what's the file format iTunes uses when downloading the covers from iTunes? Is it always jpg?


what do you mean by that?

also, exporting the artwork to a separate folder doesn't work. It always switches back to the first option. The same is true for importing.

urlwolf,

That's understandable. If I were you I'd defintely try

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=57392 - Artwork Downloader XUI which has gone some nice implementations including iTMS Artwork.

Yes the Explorer tab now supports specifying more locations to add new music files from. Manual 5.10 will have more detail information on this.


Jojo,

iTMS always has JPG files. This can be backed up by the URLs iTSfv uses for Artwork.

What I meant was: you can specify file type and pattern using strings such as %Album% - %Artist%.jpg/png etc and iTSfv will look for them as the primary source of artwork.

Good catch with the remembering setting, thanks! The options has been surprisingly missed since 5.2!

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...use_mirror=osdn

5.10.0.2 Resume validation from last checked album checkBox setting will now be remembered
5.10.0.1 Export/Import to/from folder choices were not saved in Options
5.10.0.0 Support exporting selected tracks to another directory specified

Hi Gang,

Cooking right now is iTSfv 5.11 which has the

5.11.0.0 Ability to replace existing Artwork with higher resolution (usually 1425x1425) iTunes Music Store artwork if found

So basically when you validate selected tracks hereafter, iTSfv will look for iTMS artwork and use that to export/embed in the selected tracks.

iTSfv will make the query once per Album, not once per track, effectively reducing bandwidth and hdd usage.

Something interesting came up while testing. I realized there is no limit to the resolution in iTMS artwork? What is the biggest Artwork you guys found? When I thought iTSfv was stuck for a while, it was downloading a 10.1 MiB file and after checking it out, it is indeed a valid artwork with 5569x5540 resolution!

http://wmwiki.com/mcored/research/itsfv/Ve...num%20Album.jpg

All the downloaded iTMS artwork are saved in

%AppData%\iTSfv\%AlbumArtist%\%Album% folders. I will make this user configurable in the final stages. Another change would be to Create a checkBox always import higher resolution artwork in Advanced > Tracks and extend the functionality to Validate Library.

Any feedback is welcome during this designing phase.

check out this post: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=517693

Also, is it possible to search for album art based on ID3 tags? If so, how would I do that? In addition, I don't like adding Album names for my Singles (I just leave it blank). Therefore, iTunes can't find the album art for the songs, since it only searches for "Artist - Album". It would be nice if I could use the title of a song as the Album title to solve this problem.

thank you

Aha, so that explains why the huge size of the Artwork. I will have a look what I could do determining the file type, thanks.

Good idea about searching Album Art for CDS (CD Singles), I shall add that flexibility.

I really don't see the use of uploading/downloading a 5000x5000+ size artwork... 1425x1425 already looks huge to me. Maybe someone can explain ?

Jose,

It looks nicer with higher resolution in Full Screen Cover Flow
It looks nicer with higher resolution in HTPC Screen

I am not sure why iTMS has 5000x5000 artwork. From 1170 albums I ran across only once that had this size artwork. Everything else were aroudn 1425x1425.

Talking in terms of iTSfv, the option is certainly user configurable. In Options > Advanced > Internet you can enable/disable this setting.

Sure McoreD, I know that... but no HTPC screen has 1425 lines.

Assuming one has a Full HD plasma display 1080p (1920x1080), one gets 1080 lines max., no more.
Assuming one has a Full HD computer display (1920x1200), one gets get 1200 lines max. in full screen mode. And even in full screen, Cover Flow covers don't occupy all screen.
And most of us still are in 720p (1280x720, 1366x768, etc.).

So, well, 900x900 or so I would understand, but 1425 or more, I really don't understand. Files become bigger, longer to open, and all this for what purpose ?

Jose,

I agree. It might be going over the line but everybody is jumping to the high resolution artwork bandwagon so you can't blame me for having that option in iTSfv.


New Debug Log:

20070922T021301 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070922T021301 Replace Artwork.jpg? False
20070922T021302 Replace Deftones - (2006) Saturday Night Wrist.jpg? False
20070922T021302 Replace Folder.jpg? False
20070922T021302 Searching iTMS Artwork for Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
20070922T021302 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...day+Night+Wrist
20070922T021305 Fetched http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/6c/59...zi.sqhglzla.jpg
20070922T021306 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021306 Replace 1 Hole In The Earth Artwork? True
20070922T021307 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021307 Replace 2 Rapture Artwork? True
20070922T021309 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021309 Replace 3 Beware Artwork? True
20070922T021310 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021310 Replace 4 Cherry Waves Artwork? True
20070922T021312 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021312 Replace 5 Mein Artwork? True
20070922T021314 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021314 Replace 6 U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Select, Start Artwork? True
20070922T021315 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021315 Replace 7 Xerces Artwork? True
20070922T021317 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021317 Replace 8 Rats!Rats!Rats! Artwork? True
20070922T021318 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021318 Replace 9 Pink Cellphone Artwork? True
20070922T021320 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021320 Replace 10 Combat Artwork? True
20070922T021322 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021322 Replace 11 Kimdracula Artwork? True
20070922T021323 Old Artwork Size: 600x600, New Artwork Size: 1425x1425
20070922T021323 Replace 12 Rivière Artwork? True
20070922T021325 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070922T021325 Replace Artwork.jpg? True
20070922T021325 Replace Deftones - (2006) Saturday Night Wrist.jpg? True
20070922T021325 Replace Folder.jpg? True

