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~*McoreD*~

Sep 26 2007, 19:36

That's another amazing idea Jose. Square shaped artwork was preferred because otherwise they look ugly in the iTunes Artwork window with the white borders:

IPB Image

Tolerance idea is GREAT because I also noticed those white borders aren't visible when they are "nearly" square just like you said. So that has to be taken into account.

BTW I hope we haven't hit a brick wall

I just got this as a result during a test.

20070927T092851 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (United States)
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Australia)
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (United Kindom)
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Norway)
20070927T092852 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r40/Music/68/5b...dj.njxvgobl.tif was not retrievable from iTMS (Norway).
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Canada)
20070927T092852 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Germany)
20070927T092853 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68...dj.njxvgobl.tif was not retrievable from iTMS (Germany).
20070927T092853 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (New Zealand)
20070927T092853 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68...dj.njxvgobl.tif was not retrievable from iTMS (New Zealand).
20070927T092853 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Japan)
20070927T092853 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68...dj.njxvgobl.tif was not retrievable from iTMS (Japan).
20070927T092853 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (China)
20070927T092854 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (Denmark)
20070927T092854 Searching iTMS Artwork for 50 Cent - Curtis using iTunes Store (France)
20070927T092854 iTMS Artwork http://a1.phobos.apple.com/eu/r40/Music/68...dj.njxvgobl.tif was not retrievable from iTMS (France).
20070927T092854 Could not find iTMS Artwork in any store.

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 26 2007, 19:44

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 27 2007, 03:36)

Square shaped artwork was preferred because otherwise they look ugly in the iTunes Artwork window with the white borders:

Thanks McoreD. Is it the same for CoverFlow ? (personally I don't care much about the little artwork window)

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 27 2007, 03:36)

BTW I hope we haven't hit a brick wall

I just got this as a result during a test.

What do you mean ? That Apple would somewhat be encrypting the artwork again or something ?
But in any case, the artwork should still be accessible via iTunes and the iTMS if we have a valid account. Am I wrong ? (I don't know - maybe iTunes knows how to do things better than iTSfv - or does iTSfv just try to control iTunes like it does for the other features ?)
Anyway, let's not panic for the moment (but let's retrieve a LOT of artwork while we can

~*McoreD*~

Sep 26 2007, 20:04

Jose, you don't see the white boarders in Cover Flow BUT because they are not square shaped, when iTunes resizes the view to be "square" the size of it becomes comparatively smaller than a 600x600 artwork.

See what I mean? That Nelly artwork looks shorter.

I get different results for this TIFF test.

This file indeed exists:

CODE

http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r40/Music/68/5b/ab/dj.njxvgobl.tif

But you get a 403 which is an authentication error.

This file is not. Hence a 404.

CODE

http://a1.phobos.apple.com/r40/Music/68/5b/ab/dj.njxvgobl.jpg

I double checked with david_dl's CORE with command line and same result:

QUOTE

Searching for '50 Cent' - 'Curtis' => "H:\Users\Manno\Desktop\iTunesArtCmd\Music
\50 Cent\Curtis\folder"
Failed: The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden.
Press any key to continue . . .

I am waiting for david_dl's response in his thread:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....mp;#entry519380

I am off for work now, will try to implement the discussion into code when I get back.

Cheers,
McoreD

~*McoreD*~

Sep 27 2007, 16:42

QUOTE(urlwolf @ Sep 11 2007, 10:08)

Hi McoreD.

I think I have folder/filenames that are too long!
That's a good explanation!
Do you think that's a possibility?

If so, I'll try to use foobar to shorten my file names.
Thanks,
-Jose

Date and Time: 2007-09-27T18:29:34

iTunes version: 7.4.2.4

iTSfv version: 5.12.1.2

Error caused by:
The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters.

