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~*McoreD*~

Jan 8 2007, 08:19

Hi All,

iTSfv – iTunes Store file validator is an add-in for iTunes. It is aimed for iTunes users who are keen on maintaining or having the goal of achieving iTunes Store file standard tags for all the tracks in their iTunes Music Library.

iTSfv has many number of visible and hidden features.

• Fill Track Count, Disc Number and Disc Count
• Fill AlbumArtist from Artist tag
• Add Artwork from explorer to tracks without embedded artwork
• Copy Folder.jpg to album folders
• Backup and restore play count and ratings
• Report tracks with missing tags (Artwork, Track Number, Lyrics etc.)
• Capitalize each word of tag and rename file accordingly
• Add new tracks to library (manually or by automatically monitoring)
• Delete unreferenced tracks from library

IPB Image

Latest Release:
http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/

Source:
http://code.google.com/p/itsfv/source/list

Digg edit:

If you would like others to know about this add-on then please Digg it from
http://digg.com/software/iTSfv_Hands_down_..._could_ever_ask

Note: The title of the digg article - It is not my interpretation of the software but one of the users': http://wakoopa.com/software/itunes-store-file-validator. I thought it sounded nice and grabs attention which is really essentially in digg.

~*McoreD*~

Mar 10 2007, 01:18

I have just finished up an auto Rating system and this is how it looks in my Top 25 Most Played smart playlist.

Considering PlayedCount, Last Played Date and Date Added, what do you guys think?

Edit:

My Top Rated:

Jojo

Mar 10 2007, 14:35

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Mar 9 2007, 23:18)

I have just finished up an auto Rating system and this is how it looks in my Top 25 Most Played smart playlist.

Considering PlayedCount, Last Played Date and Date Added, what do you guys think?

could you explain how it works? And how did you get the .5 rating to work?

~*McoreD*~

Mar 10 2007, 17:02

Hi Jojo,

Sure; I am more than happy to explain. I thought My Rating is more like the current status how you 'feel' about the song. Our all time best songs will be always accessible in Top 25 Most Played smart playlist. Therefore giving 5 Stars for best songs will not be good idea because a month or two later that song will not deserve a 5 Star rating by you as your taste changes in favor of other songs.

So we need a system that automatically increments and decrements My Rating.

The Rating is a function of Played Count, Last Played and Date Added. The more played count, the Rating will go higher. The more days since last played, the Rating will go down. The more days since Added to library and played recently, in other words, when older songs were recently played, they will be favored more than new songs which were played recently.

If you see the screenshot, #3 Dhol Wadja with 322 played count has got a 4 Star rating. #4 Me & U with 318 played count has a got 4.5 Star Rating. Why? I haven't played Dhol Wadja since January and I have played Me & U more recently.

You will also see, #24 Me & U (Dope Remix) has got a 3.5 star rating with 148 played count where as #17 Like Glue has got only 1.5 star rating because I haven't played it since November!

I you like the idea, you are welcome to try it.

The top one is the Latest Beta:
http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/?M=D

Cheers,
McoreD

~*McoreD*~

Mar 10 2007, 17:58

QUOTE(Jojo @ Mar 11 2007, 05:35)

And how did you get the .5 rating to work?

5 Stars will go to the song most played Count or songs which are very close to most played count, AND played recently. 80% of the weight for the Rating comes from Last Played.

Jojo

Mar 10 2007, 18:31

I like the idea a lot since I've been fiddling around with smart playlists in order to achieve that. Anyway, does your program act as a plugin for iTunes or how does it work? Or do I have to run it each time I want the playlist to be updated.

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Mar 10 2007, 15:58)

QUOTE(Jojo @ Mar 11 2007, 05:35)

And how did you get the .5 rating to work?

5 Stars will go to the song most played Count or songs which are very close to most played count, AND played recently. 80% of the weight for the Rating comes from Last Played.

