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: iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator (Read 419377 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #350 –
Hi NG,

I'd like to know what they had in common, if you find. Thanks.

I pushed a a bug fix stability update 5.45 last night:

5.45.4.5 Port Number in Options - Advanced - Internet - Email Settings did not show values over 100
5.45.4.4 Modification Date was not retained if enabled for Update Library refreshing Tags after build 5.43.1.0
5.45.4.3 Update Library refreshing Tags did not work for Read-Only files after build 5.43.1.0
5.45.4.2 Library was not updated after removing Null Characters from tags
5.45.4.1 Removing foreign tracks method also removed dead tracks
5.45.4.0 Support for sending bug reports using GMail accounts. Other webmail accounts are not supported yet.
5.45.3.1 Fixed possible crash while sending bug reports if the error log does not exist yet for a new month
5.45.3.0 Ability to send a bug report manually from Help - Submit Bug Report
5.45.2.1 Attempt to prevent all known possibilities where TagLib# could save ID3v1 tags as ID3v2 revision 2.4 instead of ID3v2 revision 2.3 [Fowler]
5.45.2.0 Option to automatically capitalize tags as part of validation if iTSfv finds all tags are lower case in Options.Tracks.Rules
5.45.1.2 Fixed ampersand character getting multiplied in Status Bar text when validating albums names with ampersand [NearlyGod]
5.45.1.1 Tab ordering in Add New Files window was not in expected order
5.45.1.0 Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3 and Ctrl+4 for Checks, Validating Tracks, Library and File System
5.45.0.0 Ability to Check for iTunes Store standards or Validate Tracks, Library or File System independently via Buttons in each tab and Selected Tracks > Validate menu
5.44.2.0 Support for %Composer% syntax for tasks such as copying tags to Clipboard and File Names
5.44.1.0 Updated Application Startup Mode for Beta versions of iTSfv to include a Preview version of Windows Media Player file validator that supports updating UrlCoverArt.dat with higher resolution artwork
5.44.0.0 Added new rule in Options > Tracks > Rules to remove double spaces from tags as part of validation
5.43.4.0 Enhanced About window with the inclusion of new Application Icon
5.43.3.1 Did not capitalize tags properly if the tags contained double or more spaces after build 5.42.5.3
5.43.3.0 Added options to set new folder.jpg file attributes as System or Hidden/System [TwoToad]
5.43.2.0 Open music folder of selected track or disc using Mp3tag using Selected Tracks menu
5.43.1.1 Removed possible chance where Track would be set to Read-Only for being Tag Complete while editing tracks
5.43.1.0 Enhanced Update Library refreshing Tags to fix uneditable tracks in iTunes [Chris Daniels]
5.43.0.1 Update Library refreshing Tags in file did not update numeric tags which are TrackNumber, TrackCount, DiscNumber, DiscCount and Year
5.43.0.0 Check for tracks metatag versions as part of validation and log results to track_yyyyMMdd_metatags.txt [Chris Daniels]
5.42.6.0 Application now has a new icon contributed by Chris Daniels and is compatible with Windows Vista 256x256 Extra Large Icon view
5.42.5.3 Strings such as "(Lp" were not properly captilized to "(LP" etc.
5.42.5.2 Google Search URL was not URL Encoded so characters such as & were not properly included in the search string
5.42.5.1 Artists with a directory seperator such as "AC/DC" were read as "AC" while adding files to library [ itsfv-Bugs-1895768 ]
5.42.5.0 Search for Artwork passing arguments to Album Art Downloader XUI from Selected Tracks > Search Artwork...
5.42.4.0 Added new "Selected Tracks" menu to group jobs related to Selected Tracks
5.42.3.9 Beta versions with the same major build number as the final version did not get downloaded as part of Checking Updates
5.42.3.8 Workaround for Artists with a directory seperator such as AC/DC being read as AC while Updating library refresh tags in file
5.42.3.7 Words in replace-words.txt when used as part of fixing case in track tags could cause iTunes not finding the track
5.42.3.6 Track Count update in the status bar while a Dialog Box is opened in iTunes, crashed application
5.42.3.5 Double urlencode Artist and Song to look up genre in Last.fm as the Artists such "AC/DC" did not work properly
5.42.3.4 Genre choosen from Last.fm did not undergo proper capitalization
5.42.3.3 Fixed bug if the first track looked up using Last.fm for Genre returned nothing then the choosen Genre was nothing

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #351 –
Well, I've come across another very strange issue.
I've just started to use the capitalization function and very quickly had to abandon it, because this was happening:


For almost every album, it causes the last track to be orphaned.
I can't fix it, because the Artist, Album, and Albumartist are all tagged the same.

