instances of iTSfv:


iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #429
How does your debug file look NG?


Not like much 

(SCRATCH THIS - I copied a few lines here, but they were from a succesful art-download.  Deleted because there is no info added to the log at all when a crash has happened)

When this occurs, I can still choose between 'continue' or 'quit'.  iTSfv remains usable.  The dummy file however is not removed from my playlist, if that helps you to 'time' what's happening.

EDIT It just started getting crashes again, but only now (not very quick of me) I noticed that it only happens when artwork is NOT found...  Also, the debug log file isn't updated so I can only hope that the bit I copied above was from an actual crash.

EDIT2 Crap, not reproducable: Where 5 minutes ago, it crashed on 'Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger', after restarting iTSfv: no crash.  Even though it can still not download the art.  (Different issue, but very strange, this album should be an easy one, no?  iTunes itself doesn't grab the art either, despise proper tagging).

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #430
NearlyGod,

That's very strange. Here is the Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger Artwork from iTunes Store.



I figured the debug data were not written to the file, however if you had Logs > Debug... clicked, a Debug window would open and you could see the current debug data there.

Dummy file not getting deleted means it crashed inside this function:

Code: [Select]
    Public Function mfExportArtworkIT(ByVal job As IITOperationStatus, ByVal dirPath As String) As Boolean

        Dim succ As Boolean = True
        Dim songLoc As String = "Unknown Track Location"

        Try
            If job IsNot Nothing Then
                If job.Tracks.Count > 0 Then

                    Dim song As IITFileOrCDTrack = CType(job.Tracks(1), IITFileOrCDTrack)

                    songLoc = song.Location
                    Dim songArtist As String = song.Artist

                    succ = song.Artwork.Count > 0

                    If succ Then
                        sExportArtwork(song, dirPath)
                    End If

                    If IO.File.Exists(songLoc) Then
                        My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteFile(songLoc)
                    End If

                    song.Delete()

                    If succ = False Then
                        mfUpdateStatusBarText("Could not find Artwork from iTunes Store...", True)
                    End If

                End If
            End If

            ' - type artist, album, first track title and press search
            '- search copies a dummy mp3 from program dir to temp, adds the tags to file, adds teh file to itunes
            '- if job.tracks.count > 0 then if  track.artwork.count > 0 then prompt where to save the artwork or auto save to Artwork folder
            '- delete the track from itunes, delete track from temp
        Catch ex As Exception
            msAppendWarnings(ex.Message + " while exporting iTunes Store Artwork for " + songLoc)
        End Try

        Return succ


    End Function

Would you be interested in a remote session? If so, we could work some common time out.

Cheers,
McoreD

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #431
That's very strange. Here is the Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger Artwork from iTunes Store.


Hehe, thanks

Quote
I figured the debug data were not written to the file, however if you had Logs > Debug... clicked, a Debug window would open and you could see the current debug data there.


I did this time, when I tried to download 'Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors' , the result is as follows:
20080329T123835 Job Started: EXPORT_ARTWORK_MANUAL
20080329T123856 Duration: 0 Hours 00 Minutes 21,21875 Seconds
20080329T123856 Cleaning Temporary Files... in C:\Documents and Settings\Me\Application Data\iTSfv\

Not exactly illuminating; it did however ask me to send a report via email, I hope these end up actually arriving?  'Zwit0045' would be me.

I should note that before that, I had some succesful albumart downloads, as well as one unproblematic 'art not found' instance.

Quote
Would you be interested in a remote session? If so, we could work some common time out.


I'd like to help as much as I can, but I don't want to disappoint you by not showing up or having to leave very quickly.  My schedule at this moment just doesn't allow it.  In the meantime, I hope I do have some time to test and to keep reporting back to the forum.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #432
Hi NearlyGod,

Appreciate your feedback. The new build:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989

has error handling and debug writing fixed for downloading iTunes Store Artwork.

The bug reports will be sent successfully provided that you have set SMTP settings in Options > Advanced > Internet. It should prompt you for the first time. You can also manually trigger this using Help > Submit Bug Report...

Thanks,
McoreD

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #433
Thank you, will try and play with the new build this weekend.

There's something else that I encountered and have no explanation for:
When dealing with multiple-cd albums, spread over per-cd folders, occasionally only the first cd is handled correctly when Embedding Artwork and when Exporting Folder, AlbumartSmall and Artwork.jpg.

The second cd's and up are ignored.  This seems to happen with albums where I have manually added the coverart (which I always drop on the first track of an album).  When iTunes itself has been able to download the art, it is embedded in the tracks of all the cds, and the three JPGs are created in all folders.