I think you might have misunderstood my question. I wasn't aware that iTunes is able to display ratings in 0.5 increments. So I was wondering how got that to work.

later

JensRex

Mar 10 2007, 18:38

On a more general note, I never understood the fascination with ratings. Ratings are subjective, and only ever valid for one person - the rater, eg. myself. I already know what I like. I can look at any given song in my playlist and tell you whether I like it or not, without a rating tag.

Other than that, why would I keep music in my playlist that I don't like? If I were to rate a song 'zero' because I hate it, I might as well just delete it.

~*McoreD*~

Mar 10 2007, 19:09

QUOTE(Jojo @ Mar 11 2007, 09:31)

iTSfv works as an add-on. Whenever you feel like it -- e.g. when a friend comes over and you wanna show your best picks from play lists of the past few months, (JensRex, this is why I rate) -- you run iTSfv for the library to re-evaluate the Ratings.

Indeed I had misunderstood the question. I see the . (dot) before 5 now. The 0.5 increments happens when you pro grammatically give a rating like 90/100 which interprets as 4.5 out of 5.

JensRex, on the side note, I myself collect music as full albums. Deleting a track will be the ultimate damage that could be done to my library.

iTSfv wil in factl tell me what albums are incomplete. Right Click > Logs > Albums with inconsecutive tracks.

By the way, here is another feature run down.

Here I have searched in iTunes for all tracks that has the ` instead of '

and I am going to replace them.

Cheers.

Jojo

Mar 12 2007, 21:14

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Mar 10 2007, 17:09)

Here I have searched in iTunes for all tracks that has the ` instead of '

and I am going to replace them.

Cheers.

I can't tell you how much that has always annoyed me. Seems like I'm not the only one

~*McoreD*~

Mar 14 2007, 04:40

Glad to realize the same, Jojo.

Here is another feature run down : Decompile Album

Say I have a Compilation album with different Artist tags but I want to move it to one Artist (Ministry Of Sound i n this screenshot), also preserving the Artist tag in each song.

I am going to move the Artist to Track - Artist.mp3 and move it out of Compilations. The new Artist for the track will be Ministry of Sound.

This process is captured in action in the screenshot.

Edit:

In ID3 tag point of this, for a track this is what happens.

From:

Track: Voodoo People
Artist: The Prodigy
Album: Maximum Bass 2
Compilation: True

To:

Track: Voodoo People - The Prodigy
Artist: Ministry Of Sound
Album: Maximum Bass 2
Compilation: False

~*McoreD*~

Mar 16 2007, 01:56

#3.

Sometimes even CDDB has either CAPSLOCK or simple letters in ID3 tags.

Within iTunes you can fix it with iTSfv > Selected Tracks > Capitalize First Letter.

x5nder

Aug 23 2007, 06:44

Small bug report -- I hope this can be fixed in the application and that it isn't a .NET-bug:

My music is on a network drive. My iTunes-library path is \\N2100\iTunes. However, opening iTSfv gives an error that the path is invalid, probably because it isn't a local path. Is this easily fixable?

~*McoreD*~

Aug 23 2007, 07:19

Hi x5nder,

Thanks for pointing that out. It was FileSystemWatcher not accepting a Network folder as a monitor folder.

Next time you check for Updates, it should notify you the download URL for the latest build fixing the issue.

5.4.0.1 Fixed bug where music folder that is a network folder could make FileSystemWatcher crash [x5nder]
5.4.0.0 iTSfv will remove white spaces in Artist, Album and Name tags during validation
5.3.0.1 Albums didn't show Disc Number if the Disc Count was absent
5.3.0.0 Force update Artist Folder thumbnails in music folder (useful in Windows Vista)
5.2.5.0 Added AlbumArtist statistics to Statistics window
5.2.4.0 Ability to set Compilation tag before validating tracks
5.2.3.3 Previous stats file will not be accidentally overwritten if the parsing iTunes library task was interrupted
5.2.3.2 Manually checking updates did not prompt the Update status dialog box

Cheers
McoreD

patashnik

Aug 23 2007, 17:02

McoreD, thanks for the useful utility.

