Album Art Downloader XUI, A tool for downloading cover art Options

[bhome83]

so I have this being shown, yet still not sure what exactly 'only the first three paramters may be un-named' means and what I'm supposed to put in the 'paramters' box.

>"C:\Program Files\AlbumArtDownloader\AlbumArt.exe" /artist "2mex" /album "Old World Chaos Feat Dilated Peoples EP" /path ""\\BMSERVER\MuZic\Artist Albums\VA-Old_World_Chaos_Feat_Dilated_Peoples-EP-1996-CMS\Old World Chaos Feat Dilated Peoples EP.jpg"

Album Art Downloader XUI version 0.45.0.0

**** Only the first three parameters may be un-named ****

[AlexVallat]

so I have this being shown

Seems to me you've got an extra " where it doesn't belong, just after /path.

It looks like you have:
/artist "%a" /album "%l" /path ""%p\%l.jpg"

where it should be:
/artist "%a" /album "%l" /path "%p\%l.jpg"

Alex

[bhome83]

for it to work so album art downloader would open had to get rid of both " after /path so it looks like this:
/artist "%a" /album "%l" /path %p\%l.jpg"

The only problem now though is that when I save an image I find it doesn't show up as album art in mediamonkey.

For instance when I save an image it downloads it here:

\\BMSERVER\MuZic\Artist Various Songs\Duran Duran - Decade - FLAC\Decade.jpg

How would I get the image to a) show up in media monkey and b) be imbedded in the music file?

thanks!

This post has been edited by bhome83: Jan 2 2013, 04:40

[AlexVallat]

had to get rid of both " after /path so it looks like this:
/artist "%a" /album "%l" /path %p\%l.jpg"

Wow, that's weird. I guess MediaMonkey is adding a " to the start of the path it uses for %p... but not one at the end? Strange. Oh well, if it works, it works.

I don't know MediaMonkey that well, but I believe that you would need to tell it where to look for the album art files, somewhere in the Options dialog? If not, then you could try asking on their forums. For embedding art, try the Album Art Tagger MediaMonkey script by Trixmoto.

Alex

[nikolai4ik]

How do I make -ae parameter work? Also, is it possible to save two files at once (folder, front)?
My current script is \AlbumArt.exe /ar "%artist%" /al "%album%" /p "$replace(%path%,%filename_ext%,)front.%%extension%%

Is it possible to make filebrowser automatically close with AAD?

This post has been edited by nikolai4ik: Jan 18 2013, 19:40

[BlackTornado]

Hello everybody

I'm a happy user of album art downloader since a while, but I recently upgraded to Windows 8.
Everything is working more or less the same, except one thing: the startup time.

When I start AAD on Windows 8, it takes almost 10 seconds to start (on a computer with i7 and SSD), and this is much more that what it used to take under 7.

I guess the issue is related to the .NET framework (Windows is somehow starting stuff related to .NET 3.5 together with AAD and this takes a while).
Is someone else having the same problem? Can you suggest any workaround?

[SigHunter]

Hello everybody

I'm a happy user of album art downloader since a while, but I recently upgraded to Windows 8.
Everything is working more or less the same, except one thing: the startup time.

When I start AAD on Windows 8, it takes almost 10 seconds to start (on a computer with i7 and SSD), and this is much more that what it used to take under 7.

I guess the issue is related to the .NET framework (Windows is somehow starting stuff related to .NET 3.5 together with AAD and this takes a while).
Is someone else having the same problem? Can you suggest any workaround?

i just can say that this is not a general issue, im using windows 8 + ssd (vertex 4) and AAD startup is about ~2-3 seconds

[AlexVallat]

There isn't really an "-ae" parameter. For backwards compatibility with a previous album art downloading utility, you can use "/ae off" to mean the same thing as "/exclude Local Files", which is the command line equivalent of unchecking the "Local Files" source in the sources list using the UI.

I'm afraid it is not possible to automatically save two copies of the art at once with a single click, no. You might be able to use the Presets system so you could have two options in the drop down menu, one for front and one for folder, but you would still have to save it twice manually, once for each preset.

If you want to exit AAD, you can use the File/Exit menu command. This will close all windows (including the file browser) immediately.

When I start AAD on Windows 8, it takes almost 10 seconds to start (on a computer with i7 and SSD), and this is much more that what it used to take under 7.