Error path:
at System.IO.Path.NormalizePathFast(String path, Boolean fullCheck)
at System.IO.Path.GetFullPathInternal(String path)
at System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(String path, DirectorySecurity
directorySecurity)
at System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(String path)
at iTSfv.cArtworkITMS..ctor(String artist, String album)
at iTSfv.frmMain.ffGetITMSArtworkPath(IITFileOrCDTrack track)
at iTSfv.frmMain.ffGetArtworkSource(cInfoDisc lDisc)
at iTSfv.frmMain.sValidateDisc(cInfoDisc lDisc)
at iTSfv.frmMain.ssBwAppValidateAlbums(Int32 untilAlbum)
at iTSfv.frmMain.sBwAppValidateTracksSelected()
at iTSfv.frmMain.sExecuteJob(MethodInvoker mySub)

urlwolf, that's great to hear you figured out what makes iTSfv crash also sucks that it had be the hard way having to manually truncate all the long folder paths. That's quite a surprising thing to happen isn’t it? I never expected or knew Windows had a 260 character limitation. I knew iTunes would truncation the file name after 40 letters. So this has to do something with the folder path where iTunes or iTSfv is out of the solutions fixing the path.

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 27 2007, 17:37

Hi McoreD,

I have another suggestion. This time it's about soundtracks. Do you see me coming ?

Personally, I like to name my soundtracks "name of the movie OST" (e.g. "Pulp Fiction OST"). Of course iTMS doesn't like it.

Furthermore, I have noticed that in the iTMS, most soundtracks have one of the composers as the main album artist. Forgive me, but when sorting my soundtrack albums, I generally don't care much about the composer's name, I only use the name of the movie. And if there are various artists, I don't see why I should name only one.

Let's take Armageddon OST for instance. I don't care much about Trevor Rabin being the composer of the main title. There are various artists in the soundtrack, so I don't want to put Trevor Rabin as the only artist. There are lots of other examples of soundtracks by a lot of various artists (Pulp Fiction, Saw, , with no main artist.

So for most of my soundtracks, I have an album name ("name of the movie OST"), but in the "artist" field I often have "Various" or something like that. And of course the iTMS can't find the corresponding sountracks.

Of course there are particular soundtracks, where the composer is really important (John Williams for Star Wars, Howard Shore for Lord of the Rings, James Horner for Titanic, etc, etc.). But they only represent a small part of my soundtracks, all the others being "Various".

Is there something we could do with iTSfv in order to :
- Handle the album name correctly (don't take the "OST" or the "Soundtrack" into consideration for instance),
- Handle the lack of a main composer for most of the albums ? (looks difficult, but maybe there's a solution ?). If we only search with the album name, we will have several answers. So maybe iTSfv could show a small dialog saying that there are several answers, and prompt us to choose the right one. What do you think ?
(remember, we are only talking about movies, that's a small part of a whole music library, so it should be handled separately, maybe via a checkbox that would say that we are looking specifically for sountracks).

Thanks.

Jojo

Sep 27 2007, 18:44

iTunes decided to encrypt their artwork again. iTunes album art fetcher attracted lots of attention lately, so I guess they pulled the plug.

Regarding the square artwork. I think it is an excellent idea. I noticed that some albums come in several editions. Explicit, Clean, Deluxe etc. Sometimes the Deluxe edition comes in some weird format, because it was probably released in special packaging, but there is at least one version that comes with square album art. Maybe there is a way for iTSfv to check all three and pick the square version (if desired).

thank you

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 27 2007, 19:38

Maybe the iTMS has decided to encrypt the artwork again to prevent direct downloading. But I guess the artwork still has to remain usable within iTunes for registered iTMS users (otherwise I don't see the use of the artwork !).

So the artwork download as .itc files must remain possible. And if we can download .itc files, then we can validate the corresponding mp3 and transform the .itc into nice JPEGs. Am I wrong ?

EDIT : I've just tried - it seems to work. As a test I've downloaded "Armageddon" artwork from the iTMS using iTunes. No problem of course. So now I can validate the corresponding file using iTSfv and get the jpg out of iTunes. Still better than nothing !

~*McoreD*~

Sep 28 2007, 07:46

Hi Jose,

Handle the album name correctly (don't take the "OST" or the "Soundtrack" into consideration for instance): Future iTSfv versions will ignore the OST when searching for an Album in iTMS.

I am trying to understand your suggestion. Do you mean, it would be good to check for Soundtracks without Composer tag? I didn't really get the "Handle the lack of a main composer for most of the albums" part. That's a nice check to be added.

I am much like you when it gets to filling tags in Soundtracks except I don't add the OST bit. See my screenshot, in there I have Composer tag, Artist tag filled for known Artists and for the rest I have Various Artists.

