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Topic: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator (Read 416683 times) previous topic - next topic
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iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #125
ok, the new built finally works. I didn't change any other options.

Debug-Log:

Quote
20070923T174458 Searching iTMS Artwork for xxx - xxx
20070923T174458 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...=xxx&pn=xxx with iTMS 143441
20070923T174458 Timeout set to 10000 milliseconds
20070923T174508 The operation has timed out
20070923T174508 Error getting iTMS Artwork URL with Store ID: 143441
20070923T174508 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...=xxx&pn=xxx with iTMS 143460
20070923T174508 Timeout set to 10000 milliseconds
20070923T174518 The operation has timed out
20070923T174518 Error getting iTMS Artwork URL with Store ID: 143460
20070923T174518 Could not get iTMS Artwork Path


is this supposed to be this way?
--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 #126
Um, sure.    What exactly do you want me to test ?


Great! Could you do the following?

in iTSfv > Options > Validate > File System, export to following folder and choose a folder you like, you can leave the default if you wanna.
untick everything in iTSfv except Export Artwork to (see the screenshot above)
select few tracks from different albums using iTunes
hit the Validate Selected Tracks button in iTunes

now iTSfv should look for iTMS artwork and give a debug log something similar to Jojo has posted.
Could please copy & paste this log here?

ok, the new built finally works. I didn't change any other options.

is this supposed to be this way?


Yes it is supposed to be this way. Cool Jojo, it at least is functional now!

Code: [Select]
Searching iTMS Artwork for xxx - xxx


Why is it xxx?

That means your Artist tag = xxx and Album tag = xxx? 

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #127
Code: [Select]
Searching iTMS Artwork for xxx - xxx


Why is it xxx?

That means your Artist tag = xxx and Album tag = xxx? 

yes, I masked it

also, does the program look for tif files as well? Because as you know, sometimes the jpg source isn't available so one would have to get the tif file.

Finally, I was thinking about another option. When searching for Artist - Song (when no album is available), could you omit whatever is inside the parenthesis of a song? I sometimes have the name of a Remix inside parenthesis and I think it messes up the searches.

thank 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 #128
Hi Jojo,

Yes, iTSfv will look for TIF, the code is updated and revised for this thanks to david_dl and now it can find 50 Cent - Curtis without a problem.

Next version of iTSfv will search each iTunes Music store for Artwork, and speed is improved.

20070924T152952 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (AU)
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (US)
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (UK)
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (NO)
20070924T152956 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (CA)

20070924T152956 Could not find iTMS Artwork in any store.
20070924T152956 Export Artwork Pass 2
.
20070924T152956 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070924T152956 Searching iTMS Artwork for Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival using iTunes Store (AU)
20070924T152957 Found iTMS Artwork using iTMS (AU)
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Folder.jpg? False
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Artwork.jpg? False
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Folder Artwork Path: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Track Artwork Path:  H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20070924T152957 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 600x600
20070924T152957 Replace Artwork for 1 Good Morning Revival? False
20070924T152957 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Folder.jpg? False
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Artwork.jpg? False
.
20070924T152958 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

So does the search work for you at least for some albums? How about the CD Singles?

I will look into this issue:

Artist - Name (Remix)
Artist - Name [Remix]
Artist - Name {Remix}

to be searched as Artist - Name.

Cheers.

Edit: Done.

Scenario:

The files
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\01 Hung Up (Radio Version).mp3
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\02 Hung Up (Tracy Young Remix).mp3
do not have the Album tag or Artwork embedded.

I choose to embed artwork.

iTSfv searched for Madonna - Hung up and embedded the found iTMS artwork to
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\01 Hung Up (Radio Version).mp3
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\02 Hung Up (Tracy Young Remix).mp3
Of course you can choose not to embed.