That's weird. 10 seconds is a long time for an SSD, if it isn't compiling the scripts... are you seeing the splash screen while it's loading? Is it the same every time you start it, or only the first time since restarting the computer? Can you try starting it with the parameter "/?" and see whether it can display the command line parameters help window quickly, or if that also takes a long time before it is shown?

I don't have Windows 8, so I can't say for certain whether there is any difference in behaviour there, but from what I've read it shouldn't have any difficulty in running .net 3.5 applications, in Desktop mode.

Alex

[BlackTornado]

There isn't really an "-ae" parameter. For backwards compatibility with a previous album art downloading utility, you can use "/ae off" to mean the same thing as "/exclude Local Files", which is the command line equivalent of unchecking the "Local Files" source in the sources list using the UI.

I'm afraid it is not possible to automatically save two copies of the art at once with a single click, no. You might be able to use the Presets system so you could have two options in the drop down menu, one for front and one for folder, but you would still have to save it twice manually, once for each preset.

If you want to exit AAD, you can use the File/Exit menu command. This will close all windows (including the file browser) immediately.

When I start AAD on Windows 8, it takes almost 10 seconds to start (on a computer with i7 and SSD), and this is much more that what it used to take under 7.

That's weird. 10 seconds is a long time for an SSD, if it isn't compiling the scripts... are you seeing the splash screen while it's loading? Is it the same every time you start it, or only the first time since restarting the computer? Can you try starting it with the parameter "/?" and see whether it can display the command line parameters help window quickly, or if that also takes a long time before it is shown?

I don't have Windows 8, so I can't say for certain whether there is any difference in behaviour there, but from what I've read it shouldn't have any difficulty in running .net 3.5 applications, in Desktop mode.

Alex

Ok, the situation seems improved quite a little now... Instead of almost 10 second, now they became about 3... I still have the feeling that it is a little bit slower than on 7, but 3 seconds are ok...
Anyway, no splash screen is shown, and the loading time looks to me about the same the first time I open AAD after a restart...
With the /? parameter, the help window is visualized after one second, more or less, so I guess it's ok...

[AlexVallat]

Ok, the situation seems improved quite a little now... Instead of almost 10 second, now they became about 3... I still have the feeling that it is a little bit slower than on 7, but 3 seconds are ok...
Anyway, no splash screen is shown, and the loading time looks to me about the same the first time I open AAD after a restart...
With the /? parameter, the help window is visualized after one second, more or less, so I guess it's ok...

Thanks for letting me know. I agree 3 seconds still sounds long for an SSD, but given that it isn't showing a splash screen, and that the help window is fast (so it can't be time spent by Windows initiating the .net CLR or anything), then I don't think anything is wrong with AAD or .net.

The only things I can think of that can potentially make a difference would be if you had a different virus scanner on 8 than you had on 7, and it's causing an impact. Or, different graphics drivers might also have an effect (as it's a WPF application, graphics drivers can actually make a significant difference, weirdly).

Alex

[mire777]

Really good program but there is no possibility to save cover in mp3. So I set this program to download cover in folder, with extension %artist% , then i run Mp3tag program, and with one clik i put cover in mp3. It would be good to add this possibility there. I don't want to use another program for that, but i must? Thank's

[AlexVallat]

Really good program but there is no possibility to save cover in mp3.

It wouldn't be too hard to add the ability to save a cover embedded into an mp3 file, but the problem is that is not actually very useful. What you actually want is for the cover to be embedded in all the mp3 files in an album. That's a completely different sort of task. To do that, you need library management software suitable for organising your mp3s into albums and performing operations on them to ensure that all their tags are correct. Embedding the album artwork into all the mp3s in an album is the same class of task as making sure that they all have the same Artist and Album tag, for example.

I could probably write a library management application, and if I did, I would give it a button to have it execute Album Art Downloader to search for artwork for an album before then using that as the cover art for the mp3s in that album. I really don't see the need, though, there are already perfectly good library management applications around, like Mp3Tag that you mentioned, and they are quite capable of both executing Album Art Downloader to search for artwork, and of embedding the found artwork in mp3 files. There's even a helpful guide on how to do it in a post by g.p.m. (here).

