Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Album Art Downloader XUI (Read 2035215 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #600
OK, no joy on detecting SP1 yet, but I've put together a version with what I am hoping will be a workaround to the filtered items not being removed thing. Note that in this version the bringing into view of the previewed result will not work. That is a side-effect of the workaround, and can't be helped.

AlbumArt.exe

Could you let me know if it helps at all on a no SP1 system?

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #601
Just one question. When AAD learns to remember file extensions? If you click on a picture, choose "save as" and enter a new filename, you also have to put an extension for the file, otherwise AAD saves file without any.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #602
Could you let me know if it helps at all on a no SP1 system?

Nope. Same behavior. I got that you don't have 2nd computer to test things out, right? Why don't you use MS Virtual PC? It's free. Though I'm considering moving to VirtualBox because at the first glance it seems to have a better "snapshot" system.

You might want to look at this: Update on .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Windows Update. There's a patch coming to SP1, before MS puts it in Windows Update.. one user comment is indeed funny: "How will we distinguish between 3.5 SP1 unpatched and 3.5 SP1 patched? Will it now be called 3.5 SP2? Or maybe 3.5 SP1 SP1!", good question knowing microsoft versioning.

If I understood correctly, the "plain" .NET 3.5 has not been in WUpdate yet.. at least I didn't see it when I just upgraded my VPC XP image to the 3.5 SP1.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #603
If you click on a picture, choose "save as" and enter a new filename, you also have to put an extension for the file, otherwise AAD saves file without any.
Thanks for reporting this, I'll fix it for the next version.

Why don't you use MS Virtual PC?
I guess I'll have to then. Hopefully I'll find some time over the weekend to set it up, dig up an XP install disk and put Windows on to an image.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #604
i used a weird mouseclick sequence and now i only see the albums when i search for album art, like this:



can i get that back to 'normal'? Like this:



And i have a simple solution to the 'various artist' folder problem... In the foobar browser, simply add a little toolbar or something where you can select folders you want to discard in the search, so that you can add anything you want, i'm thinking about: Skip : VA-*|VA_-*|Various*

Maybe that can work...

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #605
i used a weird mouseclick sequence and now i only see the albums when i search for album art
See the grabber (line of grey dots) on the right-hand edge of the result, just past the thumbnail image? When your mouse is over that, you should get a horizontal resize cursor : <->. Click and drag the grabber to the right to expand the area so that you can see the text again.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #606
ah yes, that was it. Thanks, i made the picture too big by accident

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #607
"AllCdCover" source started to show "yes, we have the cover you're looking for, but no, we can't show it to you" custom image for some results.  I searched: "supergrass / i should coco", all 3 covers showed thumbnails but previewing them showed "don't leech" images with the above text.

2nd search only to that source showed correctly all, even the full size images in preview!? It could be that I fudged this test up; removed other sources and clicked search again -> no new search.

3rd search (all sources) showed same 3 "AllCdCover" thumbnails, and I mean ONLY thumbnails. I almost missed those because I had the minimum filter set at 495px (the previous searches showed them because AllCdCover returned the full size image sizes). No "don't leech" images this time!?

4th and all subsequent searches show only thumbnails like in the 3rd search.

It seems that they've coded some leech prevention system to their website (maybe IP restriction). Or what's wrong?

Ok, I tried to search some other covers and it definitely seems that they really are doing IP restriction (with time limit maybe?), all covers are thumbnails.

This is the big minus of AAD type of programs, you constantly have to fix sources because they restrict their service, and I do understand them to some point.. though I'm not so sure about the legality of their services, so.. AAD leeching from illegal services, who's the villain here? xxAA's?

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #608
About the AllCdCover thing, it sounds like some sort of leech prevention, yes. I'm not getting those results here, probably because I haven't downloaded a lot of images from them using this IP address! If you want to address your concerns to daju, the author of that script, he might be able to do something about it, but frankly I doubt it.

If the script is no longer useful because of this, I will remove it from the installer, but as it is working for me at the moment, my preference would be to leave it in and see what happens.

On another subject, I've finally managed to get a pre SP1 environment running in a virtual machine (damn, but that was a pain to set up), and think I have something that should fix the list refresh bug. It's performance is a bit worse, so I've added a one-time warning that performance can be improved by downloading SP1.

Let me know if this does the job: AlbumArt.exe

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #609
About the AllCdCover thing, it sounds like some sort of leech prevention, yes. I'm not getting those results here, probably because I haven't downloaded a lot of images from them using this IP address! If you want to address your concerns to daju, the author of that script, he might be able to do something about it, but frankly I doubt it.

If the script is no longer useful because of this, I will remove it from the installer, but as it is working for me at the moment, my preference would be to leave it in and see what happens.