One feature request -- while I know iTSfv will identify files without album art, would it be possible to add a function to identify files with album art below a certain resolution specified by the user? This would be handy for identifying low-res art for upgrading.

~*McoreD*~

Aug 23 2007, 17:35

Pleasure pataashnik. Yep, definitely. A new build will be released as soon as it is build and tested. There are a few things the SDK is not helping in this regard, so those stuff has to be taken care of before implementing this feature. Will do post when it is ready.

Cheers,
McoreD

~*McoreD*~

Aug 24 2007, 19:06

http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTS...5.0.1-setup.zip

5.5.0.1 Repetitive Check for Update would give false update notification in McoreSystem.dll
5.5.0.0 Ability to log tracks with low resolution artwork. Dimensions are specified in Options [patashnik]
5.4.1.0 GUI reconfiguration to support additional functionality

pataashnik, have a look at this build and appreciate feedback.

In iTSfv > Validate > Checks

Tick checkBox Check for Low Resolution Artwork
Press button Validate iTunes Music Library

once the process is complete

Report will have something similar to

or

Right Click iTSfv
Open Log Files > Tracks with Low Resolution Artwork

Should give something similar to

590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\01 I Can't Let You Go.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\02 Inspiration.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\03 Where Are You Now_.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\04 Crying.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\05 Crazy.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\06 My Own.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\07 Waiting 4 You.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\08 Do You Feel The Same.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\09 Come 2 Me.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\10 Time 2 Go.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\11 Rollercoaster.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\12 Without You.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\13 Believe.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\14 Walking Away.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\15 To Fall In Love.mp3
590x600 for F:\Music\Ian Van Dahl\Lost and Found\16 State Of Mind.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\01 Take A Bow.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\02 Starlight.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\03 Supermassive Black Hole.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\04 Map Of The Problematique.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\05 Soldiers Poem.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\06 Invincible.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\07 Assassin.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\08 Exo Politics.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\09 City Of Delusion.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\10 Hoodoo.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\11 Knights Of Cydonia.mp3
600x540 for F:\Music\Muse\Black Holes And Revelations\12 Glorious (Bonus Track).mp3

Report mode ~~as in~~ http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/tracks-2...T09-report.html ~~will be in the next build.~~

The first run will be slow as it is caching Artwork dimensions to a file. The runs after that will be faster.

patashnik

Aug 24 2007, 20:46

Excellent, McoreD, thank you very much! I'll check it out for sure and offer feedback as necessary, but from what I see here you've implemented my request very well. I sincerely appreciate it!

Jose Hidalgo

Aug 29 2007, 19:28

Hi everybody,

I'm learning to use this useful piece of software. Here's a bug report (it happens when I click on "validate selected tracks") :

CODE

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast COM object of type 'iTunesLib.iTunesAppClass' to interface type 'iTunesLib.IiTunes'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{9DD6680B-3EDC-40DB-A771-E6FE4832E34A}' failed due to the following error: Cette interface n'est pas prise en charge (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).
   at iTunesLib.iTunesAppClass.get_SelectedTracks()
   at iTSfv.frmMain.btnSelectedValidateAlbum_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 5.5.2.5
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/iTSfv.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Assembly Version: 1.11.0.2
    Win32 Version: 1.11.0.2
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.9.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.9.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
yef3ziro
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

~*McoreD*~

Aug 29 2007, 20:16

Jose, that's strange. What version of iTunes are you running, not version 7.3? Will there be more description to reproduce the error? This is like one of the core functionality and it is unfortunate that it is not going well.

~*McoreD*~

Aug 29 2007, 21:48

Jose,

I have changed how iTunes is initialized. Coming from a C# base, I had new iTunesAppClass but in VB.net it is recommended to have New iTunesApp.

Could you please replace the binaries with the files in this zip, mainly iTSfv.exe
http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTS...5.3.0-patch.zip

and have a retry?

It turns out that the problem is outside of iTSfv afterall.