Version History:

5.11.3.0 Support application wide logging debug information, located in Logs directory : debug-yyyyMMdd-log.txt
5.11.2.0 Options to relocate iTSfv Logs, Artwork and Temporary directorys : Options > Advanced > Folders
5.11.1.0 Added options to always import higher resolution artwork during Library validation or Selected Tracks validation : Options > Validate > Tracks
5.11.0.2 Fixed problem with UNC paths having an extra leading slash removed [John]
5.11.0.1 For CD Singles with empty Album tag, iTSfv will look for Artwork based on Track Name [Jojo]
5.11.0.0 Ability to replace existing Artwork with higher resolution (usually 1425x1425) iTunes Music Store artwork if found
5.10.1.1 Fixed iTSfv crashing during Saving Artwork caused by: Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component
5.10.1.0 Statistics window tabs will show the number of Genre, AlbumArtists, Artists, Albums and Tracks count
5.10.0.2 Resume validation from last checked album checkBox setting will now be remembered
5.10.0.1 Export/Import to/from folder choices were not saved in Options [Jojo]
5.10.0.0 Support exporting selected tracks to another directory specified
5.09.4.1 Incorrectly identified folder with most music, if the iTunes music folder was within that folder
5.09.4.0 Support for dragging more music albums while iTSfv is already adding music to iTunes
5.09.3.3 Backup Ratings XML file save path defaulted to Logs Directory
5.09.3.2 Partially tagged tracks will be accounted for Top # Tracks statistics
5.09.3.1 Tweak 5.8.4.0 Tracks without at least Artist, Album and Name tags will be ignored by iTSfv is now optional in General > Validate. [Bluenote]
5.09.3.0 Added Tracks statistics to Statistics window which is similar to Top Rated smart playlist in iTunes
5.09.2.0 Statistics increased to Top 10 instead of Top 5. This is user configurable under Advanced.
5.09.1.1 Fixed another [ itsfv-Bugs-1790526 ] Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow while adjust ratings
5.09.1.0 Parsing iTunes Music Library is now much faster as iTSfv now parses the XML database instead of iTunesLib. 15,000 Tracks under one minute.

Download:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989

still doesn't work.


I don't seem to be able to figure out how to use this.
So, I want to get artwork for all my songs that don't have any artwork from iTunes. How would I do that?

Jojo,

Another good catch. This time Choices were fixed and saved (I thought this was the bug before) but not the actual patterns. I am sorry about this. Sometimes these go unnoticed among 100 other settings.

Here is a build hopefully this issue is fixed:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989

5.11.3.2 Export/Import to/from folder patterns were not saved in Options [Jojo]
5.11.3.1 Application could have crash while filling DiscCount if the track wasn't found in Albums Table

Basically what happens with Empty Album tag is that, iTSfv will look for Track Name instead of Album Name.

Example Log:

20070922T092835 Searching iTMS Artwork for Madonna - Hung Up (Radio Version)
20070922T092835 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...(Radio+Version)
20070922T092838 Fetched http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/84/e9...zi.xieufiwb.jpg
20070922T092838 folderArtworkPath: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Madonna\Hung+Up+(Radio+Version)\iTMS.jpg
20070922T092838 trackArtworkPath: H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg


HOWTO:
iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Internet > Download iTMS Artwork if available should be Checked
iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Validation > Include Tracks without Name, Artist and Album should be Checked


Now, provided that you have Artist tag and Name tag filled for CD Singles, iTSfv will look for iTMS artwork. Could you please check if this works? iTSfv > Logs > Debug... and see what the debug log file says.

Apart from CD Singles, other normal albums should get cover art too. I'd be very happy to hear some feedback on this.


Cheers,
McoreD

Blame you ? I wouldn't dare !

still doesn't work for export.


ok and what do I do next? I just want the album art and not have it mess with my ID3 tags. Where do I have to click to start the process? This is so confusing.