The 'Group selected tracks as a single disc' doesn't do anything.

I am using no other functions, just the Capitalize first letter, and do this for Artist, Album,Name and AlbumArtist.

EDIT: if I do it separately for each tag, it seems that AlbumArtist is the culprit.
EDIT2: yep, when i just capitalize Albumartist, this always happens - and i can then fix it by subsequently capitalizing the Artist.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #352 –
I'm adding this in a new message, because it's a different item:

It's partly a personal preference, but when tracks are being validated/changed, the status bar is often not long enough to display which album is being worked on.  The line is truncated at 'Importing Artwork to "The ', when it's working on a The Cure album, for example.

Apart from that, one little statusline doesn't really do the whole magnitude of this program justice, in my opinion.  There are all these powerful options, but when you put them into action, the visualization of this action is performed in this little line at the bottom of the window - almost as an afterthought!  I realize it's not technically important for the end results, but I think that spending a few extra screenlines on a more detailed status indicator is worth it. 
For fitting the complete lines of info on what is happening, but maybe also a count(down) of the number tracks or albums that are being worked on.
Yes, there is a graphical display for that, but for humans it's not really posibble to tell exactly which album # is being worked, now is it

Just my thoughts!

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #353 –
Hi NG,

Your description reminds me of a specific iTunes bug. 

To prove the point, try doing this in iTunes, without iTSfv.

1. Select the Tracks in an album.. e.g. Japanese Whispers by The Cure.
2. Right Click - Get Info then change the T in The to t and C in Cure to c, so you have "the cure"
3. Press OK

Notice how the first track will be detached from the album list.

The way to fix it is,

1. Select the Tracks in an album.. e.g. Japanese Whispers by The Cure.
2. Right Click - Get Info then change "the cure" to "The Cure1"
3. Press OK
4. Right Click - Get Info then change "The Cure1" to "The Cure"
5. Press OK.

The bug seems to be inherited to iTSfv. I just did a quick check and the first track detaches. I can will see if the above manual fix can be automated. Thanks for pointing this out.


About the Status Bar Text, it truncates the text however if you mouse hover, it will show the full text.
Nice idea about the Status Bar.. I will play around having two status bars 1/ one for per disc operations 2/ one for per track operations.

For example:

Validating disc: The Cure - Japanese Whispers                                                            [progress here]
Validating track: Writing Track Count, Disc Number, Disc Count to "01 Let's Go to Bed"  [progress here]


Appreciate your thoughts!


Edit:


NG, I have managed to fix this problem iTunes/iTSfv has.

5.46.04.1 Fixed iTunes bug where Capitalization of AlbumArtist tag would detach the first track or the last track from the album [NearlyGod]

If I could email you an updated build, for you to have a look, it would be nice.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #354 –
Phew, I have finished ploughing through this thread, so I now feel safe asking my question.

I currently share my entire iTunes music library between iTunes and Windows Media Player 10 and hence also to Media Center 2005. All my music is in Apple Lossless format (and yes it plays fine in WMP10 and Media Center thanks to a directshow filter I and Milenko Mitrovic came up with). While all the tracks also have embedded artwork (nearly all from the iTunes Store), the two available plugins for WMP that let it read MPEG4 meta tags, do not support letting WMP read embedded artwork from MPEG4 (AAC or Apple Lossless) files. As a result I have also had to save copies of the artwork to jpg files.

Now in theory, just a Folder.jpg file is supposed to be sufficient for WMP and Media Center to display artwork. However while this seems to work most of the time in WMP, it does not seem to work in Media Center 2005. I have therefore laboriously also had to do the following each time I add an album.