AlbumArtist: Various Artists (or one could have Soundtrack)
Album: Lion King
Composer: Hans Zimmer
Artist: Depends on the Track
Genre: Soundtrack

Hi Jojo,

Yeah, just like david_dl says, it was fun until it lasted. iTSfv will continue to have the feature (now turned off by default) hoping one day Apple will make it available again. As Jose said, iTSfv will get the JPG out of iTunes when you legally obtain the Artwork with an iTunes Store account. So there is no biggie for some of us here.

Version History so far:

5.12.2.2 Prevented application crashes while accidentally validating tracks in Read-Only media
5.12.2.1 iTSfv will no longer run as Top Most by default according to Windows Application Design Guidelines [Jim]
5.12.2.0 Added Options > Validate > Tracks > Do not import larger Artwork if they will show White Borders in the Artwork Panel
5.12.1.3 Prevent running Add New Files job when a user drags new files to iTSfv while iTSfv is already adding new music to iTunes
5.12.1.2 Disc Browser Artwork thumbnail will be rendered from previously determined Artwork Source eliminating a FileWrite
5.12.1.1 Fixed instability caused by enumerator is bound to has been modified error while background worker is busy [Gareth/Bruce]
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]

Keeping things simple here, let me bring up an example. During exporting artwork to fill there is NO restrictions in resolution/sizes. During importing artwork (embedding) you can set limitations to iTSfv. If track already has 600x600 artwork and iTSfv finds there is a 1618x1417 artwork for that track, iTSfv will see if we checked "Do not import larger Artwork if they will show White Borders in the Artwork Panel" checkBox. If it is checked, iTSfv calculates the squareness of the artwork (1618/1417 = 1.1418) as Jose pointed out in a previous post. A ratio 0.9 to 1.1 are OK for Artwork Panel which do not display ugly white borders. If the ratio is out of these bounds, then the this artwork is ignored by iTSfv and will not be imported.

20070928T215110 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20070928T215117 Replace 1618x1417 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Folder.jpg? False
20070928T215118 Replace 1618x1417 with 600x600 for F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg? False
20070928T215118 Compare Artwork Path: F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg
20070928T215118 Track Artwork Path: H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20070928T215118 F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg with 1618x1417 will be ignored because it could cause White Borders.
20070928T215118 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 1618x1417
20070928T215118 Replace Artwork for 1 Hypnotic? False
20070928T215118 Track Last Modified according to iTunes: 2007-09-28 21:51:01
20070928T215118 Track Last Modified according to Cache: 2007-09-27 13:02:57
20070928T215118 Updated Artwork dimensions Cache for F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\01 Hypnotic.mp3
20070928T215118 Retrieved Artwork dimensions from cache: 600x600
20070928T215119 Compare Artwork Path: F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg
20070928T215119 Track Artwork Path: H:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\iTSfv\trackArtwork.jpg
20070928T215120 F:\Music\Holly Valance\State Of Mind\Artwork.jpg with 1618x1417 will be ignored because it could cause White Borders.
20070928T215120 Track Artwork Size: 600x600, Compare Artwork Size: 1618x1417
20070928T215120 Replace Artwork for 2 State Of Mind? False

Some of the other features planned becomes redundant for the time being until Apple offers public download of Artwork again. In the meantime iTSfv will continue to develop with other minor enhancements (I really liked the 5.12.0.0 Support for creating M3U Playlists from selected tracks. File > Create M3U Playlist of Selected Tracks [kanak]) and bug fixing to finally fully support validating large libraries like urlwolf mentioned.

Cheers,
McoreD

Jose Hidalgo

Sep 28 2007, 10:41

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 28 2007, 15:46)

I am trying to understand your suggestion. Do you mean, it would be good to check for Soundtracks without Composer tag? I didn't really get the "Handle the lack of a main composer for most of the albums" part. That's a nice check to be added.

In fact for the particular case of Soundtracks, I was thinking about giving the iTMS only the "album name" information, with no artist and no composer information. Thus, we will get several albums, and then we'll have to manually select which is the right one.

Why bother ? Because for a lot of sountracks, there are "Various artists", and I have the feeling that the iTMS doesn't handle this well : e.g. Armageddon OST attributed to Trevor Rabin as only artist, which is obviously wrong because Rabin only composed the instrumental main title (and maybe some other instrumental titles in the movie), and all other tracks are the work of well known pop-rock bands. So this is really a "Various artists" album, not a Trevor Rabin one (I guess).

