[steve1977]

I have quite a few audiobooks. Curious what others do to manage them. Working with custom nodes? Does Kodi read the "audiobooks" tag from MBZ tags?

I don't have a great way yet how to handle these, so interested in both what others do with existing library features as well as ideas how to further improve this as part of the music library revamp.

Thanks in advance!

[DaveBlake]

Does Kodi read the "audiobooks" tag from MBZ tags?

There is nothing specifically for audio books in the processing, but what tag do you mean Steve?
Do you mean the data that Musicbrainz call Release Group Type, that can include "audiobook" as a secondary type?

In Picard this is called "release type" and is tagged as:
Id3 v2.4 TXXX:MusicBrainz Album Type
Vorbis RELEASETYPE
APE MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMTYPE
mp4 ----:com.apple.iTunes:MusicBrainz Album Type
ASF MusicBrainz/Album Type

in the various formats respectively (so other tagging software could also set these tags as appropriate to file format).

In v17 (current nightly) this tag is processed and stored as the album type, something available in playlist/custom node rules.

So you could scan audio books with this tag and genre suitably set then create a custom node to see them.

[robwebset]

http://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:AudioBooks

Rob

[steve1977]

Does Kodi read the "audiobooks" tag from MBZ tags?

There is nothing specifically for audio books in the processing, but what tag do you mean Steve?
Do you mean the data that Musicbrainz call Release Group Type, that can include "audiobook" as a secondary type?

In Picard this is called "release type" and is tagged as:
Id3 v2.4 TXXX:MusicBrainz Album Type
Vorbis RELEASETYPE
APE MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMTYPE
mp4 ----:com.apple.iTunes:MusicBrainz Album Type
ASF MusicBrainz/Album Type

in the various formats respectively (so other tagging software could also set these tags as appropriate to file format).

In v17 (current nightly) this tag is processed and stored as the album type, something available in playlist/custom node rules.

So you could scan audio books with this tag and genre suitably set then create a custom node to see them.

I am truly excited about upcoming Krypton. It appears to address all music needs. Yet again, big thanks and very well done!

Let me understand how it works. I can actually create a custom node with audio books (which includes albumtype=spokenword) and classicalmusic (which includes tag=classical) and all other music (everything except the first two).

If I do this, I assume this will work for the Kodi instance, where I set up the custom nodes. For the other instances (via mysql), this would still be the same with all music under one node? And for instances accessing the custom node instance over UPNP, this would reflect the custom nodes via UPNP?

[DaveBlake]

Let me understand how it works. I can actually create a custom node with audio books (which includes albumtype=spokenword) and classicalmusic (which includes tag=classical) and all other music (everything except the first two).

If you tag your music with GENRE= "classical", or RELEASETYPE="spokenword" then yes for the classical or audio book nodes.

Creating a node that excludes those but gives everything else is a little trickier. You need to use playlist rules (not folder type nodes) and currently drilling down a playlist does not pass the filtering rules with it properly. I have done the work to fix this, but it is an ugly looking PR and nobody has approved it for v17.

End result things will be workable for v17, but I know that sometimes the node for "all the rest" will not work quite as nicely as I would like.

If I do this, I assume this will work for the Kodi instance, where I set up the custom nodes. For the other instances (via mysql), this would still be the same with all music under one node? And for instances accessing the custom node instance over UPNP, this would reflect the custom nodes via UPNP?

Only custom nodes will filter by release type, the default albums node will show them. But can you not copy your nodes from the main Kodi instance to the others? I'm not sure what other MySQL use you mean. UPNP is definitely above my pay grade :p

I think UPNP will need the JSON interface to but extended for this, but I really don't know about this area.

[steve1977]

Thanks, let me give it a try once Krypton gets released. MrMC stops me these days from trying out more with nightlies.

What is the issue with "all the rest"? Can I not just create a playlist with "exclude albumtype=spoken" AND "tag=classical". And then map this playlist to a custom node? I have failed to do so in the past, but technically it should be easy and work?

[DaveBlake]

Thanks, let me give it a try once Krypton gets released. MrMC stops me these days from trying out more with nightlies.

Shame. You could always have some mess about versions on a PC or something rather than your main media system, whatever that is. Get a taste of what is comming.

What is the issue with "all the rest"? Can I not just create a playlist with "exclude albumtype=spoken" AND "tag=classical". And then map this playlist to a custom node? I have failed to do so in the past, but technically it should be easy and work?