Try this:

Could you please replace the binaries with the files in this zip, mainly iTSfv.exe
http://wmwiki.com/downloads/itsfv/beta/iTS...5.3.0-patch.zip
It should do the following programmatically.

Q: I'm seeing something about COM in my error log in QTFairUse6. (E.G. com_error: (-2147319779, 'Library not registered.', None, None) ). WTF?
A: Try the following: Click start, run, and type "iTunes /regserver" and click ok.

Cheers,
McoreD

Jose Hidalgo

Aug 31 2007, 01:11

It solves the problem (see my other topic for all the details).

~*McoreD*~

Aug 31 2007, 07:42

Jose,

Well, that would be great IMHO, it would make things clearer.

Done in v5.6 BETA : Options > Validate > File System

So I don't see any option that would say "Export Artwork next to the MP3" or something...

It was indeed exporting the Artwork next to MP3, regardless of you having iTunes to organize music or not. Like I mentioned before, iTSfv gets the mp3 file path and determines the folder to export the artwork. So wherever the mp3 file is, the artwork files will be created there.

And where is the log to be located ? I haven't found it... Maybe there isn't a log file for Validate Selected Tracks.

Actually there was no log file with no Artwork at all. There was only a log file for tracks that artwork was added. Done in v5.6.

Cheers.

Download:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=204248

Source:

http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/itsfv5/

~*McoreD*~

Aug 31 2007, 07:58

I have a few questions to throw at you, out of curiousity.

Now I have distributed my 25 test MP3 in 3 separate folders, and I have re-created an iTunes library so that iTunes can find the MP3's at their new locations (of course I don't use the option "keep the iTunes Music folder organized" because my file system is different

You shouldn't have any problems with that for exporting %Artist% - %Album%.jpg files. However I will tell you a case where not using the option "keep the iTunes Music folder organized backfires you. Say you have two albums in the same folder and wish to export Folder.jpg. As the folder.jpg differs from one album to the other, the second folder.jpg will overwrite the first one because two folder.jpg cannot obviously reside in the same folder.

What I'm getting is 24 "Artist - Album.jpg" files instead of 25 (well, in face I should get 21, don't you think ?).

I do! So what are those extra 3 "Artist - Album.jpg" files? Are they album arts from any of the already download album arts?

Jose Hidalgo

Aug 31 2007, 08:23

Thanks for the quick update. I'm going to try it out right now.

EDIT : I've just tried 5.6.0 beta. IT WORKS BEAUTIFULLY ! THIS IS TOTALLY AWESOME !!!

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Aug 31 2007, 15:42)

It was indeed exporting the Artwork next to MP3, regardless of you having iTunes to organize music or not. Like I mentioned before, iTSfv gets the mp3 file path and determines the folder to export the artwork. So wherever the mp3 file is, the artwork files will be created there.

All right, but in that case what's the use of the "Validate > File System" preferences tab ? I see "Export Artwork to...". Maybe you meant "Export Artwork from..." ? (well, it doesn't matter anyway, since it works for me

)

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Aug 31 2007, 15:58)

I will tell you a case where not using the option "keep the iTunes Music folder organized backfires you. Say you have two albums in the same folder and wish to export Folder.jpg. As the folder.jpg differs from one album to the other, the second folder.jpg will overwrite the first one because two folder.jpg cannot obviously reside in the same folder.

Of course. But this never happens in my entire library. When one album contains several CDs, I name each CD "Album name (CD 1)", "Album name (CD 2)", etc... And each CD has a separate folder.

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Aug 31 2007, 15:58)

what are those extra 3 "Artist - Album.jpg" files? Are they album arts from any of the already download album arts?

I'm sorry ! The 3 extra files are your "AlbumArtSmall", "Artwork" and "Folder" files. They are not "Artist - Album" files, so everything is OK.

Oh, one more thing : I still can't see the log. Where should it be ? Thanks.

Jose Hidalgo

Aug 31 2007, 08:35

EDIT : oops, this time I think I've found a small bug.

