[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