[black_eagle]

How to assign art for multi-cd sets

These example screenshots use Estuary, however the principal is the same in any skin.

Firstly, navigate to your album/set. For illustration purposes, this example uses Queen's Greatest Hits set, consisting of Greatest Hits I, II & III.



If we open the set now, we just get a repeat of the set cover, like this. It's OK, but it would be better if each album had its proper original cover.



Open the album info dialog and click on 'Choose art' (You can do this on one of the 'albums' at this point, or go back and do it on the set, it doesn't matter).



We can see that the only art assigned so far is the thumbnail. This is the image used at the top level of the set (eg, the box the rest of the albums are in) and will be used for all the other albums if we don't set any more art, as we have already seen. If 'thumb1' etc doesn't exist, you will need to 'add art type' to the window. Note -: you can use an advancedsettings.xml (wiki) file to create them for you (see section 2.6.5.1 Music library extra artwork). 



Navigate through the browser to where your art is and select it.  In this case, mine is stored locally next to the music files. 



Repeat this for all of the covers for the albums in the set.



Discart is assigned to each individual album in the same way (Note that Estuary does not show the discart on playback, only the covers).



Finally, press 'back', or click on cancel to close out the choose art dialog. Close the music info dialog and go back to the top view of the set (first screenshot). Now when we open it, the albums look like this.



Finally, this is my personal skin showing cover art & disc art.



Using advancedsettings.xml

If you have some big sets and don't fancy adding all the art manually through the GUI you can set up an advancedsettings.xml (wiki) file to pre-load your art when you scan your music into your library.

This is the relevant section from my own AS.xml file

xml:
 <musiclibrary>

<artistextraart>

<arttype>banner</arttype>

<arttype>clearart</arttype>

<arttype>clearlogo</arttype>

<arttype>fanart1</arttype> <!-- Multiple fanart -->

<arttype>fanart2</arttype> <!-- Add as many as required. -->

<arttype>fanart3</arttype>

<arttype>fanart4</arttype>

<arttype>fanart5</arttype>

<arttype>fanart6</arttype>

<arttype>fanart7</arttype>

<arttype>fanart8</arttype>

<arttype>fanart9</arttype>

<arttype>fanart10</arttype>

<arttype>fanart11</arttype>

<arttype>landscape</arttype>

</artistextraart>

<albumextraart>

<arttype>back</arttype>

<arttype>discart</arttype>

<arttype>discart1</arttype>

<arttype>discart2</arttype> <!-- multiple discart -->

<arttype>discart3</arttype> <!-- you can add as many as you need -->

<arttype>discart4</arttype>

<arttype>discart5</arttype>

<arttype>discart6</arttype>

<arttype>discart7</arttype>

<arttype>discart8</arttype>

<arttype>discart9</arttype>

<arttype>discart10</arttype>

<arttype>discart11</arttype>

<arttype>discart12</arttype>

<arttype>discart13</arttype>

<arttype>discart14</arttype>

<arttype>discart15</arttype>

<arttype>discart16</arttype>

<arttype>discart17</arttype>

<arttype>discart18</arttype>

<arttype>thumb1</arttype>

<arttype>thumb2</arttype> <!-- multiple thumbs in the same way -->

<arttype>thumb3</arttype>

<arttype>thumb4</arttype>

<arttype>thumb5</arttype>

<arttype>thumb6</arttype>

<arttype>thumb7</arttype>

<arttype>thumb8</arttype>

<arttype>thumb9</arttype>

<arttype>thumb10</arttype>

<arttype>thumb11</arttype>

<arttype>thumb12</arttype>

<arttype>thumb13</arttype>

<arttype>thumb14</arttype>

<arttype>thumb15</arttype>

<arttype>thumb16</arttype>

<arttype>thumb17</arttype>

<arttype>thumb18</arttype>

<arttype>spine</arttype>

</albumextraart>

<itemseparator>;</itemseparator>

</musiclibrary>

Here I have added enough items to cover the largest set that I currently have. Kodi should automatically find and assign the right images to the right discs as it scans your music. Below is a screenshot of the directory containing the queen set, showing how my art is named.