When I try to generate "Artist - Album.jpg" files, I get 21 files, so that's perfectly OK.

But if I try to generate "Artist - (Year) Album.jpg" files, I only get 6 files !!!

Of course I've checked : all my 25 MP3 have the "Year" tag filled in iTunes.

~*McoreD*~

Aug 31 2007, 09:13

Jose,

LOL I am as thrilled as you are.

Using %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg I managed to get Lifescapes - (1997) Summer Thunder.jpg. Are you sure you did it right?

Options > Validate > Tracks > add %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg to ComboBox next to Import Artwork...
Press Apply
Options > Validate > File System > Choose %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
Press OK

All right, but in that case what's the use of the "Validate > File System" preferences tab ? I see "Export Artwork to...". Maybe you meant "Export Artwork from..." ?

I have fixed some descriptions and now they look similar to what was in v5.2.
Import Artwork in album folder from file_pattern.jpg .

Import Artwork in following folder - means that you can specify an external folder that has got a bunch of artwork that follows consistent file pattern.

QUOTE(Jose Hidalgo @ Aug 31 2007, 22:23)

Oh, one more thing : I still can't see the log. Where should it be ? Thanks.

Right Click iTSfv > Log Files > Tracks without Artwork.

This should work after you have performed validation at least once with v5.6.

Jose Hidalgo

Aug 31 2007, 09:37

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Aug 31 2007, 17:13)

Er, yes, this time I'm pretty sure I did it right. Like I said, I actually managed to get some jpgs, that were in the good file pattern "Artist - (Year) Album", so no problem about that... but I only got 6 out of the 21 expected !!!

I would have thought that I did something wrong if I I hadn't got any artwork at all... but 6 out of 21, I guess there might be a small bug or something... well, I don't know... what do you think ?

Maybe I can email you some of my 8 Kbps MP3 so that you can see for yourself ?

~*McoreD*~

Aug 31 2007, 17:42

QUOTE(Jose Hidalgo @ Aug 31 2007, 23:37)

Maybe I can email you some of my 8 Kbps MP3 so that you can see for yourself ?

Jose, please do so.

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 1 2007, 08:02

I surely would... if I had your email !! In fact I have tried to send the files to mcored@users.sourceforge.net, with no success.

Error : "message size 4060224 exceeds size limit 1048576 of server mail.sourceforge.net"
If you have a regular email address where I can send you 4MB...

~*McoreD*~

Sep 1 2007, 17:48

Hi Jose, my email address is mcored at ii.net

Sorry I assumed HA members had the ability to email other members via member's profile but just realized it only brings up the board's interface to writing an email.

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 2 2007, 01:32

Done.

I can't wait for your feedback !

odyssey

Sep 2 2007, 04:44

QUOTE(JensRex @ Mar 11 2007, 02:38)

True, and I've thought of this several times. Still you could create a rating for yourself and the one you might be living with, and create powerful playlists that fits both of yours taste in music.

QUOTE(JensRex @ Mar 11 2007, 02:38)

Other than that, why would I keep music in my playlist that I don't like? If I were to rate a song 'zero' because I hate it, I might as well just delete it.

I like to keep complete albums in my library, even if there's several songs i dislike. Also sometimes a track fits an album well even if it's not so great at all.

~*McoreD*~

Sep 2 2007, 06:35

QUOTE(Jose Hidalgo @ Sep 2 2007, 15:32)

Done.

I can't wait for your feedback !

Got the files.

Test MP3\Folder 1 - 8 files
Test MP3\Folder 2 - 8 files
Test MP3\Folder 3 - 9 files

In total there were 25 files.

I disabled Organize Music folder in iTunes.

Added the Test MP3 to iTunes and it started importing artwork. It missed artwork for 4 tracks.

Set iTSfv options like this:

Selected the 25 tracks in iTunes and
in iTSfv pressed Validate Selected Tracks

After validation,

Did a search for *.jpg in Test MP3:

Yes, there were 21 files!