Log:

20070924T155129 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070924T155132 Searching iTMS Artwork for Madonna - Hung Up using iTunes Store (AU)
20070924T155133 Found iTMS Artwork using iTMS (AU)

20070924T155135 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\01 Hung Up (Radio Version).mp3 from H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Madonna\Hung+Up\iTMS.jpg
20070924T155136 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\02 Hung Up (Tracy Young Remix).mp3 from H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Madonna\Hung+Up\iTMS.jpg
20070924T155136 Export Artwork Pass 2
.
20070924T155138 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #129
Hi Jojo,

You can find the latest build addressing these issues here:

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

5.11.7.2 Search iTMS artwork during validation of last 100 tracks was ignored
5.11.7.1 CheckBoxes in Checks tab will now be remembered for next launch of iTSfv [Jojo]
5.11.7.0 Implemented several code optimizations to improve performance in validating tracks
5.11.6.5 Prevented rare cases where iTSfv could sometimes fail to overwrite folder.jpg
5.11.6.4 Remix tags for CD Singles will be ignored while searching for iTMS artwork [Jojo]
5.11.6.3 Using improved iTMS artwork search code thanks to david_dl from http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=57720

5.11.6.2 If folder artwork dimensions match the embedded artwork dimensions, iTSfv did not look for iTMS artwork
5.11.6.1 Artwork available as TIF in iTMS were not found; they will now be converted to JPG and used as iTMS Artwork source
5.11.6.0 iTSfv will now search for Artwork from all the available iTunes Music stores in the world

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #130
wow! this is a great release. thank you so much.

5.11.6.1 Artwork available as TIF in iTMS were not found; they will now be converted to JPG and used as iTMS Artwork source

maybe you could reflect this process in the debug file? What compression options are you using? Maybe it would make sense to give users an option whether they want iTSfv to compress the artwork for them, or would rather have it download the original tif file and do the compression themselves?

Quote
5.11.6.4 Remix tags for CD Singles will be ignored while searching for iTMS artwork [Jojo]

that's so cool. I have another idea. Maybe get rid of the "CDM" in the album title.

later
--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 #131
I got an error:

Quote
iTunes version: 7.1.1.5
iTSfv version:    5.11.7.2
Error caused by:
Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.
Error path:
  at iTunesLib.IITFileOrCDTrack.AddArtworkFromFile(String filePath)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sEditTrackImportArtwork(IITFileOrCDTrack track, ArtworkSources artSrc)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sEditTrack(cInfoDisc lDisc, IITFileOrCDTrack track)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sValidateDisc(cInfoDisc lDisc)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.ssBwAppValidateAlbums(Int32 untilAlbum)
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sBwAppValidateLibrary()
  at iTSfv.frmMain.sExecuteJob(MethodInvoker mySub)
Errors during Validation:


this error happened while importing album art. I think the file name is too long.
--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 #132
Hi Jojo,

Thanks, is it working for you now (as far as fetching iTMS artwork goes)?

Could you give an example how CDM would be used? I made sure the following to happen:

Artist - Name (Remix)
Artist - Name [Remix]
Artist - Name {Remix}

to be searched as Artist - Name. 

Is "CDM" outside of the brackets?

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #133
Is "CDM" outside of the brackets?

yes. Some people prefer to tag their Singles the following way and it therefore ends up in the free tagging database.
For example:
Artist = Joe
Song = Lalala

There is no album, because it is a single. But some people would name the album after the song of the single and attach CDM to it. That way they know that it is a single and not an album. In our example it would look like this:

Artist = Joe
Song = Lalala
Album = Lalala CDM

A sophisticated way of solving this problem would be to check whether
$Album = $Song+"CDM" and if it matches, substitute the song name for the album name when doing the search.

cheers
--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 #134
For the singles, I prefer to name them as follows :
Artist = Joe
Song = Lalala
Album = [Single] Lalala

So this case could be taken into account also. 

@McoreD : I hope to be able to do the testing you asked for in a few hours.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #135
Just for the record, iTSfv found via the iTMS 17 out of 24 album art.

There's only one thing I don't understand : why didn't iTSfv also store the found artwork within iTunes ? No one of my iTunes tracks appear to be linked to the artwork... (I'm not talking about embedding artwork, just about linking the artwork to the tracks)



Jose, appreciate your time test. The debug log looked healthy!