So I think for Soundtracks we should give the iTMS only the "album name" information, that's all (maybe via a checkbox ?). In my example, we'll find several "Armageddon" albums, with different artists, but we'll easily be able to select the good one via a small results window with several rows : album name / artist / composer / year for instance.

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 28 2007, 15:46)

Yeah, just like david_dl says, it was fun until it lasted. iTSfv will continue to have the feature (now turned off by default) hoping one day Apple will make it available again. As Jose said, iTSfv will get the JPG out of iTunes when you legally obtain the Artwork with an iTunes Store account. So there is no biggie for some of us here.

Well, the only real problem is that with iTSfv, we were able to check various iTMS stores around the globe, and get different artwork for a same album. With iTunes we are forced to check our local iTunes store, which is not so good for foreign albums. And we can't check several stores at a time, see all the results and get the best one according to our own criteria (what a pity !).

Jojo

Sep 28 2007, 19:28

for the time being, couldn't iTSfv support getting artwork through my iTunes account? I like the flexibility of dropping CDM and also not having to export and then import the art again in order to have it saved within the file itself (because iTunes downloaded artwork will simply store it in it's own database)

Also, would be possible to somehow implement a feature that will take an iTunes store URL and grab the album art? http://www.thejosher.net/iTunes/methodtwo.php was able to do that.
Here is how it could work: I supply the URL. iTSfv parses the contents' URL and copies the artist and album name. It then creates a dummy file within the iTunes database and changes its artist and album name accordingly. It then uses iTunes to download the art and exports it.

Just an idea, but that's how I currently have to do it, because iTunes simply won't find some artwork because of tagging discrepancies. Of course, one would have to have an iTunes account, but that probably isn't an issue for most of us.

What do you think?

thank you

Bluenote

Sep 28 2007, 23:19

Hi, sorry to be the bringer of bad news.... but it looks like the "Adjust the Rating..." function (button under "Advanced") is broken in the latest beta.

It wouldn't add or update any ratings in iTunes. Works fine in v5.9. Can you confirm you get this too?

Thanks! Bluenote

~*McoreD*~

Sep 29 2007, 05:02

QUOTE(Bluenote @ Sep 29 2007, 13:19)

Hi, sorry to be the bringer of bad news.... but it looks like the "Adjust the Rating..." function (button under "Advanced") is broken in the latest beta.

It wouldn't add or update any ratings in iTunes. Works fine in v5.9. Can you confirm you get this too?

Thanks! Bluenote

Hi Bluenote, in the latest beta, I had the same problem while adjusting rating today. A quick workaround (until the next beta) would be to have any checkBox in the Tracks tab checked after you press the "Adjust Rating...."

Sorry about that. I smacked my head realizing this soon after releasing the beta today.

~*McoreD*~

Sep 29 2007, 08:30

QUOTE(Jose Hidalgo @ Sep 29 2007, 00:41)

Jose,

The iTunes Cover Art finders require both Artist and Album tags to search for a matching Cover - that is one way. We could may be additionally provide Composer tag if exists, and the AlbumArtist tag is just a non-descriptive "Various Artists" tag, try better results. But anything to do with downloading iTMS Cover Art is now render useless because Apple has locked us out again for public access..

Jojo,

Yes, for the time being, iTSfv will get the JPG out of iTunes when you legally obtain the Artwork with an iTunes Store account -- which is really the first feature iTSfv supported.

About the Album URL idea, while that is an excellent suggestion, automating it becomes questionable.

If we supply the Album Art to iTSfv for each album, we might as well use Josh's web site to fetch the album art. Btw, I haven't yet seen an open source implementation of Josh's method #2 and not quite sure how to do that myself, and is something really interesting to dig into.

Anyways Jojo, as long as we have an iTunes Account, we will be able to rip a JPG out of it, which is the plus side.

5.12.3.0 Added support to retain ModificationDate in Tracks [Jim] in Options > Validate > Tracks
5.12.2.5 Adjusting rating did not function if no checkBox was checked in Tracks tab in build 5.12.1.2
5.12.2.4 Fixed Access is denied error (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) while importing artwork without exporting them [Jim]
5.12.2.3 Prevent iTSfv crashing for track is not modifiable error while restoring tags [Chris]
5.12.2.2 Prevented application crashes while accidentally validating tracks in Read-Only media
5.12.2.1 iTSfv will no longer run as Top Most by default according to Windows Application Design Guidelines [Jim]
5.12.2.0 Added Options > Validate > Tracks > Do not import larger Artwork if they will show White Borders in the Artwork Panel
5.12.1.3 Prevent running Add New Files job when a user drags new files to iTSfv while iTSfv is already adding new music to iTunes

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

Josh.