Cheers

(NB the download counter on sourceforge isn't accurate or at least not realtime  Okay, sorry for this useless info)

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #434
There's something else that I encountered and have no explanation for:
When dealing with multiple-cd albums, spread over per-cd folders, occasionally only the first cd is handled correctly when Embedding Artwork and when Exporting Folder, AlbumartSmall and Artwork.jpg.

The second cd's and up are ignored.  This seems to happen with albums where I have manually added the coverart (which I always drop on the first track of an album).  When iTunes itself has been able to download the art, it is embedded in the tracks of all the cds, and the three JPGs are created in all folders.


Hi NearlyGod,

I can kind of see how this could happen by design. When you say multiple-disc albums spread over per-disc folders, I assume as opposed what I have here:

Name: Haunted
Artist: Paul van Dyk feat. Lo-Fi Sugar
AlbumArtist: Paul van Dyk
Album: In Between
Location: D:\Music\Paul van Dyk\In Between\1-01 Haunted.mp3
Disc: 1 of 2
Genre: Trance

Name: White Lies Berlin (Vocal Mix)
Artist: Paul van Dyk & Alex M.O.R.P.H.
AlbumArtist: Paul van Dyk
Album: In Between
Location: D:\Music\Paul van Dyk\In Between\2-01 White Lies Berlin (Vocal Mix).mp3
Disc: 2 of 2
Genre: Trance

you will have it as

Location: D:\Music\Paul van Dyk\In Between (Disk 01)\01 Haunted.mp3

Location: D:\Music\Paul van Dyk\In Between (Disk 02)\01 White Lies Berlin (Vocal Mix).mp3

but the tag for Album will be both the same?

Album: In Between

or will it be

Album: In Between (Disk 01)

Album: In Between (Disk 02)

I could see something could happen when iTunes is not organizing the music. I will experiment with different variations and see what I find.

Thanks for pointing this out.

Edit:

It was very straightforward to reproduce. What you mentioned would happen if you have Album: In Between for both discs but have them in separate folders. It was the logical outcome by current design. You will see in the Debug logs:

20080331T060125 Found 1 sources of Artwork  - for Paul van Dyk (Disk 01) because I embedded artwork to the first track of the disc
20080331T061406 Found 0 sources of Artwork  - for Paul van Dyk (Disk 02) because I did not embed artwork to the first track of the disc

So in other words, there were no artwork in the source folder, or track, or in iTunes Store cache for the disc 2.

The workaround is to embed the artwork in the first track in every disc.

In iTunes you see both discs together because the Album tag was same, but in the File System they are two different beasts with 2nd disc having no artwork.

When iTunes downloads the Artwork automatically it assigns the artwork to every track in the album (disc 01 and disc 02). So each track has artwork reference to iTunes Artwork cache. iTSfv is able to pick this and export the artwork to Disc 02 folder. That's why: When iTunes itself has been able to download the art, it is embedded in the tracks of all the cds, and the three JPGs are created in all folders.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #435
Hey McoreD, thank you for taking a look at this.  You've hit all the nails on their heads!

It's no biggie.

Haven't really had time to spend on my music, but I did find out that iTSfv doesn't like it when I capitalize the AlbumArtist tag, when there is none present. 

EDIT: While editing and (re-)compiling my collection, I've come up with a feature-request that I think might be useful: 'send to google' and/or wikipedia, but I think Google is the most useful.  This would simply do a google search for the current iTunes "Artist - Album", which would give all kinds of useful info.

Cheers

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #436
NearlyGod,

Indeeed. Thanks for spotting that bug. 

5.52.1.0 Search selected track in Google via Selected Tracks menu [NearlyGod]
5.52.0.1 Regrouping tracks / Capitalizing AlbumArtist would crash iTSfv if AlbumArtist tag was Empty [NearlyGod]


5.52.0.0 Option to manually choose best artwork for importing via Options - Advanced - Validation - Artwork


5.51.8.0 Support for %Folder% and %Location% syntax for use with Selected Tracks - Clipboard
5.51.7.0 Option to manually select artist for downloading iTunes Store track artwork from multiple artists are found
5.51.6.0 Tabs now have icons from Silk icon set 1.3 by Mark James [Sadie]

Nice idea about Googling the track for more info. When you said "current iTunes Artist - Album" I assume you mean the current selected track, not the playing track?

Cheers,
McoreD

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #437
Nice idea about Googling the track for more info. When you said "current iTunes Artist - Album" I assume you mean the current selected track, not the playing track?