6 in Folder 1
7 in Folder 2
8 in Folder 3

Each file had the year tag proper

Note: There was one track 01 - Last Night.mp3 with no title and track number. I manually added the title and track number.

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 2 2007, 07:18

All right McoreD, you're the best !

I'm going to retry as soon as I can (right now my girlfriend is playing on the PC... damn !!

). I don't understand how I could get only 6 jpgs last time with the same options set... I'll keep you informed in a few hours.

Hey, just FYI : do you want to know why the iTMS missed 4 tracks ? In one of them the artist is "The Black Eyed Peas"... but the iTMS does only know "Black Eyed Peas" without the article !

(funny, I thought the iTMS guys were smart enough to skip the articles when browsing for artwork). And in the 3 others, if I remember well the album name is preceded by "[Single]", so I guess it's normal.

~*McoreD*~

Sep 2 2007, 08:07

I am going to release a new beta to handle other fixes. I will add %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg to come up as default.

I also noticed the The Black Eyed Peas thing.

This is certainly weird:

When I try to generate "Artist - Album.jpg" files, I get 21 files, so that's perfectly OK.
But if I try to generate "Artist - (Year) Album.jpg" files, I only get 6 files !!!

Of the 6 files you have gotten, what are their name like?

Cheers,

McoreD

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 2 2007, 12:03

I'm totally puzzled !

I've simply restarted iTunes, then iTSfv. Then I've clicked on "Validate selected tracks", with NO MODIFICATION in the prefs since the last time... and now it WORKS !!! I get 21 jpgs with all the right file names !!!

So I really don't know what to say. This is weird.

BTW McoreD, where is the log ?? I still can't find it !!!

BIG THANKS.

Jose

~*McoreD*~

Sep 2 2007, 14:49

LOL ok that's now really weird.

If you go to the iTSfv directory where iTSfv.exe is located, do you see some .log files? You can access them by right clicking iTSfv and the Open Log Files.

Glad you got it working anyhow!

Cheers,
McoreD

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 2 2007, 16:45

MCoreD... you just ROCK.

Not only have you come up with a great little piece of software. That alone could be enough for most people. But not for you.

You are most kind, responsive to people's questions (even the weird ones) and requests (yeah, even the weird ones too

). You take people's ideas into consideration to improve your already great software, and you come up with new betas in a matter of hours !

You (and odyssey too of course !

) have just helped me to begin recovering/converting quality iTMS artwork that I was longing for since the beginning of the year. I knew that patience would pay. I knew that I wouldn't need to scan all my 1000 original CD booklets. I knew that I could get better than 300x300 AMG or mid-quality Amazon artwork. And when odyssey helped me to reconsider all the iTMS thing, then I knew that someday, somebody would find a way to make all the artwork go automatically, once and for all, into my hundreds of album folders, with just a single mouse click.

You have just done that for me, and for that you deserve my total appreciation and respect.

So, like we sometimes say here in France : "... chapeau bas".

Jose

~*McoreD*~

Sep 3 2007, 10:06

LOL Thanks Jose,

You have been a great user and giving very informative/clear and precise feedback that made the enhancements even more enjoyable. So really appreciate that too.

I just made build 5.6.3.0 public in SF.net.

Version 5.06 - 200700908?

5.6.3.0 iTSfv will not allow synchrocleaning if iTunes music folder path is not set to location of most of the tracks are [Jonnno]
5.6.2.0 Ability to change Album Browser view without having to revalidate
5.6.1.3 Disabled modifying Album Browser modes while adding tracks to Album Browser
5.6.1.2 DiscCount was wrong for album names shared by different artists [ffs revalidation of entire iTunes music library is recommended]
5.6.1.1 During validation of last 100 tracks, DiscCount will not be overwritten for incomplete albums
5.6.1.0 iTMS Artwork can now be imported without the presence of artwork saved in the file system
5.6.0.1 Crashed during loading tracks data if album tag was empty [Chris]

Next time iTSfv loads, by default it will prompt to download the update.