Also, how do I get iTsfv to only handle selected tracks. I was seeing that as an option, but can't figure out how to do it. Finally, what does "Import Artwork from any single image file in album folder" do?

thank you

Jojo,

To add a new file export pattern, lets say %AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg go to

iTSfv > Options > Validate > FileSystem
In Export Artwork to following folder as comboBox type %AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
Press Apply (now the new pattern is added)
Choose %AlbumArtist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
Press Apply (now the new pattern is active)

To get iTSfv to export Arwork without messing with ID3 tags,
Uncheck EVERYTHING ( these are Copy AlbumArtist to Artist, Import Artist to Track, Fill TrackCount, DiscNumber and DiscCount ) in iTSfv > Validate > Tracks tab.
In iTSfv > Validate > FileSystem have Export Artwork to Album folder checkBox checked

Please use 5.11.3.7 version which supports exporting artwork without needing to embed them in tracks, which is the top most here http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989

To handle Selected Tracks, after you have done the above, just press the Validate Selected Tracks in iTSv.

What does "Import Artwork from any single image file in album folder" do?
Jose's great suggestion:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=515025

Please let me know how it goes.

I have realized the program would stop working iTMS Artwork is not found. The enthusiasm to release with new features asap brings the quality of the product down, even this is BETA. I am fixing it as we speak, to revert back to exporting whatever is embedded in the track.

Cheers,
McoreD

iTSfv 5.11.3.7 BETA
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989

Test Passed for Jojo's scenario

20070923T085352 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070923T085354 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T085354 Searching iTMS Artwork for Sean Paul - The Trinity
20070923T085354 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Sean+Paul\The+Trinity\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085354 Saved iTMS.jpg as Sean Paul - (2005) The Trinity.jpg
20070923T085354 Searching iTMS Artwork for Sean Paul - The Trinity
20070923T085354 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Sean+Paul\The+Trinity\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085354 Cleared F:\Music\Sean Paul\The Trinity\16 All On Me (Ft. Tami Chynn).mp3 Read-Only flag
20070923T085354 Undo clear F:\Music\Sean Paul\The Trinity\16 All On Me (Ft. Tami Chynn).mp3 Read-Only flag
20070923T085354 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T085355 Replace 1494x1494 with 1494x1494 for Sean Paul - (2005) The Trinity.jpg? False
.
20070923T085355 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T085355 Searching iTMS Artwork for Mr Sam - Lyteo - Interpretations
20070923T085355 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Mr+Sam\Lyteo+-+Interpretations\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085355 Saved iTMS.jpg as Mr Sam - (2007) Lyteo - Interpretations.jpg
20070923T085355 Searching iTMS Artwork for Mr Sam - Lyteo - Interpretations
20070923T085355 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Mr+Sam\Lyteo+-+Interpretations\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085355 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T085356 Replace 1417x1417 with 1417x1417 for Mr Sam - (2007) Lyteo - Interpretations.jpg? False
.
20070923T085356 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T085356 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070923T085356 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085356 Saved iTMS.jpg as Tiësto - (2004) The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg
20070923T085356 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070923T085356 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Public\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg
20070923T085356 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T085356 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for Tiësto - (2004) The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg? False
.
20070923T085356 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T085356 Searching iTMS Artwork for Armin van Buuren - A State of Trance Year Mix 2006
20070923T085356 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...e+Year+Mix+2006
20070923T085357 Error fetching iTMS artwork
20070923T085357 iTMS Artwork Fetch Request Timeout
20070923T085357 Saved Track Artwork as Armin van Buuren - (2006) A State of Trance Year Mix 2006.jpg
20070923T085357 Searching iTMS Artwork for Armin van Buuren - A State of Trance Year Mix 2006
20070923T085357 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...e+Year+Mix+2006
20070923T085357 Error fetching iTMS artwork
20070923T085357 iTMS Artwork Fetch Request Timeout
20070923T085357 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T085357 Replace 500x500 with 500x500 for Armin van Buuren - (2006) A State of Trance Year Mix 2006.jpg? False
.
20070923T085357 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

thank you very much.

Here are some more bugs:

validation settings are lost after restart (the regular program, not in the options)
export setting (in folder), won't save user defined location
album art without any album name, is saved as "Artist - %Album%"
"only validate selected tracks" only worked once. now it won't do anything

also, I don't get the program to download music from iTunes. It won't even connect to the internet. It will just export the existing album art.

Hi Jojo,

Thanks very much for the feedback.

album art without any album name, is saved as "Artist - %Album%"

Cheers and fixed, it willl revert to Track Name if Album Name is not found, if not at least Name is found then it will say Unknown Album -- hopefully we won't see tracks that ugly.

5.11.5.0 CheckBox text for Import/Export in iTSfv will now represent Import/Export settings in Options
5.11.4.2 Adding new file name patterns and using them will not anymore require pressing Apply button twice
5.11.4.1 Album art without any album name, were saved as "Artist - %Album%" [Jojo]
5.11.4.0 iTSv will not perform Export Artwork 2-pass anymore if Import Artwork checkBox is unchecked
5.11.3.7 Application crashed while exporting Artwork if iTMS artwork was not found

validation settings are lost after restart (the regular program, not in the options)

OK; I have been quite sure that every setting related to editing ID3 tags are saved and restored properly. Do you mean the checkBoxes in Checks tab? As they were merely checks, I haven't made it to save/restore. But I can.

export setting (in folder), won't save user defined location
Folder locations are saved and retrieved properly for both Import/Export custom folder locations. . I am not sure what I missed.

