[modean987]

PROBLEM: Music assigned to "Various artists" is given a default Fanart image which can not be changed.

SOLUTION: Overwrite the 121caa73.tbn file in your ./userdata/Thumbnails/Music/Fanart folder with something you like.

CAVEATS: This new image is used for *ALL* compilation albums!

DETAILS:

121caa73 is the hash of the string, "Various artists", no quotes, and case sensitive! I think this is the XBMC default artist name for compilation albums, based on the fact that it's the first entry in my Artist database table. You can run the following query on the Artist table in your Music database (xbmc_music18 or MyMusic18.db on Eden) to see if yours is the same.

SELECT * FROM artist WHERE strArtist LIKE '%various%' ORDER BY idArtist;

This should list any artist whose name contains "various", and you'll probably note that the first one (idArtist = 1) is "Various artists".

Once sure of the artist name, just run it through one of the sample hash functions you can find in the wiki.

Then find which folder contains the "tbn" file with that hash name. The quick way to do this in linux is on the command prompt using:

find . -name *121caa73*

The results show the file to be in ./userdata/Thumbnails/Music/Fanart/121caa73.tbn

Go to that folder and overwrite the file with the contents of some other file who's image you like. Be creative... use your own artwork designs, make and album cover montage of your compilations, whatever! Just remember, whatever file you do use, it must be named 121caa73.tbn

DISCLAIMER: Your mileage may vary or be changed by future versions of XBMC.

[leepenny]

Just keep all your compilations in one folder and have a fanart.jpg in the root folder.BTW on some skins you can add extrafanart to these folders. FYI There are various artist fanarts available at fanart.tv and htbackdrops

[modean987]

Just keep all your compilations in one folder and have a fanart.jpg in the root folder.BTW on some skins you can add extrafanart to these folders. FYI There are various artist fanarts available at fanart.tv and htbackdrops

Thanks for the feedback. I had tried to put the fanart.jpg file in the root music folder, but totally spaced out about putting it into the "various" folder. Oh well, I learned how the fanart thumbnail names were assigned and I can see some creative uses I can make of that information now.

I use the Transparency! skin. I tried out the extra fanart plugins but decided they took up too much space on my drive. I prefer to manually add the folder.jpg and fanart.jpg files. Since the demise of the allmusic scraper, it's easier for me to just write a script that reads the tags for my music, writes an album.nfo file, and then refresh the album myself.