Cheers,
McoreD

kanak

Sep 3 2007, 11:19

@McoreD*

I was wondering if you could provide the formula you use for the rating system... mainly because i use foobar and don't intend to use itunes anytime soon, but the rating idea seems very interesting.

~*McoreD*~

Sep 3 2007, 18:31

QUOTE(kanak @ Sep 4 2007, 01:19)

kanak, you are quite welcome to see the source yourself.

iTSfv is open source as of version 5.5.2.1.

The class mainly related to rating would be

http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/itsfv/its....vb?view=markup

However, the function takes other arguments such as user weighting to tune the rating system for their preferences e.g. if you dislike the idea of using skippedCount you can put a weight of 0% for that. It also takes the maximum playedCount for comparison.

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 4 2007, 12:12

Hi McoreD, I have a new question for you.

OK, iTSfv works beautifully well. But of course, the iTMS doesn't have 100% of the needed artwork. Using other softwares, I've been able to recover additional artwork from Amazon & co., and to put it next to my FLAC/mp3 files.

Now my question is : could iTSfv automatically assign this new artwork to all the relevant iTunes tracks, eliminating the need to to it manually ?

I don't know if iTSfv already does it, but here's how it could work :
- iTSfv looks for all the selected files that don't have artwork,
- iTSfv checks the corresponding folders to see if there's already some jpg artwork,
- If there is, then iTSfv just tells iTunes to append it to the relevant files.

What do you think ?

~*McoreD*~

Sep 4 2007, 17:04

Hi Jose,

Could iTSfv automatically assign this new artwork to all the relevant iTunes tracks, eliminating the need to to it manually? Since iTunes 7 the Artwork is not saved directly to the file when you get Artwork via iTunes, so this was a real pain-ita for me.

If I understand correctly, you are asking if iTSfv will embed these new artwork into the tracks itself automatically so you don't have to do it manually? If then YES! That's like the first need for making this application and everything else was built around it.

You just have to enable Import Artwork to track from Artwork.jpg in Validate > Tracks which is enabled by default.

Cheers,
McoreD

By the way, if you haven't seen this yet, thought this would be interesting to you, iTSfv Manual, explaining all of its features:
http://itsfv.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout...df?revision=1.1
The PDF has bookmarks if you choose the Bookmarks from the left Panel in Adobe Reader.

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 4 2007, 18:45

I'll take a look at the manual. Thanks.

Regarding my question, I was not asking iTSfv to embed the artwork *into* the tracks themselves, but rather to tell iTunes to generate iTunes-style .itc files in the iTunes artwork folders.

In other words, that's exactly what iTunes 7.x would do if you selected "info" on one particular track, then "picture", then "add a picture", then you look for the picture on your hard drive, then "OK". The picture will not be embedded into the track, but iTunes will create the .itc and link it with the track. I hope I'm clear enough.

If I understand well, right now iTSfv does only embed the artwork *into* the tracks. Maybe it could be good to have the choice, eventually.

~*McoreD*~

Sep 5 2007, 01:13

QUOTE(Jose Hidalgo @ Sep 5 2007, 08:45)

In other words, that's exactly what iTunes 7.x would do if you selected "info" on one particular track, then "picture", then "add a picture", then you look for the picture on your hard drive, then "OK". The picture will not be embedded into the track

Stop right there, Jose, when you add a picture manually, iTunes embeds the picture to *into* the file -- into the file that you did Get Info and added the picture.

iTunes will also create an .itc file so that other tracks can access that.

Speaking of generating .itc files, it is certainly doable once the ITC specification is released by Apple. I had a look into there, there have been number of hacking attempts to figure out a spec by enthusiasts. However, I still don't understand why exactly we would need an add-on to create the ITC files if iTunes can do it by itself?

So basically what you are looking for is, adding artwork to one file, logically the first track of the album, so the rest of the tracks can access the artwork via the ITC file created.