Alex

[mire777]

Thanks. I'm just saying it would be good that everything be in one application. Your idea of ​​a library management would be great, then library can execute Album Art Downloader to search for artwork, and add the found artwork in mp3 files. Of course this is not necessary if MP3Tag can do this,but it would be practically if you connect that two application in one. However, thank you for make this great app

This post has been edited by mire777: Mar 20 2013, 14:07

[mneimeyer]

Using the forum tools I can't figure out if I already asked this... if so I apologize (my search-foo is weak tonight)

Is there a way that we could get the ability to search for a dynamic minimum size instead of a static minimum size?

Right now I can filter on "Minimum Size: 800" but what I really want is to filter on "Minimum Size: Bigger Than What I Have Now". For example, if I have something local that is 100x100 then either 300x300 or 500x500 would be an improvement but if I already have 400x400 then only the 500x500 would be an improvement. (Nothing local should be treated as anything larger than 0x0 of course.)

Thanks!

Matt

P.S. I know size isn't always an indicator of quality but this would still make it easier for me. I also realize I can do this by running through multiple times changing the minimum size but that's tedious.

This post has been edited by mneimeyer: Apr 11 2013, 05:11

[AlexVallat]

Hello, thanks for your suggestion. No, I don't think it's been raised before, and I've added a feature request for it to the tracker: https://sourceforge.net/p/album-art/feature-requests/102/

I didn't understand what you meant by "Nothing local should be treated as anything larger than 0x0 of course." though. Do you mean you wouldn't want to see any of the local results? I would have thought that it would be helpful to see them, so that you know which images it's taking as the basis for filtering against. That way if you see a large image there but that's of the wrong album (for whatever reason), or that's obviously low quality despite being large, you know that you need to turn off the filter for that search.

Alex

[mneimeyer]

I didn't understand what you meant by "Nothing local should be treated as anything larger than 0x0 of course." though.

I simply meant that if there was no local file present that it would be the same as "Show covers larger than a 0x0 image"...

Or to put it another way, no local file would effectively disable any size based filter and everything would show.

Sorry for the confusion.

Matt

This post has been edited by mneimeyer: Apr 13 2013, 21:20

[MC Escher]

I know I've reported random crashes on my system before, but the crash I got today seems to be different so hopefully this one can be solved.
This is the errorlog:

CODE

Album Art Downloader has encountered a fatal error, and has had to close.
If you wish to report this error, please include this information, which
has been written to the file: D:\Program Files\AlbumArtDownloader\errorlog.txt

App version: 0.45.0.0, running on Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 (64 bit)

System.IO.FileFormatException: De beelddecoder kan de afbeelding niet decoderen. De afbeelding is mogelijk beschadigd. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x88982F60): Uitzondering van HRESULT: 0x88982F60
--- Einde van intern uitzonderingsstackpad ---
bij MS.Internal.HRESULT.Check(Int32 hr)
bij System.Windows.Media.Imaging.BitmapSource.get_DUCECompatibleMILPtr()
bij System.Windows.Media.Imaging.BitmapSource.UpdateBitmapSourceResource(Channel channel, Boolean skipOnChannelCheck)
bij System.Windows.Media.Imaging.BitmapSource.AddRefOnChannelCore(Channel channel)
bij System.Windows.Media.Imaging.BitmapSource.System.Windows.Media.Composition.DUCE.IResource.AddRefOnCh
annel(Channel channel)
bij System.Windows.Media.RenderData.System.Windows.Media.Composition.DUCE.IResource.AddRefOnChannel(Chan
nel channel)
bij System.Windows.UIElement.RenderContent(RenderContext ctx, Boolean isOnChannel)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateContent(RenderContext ctx, VisualProxyFlags flags, Boolean isOnChannel)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.UpdateChildren(RenderContext ctx, ResourceHandle handle)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.RenderRecursive(RenderContext ctx)
bij System.Windows.Media.Visual.Render(RenderContext ctx, UInt32 childIndex)
bij System.Windows.Media.CompositionTarget.Compile(Channel channel)
bij System.Windows.Media.CompositionTarget.System.Windows.Media.ICompositionTarget.Render(Boolean inResize, Channel channel)
bij System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.Render(ICompositionTarget resizedCompositionTarget)
bij System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.RenderMessageHandlerCore(Object resizedCompositionTarget)
bij System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.RenderMessageHandler(Object resizedCompositionTarget)
bij System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
bij System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)
bij System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl()
bij System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData)
bij System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData)
bij System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
bij System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke()
bij System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.ProcessQueue()
bij System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WndProcHook(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
bij MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
bij MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o)
bij System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
bij System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)
bij System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(DispatcherPriority priority, TimeSpan timeout, Delegate method, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
bij MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
bij MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(MSG& msg)
bij System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.TranslateAndDispatchMessage(MSG& msg)
bij System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(DispatcherFrame frame)
bij System.Windows.Application.RunInternal(Window window)
bij AlbumArtDownloader.App.AlbumArtDownloader.IPriorInstance.Run()
bij AlbumArtDownloader.InstanceMutex.RunAppAsServiceHost(IPriorInstance instance, String channelUri)
bij AlbumArtDownloader.App.Main(String[] args)

