[pkscout]

So I tried installing version 1.5.3.002 instead on my Windows 7 test machine, this works, it reports the new version number correctly in XBMC and I have the new fanart and audiodb features etc. I have not turned these on yet and have just left everything at default settings.

I seem to be getting image corruption on several artists I tried to play.

I don't run or test on any of the alpha builds. As you found, the images seem to display fine on 12.2. When the next version does go into beta, I'll start testing AS against those builds. That will likely be later this year.

Also version 1.5.3.002 hasn't crashed as yet when playing Sigur Ros But it seems to take some time for any images to appear in the slideshow window and when they do they are corrupted similar to the screen shot above.

I copied and renamed one of my MP3s to look like a Sigur Ros song. So I can just about guarantee that Artist will work all the time now.

As for the slow first images, there are two possible reasons. First, getting the MusicBrainz ID can be a very time intensive process. Depending on the response of the MusicBrainz server, it could take up to a minute just to get the ID back. That's mostly because I have to get back a list of potential artist matches and then ask for another file with all of one rtist's music to see if the potential artist is the actual artist. If it isnt, i have to ask for another file for the next potential artist. if the correct artist is seven or eight down, that can really add up. There's not much I can do about that, but I do have logic in there to break out of that cycle if the artist changes or you stop playing music, so at least it won't hang XBMC. The other thing is that both theaudiodb.com and fanart.tv have much higher quality fanart than last.fm or htbackdrops.com. So the image itself can take longer to download. My bet is that most of what you are seeing is the former issue and not the latter.