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'Show fanart instead of visualisation' is working OK for me, but when I turn on the 'Show fanart SLIDESHOW instead of visualisation' option I am not able to get Transparency to look in the correct folder for my /extrafanart images. My 'Music folder path' is set.

Debug log : http://pastebin.com/m21751772

PS: Love the 2.11 upgrade! Challenged by Confluence, but still numbero uno for me :-)

Regards,
Thomas
My Question is pretty similar:

I dont understand how i can use Fanart slideshow instead of visualisation.
XBMC doesn't download all fanarts automatically if i turn that on, right?
I've to download the fanarts i want manually from htbackdrops.com and save it to e.g. X:\Music-Fanarts\<Artist>\extrafanart\fanart-1.jpg,fanart-2.jpg,... ?
and then set at "Settings > Skin Settings > General > Music folder path" to "X:\Music-Fanarts\"
Is that right?

The extrafanart must be seperate to my music-Folders, because i dont have a Structure like "Music\<Artist>\<Albums>\".
pred Wrote:My Question is pretty similar:

I dont understand how i can use Fanart slideshow instead of visualisation.
XBMC doesn't download all fanarts automatically if i turn that on, right?
I've to download the fanarts i want manually from htbackdrops.com and save it to e.g. X:\Music-Fanarts\<Artist>\extrafanart\fanart-1.jpg,fanart-2.jpg,... ?
and then set at "Settings > Skin Settings > General > Music folder path" to "X:\Music-Fanarts\"
Is that right?

The extrafanart must be seperate to my music-Folders, because i dont have a Structure like "Music\<Artist>\<Albums>\".

XBMC will not download any fanart if you turn this feature on - Transparency! will only use the additional fanart images you have already downloaded and made available in the \extrafanart folder.
With regards to your question about setting 'Music folder path' to a seperate fanart folder, I don't think this will work, but I'm am unsure, so it's best you wait for an answer from the mastro himself Wink
thomash72 Wrote:'Show fanart instead of visualisation' is working OK for me, but when I turn on the 'Show fanart SLIDESHOW instead of visualisation' option I am not able to get Transparency to look in the correct folder for my /extrafanart images. My 'Music folder path' is set.

Debug log : http://pastebin.com/m21751772

PS: Love the 2.11 upgrade! Challenged by Confluence, but still numbero uno for me :-)

Regards,
Thomas


yeah that sucks, xbmc doesn't allow you to load images from a smb share for slideshows.

wiki:
Quote:imagepath
Specifies the path containing the images to use for the slideshow. XBMC will first look inside the compressed Textures.xpr file for images, and then will look in the actual folder.
The path is relative to the media/ folder if it is not specified completely. It must be a local path (ie on the local harddisk) for speed purposes.
pred Wrote:My Question is pretty similar:

I dont understand how i can use Fanart slideshow instead of visualisation.
XBMC doesn't download all fanarts automatically if i turn that on, right?
I've to download the fanarts i want manually from htbackdrops.com and save it to e.g. X:\Music-Fanarts\<Artist>\extrafanart\fanart-1.jpg,fanart-2.jpg,... ?
and then set at "Settings > Skin Settings > General > Music folder path" to "X:\Music-Fanarts\"
Is that right?

yep, that should work. just make sure the <artist> folder names are exactly the same as the artist names as shown in xbmc.
ronie Wrote:yeah that sucks, xbmc doesn't allow you to load images from a smb share for slideshows.

wiki:

OK - thanks!
When you first implemented this feature in v2.10 beta, I tested this reported back that this feature worked perfectly - at this point all my fanart was stored on smb shares. I have a slight hope that the wiki is lagging behind.
It just seems weird to me that such a XBMC restriction is recently introduced after 24.11.09 when I tested this. All my fanart was then located on smb shares and it worked like a charm...

In my debug log above , there is one interesting line :
618.10:45:41 T:3078322064 M:1406701568 ERROR: Exists - Error checking for /home/xbmc/.xbmc/skin/Transparency2!/media/smb://Kontor/Music/Coldplay/extrafanart/

My fanart is stored on smb://Kontor/Music/Coldplay/extrafanart/ ,not /home/xbmc/.xbmc/skin/Transparency2!/media/smb://Kontor/Music/Coldplay/extrafanart/
Could there be a slight problem introduced when you implemented the 'Skin Settings' GUI enabling the user to select 'Show fanart slideshow instead of visualization' ? I seem to recall this was not part of v2.10 beta when the slideshow over smb share was working?