It seems that would be most in line with how iTSfv operates, no?  If you should want info about the track that is playing, it's easy enough to focus the cursor on it.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #438
That's Correct NearlyGod. 

The latest Beta version with the above version history is downloadable.

5.52.1.1 Downloading iTunes Store artwork did not work in build 5.51.7.0 and above

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989
http://itsfv.sourceforge.net/

Cheers,
McoreD

P.S:

I just found an early screenshot of iTSfv:

[a href="http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfv08demoru4.jpg" target="_blank"]

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #439
5.52.0.0 Option to manually choose best artwork for importing via Options - Advanced - Validation - Artwork
--alt-presets are there for a reason! These other switches DO NOT work better than it, trust me on this.
LAME + Joint Stereo doesn't destroy 'Stereo'

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #440
does that mean that I will be able to go through my music collection and compare the album art that is currently embedded in the file, to the album art I could get from iTunes?


Hi Jojo,

This manual mode is the result of the one very early ideas that didn't get to implement:

"Always look for higher resolution artwork while validating groupBox? What do you think of that?"
--> Good, but maybe not perfect. In fact it should depend on whether the optional "preview" mode is activated or not.
--> "preview" mode activated => look for all possible artwork
--> "preview" mode deactivated => always look for higher resolution artwork

What do you think ?

"Personally I would like less user interaction as possible. I normally start validating the whole library and go get a cup of coffee or to bed. biggrin.gif
So the *optional* preview mode is a great idea to fix that issue. "
--> Yes of course, it has to be optional. This way we will be able to validate 90% of the library with no user interaction, then handle the remaining 10% on an album-per-album basis using the preview mode.


Your idea is very nice and I can certainly incorporate the current resources into implementing that feature.

iTSfv so far has been automatically choosing the highest resolution cover as the best artwork for embedding artwork. Highest resolution may not be always most suitable one.

Quote
When you have "Embed Artwork from XXX" checkBox checked in the Tracks tab, iTSfv looks Artwork from the following locations: 

1. iTunes Store (disabled by default because currently these Artwork are encrypted) 
2. iTunes Store Artwork in iTunes Artwork Cache
3. Artwork from the Music Folder of the track
4. Artwork embedded in Track 
5. Artwork downloaded using Album Art Downloader XUI 

iTSfv then chooses the highest resolution Artwork from the 5 sources (usually 3 sources or less on a typical environment).


This manual mode is currently useful when:

1/ You add a new album to iTunes via iTSfv. iTunes detects the album and automatically downloads the iTunes Store Artwork to the album. This iTunes Artwork can be wrong but has 600x600. You already have the proper artwork 600x593 in your album folder. iTSfv now begins to validate the albums. When you validate, iTSfv automatically would choose the 600x600 which iTunes downloaded as the best artwork but it is wrong. The manual mode will list the current artwork sources and let you embed them.

2/ An album could have various artwork embedded in its tracks and you don't notice this in iTunes. iTSfv will display all the Artwork from each track and let you choose the best one out of it to embed to all tracks in that album.

Edit:

For next release:

5.53.0.0 Manually choose best Artwork to save during batch exporting iTunes Store Artwork to user defined music folder [Jojo]

Cheers,
McoreD

 

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #441
Hi McoreD,
Is it possible to get iTSfv to generate a playlist in iTunes that would list all albums without artwork?
- Chr

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #442
For next release:

5.53.0.0 Manually choose best Artwork to save during batch exporting iTunes Store Artwork to user defined music folder [Jojo]

wow, that was quick. Thank You.
I noticed there is a second developer, Toby Simmons, involved now. How long has he been working with you?
--alt-presets are there for a reason! These other switches DO NOT work better than it, trust me on this.
LAME + Joint Stereo doesn't destroy 'Stereo'

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #443
Hi McoreD,
Is it possible to get iTSfv to generate a playlist in iTunes that would list all albums without artwork?
- Chr


Hi christian,

Yes!  The required checkBoxes are in:

Checks tab > "Check for tracks without Artwork"
Library tab > "Save validation results as Playlists in iTunes"


wow, that was quick. Thank You.
I noticed there is a second developer, Toby Simmons, involved now. How long has he been working with you?


Hi Jojo,

Thanks - this was easy to implement as the previous Artwork Choosing dialog box was already done.

Toby Simmons was one of the iTSfv users who expressed keen interest on the source code of the project. Back then iTSfv was not open source. I made him a developer but I have not seen ever since regarding the project. 