1. Rip the album in iTunes
2. iTunes auto downloads the artwork
3. Fill in the Album Artist tag in iTunes
4. Add the album folder to WMP
5. Tell WMP to find album info (this causes WMP to register the album in its own database and to generate the following files

Folder.jpg
AlbumArtSmall.jpg
AlbumArt_{36EB21EB-0F44-4648-8683-CF4AD5C4C2E9}_Small.jpg
AlbumArt_{36EB21EB-0F44-4648-8683-CF4AD5C4C2E9}_Large.jpg

Note: WMP uses 200x200 pixels for Folder.jpg and AlbumArt_{36EB21EB-0F44-4648-8683-CF4AD5C4C2E9}_Large.jpg and 72x72 pixels for the small files.

6. Extract the artwork from the itc file to a standard jpg (which I save later as Folder.jpg)
7. Force iTunes to embed the artwork (copy to clipboard, clear downloaded artwork, paste artwork back in)
8. Replace Folder.jpg with extracted copy, replace AlbumArt_{36EB21EB-0F44-4648-8683-CF4AD5C4C2E9}_Large.jpg with extracted copy, this gives me 600x600 artwork from the iTunes Store that will work in WMP and Media Center 2005.

The above does result in the artwork working 100% reliably in WMP and Media Center 2005 for every track of every album. (Using the high quality iTunes sourced 600x600 artwork.)

Note: the long number shown in this example is a unique ID to each Album registered in WMP.

My request is two parts.

1. Ideally that iTSfv be able to generate the two files with the long numbers in their name (or to cause WMP to do so), I believe iTSfv can already generate the two other files (i.e. the Folder.jpg and AlbumArtSmall.jpg).
2. Offer an option to lock (make read only) all the artwork files. This is because WMP11 will apparently downgrade any higher resolution files back down to a pathetic 200x200 pixels. If the files are read only it will not be able to do this. iTSfv could also have an option to automatically unlock (make writeable) any artwork files it needs to update, before relocking them so WMP cannot mess them up again.

Note: I have not yet upgraded to Vista (Media Center) because it adds zero new features for European Media Center users, and I have not upgraded to WMP11 because as described above it screws up artwork, likewise I have not upgraded to IE7. (Can Microsoft get anything right?)

[Edit]
Another approach would be if you are willing, to modify the WMPTSE plugin which lets WMP 9, 10, or 11 read MPEG4 meta tags so that it can read embedded artwork from these files. The sourcecode is available at its site see http://wmptagext.sourceforge.net/
[end Edit]

I am sure you have probably seen the following links before about the iTunes .itc file format. Just incase I list them here.

http://www.falsecognate.org/2007/01/deciph...nes_itc_fil.php
http://www.waldoland.com/dev/Articles/ITCFileFormat.aspx
http://www.waldoland.com/blog/2007/07/appl...at-revised.aspx


For anyone interested in using Apple Lossless (aka. ALAC) in WMP and/or Media Center see the following links

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=46551
and the January 8th 2007 entry on http://www.dsp-worx.de/

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #355 –
Hello McoreD.

I just found out about your tool, it looks just plain great! It has many things I wanted to do to my songs.
OK, I haven't tried it yet (will, at home tonight), and here I have a little request for you please ?

Since there is the possibility to capitalize the 1st letter of each word of the title songs, would it be possible to do so, EXCEPT FOR some words (like "or", "and", "the" if it is NOT the 1st word of the song) ? Perhaps a textBox which every user would fill up to his desires ? The special management of "the" might be a bit tricky perhaps.

Anyway, kudos to your tool!

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #356 –
Quote from: adda on
Perhaps a textBox which every user would fill up to his desires ?

I second that !  (a BIG text box, because there will be a lot of words, in french for instance  )

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #357 –
Quote from: adda on
Since there is the possibility to capitalize the 1st letter of each word of the title songs, would it be possible to do so, EXCEPT FOR some words (like "or", "and", "the" if it is NOT the 1st word of the song) ? Perhaps a textBox which every user would fill up to his desires ? The special management of "the" might be a bit tricky perhaps.