"only validate selected tracks" only worked once. now it won't do anything

Could you please provide/paste the log file? You can access the log file via iTSfv : Menu > Logs > Debug...

Thanks
McoreD

that's what I meant. Never mind then.



See screenshot


there is no entry, since it won't even start.

How do I get the program to download iTunes artwork?

thank you

Thanks again Jojo!

OK; for Validate Selected Tracks not starting, I think I know - did you select only one track?
I didn't allow validating ONE track to prevent accidental mouse clicks, but I have it enabled now.

A Jojo Scenario

20070923T125740 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070923T125746 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T125746 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070923T125746 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...Of+The+Athletes
20070923T125747 Timeout set to 10000 milliseconds
20070923T125749 Fetched http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/y2004...05.cpvrcggt.jpg
20070923T125750 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\04 Traffic.mp3 from H:\Users\Public\Pictures\Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg
20070923T125750 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T125750 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for H:\Users\Administrator\Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\iTSfv\Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg? False
.
20070923T125750 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED


A Default scenario

20070923T130316 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070923T130319 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070923T130319 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\Folder.jpg? False
20070923T130320 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\Artwork.jpg? False
20070923T130320 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070923T130320 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg
20070923T130320 folderArtworkPath: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg
20070923T130320 trackArtworkPath: H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20070923T130320 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 600x600
20070923T130320 Replace Artwork for 4 Traffic? False
20070923T130320 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070923T130320 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\Folder.jpg? False
20070923T130320 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Tiësto\The Parade Of The Athletes\Artwork.jpg? False
.
20070923T130320 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED


I think this was affecting you?
5.11.5.1 Did not export iTMS downloaded Artwork if there was no embedded artwork in the track

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/itsfv/iTS...use_mirror=osdn

Version 5.11 - 20071015?

5.11.5.1 Did not export iTMS downloaded Artwork if there was no embedded artwork in the track
5.11.5.0 CheckBox text for Import/Export in iTSfv will now represent Import/Export settings in Options
5.11.4.2 Adding new file name patterns and using them will not anymore require pressing Apply button twice
5.11.4.1 Album art without any album name, were saved as "Artist - %Album%" [Jojo]
5.11.4.0 iTSv will not perform Export Artwork 2-pass anymore if Import Artwork checkBox is unchecked
5.11.3.7 Application crashed while exporting Artwork if iTMS artwork was not found
5.11.3.6 Did not export iTMS downloaded Artwork if the Import Artwork checkBox was unchecked
5.11.3.5 Log and Artwork folders paths were detected with two path separators if they were in root drive [Jonnno]

Jojo,

Please see if you could reproduce those errors with the latest build.

The debug file will let you know if the artwork was found in iTMS database.

Thanks,
McoreD

Do you ever sleep McoreD ?

BTW, allowing validation of only ONE track is great, for instance if you want to get iTMS artwork for that great new song you've just downl... er, bought.

How do I download iTunes artwork? I've checked all the options you advised me to do and it still won't do it. It doesn't even want to connect to the internet...

Debug Log:

Jojo, I think you've already asked that question, right ?

Have you tried simply using... (will I dare say it ?)... (suspense)... iTunes ?

lol Jose.

Jojo,

I tested with a track without embedded Artwork also. I am not sure what's going on!?

Would you be able to send me one of your mp3 that doesn't get iTMS artwork? My email address is mcored@ii.net

Version 5.11.6.2

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989

Version History:

5.11.6.2 If Folder artwork dimensions match the embedded artwork dimensions, iTSfv did not look for iTMS artwork
5.11.6.1 Artwork available as TIF in iTMS were not found; they will now be converted to JPG and used as iTMS Artwork source
5.11.6.0 iTSfv will now search for Artwork from all the available iTunes Music stores in the world
5.11.5.1 Did not export iTMS downloaded Artwork if there was no embedded artwork in the track
5.11.5.0 CheckBox text for Import/Export in iTSfv will now represent Import/Export settings in Options
5.11.4.2 Adding new file name patterns and using them will not anymore require pressing Apply button twice
5.11.4.1 Album art without any album name, were saved as "Artist - %Album%" [Jojo]
5.11.4.0 iTSv will not perform Export Artwork 2-pass anymore if Import Artwork checkBox is unchecked

Log:

20070924T064343 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070924T064344 Searching iTMS Artwork for Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes
20070924T064344 Start fetching: http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/W...Of+The+Athletes with iTMS 143441
20070924T064344 Timeout set to 10000 milliseconds
20070924T064345 Found Artwork in iTMS ID: 143441
20070924T064345 Fetched http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r10/Music/y2004...05.cpvrcggt.jpg and saved as H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg.
20070924T064345 Saved H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Ti%c3%absto\The+Parade+Of+The+Athletes\iTMS.jpg as H:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Tiësto - The Parade Of The Athletes.jpg
.
20070924T064345 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

Thanks
McoreD


The only way I can reproduce your log is by unchecking ALL checkBoxes, but you actually need at least "Export Artwork" checkBox checked in the main screen.



