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Full Version: Artist Slideshow addon (with skin and addon integration)
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(2016-12-25, 04:45)pkscout Wrote: [ -> ]
(2016-12-25, 00:05)KevinSartori Wrote: [ -> ]I'm having an issue where local files don't show up in Artist Slideshow. I'm using the latest 2.0.4~beta2 with Kodi 16.1 and Windows 8.1 x64.
All images to be shown by AS must be in <artist name>/extrafanart. AS won't show anything not in that folder. Given you mentioned folder.jpg and fanart.jpg (which are most often in the root of the artist folder), I wonder if that's the issue.

Ah, okay, I didn't realize that. I don't use extrafanart myself, so that makes sense. Any chance you'll add the ability for Artist Slideshow to "look" for artist folder.jpg and fanart.jpg files sitting in the artist folder? I believe that's how most folks organize their music and it would be great to see those images added.

Thanks again for all the support!
(2016-12-25, 22:27)KevinSartori Wrote: [ -> ]Ah, okay, I didn't realize that. I don't use extrafanart myself, so that makes sense. Any chance you'll add the ability for Artist Slideshow to "look" for artist folder.jpg and fanart.jpg files sitting in the artist folder? I believe that's how most folks organize their music and it would be great to see those images added.

I'll have to look at it. The constraint is that the skin engine will only show images from one directory at a time. So I'd have to have AS copy the image(s) in question into the extrafanart folder (and create it if it's not there). I'm not a big fan of touching files the user has added outside AS, so that idea makes me a little queasy.
(2016-12-25, 17:00)pkscout Wrote: [ -> ]
(2016-12-25, 11:32)hoschilo Wrote: [ -> ]I have difficulties to get 2.0.4 beta 4 - I only can get B3 direct download from github. Using the beta repository does not work - it shows me still something 1.7.xx

That's my bad. Beta3 is the current one. As for the beta repo, I think you might still have the Gotham version installed. Here's the link to the Helix+ version:

https://github.com/pkscout/repository.be...-1.1.0.zip

If you're getting crashes, I'd definitely like to see logs for those. If it's just artists with no images, the reality is that getting images for streaming services is very hit or miss because there's no standard as to where the name of the artist will be. AS makes a stab at it by assuming a stream will separate the artist and song title using a dash (which most do). I don't stream music myself, so it's gonna be hard to build any more logic than that into it.

So after installing actual beta everything is working fine. I'm very happy with it -Thanks a lot. You might would like to have a look into the log file - it looks to me like some "steps" are repeated frequently.

https://paste.ubuntu.com/23687383/
(2016-12-26, 14:09)hoschilo Wrote: [ -> ]So after installing actual beta everything is working fine. I'm very happy with it -Thanks a lot. You might would like to have a look into the log file - it looks to me like some "steps" are repeated frequently.

That's the expected behavior. AS has to check pretty constantly to see if the artist has changed so it can change the slideshow, and there are some things that happen around that that are repeated in the logs. I keep working on reducing the number of things AS has to do repeatedly, but I think we're close to the minimum number now.
(2016-12-26, 04:37)pkscout Wrote: [ -> ]
(2016-12-25, 22:27)KevinSartori Wrote: [ -> ]Ah, okay, I didn't realize that. I don't use extrafanart myself, so that makes sense. Any chance you'll add the ability for Artist Slideshow to "look" for artist folder.jpg and fanart.jpg files sitting in the artist folder? I believe that's how most folks organize their music and it would be great to see those images added.
I'll have to look at it. The constraint is that the skin engine will only show images from one directory at a time. So I'd have to have AS copy the image(s) in question into the extrafanart folder (and create it if it's not there). I'm not a big fan of touching files the user has added outside AS, so that idea makes me a little queasy.
I'm not going to pretend I understand the technical details of how Artist Slideshow works, but would it be possible to simply copy the artist folder.jpg and fanart.jpg into the the artist directory you create in the addon_data/script.artistslideshow/ArtistSlideshow? Then Artist Slideshow could display the local art as though they were downloaded. This creates redundant duplicates, but at least it doesn't mess with the users' music directory structure.
(2016-12-26, 16:52)KevinSartori Wrote: [ -> ]
(2016-12-26, 04:37)pkscout Wrote: [ -> ]
(2016-12-25, 22:27)KevinSartori Wrote: [ -> ]Ah, okay, I didn't realize that. I don't use extrafanart myself, so that makes sense. Any chance you'll add the ability for Artist Slideshow to "look" for artist folder.jpg and fanart.jpg files sitting in the artist folder? I believe that's how most folks organize their music and it would be great to see those images added.
I'll have to look at it. The constraint is that the skin engine will only show images from one directory at a time. So I'd have to have AS copy the image(s) in question into the extrafanart folder (and create it if it's not there). I'm not a big fan of touching files the user has added outside AS, so that idea makes me a little queasy.
I'm not going to pretend I understand the technical details of how Artist Slideshow works, but would it be possible to simply copy the artist folder.jpg and fanart.jpg into the the artist directory you create in the addon_data/script.artistslideshow/ArtistSlideshow? Then Artist Slideshow could display the local art as though they were downloaded. This creates redundant duplicates, but at least it doesn't mess with the users' music directory structure.

You've got the right idea. It's just even copying something means touching it, and that always makes me nervous. I think there would also need to be another setting to tell AS what to copy. I, for instance, would not want the folder.jpg copied (I'm pretty sure that's just the artist bio image), but I would want the fanart.jpg. I'm also trying to figure out how this would work if the user is using the default AS location for images rather than local ones.
(2016-12-26, 16:17)pkscout Wrote: [ -> ]
(2016-12-26, 14:09)hoschilo Wrote: [ -> ]So after installing actual beta everything is working fine. I'm very happy with it -Thanks a lot. You might would like to have a look into the log file - it looks to me like some "steps" are repeated frequently.