With the Library Node editor addon editing custom nodes is easy

But Smart playlists and rule based custom nodes do not pass their filtering rules down when one clicks on an item. The impact this has varies depending on your data, and true you may not notice it. Say for example you have a playlist that gives you all the artists with songs that have genre != classical, but some artists crossover genres and have both classical and none classical songs. Click on such an artist you see all their albums (and then songs) not just the classical ones. The rule was just applied to the artist list, not what you see next.

There is also no rule to see only artists that have albums that are not audio books. But by using what v17 provides and exploring the limits is how we discover what users really need to be able to do in future. And v17 will move us forwards.

I am thinking (aloud) what we really want is to be able to apply filter rules at any level e.g. apply rule "type is audiobook" and see the genres (of the "songs" that are audiobooks), and then the artists, then the books etc., and likewise see all the non-book genres, artists, albums etc. At any level filter using rules that apply to above and below fields. Take the rule genre = "classical": be able to see the songs with that genre, or the abums with songs with that, or the artists with songs with that, or the other genres that songs with that genre have.
It is a different kind of UI, and not going to happen anytime soon.

[steve1977]

Got it. I think I understand the limitation. You mention that your PR has not been approved yet for Krypton. Do you still see a chance and what is preventing it from being merged.

I tried the playlist for classical music and it works nicely. With Krypton, will I be able to group by composer and not just by artist?

I failed to build a playlist for type=spokenword. Artists don't have a "type" and when selecting "type" for albums, no albums shows in the playlist although I have quite a few spokenword albums. Any thoughts?

[DaveBlake]

Got it. I think I understand the limitation. You mention that your PR has not been approved yet for Krypton. Do you still see a chance and what is preventing it from being merged.

I don't see it going into v17 as now too late in beta for messing with fundamentals. It manipulates bits of string to build SQL queries and thus is ugly and hard to just read and know the impact. Also need to be familiar with music database, and how library works etc., and there just wasn't anyone else with sufficient detailed knowledge and time to check my design. Note I say design, checking the code is trivial and that is fine. But maybe good will come of this, and I can come up with an even better way of doing things.

I tried the playlist for classical music and it works nicely. With Krypton, will I be able to group by composer and not just by artist?

If I understand your question correctly then yes.

I failed to build a playlist for type=spokenword. Artists don't have a "type" and when selecting "type" for albums, no albums shows in the playlist although I have quite a few spokenword albums. Any thoughts?

A few things:

Yes (album) Type is only an album rule, not available for artists smart playlist. You would like to see those artists that have albums that are audiobooks? Well that is the kind of thing I meant when, thinking aloud, I said " what we really want is to be able to apply filter rules at any level". It is the direction I want to move in, but for now it is an album rule only.

To populate the album type from music file tags to well need to get Kodi to rescan these files, either by removing and adding source again, or by "touching" then to change their date and calling library update.

If your audiobooks were tagged using Picard then the rule you need is "type contains audiobook"

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="albums">
    <name>Albums by Type</name>
    <match>all</match>
    <rule field="type" operator="contains">
        <value>compilation</value>
    </rule>

See if you can get that working.

[steve1977]

Thanks for your answer, very helpful (as always).

It is tagged with Picard, but as "others/spokenword" and not as "audiobook".

When I click the playlist, can I still set it up to see the artists or do I directly get a list of hundreds of albums?

Does "type=spokenword" already work in Jarvis or just Krypton? I tried every combination and rescanned the library, but cannot get it to work.

[DaveBlake]

When I click the playlist, can I still set it up to see the artists or do I directly get a list of hundreds of albums?

Sorry, I don't understand the question.

Does "type=spokenword" already work in Jarvis or just Krypton? I tried every combination and rescanned the library, but cannot get it to work.

Just the most recent nightly of Krypton, as mentioned in #2. But I appreciate your enthusiasm for it to work

[steve1977]

Got it, thanks, great!

What I meant with my first point is whether I can still get an artist view for "type=spokenword"? Or will the playlist just consist of albums? Is this clearer what I am looking for?

[DaveBlake]

Albums, as yet there is no way to get the artists for albums with type = spokenword (or any other album rule). But it is something I would like to develop.

[steve1977]

Oh, that's unfortunate. That will make the view very messy.

How did you solve for it for the classical genre view? The smart playlist is also on song/album level, but you succeeded to find a way to group things by artist (though artist has no affiliation with a genre either)?

[DaveBlake]

I understand your thinking - it works like that for genre, we recently added artists and albums rules for song path etc. why not type too? Well because we need to implement it in a better way than just bolt on bits where they were not originally intended to go. That isn't going to happen for v17 because it is too late in the release cycle.

To be honest my effort is better spent doing the work than explaining why there is work to do! But don't worry since it is something I have an interest in it has a good chance of happening.