I will post more screenshots in the arvo.

Jose, could you also please try 5.11.6.2 of iTSfv for exporting iTMS artwork? Thanks.

Um, sure. What exactly do you want me to test ?

ok, the new built finally works. I didn't change any other options.

Debug-Log:



is this supposed to be this way?

Great! Could you do the following?

in iTSfv > Options > Validate > File System, export to following folder and choose a folder you like, you can leave the default if you wanna.
untick everything in iTSfv except Export Artwork to (see the screenshot above)
select few tracks from different albums using iTunes
hit the Validate Selected Tracks button in iTunes

now iTSfv should look for iTMS artwork and give a debug log something similar to Jojo has posted.
Could please copy & paste this log here?



Yes it is supposed to be this way. Cool Jojo, it at least is functional now!



Why is it xxx?

That means your Artist tag = xxx and Album tag = xxx?

yes, I masked it

also, does the program look for tif files as well? Because as you know, sometimes the jpg source isn't available so one would have to get the tif file.

Finally, I was thinking about another option. When searching for Artist - Song (when no album is available), could you omit whatever is inside the parenthesis of a song? I sometimes have the name of a Remix inside parenthesis and I think it messes up the searches.

thank you

Hi Jojo,

Yes, iTSfv will look for TIF, the code is updated and revised for this thanks to david_dl and now it can find 50 Cent - Curtis without a problem.

Next version of iTSfv will search each iTunes Music store for Artwork, and speed is improved.

20070924T152952 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (AU)
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (US)
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (UK)
20070924T152955 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (NO)
20070924T152956 Searching iTMS Artwork for Gypsies - Singgnore using iTunes Store (CA)
20070924T152956 Could not find iTMS Artwork in any store.
20070924T152956 Export Artwork Pass 2
.
20070924T152956 Export Artwork Pass 1
20070924T152956 Searching iTMS Artwork for Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival using iTunes Store (AU)
20070924T152957 Found iTMS Artwork using iTMS (AU)
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Folder.jpg? False
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Artwork.jpg? False
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Folder Artwork Path: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Track Artwork Path: H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20070924T152957 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 600x600
20070924T152957 Replace Artwork for 1 Good Morning Revival? False
20070924T152957 Export Artwork Pass 2
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Folder.jpg? False
20070924T152957 Found saved iTMS Artwork: H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Good+Charlotte\Good+Morning+Revival\iTMS.jpg
20070924T152957 Replace 600x600 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Good Charlotte\Good Morning Revival\Artwork.jpg? False
.
20070924T152958 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

So does the search work for you at least for some albums? How about the CD Singles?

I will look into this issue:

Artist - Name (Remix)
Artist - Name [Remix]
Artist - Name {Remix}

to be searched as Artist - Name.

Cheers.

Edit: Done.

Scenario:

The files
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\01 Hung Up (Radio Version).mp3
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\02 Hung Up (Tracy Young Remix).mp3
do not have the Album tag or Artwork embedded.

I choose to embed artwork.

iTSfv searched for Madonna - Hung up and embedded the found iTMS artwork to
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\01 Hung Up (Radio Version).mp3
F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\02 Hung Up (Tracy Young Remix).mp3
Of course you can choose not to embed.

Log:

20070924T155129 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070924T155132 Searching iTMS Artwork for Madonna - Hung Up using iTunes Store (AU)
20070924T155133 Found iTMS Artwork using iTMS (AU)
20070924T155135 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\01 Hung Up (Radio Version).mp3 from H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Madonna\Hung+Up\iTMS.jpg
20070924T155136 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Madonna\Unknown Album\02 Hung Up (Tracy Young Remix).mp3 from H:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\iTSfv\Madonna\Hung+Up\iTMS.jpg
20070924T155136 Export Artwork Pass 2
.
20070924T155138 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

Hi Jojo,

You can find the latest build addressing these issues here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989

5.11.7.2 Search iTMS artwork during validation of last 100 tracks was ignored
5.11.7.1 CheckBoxes in Checks tab will now be remembered for next launch of iTSfv [Jojo]
5.11.7.0 Implemented several code optimizations to improve performance in validating tracks
5.11.6.5 Prevented rare cases where iTSfv could sometimes fail to overwrite folder.jpg
5.11.6.4 Remix tags for CD Singles will be ignored while searching for iTMS artwork [Jojo]
5.11.6.3 Using improved iTMS artwork search code thanks to david_dl from http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=57720
5.11.6.2 If folder artwork dimensions match the embedded artwork dimensions, iTSfv did not look for iTMS artwork
5.11.6.1 Artwork available as TIF in iTMS were not found; they will now be converted to JPG and used as iTMS Artwork source
5.11.6.0 iTSfv will now search for Artwork from all the available iTunes Music stores in the world

wow! this is a great release. thank you so much.


maybe you could reflect this process in the debug file? What compression options are you using? Maybe it would make sense to give users an option whether they want iTSfv to compress the artwork for them, or would rather have it download the original tif file and do the compression themselves?


that's so cool. I have another idea. Maybe get rid of the "CDM" in the album title.

later

I got an error:



this error happened while importing album art. I think the file name is too long.