To get MP3 working with this feature, Jojo, please add mp3 to the supported file formats in

Options > Advanced > Formats > Other Audio formats

so it will read flac,mpc,ogg,mp3

Hi Jose Hidalgo,

As I quoted your in my previous post, this feature is actually one of your oldest ideas and I would like your feedback on this. If you can test this feature working fine that would be nice.

Both Jojo/Jose Hidalgo, any feedback on this feature would be much appreciated. 

Thanks,
McoreD

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #444
To get MP3 working with this feature, Jojo, please add mp3 to the supported file formats in

is there any reason why this isn't enabled by default?
--alt-presets are there for a reason! These other switches DO NOT work better than it, trust me on this.
LAME + Joint Stereo doesn't destroy 'Stereo'

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #445
Jojo,

There is no reason now. It is enabled by default after the new feature but you may not see it if you had a build installer earlier than this.  Earlier, the file formats in that Options tab were not targetted for MP3. So it only had flac,mpc,ogg.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #446
McoreD, I hope this is relevant to the thread, as I don't mean to hijack it.
I'm curious how you propose handling Box Sets.  Specifically box sets that have complete, previously released, cd's in them.

A wholly new box set would tag just fine as: 'artist - nameofboxset', using disc 1/3,2/3,3/3.

A box set with (a number of) pre-existing cd's, is more tricky to handle.  Say, the 9cd Eagles box set can simply be tagged as one disc, or as 9 discs belonging to album 'Eagles box set'.  However, 8 of the nine discs have normal, proper, names.

So far I've been tagging items like this using their original names, but with the set name in the Grouping tag.  This kind of works, but I'm not really happy with it.  Especially because now I have for example disc 5 showing up as Eagles - Hotel California disc 5/9 , which is a bit so-so.  Not to speak of discs 7/9 and 8/9 which are, respectively, Eagles Live CD1 and CD2.

Do you recommend staying this course, or is there a better way to handle this?

Cheers

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #447
Hi NearlyGod,

No hijack at all, I had this covered in another thread though.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=554131

I too use the Grouping tag to set the Boxset name. I don't like it because it is an abuse of the MP3 ID3v2 spec. Grouping tag according to ID3v2 spec is Sub-genre.

When you say:

A wholly new box set would tag just fine as: 'artist - nameofboxset', using disc 1/3,2/3,3/3.

Do you mean you tag Artist field with  'artist - nameofboxset' ?

The other alternative is to use the Boxset name as the Album name. Then comes the question where the title of Disc 1, 2.. goes. I would propose using OriginalAlbum frame for that. The downside of this method is that you are limited to one Artwork that represents the whole box set. You can still have different artwork for each disc however iTunes will only show one Artwork (disc 1) in the Album list view.

I expected this question to come up one day. It is a really serious topic that hasn't given much attention. IMO just like there is AlbumArtist tag that represents a collection of TrackArtists, there should be a BoxSet tag that represent a collection of Albums.

However, like I said before, if you attempt to stricly use already existing ID3v2 tags, then

Album (TALB) would be the BoxSet name.
OriginalAlbum (TOAL) would be the Disc name.

Cheers,
McoreD

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #448
I might have found a bug.

I regularly add files to my library using the Explorer tab. I have it search for new files and I add them. If iTunes has downloaded any Podcasts during the instance I currently have running, iTSfv brings them up when I search for new files. iTSfv is configured to ignore Podcasts.

Everything works fine if I close iTunes and open it back up. Again, it only does this if iTunes downloaded the Podcast within the same instance.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #449
Hi xanadu,

Thanks for the feedback. I did not have Exclude Folders implement.

About iTSfv adding the podcasts -- that's tricky one. Outside of iTunes, iTSfv Explorer has no knowledge whether a mp3/aac is a Podcast or not. Only within iTunes, current implementation of iTSfv could tell whether a track is a Podcast or not, or otherwise it is simply just another mp3/aac file that is not yet added to iTunes. This is the reason why "Include Podcasts" option is limited to Tools/Options/Advanced/Validation. I hope you understand the design issue here? It is certainly not possible to have a workground. iTSfv could analyse each mp3/aac file in Explorer before adding to iTunes to see if it is a podcast or not, using the TagLib. I will ask the developer of TagLib if he supports the Podcast tag in audio files. For the moment, I am afraid I have suggest keeping files you don't need in iTunes, outside of iTunes music folders.


Do you have Podcasts in a separate directory? If so, in the upcoming build you will be able to add an exclude folder (Podcasts) so it will not scan for files from that folder:



Cheers,
McoreD