I really didn’t understand “linked to the artwork”. It seems that you have chosen not to embed iTMS artwork, which is fine. iTSfv has exported the artwork, which is fine also. iTSfv cannot “link” the downloaded iTMS artwork with the artwork folder in iTunes Album Art folder if that’s what you are asking? In iTunes’s point of view, these downloaded iTMS Artwork are also just_some_manually_found_artwork and iTunes will not consider these as artwork until you embed them.

I have incorporated the suggestions for stripping out extra tags for CD Singles, including my own ideas. So far it will strip out CDM, CDS, [Single]. I should really use an external text file so we can feed more stuff outside of the program.

Version History since last build.

5.11.7.6 Saving iTMS Artwork could have crashed iTSfv if there were Illegal characters in path
5.11.7.5 Bug report email ask to attach error_log instead of pasting errors in the email body, to prevent error: data area passed to a system call is too small
5.11.7.4 Debug information will be written for tracks iTSfv failed to read
5.11.7.3 Prevent iTSfv crashing while adding artwork to some files probably with long file names [Jojo]

I am doing further testing before the next release...

Cheers guys!

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #136
Thanks McoreD !

I have a nice little improvement suggestion for you :

Let's say we have gathered a lot of artwork from different sources (iTMS, Amazon, etc.), all inside a single folder.

Let's say we have named all this artwork with the same nice pattern (example : "artist - (year) album").

It would be great if iTSfv could :
- Analyze all the artwork in the source folder (according to the file pattern that we'll specify in iTSfv of course)
- Take a destination folder (which we'll specify also)
- Take a directory pattern inside the destination folder (which we'll specify also)
- Search for the right subfolder and copy the artwork,
- Do this for all the artwork in the source folder.

Example :
File pattern : "artist - (year) album.jpg"
Directoty pattern : "artist\(year) album"
Destination folder : "Music", containing a lot of subfolders according to the Directory pattern
Analyzed file in the source folder : "Mark Knopfler - (2007) Kill to get crimson.jpg"

iTSfv finds the subfolder "Music\Mark Knopfler\(2007) Kill to get crimson", and then automatically copies the jpg in it, then it does the same for all the other jpgs inside the source folder ! Automatic jpg distribution in all the right folders !!!

Wouldn't it be nice ?

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #137
Thanks McoreD !
Example :
File pattern : "artist - (year) album.jpg"
Directoty pattern : "artist\(year) album"
Destination folder : "Music", containing a lot of subfolders according to the Directory pattern
Analyzed file in the source folder : "Mark Knopfler - (2007) Kill to get crimson.jpg"
Not sure if this feature has anything to do with iTunes, or iTSfv, but this batch script should do the job:
Code: [Select]
@echo off

set sourcedir=D:\Path\To\Image\Folder
set destroot=D:\Path\To\Albums

cd /d %sourcedir%

for %%G IN (*.jpg) DO call :process_album "%%G"

goto :eof
:process_album
set file=###%1###
set file=%file:"###=%
set file=%file:###"=%
set album=%file:*- =%
set albumext=%file:*.=%
call set artist=%%file: - %album%=%%
call set album=%%album:.%albumext%=%%
if exist "%destroot%\%artist%\%album%" copy "%file%" "%destroot%\%artist%\%album%\"
goto :eof

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #138
Nice to see you hear david_dl!

Jose, that's indeed a nice suggestion.

Actually a small enhancement done in 5.11.7.3 makes this possible ( I think! )

Code: [Select]
    Private Function ffGetArtworkSource(ByVal track As iTunesLib.IITFileOrCDTrack) As ArtworkSources

        Dim ra As New ArtworkSources
        ra.Track = track

        ' first check if user asks to download from iTMS
        Dim p As String = ffGetITMSArtworkPath(track)
        If p <> String.Empty Then
            ra.ArtworkSource = ArtworkSourceType.iTMS
            ra.ArtworkPathNew = p
            Return ra
        End If

        ' from here onwards source is a file
        ra.ArtworkSource = ArtworkSourceType.File