Sep 29 2007, 10:50

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 29 2007, 09:30)

About the Album URL idea, while that is an excellent suggestion, automating it becomes questionable.

Hi,

That page is modified from this script (dependencies can be found here)... I can't remember what exactly I changed but it should be pretty simple to find out as it wasn't difficult for me IIRC.

I think it was actually just modifying the end JPEG URL... as I tried it just now and it seems to get the thumbnail just perfect.

Now if someone in here could help me with something I'd really appreciate it. For some reason, I can not get the iTunes COM to work. I've re-installed two or three times, ran /regserver more times than I can count... nothing. It's not just itsfv but iart, and some iTunes javascripts I have as well. And some visualizer. All give a COM error.

Jojo

Sep 29 2007, 13:26

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Sep 29 2007, 07:30)

If we supply the Album Art to iTSfv for each album, we might as well use Josh's web site to fetch the album art.

true. except that it currently doesn't work. We could make it work if we were logged into iTunes and that's where your program comes into place.

QUOTE(Josh. @ Sep 29 2007, 09:50)

That page is modified from this script (dependencies can be found here)... I can't remember what exactly I changed but it should be pretty simple to find out as it wasn't difficult for me IIRC.

I think it was actually just modifying the end JPEG URL... as I tried it just now and it seems to get the thumbnail just perfect.

do you think the script would be working again when used with a valid iTunes account?

~*McoreD*~

Sep 29 2007, 19:21

QUOTE(Bluenote @ Sep 29 2007, 13:19)

Hi, sorry to be the bringer of bad news.... but it looks like the "Adjust the Rating..." function (button under "Advanced") is broken in the latest beta.

It wouldn't add or update any ratings in iTunes. Works fine in v5.9. Can you confirm you get this too?

Thanks! Bluenote

Bluenote, I hope you like this release:

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

5.12.4.0 Faster Adjust Rating for Advanced > Adjust Rating avoiding load operation of Disc Browser
5.12.3.1 Artwork thumbnail was not shown in Discs Browser if artwork was added after the track was loaded to Discs Browser
5.12.3.0 Added support to retain ModificationDate in Tracks [Jim] in Options > Validate > Tracks
5.12.2.5 Adjusting rating did not function if no checkBox was checked in Tracks tab in build 5.12.1.2
5.12.2.4 Fixed Access is denied error (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) while importing artwork without exporting them [Jim]
5.12.2.3 Prevent iTSfv crashing for track is not modifiable error while restoring tags [Chris]
5.12.2.2 Prevented application crashes while accidentally validating tracks in Read-Only media
5.12.2.1 iTSfv will no longer run as Top Most by default according to Windows Application Design Guidelines [Jim]
5.12.2.0 Added Options > Validate > Tracks > Do not import larger Artwork if they will show White Borders in the Artwork Panel
5.12.1.3 Prevent running Add New Files job when a user drags new files to iTSfv while iTSfv is already adding new music to iTunes

From the looks of it, it's progressing well towards a non-BETA build.

Jose Hidalgo

Oct 1 2007, 07:29

Back to problems ?...

With latest version (5.12.3.0), I'm no more able to do "Import Artwork in [...] from [...]". It doesn't work. No errors, nothing. It just doesn't do the job.

Example :
- Artwork folder : I:\Temp artwork\Reste
- Artwork 1 : "A Chorus Line - (1975) A Chorus Line - Original Broadway Cast.jpg"
- Artwork 2 : "Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan - (1999) In Session.jpg"
- Artwork 3 : "Ana Torroja - (1997) Puntos cardinales.jpg"
- In iTunes, the corresponding tracks are selected, and of course all the tags are correct.
- So the text next to the checkbox in iTSfv becomes "Import Artwork in I:\Temp artwork\Reste from %Artist% - (%Year%) %Album%.jpg
- But when I go to iTSfv and click "Validate selected tracks", nothing happens !

I've even done a test with a track that worked with previous iTSfv version (5.11.7.2). I've erased the embedded artwork imported by iTSfv 5.11.7.2, then tried to embed it again (same artwork, same place, everything identical) with iTSfv 5.12.3.0... doesn't work !!