I ran the test again just now and I couldn't reproduce the previous problems. Just as I suspected. I did some detective work again and I noticed that when browsing their site, the full image download URL changes:

1st:
www.allcdcovers.com/download/cfb45d83c6f1ba7a6785441ce28e7356/90123/8cd3a44d0c5cd3bd4ec72c0e04a74f17/4904f992/supergrass_diamond_hoo_ha_2008_retail_cd-back

2nd (after clear cookies & clicking the download button again):
www.allcdcovers.com/download/cfb45d83c6f1ba7a6785441ce28e7356/90123/9969abe0a29799a44b2a67bb2b905bef/4904fa53/supergrass_diamond_hoo_ha_2008_retail_cd-back

These URLs work (refresh) even if you clear cookies. Then I waited about 10-15 minutes before I refreshed the images again, wellwell, here it is again; the "don't leech" image.

So, it seems that this would happen in AAD if user searches some covers and doesn't touch the results for a while. After that "don't leech" image, all subsequent searches would yield only thumbnails (or possibly the "don't leech" image) for X amount time which has been set by AllCdCover in the server side. Yes, it's definitely an IP address leech prevention; right after the both above image URL's "failed/timeouted", all my AAD searches started to show only thumbnails.

I then waited about 20-30 minutes and ran AAD search again, still thumbnails. Then some browsing in their website, all full size images load up fine. Back to AAD, still thumbnails. Tried to close&reopen AAD, nope, still doesn't work.  Nasty leech prevention.

I'll PM daju just in case to read this post.

Let me know if this does the job: AlbumArt.exe

Excellent. Unfortunately I just upgraded my main system last night. I quickly tried to uninstall SP1 in my VPC and reinstall plain 3.5, but it seems that the bug was corrected in either 2.0 SP2 or in 3.0 SP2 and I'm not going to start uninstalling&reinstalling those. Sorry. I'm sure it works ok if you tested it in 3.5.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #610
Hi again. Guess what? One new problem.

I've seen this couple of times in the past but finally I awoke to report this.

Sometimes the full size preview image is cropped and is not showing the full image. I understand that very big images must be resized in order to see them in full in preview, but, it seems that some images are resized badly, i.e. cutting some portion of the image away from the preview. Now, this is crucial because user might discard that image because it seems that it's poorly scanned/cropped. Only by saving the image and checking it with other software, user sees the real image.

My screen resolution is 1280x1024 & I've taskbar in autohide mode (I tried w/o it but that had no effect) and in top of the screen (no change when moved to bottom).

Here's one example:

1) search "manic street preachers / gold against" from "AllCdCover" source (you should see 2 results)
2) click the thumbnail of the front cover; notice how it seems that the image is cropped thru the band & album name in the bottom of the image
3) save image
4) open the image with external software

= the artist & band name text is fully visible

I noticed that the other result (back cover) is also slightly cropped from the bottom in the preview.

I enlarged the thumbnail view and the thumbnail is not cropped.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #611
The size of the popup preview is limited by your screen resolution. It is deliberately not resized, as the point is to be able to see it at 1:1 zoom, for quality inspection.

If you want to see the real image in detail, to check the cropping at the edges or zoom in to an area of interest, then you don't need to save and open with another editor, just right click on the image and choose "Preview". You will then get a new resizeable preview window with the image in it you can scroll and zoom as you please.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #612
The size of the popup preview is limited by your screen resolution. It is deliberately not resized, as the point is to be able to see it at 1:1 zoom, for quality inspection.

I'm confused. You say that the popup preview is NOT resized ever? Ok, if my screen resolution is 1280x1024, then how is it possible that I can see the full size of image (this one is not slightly cropped at the bottom) which size is 2845x1398? No resize? I'm sorry but I don't understand. Or is this a confusion over word semantics? Scaled/resized/?

Anyways, the point is that for some images a small portion of the bottom part is not visible in popup previews and I consider that as a bug. The screen resolution makes no difference since AAD tries to show the whole image (and succeeds in that for most of the images), no matter how much bigger it's compared to the screen resolution.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #613
Ah, no, don't worry, it's me getting confused, I'd forgotten I'd changed the behaviour of large popups a while back. I'll look into the cropping problem, thanks.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #614
Ok, thanks a lot again. For your sanity's sake I hope I'm finished with "hitting AAD with my blessed +10 Debug sword".  BTW the image preview window was new to me, nice "new" feature.. I wonder what else I've missed.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #615
Two quick questions: Does this program only search out .jpg files? If so, any chance on having it (optionally) also search for .png?

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #616
Two quick questions: Does this program only search out .jpg files? If so, any chance on having it (optionally) also search for .png?
No, there is no limitation on file format. Most cover sites provide .jpg files, but there are a few that also have .png's. There are so few .png's around that it can be hard to notice, but the occasional one is there.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #617
I see that you already have fixed the crop problem. Unbelievably fast. Excellent.

I've one thing more, this time not a bug/problem but a GUI "rethink": with my screen res. 1280x1024, taskbar in autohide and maximized AAD window, all of the sources are just visible. I noticed that you have one new source coming and it's going to put my source list to scroll, which isn't so nice because I'd like to see all the sources at the same time (searches, number of results).