Hi Jojo,

Thanks, is it working for you now (as far as fetching iTMS artwork goes)?

Could you give an example how CDM would be used? I made sure the following to happen:

Artist - Name (Remix)
Artist - Name [Remix]
Artist - Name {Remix}

to be searched as Artist - Name.

Is "CDM" outside of the brackets?

yes. Some people prefer to tag their Singles the following way and it therefore ends up in the free tagging database.
For example:
Artist = Joe
Song = Lalala

There is no album, because it is a single. But some people would name the album after the song of the single and attach CDM to it. That way they know that it is a single and not an album. In our example it would look like this:

Artist = Joe
Song = Lalala
Album = Lalala CDM

A sophisticated way of solving this problem would be to check whether
$Album = $Song+"CDM" and if it matches, substitute the song name for the album name when doing the search.

cheers

For the singles, I prefer to name them as follows :
Artist = Joe
Song = Lalala
Album = [Single] Lalala

So this case could be taken into account also.

@McoreD : I hope to be able to do the testing you asked for in a few hours.

Jose, appreciate your time test. The debug log looked healthy!

I really didn’t understand “linked to the artwork”. It seems that you have chosen not to embed iTMS artwork, which is fine. iTSfv has exported the artwork, which is fine also. iTSfv cannot “link” the downloaded iTMS artwork with the artwork folder in iTunes Album Art folder if that’s what you are asking? In iTunes’s point of view, these downloaded iTMS Artwork are also just_some_manually_found_artwork and iTunes will not consider these as artwork until you embed them.

I have incorporated the suggestions for stripping out extra tags for CD Singles, including my own ideas. So far it will strip out CDM, CDS, [Single]. I should really use an external text file so we can feed more stuff outside of the program.

Version History since last build.

5.11.7.6 Saving iTMS Artwork could have crashed iTSfv if there were Illegal characters in path
5.11.7.5 Bug report email ask to attach error_log instead of pasting errors in the email body, to prevent error: data area passed to a system call is too small
5.11.7.4 Debug information will be written for tracks iTSfv failed to read
5.11.7.3 Prevent iTSfv crashing while adding artwork to some files probably with long file names [Jojo]

I am doing further testing before the next release...

Cheers guys!

Thanks McoreD !

I have a nice little improvement suggestion for you :

Let's say we have gathered a lot of artwork from different sources (iTMS, Amazon, etc.), all inside a single folder.

Let's say we have named all this artwork with the same nice pattern (example : "artist - (year) album").

It would be great if iTSfv could :
- Analyze all the artwork in the source folder (according to the file pattern that we'll specify in iTSfv of course)
- Take a destination folder (which we'll specify also)
- Take a directory pattern inside the destination folder (which we'll specify also)
- Search for the right subfolder and copy the artwork,
- Do this for all the artwork in the source folder.

Example :
File pattern : "artist - (year) album.jpg"
Directoty pattern : "artist\(year) album"
Destination folder : "Music", containing a lot of subfolders according to the Directory pattern
Analyzed file in the source folder : "Mark Knopfler - (2007) Kill to get crimson.jpg"

iTSfv finds the subfolder "Music\Mark Knopfler\(2007) Kill to get crimson", and then automatically copies the jpg in it, then it does the same for all the other jpgs inside the source folder ! Automatic jpg distribution in all the right folders !!!

Wouldn't it be nice ?

Not sure if this feature has anything to do with iTunes, or iTSfv, but this batch script should do the job:

Nice to see you hear david_dl!

Jose, that's indeed a nice suggestion.

Actually a small enhancement done in 5.11.7.3 makes this possible ( I think! )



It is theoretically possible within iTSfv to do such thing IFF you set up settings like this:

Import settings:



Export settings:



So when it says : Export artwork to album folder, it automatically hints you that the artwork will be placed right next to the tracks which is the proper distribution, isn't it? Because the tracks are already properly organized according to how you like it.

Referring to your LOG file.



It seems you have custom set the export artwork folder to be in one directory. If you had it set to Album Folder with a pattern, you would have already got the iTMS Artwork saved distributedly, wouldn't you?

....or am I missing something?