This is already fully configurable.  There are a few simple .txt files that contain your preferences in this matter.

These are some of the standard settings:
Keep capitalized: EP DJ CDS OST CDM

Don't capitalize: at by for from in into ...etc...

Change: `,,,,'  Feat.,,,,feat.  Dj,,,,DJ  Rnb,,,,R&B  Hip Hop,,,,Hip-Hop

Changing capitalization works great for me, especially with the exclusive build McoreD made me... MWUHUHUAHAHA!!! 

EDIT: and don't worry about 'the' becoming lowercase when it's the first letter: capitalizing the fist character supercedes the 'don't capitalize' preferences.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #358 –
Hi John,

From time to time I did research on ways on automatically generating the AlbumArt_{“WM/WMCollectionID”}_Large.jpg and the AlbumArt_{“WM/WMCollectionID”}_Small.jpg.
Using WMP SDK you can query for the WM/WMCollectionID attribute of a track in WMP and you can determine the GUID of its artwork file name. What I found out was, “WM/WMCollectionID” query would give a null value for tracks that did not already have such artwork. So in other words, you would be able to generate the file name only if you already have such artwork file in your music folder, generated by WMP. This restriction, in my knowledge, makes it impossible to generate a file name without artwork (AlbumArt_{“WM/WMCollectionID”}_Large.jpg) already being there.

Like you said, “Find Info” in WMP does generate the AlbumArt_{“WM/WMCollectionID”}_Large.jpg in the music folder after a few manual prompts such as selecting the proper album etc. Programmatically triggering the “Find Info” is the next step to look at.

Speaking of Artwork in Media Center, iTSfv already has a hidden WMPfv mode for Vista Media Center that can be activated in Beta versions. This was purely done for personal testing.  In Window Vista, Media Center refers to a UrlToCoverArt.dat which contains file references to a artwork file in LocalMS folder.
A quote from a VMC user who was suggesting such implementation in iTSfv:

Quote
In general Media Center and WMP11 will overwrite folder.jpg with reduced versions of the artwork like 200x200pixel. I'm having my music library on the VMC PC and the folder is added to WMP11 via a read-only share like \\music\ which is then added to WMP11 to avoid the folder.jpg overwrites.

The library should auto-opdate. But it doesn't. So what I do is to go to WMP11 > Library and pretend to add a new folder. This will force WMP11 to scan for new files. I'm not sure of missing auto-update is due to my library size, I have 1.400 album and around 25.000 files.

Media Center copies found artwork to a cache and uses that for the UI. There are several artwork per album:
* the Full Album art shown when an album is playing in the center of the screen, but it could change per song I guess. 
* Then you have a small Album art if you are looking at the playing queue, angain this could change per song.
* And finally you have a small Album art used when browsing your music collection, I guess this is always one picture per Album - default picture if you will.
[i Note: I'm not 100% sure about this, but this is what I believe[/i]

The caching is tricky as the files get a id number assigned like this: {0A1FBC31-2EDB-44B5-BE3A-565AB02059A6}.jpg. 

On my HomePC i'm using WinXP and the cache is found at
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\Art Cache\LocalMLS

and on the Vista PC I have it at
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player\Cover-cache\LocalMLS


The WMPfv has the ability to update this UrlToCoverArt.dat dictionary file with file references to higher quality artwork in the music folder.
However since you are using Windows XP Media Center edition this will not interest you.

I had a read through your steps 1 - 8 and it seems you are doing some steps the long way.
With iTSfv it is not necessary to

6. Extract the artwork from the itc file to a standard jpg (which I save later as Folder.jpg)
7. Force iTunes to embed the artwork (copy to clipboard, clear downloaded artwork, paste artwork back

If you selected at least one track of an album in iTunes that has iTunes Downloaded Artwork, and you pressed Validate Selected Tracks in iTSfv, it will save a Folder.jpg straight in your music folder. This is the very reason why iTSfv was designed for, and I am quite surprised how you missed this out.

iTSfv already has the function to make a folder.jpg created, Read-Only, System and/or Hidden. If you require all Folder.jpg to be read-only, I believe it will be much efficient to run a batch file that does all folder.jpg +h +r +s.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #359 –
Quote from: Jose Hidalgo on
I second that !  (a BIG text box, because there will be a lot of words, in french for instance  )


adda/Jose,

Glad to hear from you again. Like NearlyGod explained, this is already configurable from the settings text files in the Documents\iTunes\Settings folder.


