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AlbumArt Utility

Last post 11-01-2008, 8:19 AM by Wizard. 34 replies.
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  •  06-08-2008, 11:49 PM 267401

    AlbumArt Utility

    Hi...

    I have made a small utility program that searches for your music and cover art in your music folders.

    It then saves the data in the UrlToCoverArt.dat file that Vista uses to link the cover art to each track of an album.

    If you want to try it, then it can be downloaded here


    Any feedback, good as well as bad is very welcomed since the program is still under development.

    I will post some screenshots as soon as possible as well as a HowTo guide.


    Best regards
    Morten

     

  •  06-09-2008, 5:40 AM 267423 in reply to 267401

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    This sounds interesting.  By default Vista Media Center creates low res 200x200 images of all album covers, which looks rubbish on a 1920x1080 screen.  There is a program called AlbumArtFixer that overwrites these images with a larger one found in your music folder, but it has to do this for every track, resulting in a lot of disk churning and wasted space.  Does this app just remap everything so that all tracks from one album can point to a single image in your music folder?  If so I'll give it a try tonight!
  •  06-09-2008, 10:04 PM 267571 in reply to 267423

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    Yes, this is exactly what this app. does. The UrlToCoverArt.dat file is just a link container, so my app. just fill in the missing links.

    Screenshots:


  •  06-11-2008, 3:20 AM 267763 in reply to 267571

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    Excellent, I'll try it over the next day or so and report back.  I have over 180Gb of music all tagged with cover.jpg files in various file formats so this will be a good test!
  •  06-11-2008, 11:40 AM 267872 in reply to 267763

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    Great...

    I am looking forward to that :)

  •  06-12-2008, 12:58 AM 267973 in reply to 267872

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    How to guide

     

    Go to the AlbumArt settings tap.

     

    UrlToCoverArt Settings:

    The UrlToCoverArt.dat file location is automatically found, so you should not have to enter anything here, so just leave it as it is.

     

    It is recommended to leave the backup checkbox checked, so you can open and reuse it later if you or the program made an error.

     

    Music Settings:

    In the music folder textbox, enter the path to the folder which contains your music

     

    In the fileextension textbox, enter the file extensions of your music collection, the default is mp3 and wma.

    Separate with ;

     

    AlbumArt settings:

    In the AlbumArt textbox, enter the filename and extension of your cover file.

    The default is Folder.jpg

     

    The “Set file attr to system…..” is an option that can be used to hide your AlbumArt from the pictures menu under VMC. So if your AlbumArt is listed under pictures, then run this option.

    You may have to reload your entire picture library after this.

     

    The “Clean AlbumArt created….” is an option that deletes all other pictures than the cover file entered in the AlbumArt textbox, in your entire music folder. This is also done to prevent the music folder to appear under pictures in VMC.

    Please use this with caution.

     

    When all settings are entered, the program will save them, so you just have to enter them one time.

     

    Go to the AlbumArt Utility tap.

     

    Click on the Add button. All your music will be listed in the right window with the cover file found in its path.

     

    If it all looks okay, then click the save button and the UrlToCoverArt.dat file will be updated and a backup will be created.

     

    If you have to use a backup of an earlier dat file, then simply click on the open button and select the file you want to use.

    The file will be listed in the right window and you can than save that file with a click on the save button and the backup will be used.

  •  06-12-2008, 10:25 AM 268048 in reply to 267973

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    This looks like a great utility, thank you for sharing...

    I only have one comment...suppose some of the coverart in each album folder is named Folder.jpg, while in other folders it is named AlbumArt.jpg.  Would you be able to come up with a way specify a list of coverart files, or possibly use the *.jpg wildcard?  I haven't tried your utility yet, so maybe it already does this.

  •  06-12-2008, 10:35 PM 268165 in reply to 268048

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    The application does not support wildcards on covers as it is now, but it is a great idea and I will put it on my list.

    I will try to make it available in the next release :)

    Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it.

     

     

  •  06-17-2008, 5:25 AM 268802 in reply to 268165

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    Release 1.0.1 is comming soon...

    New features:

    You can now enter more than one cover file, separate with ";"
    (feature request by Blue)

    Generel error checking and code cleanup :)

     

    Regards
    Morten

  •  06-17-2008, 7:58 AM 268836 in reply to 268802

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    Thank you Morten!
  •  06-18-2008, 10:31 PM 269099 in reply to 268836

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    It's released...

    Please remember to uninstall the previous version before installing the new one.

    Get it here

  •  06-26-2008, 10:09 PM 270491 in reply to 269099

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    Hi...

    New website up and running :)

    http://mjsoft.webs.com/

  •  07-02-2008, 2:38 AM 271286 in reply to 267401

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    Hi...

    Version 1.0.2 is ready for download here

  •  07-02-2008, 4:07 AM 271290 in reply to 271286

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    What's changed in the new version then?
  •  07-02-2008, 5:44 AM 271310 in reply to 271290

    Re: AlbumArt Utility

    Interesting, it looks like I could use this, I'll give a it a shot over the weekend....(if the wife gives me time to play)
    -Dave

    MCP, MCSA, MCSE 2003
    Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Technologists
    Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Sales professionals

    Home theater specialist (10+ years)
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