        ' secondly check for the user preferred filepath to import from
        If mIsDefaultImArtworkFolder = True Then
            ' if in default folder
            Dim albumDir As String = IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(track.Location)
            Dim artworkPath As String = albumDir + "\" + fGetFileNameFromPattern(My.Settings.ArtworkFileNameIm, track)

            Dim artworkFiles As New List(Of String)
            artworkFiles.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(albumDir, "*.jpg", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly))
            artworkFiles.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(albumDir, "*.png", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly))

            If IO.File.Exists(artworkPath) Then
                ra.ArtworkPathNew = artworkPath
                Return ra
            ElseIf artworkFiles.Count = 1 AndAlso My.Settings.ImportAnySingleArtwork = True Then
                ra.ArtworkPathNew = artworkFiles(0)
                Return ra
            Else
                For Each fileName As String In mArtworkFileNames
                    artworkPath = albumDir + "\" + fGetFileNameFromPattern(fileName, track)
                    If IO.File.Exists(artworkPath) Then
                        ra.ArtworkPathNew = artworkPath
                        Return ra
                    End If
                Next
            End If

        Else ' not DefaultImArtworkFolder

            For Each pattern As String In mArtworkFileNamePatterns
                pattern = fGetFileNameFromPattern(pattern, track)
                Dim artWorkPath As String = My.Settings.FolderPathImArtwork + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar + pattern
                If File.Exists(artWorkPath) Then
                    ra.ArtworkPathNew = artWorkPath
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next

        End If

        Return ra

    End Function


It is theoretically possible within iTSfv to do such thing IFF you set up settings like this:

Import settings:

[a href="http://img187.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itsfvimportcustomdirjg0.jpg" target="_blank"]

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #139
No, no, you're not missing anything : my log up there was just a test, so don't worry about the export artwork folder : I know how to handle it.

Thanks for answering my feature request : you're right, iTSfv can already do that ! Super ! 

Hey ! Guess what ? This time I may have got a bug !! 

Here's the story :
- I've got "Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here" in my iTunes.
- Using iTSfv, it seeks all the iTunes stores then it finds me a nice artwork (all white, two people shaking hands, one of them is on fire) and saves it in the relevant folder
- Using iTunes directly (my iTunes Store is the french one), it finds me another nice artwork (all black, two robotic shaking hands in the middle) and saves it as an .itc file somewhere.
- Let's say I like *BOTH* artworks, so I want to keep them both.
- So I tell iTSfv to validate the iTunes file, so that the second artwork found by iTunes can be saved next to the first one found by iTSfv (I've renamed the first one of course to avoid naming conflict)
- BUT iTSfv, instead of seeing that iTunes already has the black artwork, just keeps searching the iTunes Stores for artwork, finds AGAIN the white artwork (of course), and saves it next to the first one (the same of course) !

Same thing for "Cock Robin - The Best Of Cock Robin".

Am I missing something with the preferences ? 

EDIT : I've got it ! You've got to uncheck the "Advanced > Internet > Download iTMS Artwock" checkbox. But wouldn't it be better if iTSfv wouldn't do the Internet search when there's ALREADY an artwork present within iTunes, thus eliminating the need to check/uncheck the checkbox ? I don't know...  Maybe you could just add another checkbox (it would be the third one in that tab) : "Don't download iTMS Artwork if the Artwork is already present within iTunes". What do you think ?

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #140
@McoreD:

I've been using itsfv a lot, and i find it to be indispensible. Thanks for all your work on i.

I have a couple of Feature requests:
1. Would it be possible to add a feature that creates m3u playlists out of selected tracks?

2. Also, is it possible to have a feature that would export the title, album, artist etc information to the clipboard? (e.g. Select tracks in itunes, click export and get stuff like Genre\Artist - Album\Title information). If this is possible, please make the export criteria customizable.

once again, thanks for all your hard work.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #141
Awesome you got that feature request sorted out.

BUT iTSfv, instead of seeing that iTunes already has the black artwork, just keeps searching the iTunes Stores for artwork, finds AGAIN the white artwork (of course), and saves it next to the first one (the same of course) !