Jose,

You might be interested in the little Album Art Downlader XUI integration in the latest iTSfv builds. For an album you cannot find album artwork from iTunes store,

1. select a track or the whole album in iTunes
2. in iTSfv, from Selected Tracks menu, click "Search Artwork..."
3. Album Art Downloader XUI will load and the search for artwork from the internet, and sort them in resolution descending order.
4. Double click on an artwork you prefer (and you will see the Save icon on the picture)
5. In iTSfv, press Validate Selected Tracks and iTSfv will detect this artwork Album Art Downloader XUI downloaded

Quote from: NearlyGod on
Changing capitalization works great for me, especially with the exclusive build McoreD made me...


NearlyGod,

I am glad it worked out for you. Were you able to reproduce the iTunes bug I mentioned in an earlier post?

Cheers,
McoreD

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #360 –
Quote from: ~*McoreD*~ on
Glad to hear from you again.

You know, I've never left the topic. I'm still pretty amazed at what you are accomplishing here.

Quote from: ~*McoreD*~ on
You might be interested in the little Album Art Downlader XUI integration in the latest iTSfv builds

Pretty amazing !  I was using a separate software for that, but now... 

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #361 –
Quote from: ~*McoreD*~ on
NearlyGod,
I am glad it worked out for you. Were you able to reproduce the iTunes bug I mentioned in an earlier post?


Hi McoreD, sorry about not adding the text of my email here earlier, I did intend to;

I gave it (your beta-version) a quick try on my break from work and it works exactly as advertised

I could of course fully repeat the procedure in iTunes for detaching one album track, as you posted.  What a strange bug to have in a program version 7...  Unlike iTunes, the new version of iTSfv works completely accurately on this, and even fixes albums that iTunes can't (or you would have to do it manually as you suggest, renaming to something like 'The Cure1' and then back to 'The Cure').

/NG

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #362 –
On another note,

I have an album here where the Disc Number has been previously entered, but the Disc Count has not.  When validating, iTSfv doesn't add that count (it did fine with the track count). 

It seems to be the first album I come across that was tagged in this way, so I don't know if it's expected behaviour for iTSfv (at this time  ) or if it is a file-specific issue.
EDIT2: Found another album that had been tagged with only Disc Number, and iTSfv had no problems adding the Disc Count for this one.

If you need one of the files to test, let me know.

EDIT: Strange, now I was just tagging an album that had no Disc Number and no Disc Count, but iTSfv added only the Disc Number (or it could be the Disc Count, you can't really tell  ).
Unfortunately, I don't have the originals anymore as I am working 'live' on my collection.

I have to say that I expect this to be an iTunes problem, but can't actually prove that...

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #363 –
Hello,
thank you for your great tool, the capitalization of 1st words is great!

Just played with the integration with Album Art Downloader XUI, and it did something bad for me:
on an album, there 17 tracks. Their track numbers were "1", "2", ... "17". When I pressed "Validate Selected Tracks", the track numbers changed to:
- "1 of 1" <-- !!
- "2 of 16"
...
- "16 of 16".
- "17" <-- !!

Besides, I have now 2 albums in Coverflow.

I have to add I am an iTunes noob.

Arg

Edit: OK I found out in your great help file how to regroup the files. Cool.

Now a question: let's say I have some files of an album, with names: "<track number> - <track title>". Is there a way to tag the track numbers and track titles automatically ?