That's the expected behavior. AS has to check pretty constantly to see if the artist has changed so it can change the slideshow, and there are some things that happen around that that are repeated in the logs. I keep working on reducing the number of things AS has to do repeatedly, but I think we're close to the minimum number now.

OK, I lied. I took another look, and there is a much better way to do the "is the same artist playing" logic that significantly reduces what AS does during playback. I've added that in and will release another beta soon.
2.0.4~beta4

The latest beta has been pushed to my beta repo.

v.2.0.4~beta4
- fix for artist name separation leaving extra spaces
- added option to use local fanart and folder image outside extrafanart folder (enable in settings)
(2016-12-26, 23:11)pkscout Wrote: [ -> ]2.0.4~beta4

The latest beta has been pushed to my beta repo.

v.2.0.4~beta4
- fix for artist name separation leaving extra spaces
- added option to use local fanart and folder image outside extrafanart folder (enable in settings)

Great with B4 the log file is much slimmer now. Thanks a lot!
Did some further testing:

Start with first song - display of artist and accordingly fetching audiodb and fanart information works correct
Next song (2nd song) played automatically - no information about artist (cover however is displayed)
switch back manually to first song and then manually to second song - all information are displayed correctly.

Other issue again regarding "Mumford & Son". Name indicated by google stream ist correct however artist name is only "Mumford" which will result in not getting information from audiodb and fanart. No sure whether this has something to do with your script. Do you have an idea why only a part of the artist name is fetched?

https://paste.ubuntu.com/23694067/
(2016-12-27, 14:45)hoschilo Wrote: [ -> ]Start with first song - display of artist and accordingly fetching audiodb and fanart information works correct
Next song (2nd song) played automatically - no information about artist (cover however is displayed)
switch back manually to first song and then manually to second song - all information are displayed correctly.

It looks like you're using the Google Music plugin most of the time, so I installed it to see what I could see. It seems like sometimes the plugin provides all the information you would expect so that the music looks like a locally playing file (i.e. there is a title, artist, album, year, etc in the music visualization). Then other times it doesn't do that and all I get is a single line with artist - title. When I get the latter, if I go back to the previous song and then go forward again I get all the detail. So it seems like this might be an issue with that plugin. When it properly populates information for Kodi, AS gets images as I would expect, when it doesn't, AS thinks no artist name was provided.

Quote:Other issue again regarding "Mumford & Son". Name indicated by google stream ist correct however artist name is only "Mumford" which will result in not getting information from audiodb and fanart. No sure whether this has something to do with your script. Do you have an idea why only a part of the artist name is fetched?

Since I have a free Google Music account I don't have any way to test with a particular artist (at least not that I've figured out). I did test with a local file, and Mumford & Sons worked fine. So I'm leaning towards an issue with the Google Music addon and artists who have an ampersand in their name. I did find an error with theaudiodb search with artists with ampersands, but that isn't the problem you're having.

I think at this point it might be worth you asking a few questions in the Google Music addon thread.
(2016-12-27, 15:56)pkscout Wrote: [ -> ]
(2016-12-27, 14:45)hoschilo Wrote: [ -> ]Start with first song - display of artist and accordingly fetching audiodb and fanart information works correct
Next song (2nd song) played automatically - no information about artist (cover however is displayed)
switch back manually to first song and then manually to second song - all information are displayed correctly.

It looks like you're using the Google Music plugin most of the time, so I installed it to see what I could see. It seems like sometimes the plugin provides all the information you would expect so that the music looks like a locally playing file (i.e. there is a title, artist, album, year, etc in the music visualization). Then other times it doesn't do that and all I get is a single line with artist - title. When I get the latter, if I go back to the previous song and then go forward again I get all the detail. So it seems like this might be an issue with that plugin. When it properly populates information for Kodi, AS gets images as I would expect, when it doesn't, AS thinks no artist name was provided.

Quote:Other issue again regarding "Mumford & Son". Name indicated by google stream ist correct however artist name is only "Mumford" which will result in not getting information from audiodb and fanart. No sure whether this has something to do with your script. Do you have an idea why only a part of the artist name is fetched?

Since I have a free Google Music account I don't have any way to test with a particular artist (at least not that I've figured out). I did test with a local file, and Mumford & Sons worked fine. So I'm leaning towards an issue with the Google Music addon and artists who have an ampersand in their name. I did find an error with theaudiodb search with artists with ampersands, but that isn't the problem you're having.

I think at this point it might be worth you asking a few questions in the Google Music addon thread.

Absolutely, meanwhile I fould the logic of the "error": It works for all music/playlists except for "Radio" station. Despite is can see the playlist ("n") of a radio station it does not work properly. Sorry for bothering you with this issue.
(2016-12-27, 18:57)hoschilo Wrote: [ -> ]Absolutely, meanwhile I fould the logic of the "error": It works for all music/playlists except for "Radio" station. Despite is can see the playlist ("n") of a radio station it does not work properly. Sorry for bothering you with this issue.

Streams must provide a song title in the format of <artist name> - <song name> or AS can't figure out the artist name. I don't stream much music, so I don't know how many streaming stations actually do that. For awhile that was the de facto standard.
Just played a proper radio station, all works fine in my end.

Make sure the station provied artist - song like pkscout said,
If its artist-song or artistConfusedong witch I also see often it don't work, use a fallback folder with some nice pic looks good to Smile
I finally found another google music add in for which everything works fine (display of artist for so called "radio stations") so it is definitely not a problem with Artist Slideshow.