That's a nice catch Jose. OK; that bug/feature is quite an interesting/sensitive one! I think I know the root of the problem : I have given priority to iTMS Artwork over iTunes's" Get Album Artwork" Artwork. So this is a problem with getting priorities right! I will have an option to to give priority.

(1) iTSfv Downloaded Artwork
(2) iTunes Downloaded Artwork

If you give "iTunes Downloaded Artwork" preference over "iTSfv Downloaded Artwork" then iTSfv will use iTunes downloaded artwork ( if found! ) to do its import/export business.

Even if iTunes track already had Downloaded Artwork, the reason why iTSfv searched for iTMS Artwork is because it was trying to download them and compare with the existing artworks to see the downloaded one is better or equal quality (it cannot be worse).

What do you think?

@McoreD:

I've been using itsfv a lot, and i find it to be indispensible. Thanks for all your work on i.

I have a couple of Feature requests:
1. Would it be possible to add a feature that creates m3u playlists out of selected tracks?

2. Also, is it possible to have a feature that would export the title, album, artist etc information to the clipboard? (e.g. Select tracks in itunes, click export and get stuff like Genre\Artist - Album\Title information). If this is possible, please make the export criteria customizable.

once again, thanks for all your hard work.


Kanak, thanks very much for you feedback. Glad you like it.

You probably have noticed the already implemented Copy to Clipboard feature in Selected Tracks. I will expand it a bit more to have other tags. So far it can do stuff like this, if you tried:


"Vocal Edition 18" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 18" - Played: 47 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 20" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 20" - Played: 87 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 08" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 08" - Played: 31 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 14" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 14" - Played: 28 times - Rating: 100%
"A State of Trance Year Mix 2006 CD1" by Armin van Buuren in "A State of Trance Year Mix 2006" - Played: 31 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 22" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 22" - Played: 20 times - Rating: 100%
"Get Busy" by Sean Paul in "Dutty Rock" - Played: 336 times - Rating: 89%
"Dark Eyes (Funabashi Pres. Tom Porcell Remix)" by Luminary in "Dark Eyes" - Played: 94 times - Rating: 88%
"Vocal Edition 17" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 17" - Played: 13 times - Rating: 86%
"All On Me (Ft. Tami Chynn)" by Sean Paul in "The Trinity" - Played: 237 times - Rating: 91%


You also must have seen the Export feature for exporting tracks?

I will make it possible to export m3u files also; currently there is an excellent full featured iTunes add-on for that purpose : iTunes Export

http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/

Cheers,
McoreD


iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #143
I think I know the root of the problem : I have given priority to iTMS Artwork over iTunes's" Get Album Artwork" Artwork. So this is a problem with getting priorities right! I will have an option to to give priority.

(1) iTSfv Downloaded Artwork
(2) iTunes Downloaded Artwork

If you give "iTunes Downloaded Artwork" preference over "iTSfv Downloaded Artwork" then iTSfv will use iTunes downloaded artwork ( if found! ) to do its import/export business.

Even if iTunes track already had Downloaded Artwork, the reason why iTSfv searched for iTMS Artwork is because it was trying to download them and compare with the existing artworks to see the downloaded one is better or equal quality (it cannot be worse).

What do you think?

I agree with you, an option to give priority would be good.

If we go one step beyond that, we also see that currently iTSfv just tries to find the best quality artwork. But it doesn't currently handle the fact that for a same album there might be different available artworks all around the globe, and that we might prefer a given artwork for aesthetic reasons even if its quality is not the best.

How could we handle that ? Well, probably by having an optional "preview" mode where you could see, for each selected track, one track after the other, a small preview of all available artworks with their size written below, and with iTSfv "suggestion" (best artwork according to iTSfv with a thick black border for instance).

So if we activate the optional preview mode (only for specific tracks), we'll have to select for each track the artwork we really want.

Suggestions for the "preview" window : one click = selection of the artwork we want (the thick black border moves), double click = see it in full size, "OK" button or "Return" key = validate the artwork we want, then go to the next selected track / next artwork.