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 5 2007, 03:34

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 5 2007, 09:13)

Stop right there, Jose, when you add a picture manually, iTunes embeds the picture to *into* the file -- into the file that you did Get Info and added the picture.

iTunes will also create an .itc file so that other tracks can access that.

I thought that since iTunes 7, iTunes did no longer embed the pics into the files !

I'm sure that I have read that since iTunes 7, iTunes only handles .itc files...

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 5 2007, 09:13)

Speaking of generating .itc files, it is certainly doable once the ITC specification is released by Apple. I had a look into there, there have been number of hacking attempts to figure out a spec by enthusiasts.

I don't understand : you are able to take an .itc and convert it to .jpg, but not the opposite ?

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 5 2007, 09:13)

However, I still don't understand why exactly we would need an add-on to create the ITC files if iTunes can do it by itself?

I was just thinking of iTSfv telling iTunes to do it by itself for all the selected tracks, nothing more.

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 5 2007, 09:13)

So basically what you are looking for is, adding artwork to one file, logically the first track of the album, so the rest of the tracks can access the artwork via the ITC file created.

Um, yes, you can say that. What I'm looking for is, making iTunes convert the .jpg to .itc, then linking the .itc to all the tracks with the same artist and the same album. But if it's too complicated, don't bother with that.

~*McoreD*~

Sep 5 2007, 03:47

Jose,

iTSfv doesn't save Artwork to file that way - converting .itc to .jpg.

iTunes indeed embeds the artwork to track if you manually add the artwork. The only time it doesn't embed is when it gets the Artwork automatically.

The iTunes SDK allows us to save the artwork to file, directly from embedded tracks or tracks that have the iTunes Store artwork. So that process was fairly simple. While conversion of iTC to JPG is certainly possible without depending on iTunes SDK, I didn't do it that way because 1/ it is not a 100% reliable way to do it 2/ using iTunes SDK is much more simple.

I am aware that people are attempting to find ways to inject .itc files using artwork out side of iTMS but I think the whole process is still under R&D.

germanjulian

Sep 5 2007, 04:00

THANK YOU for the tool.... looks like what i need

urlwolf

Sep 5 2007, 11:07

Latest version 5.7.2 seems to be working. it read the entire itunes library, but then it got stuck in one album and the progress bar didn't move. No error reports.

I have tried several times. It gets stuck in exactly the same album (vangelis - masks).

Just a quick question.
The installer talks about a manual, but there's no pdf in the install directory. Are you working on that, or did I get a damaged distribution package that comes with no manual (got it from sourceforge)?

Thanks,

germanjulian

Sep 6 2007, 04:34

Hi,

A few questions cause I do not seem to get the program and what each feature does and I do not have a lot of time, these are somewhat itunes questions too, but you guys seem to know what you are doing.

First of all a weird bug: I did the scan and fix and capitalize the first letters and it decapitalized the artists… but did capitalize other stuff… wuppps. Took a while to fix cause I didn’t test first…

Here are my questions:
1. Some albums of mine do not have track numbers in the mp3 tag. Some way of guessing them of just assigning them from 1 to x automatically depending on how it is listed in the playlist (should mostly be correct)
2. Cover Flow artwork. I cleaned all my mp3 of embedded artwork and downloaded album covers using itunes. There are plenty of artists without album artwork (radiohead even? And tool?) and I was wondering what happens if I do embed artwork into the id3 heards. I hate bad quality album art but if I drag a 300x300 jpg into the artwork my mp3 sizes will increase dramatically I presume? Is there some way to add cover flow only artwork from external sources into itunes?
3. For some reason even the songs with Cover Flow artwork from itunes store do not always have a thumbnail artwork on my ipod, even though I can view the full screen artwork fine?!
4. ID header versions…. Sight. Itunes does 2.4. however I think 2.3 might be more compatible with most other mp3 headers and windows? Which version of header should I use? I added some new albums and they did not have any id3 info in itunes however wmp sees them and another tagging program does?
5. Lyrics: yes or no? how much kb does it add to an mp3 and do you guys use it.
6. what can itsfv do? Is there some manual?

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