No, no, you're not missing anything : my log up there was just a test, so don't worry about the export artwork folder : I know how to handle it.

Thanks for answering my feature request : you're right, iTSfv can already do that ! Super !

Hey ! Guess what ? This time I may have got a bug !!

Here's the story :
- I've got "Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here" in my iTunes.
- Using iTSfv, it seeks all the iTunes stores then it finds me a nice artwork (all white, two people shaking hands, one of them is on fire) and saves it in the relevant folder
- Using iTunes directly (my iTunes Store is the french one), it finds me another nice artwork (all black, two robotic shaking hands in the middle) and saves it as an .itc file somewhere.
- Let's say I like *BOTH* artworks, so I want to keep them both.
- So I tell iTSfv to validate the iTunes file, so that the second artwork found by iTunes can be saved next to the first one found by iTSfv (I've renamed the first one of course to avoid naming conflict)
- BUT iTSfv, instead of seeing that iTunes already has the black artwork, just keeps searching the iTunes Stores for artwork, finds AGAIN the white artwork (of course), and saves it next to the first one (the same of course) !

Same thing for "Cock Robin - The Best Of Cock Robin".

Am I missing something with the preferences ?

EDIT : I've got it ! You've got to uncheck the "Advanced > Internet > Download iTMS Artwock" checkbox. But wouldn't it be better if iTSfv wouldn't do the Internet search when there's ALREADY an artwork present within iTunes, thus eliminating the need to check/uncheck the checkbox ? I don't know... Maybe you could just add another checkbox (it would be the third one in that tab) : "Don't download iTMS Artwork if the Artwork is already present within iTunes". What do you think ?

@McoreD:

I've been using itsfv a lot, and i find it to be indispensible. Thanks for all your work on i.

I have a couple of Feature requests:
1. Would it be possible to add a feature that creates m3u playlists out of selected tracks?

2. Also, is it possible to have a feature that would export the title, album, artist etc information to the clipboard? (e.g. Select tracks in itunes, click export and get stuff like Genre\Artist - Album\Title information). If this is possible, please make the export criteria customizable.

once again, thanks for all your hard work.

Awesome you got that feature request sorted out.



That's a nice catch Jose. OK; that bug/feature is quite an interesting/sensitive one! I think I know the root of the problem : I have given priority to iTMS Artwork over iTunes's" Get Album Artwork" Artwork. So this is a problem with getting priorities right! I will have an option to to give priority.

(1) iTSfv Downloaded Artwork
(2) iTunes Downloaded Artwork

If you give "iTunes Downloaded Artwork" preference over "iTSfv Downloaded Artwork" then iTSfv will use iTunes downloaded artwork ( if found! ) to do its import/export business.

Even if iTunes track already had Downloaded Artwork, the reason why iTSfv searched for iTMS Artwork is because it was trying to download them and compare with the existing artworks to see the downloaded one is better or equal quality (it cannot be worse).

What do you think?



Kanak, thanks very much for you feedback. Glad you like it.

You probably have noticed the already implemented Copy to Clipboard feature in Selected Tracks. I will expand it a bit more to have other tags. So far it can do stuff like this, if you tried:


"Vocal Edition 18" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 18" - Played: 47 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 20" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 20" - Played: 87 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 08" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 08" - Played: 31 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 14" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 14" - Played: 28 times - Rating: 100%
"A State of Trance Year Mix 2006 CD1" by Armin van Buuren in "A State of Trance Year Mix 2006" - Played: 31 times - Rating: 100%
"Vocal Edition 22" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 22" - Played: 20 times - Rating: 100%
"Get Busy" by Sean Paul in "Dutty Rock" - Played: 336 times - Rating: 89%
"Dark Eyes (Funabashi Pres. Tom Porcell Remix)" by Luminary in "Dark Eyes" - Played: 94 times - Rating: 88%
"Vocal Edition 17" by DJ Doboy in "Vocal Edition 17" - Played: 13 times - Rating: 86%
"All On Me (Ft. Tami Chynn)" by Sean Paul in "The Trinity" - Played: 237 times - Rating: 91%

You also must have seen the Export feature for exporting tracks?

I will make it possible to export m3u files also; currently there is an excellent full featured iTunes add-on for that purpose : iTunes Export.

http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/

Cheers,
McoreD

You are the best!

I agree with you, an option to give priority would be good.

If we go one step beyond that, we also see that currently iTSfv just tries to find the best quality artwork. But it doesn't currently handle the fact that for a same album there might be different available artworks all around the globe, and that we might prefer a given artwork for aesthetic reasons even if its quality is not the best.

How could we handle that ? Well, probably by having an optional "preview" mode where you could see, for each selected track, one track after the other, a small preview of all available artworks with their size written below, and with iTSfv "suggestion" (best artwork according to iTSfv with a thick black border for instance).

So if we activate the optional preview mode (only for specific tracks), we'll have to select for each track the artwork we really want.