Could you redesign the source list so that more sources could be fitted there without a scroll? One way to do this would be to cut the second line from the source info. Make the source a bit wider so that the search progress bar fits to the right side of the source name. Clicking the source name would open the options. The version and the author would be shown at the bottom in the options for that source. I made a quick mockup of it.. it's a bit crowded, especially with the search prog. bar.. this is just an idea, feel free to diss this down.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #618
I wonder why it tells me that it will "probably run slower" with my current configuration...

.net 3.5 SP-1 is available, I "only" got .net 3.5, so AAD came up with a strange message...

I guess it should be more tolerant... v3.5 is v3.5, basically.

audiophile // flac & wavpack, mostly // using too many audio players

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #619
I wonder why it tells me that it will "probably run slower" with my current configuration...

.net 3.5 SP-1 is available, I "only" got .net 3.5, so AAD came up with a strange message...

I guess it should be more tolerant... v3.5 is v3.5, basically.

I see, you haven't followed this thread. There's a bug (bugs?) in 3.5 which was causing AAD to fail one feature. Alex made a fix/workaround if plain 3.5 is installed which could (or probably will) lower the performance. So no, it shouldn't be more "tolerant".. at least you can run AAD and it works.. + you got a notice which suggests that you should upgrade your .NET.. pretty cool? And yes, 3.5 is 3.5 but 3.5 SP1 is 3.5 SP1.

Did you download that "test" version from the same post which had the following text by Alex over the link: "I have something that should fix the list refresh bug. It's performance is a bit worse, so I've added a one-time warning that performance can be improved by downloading SP1."

You were too busy to read?

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #620
Akkurat, thanks for the suggestion for the sources list. I don't think I'll go with that, though, as it would make the list quite a bit wider. The example you gave was using one of the shorter source names. To fit the longer ones in, the list would either become unacceptably wide, crop the name of the source, or have sideways scrolling. I prefer the vertical scrolling solution to all of those options.

You could always delete some scripts, if you really want to avoid vertical scrolling. Juno, PsyShop and RevHQ are all fairly specialist, and LastFM Cover often turns out to be duplicates of other sources.

v3.5 is v3.5, basically.
It would be nice if that were true, unfortunately it just isn't. I didn't put the warning in for the fun of it!

Under SP0, whenever I need to remove a result from the list (for example if it doesn't meet the minimum size filter), or reposition it (for sorting), then the whole list must be rebuilt. Under SP1, just that single changing item needs to be altered. Apart from being a monumental pain to track down and work around, this is also considerably slower, and I thought a warning might be useful.

If you leave the "don't ask me again" box checked, you won't see it again, and can safely ignore it.

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #621
Did you download that "test" version from the same post which had the following text by Alex over the link: "I have something that should fix the list refresh bug. It's performance is a bit worse, so I've added a one-time warning that performance can be improved by downloading SP1."

You were too busy to read?

Yep, obviously... I'm quite sorry. 
audiophile // flac & wavpack, mostly // using too many audio players

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #622
I don't think I'll go with that

You could always delete some scripts, if you really want to avoid vertical scrolling. Juno, PsyShop and RevHQ are all fairly specialist, and LastFM Cover often turns out to be duplicates of other sources.

Sorry no, I don't like "bubblegum" solutions.  Oh well, was worth the try.. you could invent a new way to list the sources, *wink wink*, maybe some day.

Yep, obviously... I'm quite sorry. 

Nothing to be sorry about, it was a friendly tease.

 

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #623
I have my music stored in the following format.

H:\$left(%albumartistsort%,1)\%artist%\[%date%] %album%\

Which equates to

H:\B\Jeff Buckley\[1994-08-15] Grace\

Is there any way of automating AAD to save in this format?

Also I was wanting to use this to save artist pictures.

Is there any way to automate this using AAD? Is there any way of using the foobar browser to get the artist tag from the files?

Album Art Downloader XUI

Reply #624
Is there any way to automate this using AAD? Is there any way of using the foobar browser to get the artist tag from the files?
AAD will not be able to automatically determine where to save the art in this format, not least because it doesn't have information such as the date available.

However, if you are launching AAD through foo_run, you usually pass in the full path to save the image to anyway, so that probably won't be much of an issue for you. Similarly, if you are starting from the foobar or file browser, then it already knows the path to the folder the music is in, and will store it there by default.

If you want the information from the tags in the files, the file browser should be able to extract them using the default "Use ID3 tags from files" setting.

If you want the artist and album information from your foobar library instead, use the foobar browser instead of the file browser.

If you do want to use file path pattern matching to match artist and album for the file browser, then you can use the pattern:

H:\*\%artist%\"[^\]]+] "%album%\.

(I think - untested, so if it doesn't quite work, let me know and I'll have another go)

It's a slight variation on the normal pattern which makes it ignore all characters up to the ] character, and a following space, for the album folder name.

If this doesn't answer your question, I've misunderstood what you are trying to do - please try explaining again and I'll do my best to answer!