If you have lots of art to add, this is an easier way to get Kodi to load it all when it scans your music rather than using the GUI.

Note for skinners

When viewing the 'discs' the sort method is set to 'disc' (although discs cannot be sorted). This can be leveraged to display the actual disc art instead of the covers. I've done this so opening an album shows me the discs inside and is as close as I can virtually get to actually opening a CD or boxset.

[gibxxi]

Thanks for the detailed explanation black_eagle. I feared it would be as such.

Not for me, as I need to keep my audio library folders clean of such clutter for compatibility with non-kodi apps I have that access them too, but thanks for the insight nonetheless. I'll bookmark your post in case I should change my mind at a later date.



Dan / Gib.

[black_eagle]

@gibxxi If you use the GUI part of the guide rather than the AS.xml, you can store your art anywhere on your drives.  Kodi won't find it automatically, but you can certainly add it that way. If you need to use a network location then as long as you mount it locally first or add it as a source (if you are using a shared db) then that is fine too.

You also can name your art anything you wish as you will be adding it manually. So you could create a directory with all your art in one, or in sub-directories off it.  As long as you can navigate to it through the choose art dialog you can pick the right art to associate with 'thumbx' and 'discartx' and Kodi will display it correctly.

EG - A box set with no art assigned and no art stored next to it.



Add the art.





Result.  Art assigned for one album.



This art was in a directory all on its own. 



You only need to store it next to the music and name it thumb1,2 discart1,2 etc if you want Kodi to find it automatically when it scans your music.  If you don't mind adding it afterwards it can be stored in any location you can browse to.

[gibxxi]

I may try using the naming scheme while retaining my current folder structure. Personally, I don't use additional art types (spine, back, etc) nor do I use / allow NFOs in my music library. Currently, I have 1x folder.jpg, and 1x Discart.png per folder of tracks, and that's it. When it comes to file naming, will 3rd party add-ons like Artwork Beef respect the numerical values in the filenames when downloading new/replacement images for existing / new content, as it doesn't seem to make that clear just by looking at it's settings (at least, to me).

Dan / Gib.

[black_eagle]

I may try using the naming scheme while retaining my current folder structure. Personally, I don't use additional art types (spine, back, etc) nor do I use / allow NFOs in my music library. Currently, I have 1x folder.jpg, and 1x Discart.png per folder of tracks, and that's it. When it comes to file naming, will 3rd party add-ons like Artwork Beef respect the numerical values in the filenames when downloading new/replacement images for existing / new content, as it doesn't seem to make that clear just by looking at it's settings (at least, to me).

Dan / Gib.

No idea, never used it, but according to the documentation it will name your files discart1, discart2 etc etc.  The documentation also explains the different options you have when choosing where to store the art.

[gibxxi]

I may try using the naming scheme while retaining my current folder structure. Personally, I don't use additional art types (spine, back, etc) nor do I use / allow NFOs in my music library. Currently, I have 1x folder.jpg, and 1x Discart.png per folder of tracks, and that's it. When it comes to file naming, will 3rd party add-ons like Artwork Beef respect the numerical values in the filenames when downloading new/replacement images for existing / new content, as it doesn't seem to make that clear just by looking at it's settings (at least, to me).

Dan / Gib.

No idea, never used it, but according to the documentation it will name your files discart1, discart2 etc etc.  The documentation also explains the different options you have when choosing where to store the art. 

OK. Thanks for the information. I will check it out.



Dan / Gib.

[HeresJohnny]

How to assign art for multi-cd sets

Awesome! Only now I understood the logics behind it all... this is crucial when doctoring my own boxsets as sometimes they only consist of the DVD-A or Blu-ray from a much larger release on Discogs. Thumbs are then automatically applied as thumb17 and 18 and such and when I rename the disc order the covers and discarts get lost.

