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Topic: Album art as playlist background (Read 3720 times) previous topic - next topic
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Album art as playlist background

Hi,

I'm using fb2k's latest version with DUI and either Playlist View / EsPlaylist.
I'm looking for a simple way to display a given album art (e.g. $directory_path(%path%)\albumart.jpg ) as background in the playlist viewer.
I can change the playlist viewer if required of course.

The album art will have to be "dimmed" so the playlist remains readable.
My theme is a dark one : clear text (212,212,212) on dark background (53,53,53).
Optionally some user-control over the dimming would be great.

Any simple & effective recommendations, please ? :)

Thanks !

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #1
Check out JS Smooth Playlist for the JScript Panel component. From memory it has an optional dark theme, and I know it can use the cover art as the playlist background.

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #2
Thanks Coreda. I'm testing it.
Right now the problem I have is that JS Smooth Playlist only allows for a PLAYING album cover as background.
I need a background that changes with each SELECTED item in the playlist, without me needing to start playing it.
I have tried changing the "Default Wallpaper Path" in Panel Properties, but it doesn't allow for titleformatting.
Maybe I'd need to modify the script itself, but I don't know how to do it. Any hints ?

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #3
Panelstack in combination with ELplaylist can do what you want. But it'll require some titleformatting scripting. Elplaylist allows full transparancy, lay it on top of a panelstack with the panelstack showing your albumart background. On top of that albumart you can lay a drawrect on top of it with alpha fill set to your liking for the "dimming". If you want control over the dimming you can set alpha as a variable for you to change via an action (button, keyboard shortcut,....). If you want the background to change when selecting in playlist set "titleformatting mode on startup" to "follow cursor" on the panelstack where you're loading the albumart background.


I do this with my own config but instead of drawrect I use a black transparant png image with a black checkered fill similar to what last.fm does with its header images. I found it very effective in masking low resolution artifacts of bad quality albumart more so than a simple black opacity layer would do.

Btw, I'm only familiar with ELplaylist having the ability of being transparent. Any other playlist viewer which supports transparancy will do as well of course.

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #4
Thanks jazzthieve. I'm not used to such scripting, drawrect's, alpha's and such.
I can try ELplaylist, but would you care to share your scripts and png image ?
(unless somebody has an easier solution of course)

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #5
To make my own script usable for you would require a bit too much work on my side since it's specifically adapted to my own needs. But basically you just draw an image on the splitter settings/script PerTrack tab.

Code: [Select]
$imageabs(0,0,%_width%,%_height%,path of your image,,,)

Then draw a black opacity rectangle:
Code: [Select]
$drawrect(0,0,%_width%,%_height%,0-0-0-100,0-0-0-100,)
That 100 number is alpha, sets the opacity level, change to what seems best.

Or overlay a transparent png image over it using $imageabs again. I've included some png images of various opacity and fill patterns. They are 4k size since my foobar is on a 4k screen. If you're using these either crop them to the size you need or use the image's absolute size in $imageabs:

Code: [Select]
$imageabs(0,0,3840,2160,path of your image,,,)

Set titleformat mode on startup to "follow cursor" on the script tab of the splitter settings of the panelstack where you put your $imageabs script.

Elpaylist however is a different beast. Highly customizable but very much done with scripting.

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #6
Thanks again. I'm trying, but so far it's being complicated : I know foobar's titleformat functions pretty well, I can achieve some pretty complex titleformat codes to display what I want the way I want it... BUT I know absolutely nothing about scripting. And I mean, nothing, lol.

It's hard to believe that there isn't a simpler solution to achieve this... I've been seing it for years in other people's configs, so I didn't think it would be so hard !

As an alternative or rather a complement, is there an art viewer that allows displaying of some titleformatted text over a picture background with an alpha layer ? Something like a mix of foo_textdisplay and some WSH/JS Art Viewer maybe ?

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #7
Thanks again. I'm trying, but so far it's being complicated

Perhaps this is why:
I'm using fb2k's latest version with DUI

The lines suggested by jazzthieve are pretty much all the scripting you need, you can keep ESplaylist which is by the same author of ELplaylist and supports pseudo-transparency as well, but panel stack splitter requires Columns UI.
I'm late

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #8
Thanks davideleo. Since EsPlaylist supports pseudo-transparency and runs perfectly under DUI, isn't there a way to achieve this under DUI ? I'd be surprised.

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #9
Honestly I’m not that familiar with the DUI, but I doubt there is something comparable to panel stack splitter. You could of course achieve the same result with a jscript panel, but if scripting is an issue, this is probably the last thing you want to hear.
I'm late

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #10
Unless of course there is already a WSH/JS script to achieve this. I don't think I'm the first one to pursue a similar result under DUI, am I ? ;)

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #11
I'm sure there is, but I cannot help you there. The main difference with the CUI/PSS solution suggested above, though, is that you would have to give up EsPlaylist. Panel stack splitter allows the overlaying of panels on whatever you draw in the splitter, whereas with a jscript panel you need to write the code both for the background image and for the playlist renderer.

Is there any special reason why you want to stick to DUI?

I'm late

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #12
Short answer : well, I have invested a lot of time in it (like, dozens/hundreds of hours, litterally), to have it behave exactly how I want it. Just like other people have invested a lot of time in CUI and want to stick to it.

If what I want can be done with DUI, then I'd like to find how. And if it can't be done, well, that's another story. ;)

 

Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #13
I understand, I's just wandering.
I'm late


Re: Album art as playlist background

Reply #15
Wanderful !  :P

(and if somebody sees this thread, my question remains open of course)