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #364 –
A crash when I tried to search for covers:

Album Art Downloader has encountered a fatal error, and has had to close.
If you wish to report this error, please include this information, which
has been written to the file: C:\WINDOWS\#ToolsM\AlbumArtDownloaderXUI\errorlog.txt

App version: 0.14.1.0, running on Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2

System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: startIndex cannot be larger than length of string.
Parameter name: startIndex
  at System.String.InternalSubStringWithChecks(Int32 startIndex, Int32 length, Boolean fAlwaysCopy)
  at AlbumArtDownloader.App.<Main>b__0(String arg)
  at System.Array.FindIndex[T](T[] array, Int32 startIndex, Int32 count, Predicate`1 match)
  at System.Array.FindIndex[T](T[] array, Predicate`1 match)
  at AlbumArtDownloader.App.Main(String[] args)

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #365 –
NearlyGod,

When iTSfv does not have enough information to tag Disc Count and Disc Number it will not tag them. If an album is a single disc then iTSfv will tag Disc Count and Disc Number to 1 of 1. If the album is multi disc and you don’t have disc number it will not proceed because it doesn’t have enough data to determine which disc is number 1. It will however tag the disc count (I think – I should double check). Basically for multi-disc albums you need to at least have disc number tagged.

Having said all that, there can still be abnormalities unforseen. I haven’t had a problem with writing TrackCount, DiscNumber and DiscCount for a while (code seems to be stable for last 12 months). But even then as I see any unexpected behaviour I try fixing them. I will keep an eye on this thanks.

Edit: I also found out iTSfv will not update DiscCount if the Album is not complete i.e. tracks are missing. This restriction was added a while ago to prevent unexpected behavior.

Jou,

Thanks for the feedback.

To play with Album Art Downloader XUI integration, you are supposed to select a track in iTunes and in iTSfv go to Selected Tracks menu, click “Search Artwork”. It appears to me that you selected a track in iTunes and pressed “Validate Selected Tracks”. Your track number is not modified. However some of your tracks in the album must have had different album or album artist tags. I hope you got this fixed with the regrouping.

Using Mp3Tag you can easily tag your files according to a file name pattern. If you have files for example <track number> - <track title>.mp3 then in Mp3tag, Filename – Tag you can set %track% - %title% and tag your files.


Do you get that same error from Album Art Downloader XUI for every song you have tried? I have encountered this once and when it happened I realized the Artist or Album names were too long or missing. I was going to immediately fix it but I couldn't reproduce that scenario again. I will definitely look into this.

Cheers,
McoreD

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #366 –
Quote
Using Mp3Tag you can easily tag your files according to a file name pattern. If you have files for example <track number> - <track title>.mp3 then in Mp3tag, Filename – Tag you can set %track% - %title% and tag your files.


Thank you. I usually Tag n Rename, another great tool to add tags to do that. But I never modified MP3 files tags AFTER they were imported (and thus, treated internally) by iTunes. Will iTunes see the modifications if I modify their tags ?


Quote
Do you get that same error from Album Art Downloader XUI for every song you have tried? I have encountered this once and when it happened I realized the Artist or Album names were too long or missing. I was going to immediately fix it but I couldn't reproduce that scenario again. I will definitely look into this.

Your Album Art Downloader plugin works _great_ ! I did this yesterday night for like 20 albums, there was just this one album which caused the crash. I tried stopping and restarting iTunes and iTSfv, no luck. I'll have a look at the files this WE to try and find a pattern on why they cause the crash.

Anyway, I'm just using like 5% of the possibilities of your tool, and I LOVE it. Thank you again! (I'm reading the doc as of now to try and learn new possibilties  ).

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #367 –
(I've read the whole manual)
2 questions to you

1) Chapter 1, you say: "Automatic genre tagging using Last.fm web services".
This is great, where is the option please ?

2) "Fill AlbumArtist from Artist tag".
Is this automatically done via Validating the tracks ?

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #368 –
Hi Jou,

Yes - iTunes will update the track information if you

- select all the tracks in the album you edited using Mp3tag
- right click and "Get Info"
- press OK

Thanks and glad you like the AAD XUI integration.

I haven't updated the manual with how-to use AAD within iTSfv.