Starting some heavy sorting/renaming now... up, up and away!

[HeresJohnny]

When it comes to file naming, will 3rd party add-ons like Artwork Beef respect the numerical values in the filenames [...]

Unfortunately, Artwork Beef isn't compatible with Kodi v19 yet and the developer hasn't expressed interest to adapt it before the final release of Matrix.

[gibxxi]

When it comes to file naming, will 3rd party add-ons like Artwork Beef respect the numerical values in the filenames [...]

Unfortunately, Artwork Beef isn't compatible with Kodi v19 yet and the developer hasn't expressed interest to adapt it before the final release of Matrix.  

Thanks HeresJohnny, but my point was rather that if functionality has been there since 18.x went live,, (Fanart1.jpg, discart2.png, etc.) does Artwork Beef already support this? Because if not, that's a lot of faffing around for 52,000 audio tracks, of which only 4 albums are boxsets, in my case.



Dan / Gib.

[HeresJohnny]

There is no boxset feature in v18, so that point is moot, IMHO (or off-topic).

[gibxxi]

There is no boxset feature in v18, so that point is moot, IMHO (or off-topic).

I'm not talking about box sets m8. I'm talking about support (in Artwork Beef) for artwork types with incremental, numerical suffixes in the filename. Me mentioning the number of boxsets I posess was a side-remark. The support (or lack thereof) is equally as important for multi-disk albums as it is for the (currently) unsupported box-sets.

Dan / Gib.

[DaveBlake]

I need to find time to input what I know about this art stuff, just not enough hours in a day. Having artwork types match the filename, and using artwork types with incremental numerical suffixes to match disc number is all my invention (as an alternative to the hard coded in core and limited art types previously implemented for music). It is still a little raw and a WIP, but I hope to work with skinners and other devs to improve it further for v19.  In the meantime please don't spin into a tizzy of mis-information.

BTW I'm sure that Ryan will update Artwork Beef for v19 as soon as he can, but is pretty busy with real life work at the moment too.

[black_eagle]

Just to say, I wrote the mini guide because I felt as if the art stuff was "hiding in the background" and people might not realize initially just how to get the multiple covers and discs to work (especially as this sort of thing in the past needed skin support).  It was easy for me to get my art working because, like Max Boyce, "I was there" whilst Dave was writing it, and got to test it out.  It's an excellent implementation too because it means any skin, even stock Estuary, can support multiple cover art for sets without any skin modifications in v19.

Something else that can be done, and I didn't put it in the guide because its purely a skinners thing (and I've only just remembered!), is that all the art is also directly accessible with ListItem.Art(thumb1), ListItem.Art(thumb2) etc and the same for discart.  So you can for instance, replace the album/set cover in DialogMusicInfo with mini covers or discs of the full set.  Nine of them fit quite nicely into the box that Estuary defines in that dialog for the main cover.

In fact (going further off topic) the way that Kodi now has an art map where you can add an arttype of <foo> and then display it in a skin with ListItem.Art(foo) is extremely flexible and opens up a raft of possibilities.  Booklets for sets for instance https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2928523 . I'm really rather interested to see what skinners come up with in the future given this flexibility - doubtless it will be much better than my off-centre effort in that post.

</off topic>

[gibxxi]

It's probably as much my fault as anyone's re: my own naivety. When we moved to Leia, I was under the mistaken impression that the old way of doing things would still work, and that Artwork Beef would simply "step-up" and take over where cdART Manager and Artwork Downloader left off. Also, I haven't spent as much time reading the docs as I could of / should of done, before the last time I optimized my audiio library. This in itself is a bit of a chore as only half of it will ever be taggable through MusicBrainz. But I got the answers I was seeking here (in a rounabout way), so sorry if I somewhat derailed the thread from the original purpose / direction.



Regards,

Dan / Gib.

[HeresJohnny]

This here thread is already many pages long, a tribute to the interest it has garnered. Maybe the artwork stuff could be separated into its own thread?