[monisriz]

I switched tv show scraper from TVDB to TMDB as it is now Kodi’s default tv scraper.
Previously with TVdb, I was able to get AB to download episode thumbs to local file system - I just added “thumb” to episode artwork and in advancesettings.xml and it worked. But after switching to tmdb, episode thumbs aren’t downloaded for some reason.. am I missing some setting that I need to change in the addon?

[crazyhands911]

I'm running Kodi 17.6, Artwork Beef 0.28.1. and the Titan Skin.  I also have the same builds on multiple pcs that are all looking at a QNAP server that houses the media.

I recently added went thru and replaced the vast majority of my movies with higher quality versions and noticed artwork not appearing or different artwork than what I had for the previous copies of the films. I had been exporting the artwork when I exported my library, but I was noticing the degradation of some of the artwork and read about the cache issue and it exporting at lower quality than the original remote artwork was. So, I added Artwork Beef. I played around with the settings a little and ultimately deleted all of the exported artwork and edited my sources, which forced a clean and re-scrape of all of my libraries.  I since gone through the painstakingly slow process of going thru each show and most of the movies and re-selected the artwork that I wanted to use from the new Artwork Beef scrapes.  However,  I've noticed that a number of items, especially TV shows, have been changing posters and/or fanart after library updates are run. For instance, 3 Ninjas Kick Back used to have multiple poster options and fanart. Now i have a single poster option and no fanart. I just did a complete rescan of all files with 0 image rating, and posters set to 10 and fanart to 20. Nothing added to this movie, but the system did change the poster i had set for the original 3 Ninjas movie
 and the 3 Ninjas High Noon at Mega Mountain. This is very frustrating, as I've spent hours going thru and selecting the artwork that I want, just to have it change a few days later when I run a library update to add my new media. So,:

Is there a setting that I need to adjust to have the artwork added to the options, but not to change what is currently selected? I thought perhaps the clean existing artwork URLs or Manually select multiple images for all media types might effect this, but I'm not really sure what these options exactly do, even after reading @rmrector's descriptions on his site.
I also have a number of movies that used to have a decent selection of artwork to choose from, but now have one or no artwork options, which just seems odd.

While I'm asking questions I might as well ask for clarification on a couple of setting items:
What does the option for "Prefer "fanart" with no title" mean?
The minimum image rating slider, setting to "0" will give the most art options?
Increasing the poster, keyart and fanart sliders to 10 or 20 also gives the most art options?

Any known issues with running Artwork Beef on multiple builds sharing a media library? I typically run library updates and mess with artwork selections from 2 different builds regularly.

[Karellen]

  I've noticed that a number of items, especially TV shows, have been changing posters and/or fanart after library updates are run. For instance, 3 Ninjas Kick Back used to have multiple poster options and fanart. Now i have a single poster option and no fanart.

For some unknown reason (and TheMovieDB admin will not reveal the reason to us) TheMovieDB have undertaken a sizeable purge of their artwork. There is nothing Kodi can do about that. Also artwork is scraped according to popularity. While a particular poster may have been scraped 3 years ago, since then another poster has been submitted which is better and downloaded more than the original poster, so it becomes the image that is scraped by default.

What does the option for "Prefer "fanart" with no title" mean?

fanart with title = landscape.jpg
fanart with no title = fanart.jpg

The minimum image rating slider, setting to "0" will give the most art options?

Yes

Increasing the poster, keyart and fanart sliders to 10 or 20 also gives the most art options?

Not 100% sure, but I think yes.

[crazyhands911]

Thanks for the info @Karellen .  I have been doing frequent library exports, with the thought that during the export, the .nfo file that is being created would hold the information on the fanart and poster that I had selected and wanted to use. Is this not true, except for referencing local art? This is why I had been exporting the art too, but I began noticing a number of fanart images that were greatly distorted or pixelated and wanted to get away from that and exporting the images during the library exports.

[Karellen]

Kodi always modifies local artwork when it is cached. An explanation is here. Sect 2 and 8 are relevant... https://kodi.wiki/view/Artwork/Cache

The NFO file contains all the artwork links that were scraped. Kodi then uses the first link but the other links are available from within Choose Art if you want to change artwork.

[crazyhands911]

Kodi always modifies local artwork when it is cached. An explanation is here. Sect 2 and 8 are relevant... https://kodi.wiki/view/Artwork/Cache

The NFO file contains all the artwork links that were scraped. Kodi then uses the first link but the other links are available from within Choose Art if you want to change artwork.

@Karellen If I upgrade to 18.6 and use:
<imageres>9999</imageres>
<fanartres>9999</fanartres>

in my advancedsettings file, would this then allow the export function to export the images without the worry of degradation, and i could go back to exporting images with my library exports and not need to worry about the images changing randomly after library updates?

If so, do these lines need to be within a certain grouping, like between two <videolibrary> like the <tvshowextraart> is, or are they a simple one line of code that I would simply add before or after the <videolibrary> grouping? Do I need a blank line between each?  I was thinking about upgrading and adding the extra artwork coding into my advancedsettings file as well. I currently only have <videodatabase> and <musicdatabase> info for the mysql settings for my shared library on my server. It sounded like v18 kind of has fixes built into the base code that alleviates issues with the Artwork Downloader and may not necessitate Artwork Beef being used even.