For anybody else interested:

1. select a track or the whole album in iTunes
2. in iTSfv, from Selected Tracks menu, click "Search Artwork..."
3. Album Art Downloader XUI will load and the search for artwork from the internet, and sort them in resolution descending order.
4. Double click on an artwork you prefer (and you will see the Save icon on the picture)
5. In iTSfv, press Validate Selected Tracks and iTSfv will detect this artwork Album Art Downloader XUI downloaded

I will be very keen to know to what album that failed.

Cheers,
McoreD

Quote from: Jou on
(I've read the whole manual)
2 questions to you

1) Chapter 1, you say: "Automatic genre tagging using Last.fm web services".
This is great, where is the option please ?

2) "Fill AlbumArtist from Artist tag".
Is this automatically done via Validating the tracks ?


Jou,

Checkbox for "Automatic genre tagging using Last.fm web services" is in Tracks tab.

Fill AlbumArtist from Artist tag is done as part of Validation.

In fact, all the checkBoxes in the Validate tab (checks, tracks, library and file system) are done as part of Validate. You also have individual buttons for each category starting from v5.45.

To access Options of any of these checks, tracks, library and file system categories, simply press F2 and you will be taken to its relevant Options tab.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #369 –
iTSfv 5.47 and above will support grabbing Artwork from iTunes Store provided that you have "Automatically download Album Art" checkBox checked in iTunes > Options > General.

5.47.2.0 Status Bar messages and Progress are handled by a seperate background worker
5.47.1.0 Manually search iTunes Music Store to save Artwork, using Tools > iTunes Artwork Grabber
5.47.0.0 Save iTunes Artwork from selected track in iTunes Music Store

This is just so that you are not limited to grab artwork for tracks only in your music collection.

There are two ways to do this

1. Browsing the iTunes Store, selecting a track of an album in the Store, and in iTSfv > Selected Tracks > Save iTunes Store track artwork
2. Manually inputting Album and Artist name to search using Tools > iTunes Artwork Grabber...

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #370 –
Quote from: ~*McoreD*~ on
5.47.1.0 Manually search iTunes Music Store to save Artwork, using Tools > iTunes Artwork Grabber
5.47.0.0 Save iTunes Artwork from selected track in iTunes Music Store


Are you serious!?  I wouldn't have dreamt about suggesting this feature, but I can't wait to get home and play with this! 

I'm coming across so many albums (without any embedded or other art!) that I've tagged correctly and are in the ITMS, (clicking the little arrow takes me directly to the album) but for some reason the art refuses to download or it only grabs an empty 4-byte "jpeg".  Now I can get it anyways, woohoo!

Now, if you could make it so it grabs the 1425x1425 artwork... 

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #371 –
Quote from: NearlyGod on
I'm coming across so many albums (without any embedded or other art!) that I've tagged correctly and are in the ITMS, (clicking the little arrow takes me directly to the album) but for some reason the art refuses to download or it only grabs an empty 4-byte "jpeg".


NearlyGod, you have tagged your albums correctly and iTunes Music Store downloads a 4-byte artwork? Wow.. that's not nice. The thing is, iTSfv uses the same mechanism to download iTunes Music Store artwork so I am afraid it will not work for you.

A demo is shown in this page: http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsf...rtwork-grabber/
(Size: 10.1 MiB)

iTSfv has the ability to grab the 1425x1425 artwork but only when Apple's encryption is broken.

Edit:

The latest beta: iTunes Store file validator 5.47 and above does the following:

Requirements

iTunes for Windows - http://www.itunes.com/
iTunes Store Account  - you can easily register for an account using your CC for free. You only need your CC for authentication. Otherwise, you can use http://www.tunecore.com/freealbum for a free gift which will create your an iTunes Store Account
iTSfv - http://itsfv.sourceforge.net/

Install iTunes and iTSfv
Load iTSfv

Automatic method

Browse an album in iTunes Store
Click on the first track in the album

In iTSfv, using Selected Track menu, click Export iTunes Store track Artwork



Enjoy,
McoreD
 

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #372 –
Quote from: ~*McoreD*~ on
NearlyGod, you have tagged your albums correctly and iTunes Music Store downloads a 4-byte artwork? Wow.. that's not nice. The thing is, iTSfv uses the same mechanism to download iTunes Music Store artwork so I am afraid it will not work for you.
A demo is shown in this page: http://www.wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsf...rtwork-grabber/
(Size: 10.1 MiB)


This is a lovely new feature, but the ITMS is really frustrating me.  The search function is a piece of useless engineering if I even saw one.  For example, I have a correctly tagged cd that I ripped myself.  Everything is labeled *exactly* as in the ITMS, I even copy/pasted from there, to be completely sure.