Suggestions for the "preview" window : one click = selection of the artwork we want (the thick black border moves), double click = see it in full size, "OK" button or "Return" key = validate the artwork we want, then go to the next selected track / next artwork.

What do you think ?

Wow... That sounds all good. You express them very nicely in a logical order.

Yes, the real question is that when iTSfv found BOTH iTMS Artwork and iTunes Download Artwork, what should iTSfv do.

Did you also notice the

iTSfv > Options > Advanced > Validation :

Always look for higher resolution artwork while validating groupBox? What do you think of that?

If you have them disabled, iTSfv will not always look for higher resolution artwork (hint: it will replace the already has existing artwork).



Personally I would like less user interaction as possible. I normally start validating the whole library and go get a cup of coffee or to bed.
So the *optional* preview mode is a great idea to fix that issue.

In the mean time, going back to one of your first suggestions, I think the "Don't download iTMS Artwork if the Artwork is already present within iTunes" is a splendid idea!


Version History:

5.12.1.0 Added support for creating M3U Playlists from Albums in Disc Browser (aka Album Browser)
5.12.0.0 Support for creating M3U Playlists from selected tracks. File > Create M3U Playlist of Selected Tracks [kanak]
5.11.8.0 Compilation checkBox is now a radioButton which enables you to set "Various Artists" tag before adding tracks
5.11.7.6 Saving iTMS Artwork could have crashed iTSfv if there were Illegal characters in path

"Always look for higher resolution artwork while validating groupBox? What do you think of that?"
--> Good, but maybe not perfect. In fact it should depend on whether the optional "preview" mode is activated or not.
--> "preview" mode activated => look for all possible artwork
--> "preview" mode deactivated => always look for higher resolution artwork

What do you think ?

"Personally I would like less user interaction as possible. I normally start validating the whole library and go get a cup of coffee or to bed. biggrin.gif
So the *optional* preview mode is a great idea to fix that issue. "
--> Yes of course, it has to be optional. This way we will be able to validate 90% of the library with no user interaction, then handle the remaining 10% on an album-per-album basis using the preview mode.

hi,

I hope my tiff file suggestion is still under consideration. At least have it show up in the log file.
The reason why that is so important is because tiff files are a) bigger in size (even the resulting jpgs) and b) the process is not lossless. So I think it makes sense to give people the opportunity to look it up in the log file.

here is the link to my suggestion: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=518885

thank you

Hi Jojo,

That was added in a later build, see in Jose's LOG:

20070925T203138 Searching iTMS Artwork for Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell (25th Anniversary Edition) using iTunes Store (China)
20070925T203141 Found iTMS Artwork using iTMS (China)
20070925T203146 Successfully converted Artwork to JPG and saved as C:\Documents and Settings\XXX\Mes documents\Mes images\iTSfv\Meat+Loaf\Bat+Out+Of+Hell+(25th+Anniversary+Edition)\iTMS.jpg
20070925T203146 Saved C:\Documents and Settings\XXX\Mes documents\Mes images\iTSfv\Meat+Loaf\Bat+Out+Of+Hell+(25th+Anniversary+Edition)\iTMS.jpg as I:\Temp artwork\TEST\Meat Loaf - (1977) Bat Out Of Hell (25th Anniversary Edition).jpg
20070925T203146 Exported Artwork.

Compression is pretty good. Optionally saving a copy of TIFF is indeed a great idea. I will also add that in an upcoming build.

Thanks, I got it Jose, I got it all in my head now on how to do it.
The way I like to have it is a bit more complicated. For discs that both iTMS and iTunes artwork were found, needs to be ideally queued for manually validating later after iTSfv has validated all other albums. So we don't have to sit there until the whole library is validated.

Another thing I hated happening was, some of my 600x600 were replaced by larger artwork 800x933 etc. I give square shaped artwork more priority than larger rectangular artwork.

So a new checkBox is that does:
Prefer existing square (width = height) artwork over larger non-square artwork.

Thanks McoreD, I see what you mean, the queuing idea looks great (but will you implement a "preview" mode for the later validation ?).

For the square shaped artwork, I have some simple questions :
- Why exactly is square shaped artwork preferable ?
- Can we consider a 600x595 artwork as square shaped ? (some iTMS artwork are "nearly square"). I think maybe you should implement some kind of "tolerance" when the artwork is "nearly square" ? Let's say, to be concrete, when the "width/height" factor is between X and 1/X, X being adjustable (for instance X=0,99).

Example 1 : 600x595
600/595=1,0084
If X=0,99, then 1/X=1,01
0,99 < 1,0084 < 1,01. So the artwork is "nearly square".

Example 2 : 595x600
595/600=0,99167
If X=0,99, then 1/X=1,01
0,99 < 0,99167 < 1,01. So the artwork is "nearly square".

Example 3 : 600x590
600/590=1,0169
So the artwork is not "nearly square" (if X=0,99).