[Karellen]

in my advancedsettings file, would this then allow the export function to export the images without the worry of degradation

Almost. Images are still optimised which means they are modified and resaved so there will be a very minor but constant degradation, but with the addition of those advancedsettings.xml settings, the size of the image is not changed so the amount of degradation is minimal. That degradation only comes into play when you rescan your movie and the local artwork (your exported artwork) and the artwork is recached and optimised again. In between scans it is the same image that is being exported.

Artwork beef can be set up to download the original artwork for you, then when you run your Export, answer No when asked to export artwork.

If so, do these lines need to be within a certain grouping, like between two <videolibrary> like the <tvshowextraart> is, or are they a simple one line of code that I would simply add before or after the <videolibrary> grouping?

Here is my advancedsettings.xml file... https://paste.kodi.tv/onihuqowib

[Busta Uppa]

First off, much thanks to @rmrector !  This has become my go-to addon for supplementary artist artwork.

I do have a quick question about the discart.  Is there a setting to have the discart.png save to the actual media folders, while the artist artwork continues to be saved in the Artist Information Folder? 

I must say I do like the concept of maintaining discart in subfolders of the Artist Information Folders, but as far as I know most skins are expecting to find it next to the media files (correct me if I'm wrong)  I can move the discart files myself if need be, just wondering if perhaps there's a setting I missed somewhere.

[superfaker]

The movie cover are missing and artwork beef won't download them
Do you know a way to rescan and download all artwork or movie cover without doing it manually ?
thank you

[Cinephile]

in my advancedsettings file, would this then allow the export function to export the images without the worry of degradation

Almost. Images are still optimised which means they are modified and resaved so there will be a very minor but constant degradation, but with the addition of those advancedsettings.xml settings, the size of the image is not changed so the amount of degradation is minimal. That degradation only comes into play when you rescan your movie and the local artwork (your exported artwork) and the artwork is recached and optimised again. In between scans it is the same image that is being exported.

Artwork beef can be set up to download the original artwork for you, then when you run your Export, answer No when asked to export artwork.

Interesting, I wasn't aware that images are subject to minor degradation after modifying advancedsettings.xml with 9999 entries. Since they aren't being resized when cached is it additional compression that causes the degradation?

When you say that Artwork Beef can be set up to download the original artwork for you, does that refer to one of the options within the add-on itself? Also, how would I go about AB overwriting all of my previously exported artwork?

[Karellen]

Since they aren't being resized when cached is it additional compression that causes the degradation?

I was once told by rmrector that images are "optimised" for faster loading but I don't know the technicalities of the changes. It can't make them better than the original... so there has to be some slight degradation which I have seen when comparing the two versions side by side.

does that refer to one of the options within the add-on itself?

Yes.

Also, how would I go about AB overwriting all of my previously exported artwork?

Not sure. rmrector or another member might know.

[Cinephile]

Thanks @Karellen - that did the trick for missing artwork to be downloaded as originals.

@rmrector if you can please let me know about AB overwriting existing files (is it possible?) that would be appreciated.

[J_E_F_F]

Trying to install Artwork Beef from the repo and/or via latest zip on LibreELEC (Milhouse): devel-20200527213954-#0527-ga7939cf (RPi2.arm), also tried #0601 build, at least one of the dependencies will not install. (xbmc.python version 2.19.0 could not be satisfied)
Is there a fix for this to work on nightlies?

[pletopia]

Trying to install Artwork Beef from the repo and/or via latest zip on LibreELEC (Milhouse): devel-20200527213954-#0527-ga7939cf (RPi2.arm), also tried #0601 build, at least one of the dependencies will not install. (xbmc.python version 2.19.0 could not be satisfied)
Is there a fix for this to work on nightlies?

I think the issue is that this add-on is designed for python 2 while the nightlies are now based on Kodi 19 which will be python 3 only.

[crazyhands911]

in my advancedsettings file, would this then allow the export function to export the images without the worry of degradation

Almost. Images are still optimised which means they are modified and resaved so there will be a very minor but constant degradation, but with the addition of those advancedsettings.xml settings, the size of the image is not changed so the amount of degradation is minimal. That degradation only comes into play when you rescan your movie and the local artwork (your exported artwork) and the artwork is recached and optimised again. In between scans it is the same image that is being exported.

Artwork beef can be set up to download the original artwork for you, then when you run your Export, answer No when asked to export artwork.

If so, do these lines need to be within a certain grouping, like between two <videolibrary> like the <tvshowextraart> is, or are they a simple one line of code that I would simply add before or after the <videolibrary> grouping?

Here is my advancedsettings.xml file... https://paste.kodi.tv/onihuqowib

@Karellen 

I'm on Kodi 18.7 running the most up-to-date Amber skin and my advancedsettings.xml pretty much mimics your settings for the most part, especially regarding the extrafanart, that you linked for me previously. I'm having issues with Artwork Beef and setting the artwork for movie sets. I'm getting an error and to check the logs. I'm not seeing any logs specific to Artwork Beef to reference, so I'm guessing it is referring to debug logs. So this is my log from starting up, going to a movie set (All Dogs Go To Heaven) and getting the error. I tried a second set as well for Alvin and the Chipmunks as well before exiting.

These are the relevant settings in AB I'm guessing, in case it helps. I have it setup to download Poster and Fanart and delete artwork that is deselected, so it should replaces artwork automatically. I have it marked to use artwork from the films in the sets in order to expand the artwork options that might just be available for the set.


I'm hoping you might see something in the code that needs adjusted or have a setting in AB that needs to be tweaked. The artwork with AB has been perfect so far with TV Shows, and Movies, just not the sets.