I have a whole lot of these, but for example, this cd: "Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder - Talking Timbuktu"

Try and do an artist search: not going to work *at all*, unless you split Ali FT and Ry Cooder.  So for me (and I hope this is universal), I can only get to this cd in the ITMS by searching for Ali Farka Touré, and then clicking on the Timbuktu album.

Like you said, iTunes itself can't download the album art, and neither unfortunately can iTSfv, either manually or (more) automatically.  I tried the iTSfv artwork grabbing with some random albums from the store, and it worked for a couple, but also got a fair amount of that annoying iTunes message, where the artwork (which I am looking at, Mr Steve Jobs!  ) cannot be found.

Now, I fear it's no good, since the art-searching and actual store are kind of separated, but would it help the art-downloading if you used the full album URL? This is the address for the above mentioned Ali Farka album;
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore...34&s=143441
Feeding this to Firefox opens the exact album page for me in iTunes.

It's just so silly to see the correct album page, often getting there by simply clicking in my playlist - and not being able to get any of the art, because it "Cannot be found".  Yes, it can! You're just not looking hard enough 

Ehm, okay, well, you're catching my drift.

I'm off to play some more with finding album covers. 

NB just to end on a happier note: when it's automatically getting artwork, iTunes also finds art for albums that are /not/ in the ITMS... weird.

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #373 –
hi all, 1st post
long time listener, 1st time caller 
i've been following the forums on and off for years, ever since r3mix.net died and i had to look for alternatives
thx for all the valuable info

and

hi ~*McoreD*~
i've been following this thread (again, on and off) since it started
all i have to 'say' is: 
great app, great attitude towards the users, great job!


now, for the annoying part eheh
i was excited to 'hear' that the new beta supported grabbing artwork for albums that aren't in the library,
but, bad luck, i can't get it to work here, an error shows up.

i'm using vista + itunes 7.6.1.9 + itsfv 5.47.2.1

error:



details:
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.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'System.Windows.Forms.FileDialogCustomPlacesCollection System.Windows.Forms.FileDialog.get_CustomPlaces()'.
   at iTSfv.mBwJobsIT.mfExportArtworkIT(IITOperationStatus job)
   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: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 5.47.2.1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    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: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    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:/***/iTSfv/McoreIndexer.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    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: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
6yfslyj1
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    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:/***/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.ITDETECTORLib
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/Interop.ITDETECTORLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.10.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.10.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.312 (rtmLHS.050727-3100)
    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: 2.0.50727.833 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_32/System.Web/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Web.dll
----------------------------------------
taglib-sharp
    Assembly Version: 2.0.3.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.3.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/***/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.


any thoughts?

p.s.
i'm assuming i meet the 'Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher' requirement since i'm using vista and the app itself loads and works just fine

iTSfv - iTunes Store file validator

Reply #374 –
Hi Rocket Man,

Thanks for the feedback. 

The good news is that I can see that it works for you. The Save File Dialog box has tried to pop but bad news is that CustomPlaces (quite necessary) made it crash. It is strange. I was trying to be fancy there I guess. I remove the CustomPlaces code.

I have PMed you a build that hopefully should work.

Please let me know how it goes.

Thanks,
McoreD

Quote from: NearlyGod on
NB just to end on a happier note: when it's automatically getting artwork, iTunes also finds art for albums that are /not/ in the ITMS... weird.


NearlyGod, I agree with all the points of your points. It does suck as it doesn't offer us much flexibility in searching artwork. I guess they are trying to save their server bandwidth.

Indeed it is strange how iTMS finds artwork for albums not in there. That's why I also put up a Manual mode Artwork grabber to see if the album artwork is retrievable.

Cheers.