I am sorry to trouble you with this extra challenge, but I have recently spent over 100 hours adding multiple fanart to my huge music collection, so if there is a slight chance that all my work is not wasted, I have to grab it Wink

Thanks,
Thomas
Update: Just come to think that the testing I did on v2.10 beta might have been performed on the Windows PC where the smb shares are located. So I guess my hope's that XBMC now support slideshow over SMB shares are vanishing... Sad
Anyway - thanks for good support and solid information (as always)

Regards,
Thomas
you're right, the wiki is outdated on this point.
and even better, extra fanart stored on a smb drive is working perfectly on my setup.
so there's still hope we'll get it to work at your end too. ;-)

though i have no idea what's going wrong...my best guess would be that your guisettings.xml file is somehow corrupt.

could you try these steps:
- quit xbmc
- rename guisettings.xml
- start xbmc, select the Transparency! skin and enable 'show fanart slideshow instead of visualisation'.
- quit xbmc
- edit guisettings.xml and change
<setting type="string" name="Transparency2!.music_folder_path"></setting>
to
<setting type="string" name="Transparency2!.music_folder_path">smb://Kontor/Music/</setting>
- start xbmc, keep your fingers crossed and try the fanart slideshow
You have given me hope Big Grin
I followed the steps, and here are the results from my experiences afterwards:

1. I started a party mode playlist, and the first selected song (Shakira - La totura) displayed normal fanart OK in visualisation mode (this artist has not an /extrafanart folder available. The name of the song is quite describing to how I feel listening to this type of music - not exactly my cup of tea, but I am now digressing, so lets move on...

2. I then queued an artist with /extrafanart available (Coldplay) and pressed TAB in order to go back to visualization screen with Shakira. Shakira is no longer showing of her fanart anymore, and inspecting the debug log it may look like the skin is now looking for /extrafanart from Shakira, not the main fanart ?

3. Executing NEXT brings up Coldplay, and the fanart slideshow works. Hurray!
The fanart is animated (the fanart moves around on the screen) which makes me a bit seasick - hopefully it is possible to turn this movement off ?

4. When excuting the following tracks which to not have /extrafanart available no fanart is being displayed anymore. It now looks like the skin is only looking for /extrafanart images ?

Here is the full debug log : http://www.pastebin.org/69978

I guess the results of my testing looks promising since the slideshow from smb shares worked:-)

Thank you for your kind assistance so far and let me know if you would like me to perform additional testing.

Best Regards,
Thomas
thomash72 Wrote:You have given me hope Big Grin
I followed the steps, and here are the results from my experiences afterwards:

1. I started a party mode playlist, and the first selected song (Shakira - La totura) displayed normal fanart OK in visualisation mode (this artist has not an /extrafanart folder available. The name of the song is quite describing to how I feel listening to this type of music - not exactly my cup of tea, but I am now digressing, so lets move on...

if you've selected fanart slideshow, it should not show the regular fanart image in the visualisation window. so i can't explain what you're seeing, nor do i see anything in the Debug Log about it.

thomash72 Wrote:2. I then queued an artist with /extrafanart available (Coldplay) and pressed TAB in order to go back to visualization screen with Shakira. Shakira is no longer showing of her fanart anymore, and inspecting the debug log it may look like the skin is now looking for /extrafanart from Shakira, not the main fanart ?

yep, that's how it's supposed to work. when fanart slideshow is active, the skin only looks for images in the extrafanart folder.

i'm not sure if i can implement a fallback to the regular fanart image if no extrafanart is available. i'll have to look into it.

for now, you can switch between the fanart / fanart slideshow modes by using the togglebutton on the music osd.

thomash72 Wrote:3. Executing NEXT brings up Coldplay, and the fanart slideshow works. Hurray!
The fanart is animated (the fanart moves around on the screen) which makes me a bit seasick - hopefully it is possible to turn this movement off ?

cool, it's working!
sure, i'll add an option to disable the zoom & slide animation.

thomash72 Wrote:4. When excuting the following tracks which to not have /extrafanart available no fanart is being displayed anymore. It now looks like the skin is only looking for /extrafanart images ?

same answer as in 1 & 2. ;-)
ronie Wrote:i'm not sure if i can implement a fallback to the regular fanart image if no extrafanart is available. i'll have to look into it.

the only 'fix' would be to display the fanart slideshow on top of the regular fanart image.
downside is it will show the regular fanart image for a fraction of a second while the slideshow loads, but i guess it's better than staring at a black screen half of the time. :-)
I guess different users have different usage patterns, but for me this would definetly be preferrable. I have downloaded extrafanart for all artists where I have more than 5 songs. For all others (more than 1000 artists) I have not bothered with downloading/creating additional fanart since this operation is very time consuming and provides little value for money for these artists. As a result, I think I will only be able to use the slideshow option if it is able to display regular fanart when no /extrafanart is available.
Again, thanks!
I wanted to add something that I did in order to get the transparency skin working great for me and the network I have:

My setup is a HTPC hardwired to a LAN with a separate server with many hard drives in it, and connected wirelessly with a wireless-N connection to my main computer which I also store media on. To access the music, I created a shared folder on the drive where I store all my music and mapped a network drive to that folder from my HTPC. Now, using the ARTIST\ALBUM folder structure, fanart and cdart work great, except for compilation albums or DJ mix cds (bummer). Hope this may provide another option to you to get this great skin working! Thanks again for all your work, ronie!Laugh
thanx, that would indeed be easier than manualy editting guisettings.xml.
i'll add your suggestion to the Transparency! FAQ.

cheers.