It complains that it can't decode one of the found images. I was searching for "Slow Motion" by "J Majik".

[AlexVallat]

Hello, thanks for reporting that. Looking up the error, I find it is "WINCODEC_ERR_BADIMAGE", which means that the image Windows was trying to display was corrupt in some way. What I can try and do is put in some sort of code to check for bad images and not try and display them, so it won't crash (it will just not show that image), but I'm not sure in exactly what way the image was 'bad'. There is already code that checks that the data is actually image data, so it isn't enough to just check that it was a valid image file that was returned.

Can you tell me which source you searched that returned that result? I ran a search for "Slow Motion" by "J Majik" across the default set of sources, but it didn't reproduce the error. I assume it was on showing the thumbnail that the error occurred? Or do you have auto-download of full size images enabled?

Thanks,

Alex

[MC Escher]

It seems to happen when downloading a full-size image from HMV Canada or Discogs (but only for this release). So in the Discogs case, it should be this one here. The crash also happens when saving the image without loading the full preview first.

[AlexVallat]

it should be this one here

That's great, thanks. There's definitely something wrong with that image file, if I download it and try and view it just using Windows Image Viewer it can't load it either. I'll fix up something so that AAD at least doesn't crash when it encounters one, though.

Alex

[AlexVallat]

Version 0.46
This version adds a requested option to the Local Files source to automatically set the minimum image size filter equal to the largest image found by this source. To use it, click ... in the Local Files Source then check the box in the options there. With this option turned on, whenever the Local Files source finds results, it turns on the Minimum Size filter with the minimum size set to be that of the largest result that it found. This means that you will only see the largest local file result, and any online results that are equal to or larger than that one. It's off by default, so if you don't want this behaviour, then you don't need to do anything.

I've also added additional protection against the sorts of bad image files reported by MC Escher. It now tests to see if it can fully read the downloaded data as an image before attempting to display it, so it won't crash out trying to display a broken image file any more.

Scripts have been brought up to date, including those that have been created since the last release (The Classical Shop, Hyperion Records, MusicBrainz)

Download:
AlbumArtDownloaderXUI.exe (Installer. Recommended)
AlbumArtDownloaderXUI.zip (zip archive for those who don't like installers)
.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (required, except for Windows 7)

Donations

[MC Escher]

Thank you for the fast update. The crash no longer occurs.

[mneimeyer]

The minimum size filter works perfectly for me! Thanks!

[mneimeyer]

For what I'm doing (looking for cover art "upgrades") the local minimum size filter actually makes it much faster and I've noticed something else... (and again, thanks for that! It really is wonderful!)

While waiting for responses from the various sources AAD does the "Windows 7 Taskbar Progress Meter" thing. (Not sure if that has a real name) BUT it doesn't look like the AAD Windows Taskbar Progress Meter doesn't take into account loading full size images. So when the taskbar progress meter is done there might still be a wait as things load. I would love it if the taskbar progress measured "total completeness".

That said, thanks again! I can't say enough how easy AAD makes it to improve my cover art collection!

[AlexVallat]

I would love it if the taskbar progress measured "total completeness".

Thanks for your comments! For the progress bar, I assume you mean if you have AAD set to always download full images? The reason this isn't in the main progress bar is that it happens in the background, while the search is still going on. I'll consider having some sort of combined progress when I next do an update, but I'm not entirely convinced - as it is, the progress bar tells you when it's finished searching which would usually be the point you want to start looking at the results.

Anyway, what you might want to try is using the "Always download full size" checkbox for the sources you use, rather than the background automatic full image downloading. That way the source won't bother with a thumbnail and just go straight for the full size image, so when the progress bar reports search completion, it will be the full size image that's available.

Alex