What do you think ?

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #144
Wow... That sounds all good. You express them very nicely in a logical order.

Yes, the real question is that when iTSfv found BOTH iTMS Artwork and iTunes Download Artwork, what should iTSfv do.

Did you also notice the

iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Validation :

Always look for higher resolution artwork while validating groupBox? What do you think of that?

If you have them disabled, iTSfv will not always look for higher resolution artwork (hint: it will replace the already has existing artwork).



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.
So the *optional* preview mode is a great idea to fix that issue.

In the mean time, going back to one of your first suggestions, I think the "Don't download iTMS Artwork if the Artwork is already present within iTunes" is a splendid idea!


Version History:

5.12.1.0 Added support for creating M3U Playlists from Albums in Disc Browser (aka Album Browser)
5.12.0.0 Support for creating M3U Playlists from selected tracks. File > Create M3U Playlist of Selected Tracks [kanak]
5.11.8.0 Compilation checkBox is now a radioButton which enables you to set "Various Artists" tag before adding tracks
5.11.7.6 Saving iTMS Artwork could have crashed iTSfv if there were Illegal characters in path

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #145
"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.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #146
hi,

I hope my tiff file suggestion is still under consideration. At least have it show up in the log file.
The reason why that is so important is because tiff files are a) bigger in size (even the resulting jpgs) and b) the process is not lossless. So I think it makes sense to give people the opportunity to look it up in the log file.

here is the link to my suggestion: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=518885

thank 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 #147
Hi Jojo,

That was added in a later build, see in Jose's LOG:

20070925T203138 Searching iTMS Artwork for Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell (25th Anniversary Edition) using iTunes Store (China)
20070925T203141 Found iTMS Artwork using iTMS (China)
20070925T203146 Successfully converted Artwork to JPG and saved as C:\Documents and Settings\XXX\Mes documents\Mes images\iTSfv\Meat+Loaf\Bat+Out+Of+Hell+(25th+Anniversary+Edition)\iTMS.jpg
20070925T203146 Saved C:\Documents and Settings\XXX\Mes documents\Mes images\iTSfv\Meat+Loaf\Bat+Out+Of+Hell+(25th+Anniversary+Edition)\iTMS.jpg as I:\Temp artwork\TEST\Meat Loaf - (1977) Bat Out Of Hell (25th Anniversary Edition).jpg
20070925T203146 Exported Artwork.

Compression is pretty good. Optionally saving a copy of TIFF is indeed a great idea. I will also add that in an upcoming build.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #148
"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 ?


Thanks, I got it Jose, I got it all in my head now on how to do it. 
The way I like to have it is a bit more complicated. For discs that both iTMS and iTunes artwork were found, needs to be ideally queued for manually validating later after iTSfv has validated all other albums. So we don't have to sit there until the whole library is validated.

Another thing I hated happening was, some of my 600x600 were replaced by larger artwork 800x933 etc. I give square shaped artwork more priority than larger rectangular artwork.

So a new checkBox is that does:
Prefer existing square (width = height) artwork over larger non-square artwork.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #149
Thanks McoreD, I see what you mean, the queuing idea looks great (but will you implement a "preview" mode for the later validation ?).

For the square shaped artwork, I have some simple questions :
- Why exactly is square shaped artwork preferable ?
- Can we consider a 600x595 artwork as square shaped ? (some iTMS artwork are "nearly square"). I think maybe you should implement some kind of "tolerance" when the artwork is "nearly square" ? Let's say, to be concrete, when the "width/height" factor is between X and 1/X, X being adjustable (for instance X=0,99).

Example 1 : 600x595
600/595=1,0084
If X=0,99, then 1/X=1,01
0,99 < 1,0084 < 1,01. So the artwork is "nearly square".

Example 2 : 595x600
595/600=0,99167
If X=0,99, then 1/X=1,01
0,99 < 0,99167 < 1,01. So the artwork is "nearly square".

Example 3 : 600x590
600/590=1,0169
So the artwork is not "nearly square" (if X=0,99).