What can I do ? Thanks.

Bluenote

Oct 1 2007, 08:30

More problems here

It seems the Auto Rate function just won't work like it used to..... now, it writes data to tracks like Album Artist, Disc Number etc. even though I don't want it to! All the boxes in Validate | Checks are unticked.
I thought this sort of thing should only happen during Validation. The Auto Rate function should only work on the ratings and leave the rest of the tags alone, or am I misunderstanding something here?

Thanks, Bluenote

~*McoreD*~

Oct 1 2007, 08:38

Bluenote, is this 5.12.4.0? That build was specifically designed to be completely independent from the standard Validation procedure. So it shouldn't do this at all.

Jose, I will get to you soon after looking what's wrong.

,
McoreD

Edit: Problem reproducible. This was caused by a core change done to how patterns were saved for a feature planned in an upcoming build and left incomplete. Fixing it as we speak and thanks very much for pointing that out.

Bluenote

Oct 1 2007, 08:50

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Oct 1 2007, 15:38)

Bluenote, is this 5.12.4.0? That build was specifically designed to be completely independent from the standard Validation procedure. So it shouldn't do this at all.

Yup, it's 5.12.4.0. And if I click on "Adjust the Rating" I get my disc numbers and Album Artists filled in - just happened again.

Bluenote

urlwolf

Oct 1 2007, 09:34

Hmm, playing around wiht multiple music locations...

5.12.4 doesn't look like this:
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/3469/it...multilibmp7.jpg
at all. It has three tabs: files, tags and options. Is that normal?

Now, since iTunes is dumb enough to only take one folder for a music library, If I use synchroclean it says that some of my music is not in that unique folder (of course) and that my library will be obliterated if I press ok.

What should I do?

Thanks

For the life of me that I don't understand the design philosophy of whoever thought up iTunes.

I have changed the location of some of my songs. There is no way IN HELL itunes will realize this. A simple "refresh library" button is missing!

Did these people not think that humans move files? Is iTunes designed for people who don't even know what a file is?

~*McoreD*~

Oct 1 2007, 11:12

urlwolf,

While you are in Explorer tab, press F2 to bring up Options for that tab, which will bring up the Options window similar to that imageshack screenshot.

I had completely disabled Synchroclean if a large portion of music is detected outside of iTunes Library, but I see the problemn not being able to override it. The reason why disabled was because, as part Synchroclean it will remove tracks from iTunes Library that are not in music folder. So if you had music stored in iTunes which is not in the iTunes Music folder then synchroclean would treat them as alien files and remove them. Next build of iTSfv will look in each additional music folder to see if the music files are in any of the music folder location specified, so this MsgBox should then hopefully disappear for you. If you however still have tracks that are not in any of the locations specified, then iTSfv will refuse to perform synchroclean.

In the mean time you can try Explorer > Get New Tracks which only focuses on adding new tracks to Library.

Bluenote,

I have not been able to reproduce that error. It didn't touch the ValidateDisc function at all. Advanced tab > Adjust Rating will not simply access Validate Disc code.

If you run Adjust Ratings as part of validating tracks/library, only iTSfv will update Tags.

Jose,

Hope this build works for ya. I did test it with empty artwork album, importing artwork from a custom folder.

5.12.6.3 iTSfv refused to synchroclean even if tracks were in any one of the music folders specified [urlwolf]
5.12.6.2 Importing Artwork from Custom folder did not work in build 5.12.3.0 [Jose]
5.12.6.1 Fixed delays occured in main GUI when retrieving Tracklist after clicking the disc in Discs Browser using a seperate thread
5.12.6.0 Prompt for overwriting AlbumArtist and Album tags before Adding new files to the library
5.12.5.0 Attempted some tweaks following http://aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/midi/help/caps.html for capitalizing Name tag
5.12.4.1 Fixed Value cannot be null error while attempting to capitalize tracks that did not exist [Tom]
5.12.4.0 Faster Adjust Rating for Advanced > Adjust Rating avoiding load operation of Disc Browser
5.12.3.1 Artwork thumbnail was not shown in Discs Browser if artwork was added after the track was loaded to Discs Browser
5.12.3.0 Added support to retain ModificationDate in Tracks [Jim] in Options > Validate > Tracks

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

Thanks,
McoreD

urlwolf

Oct 1 2007, 11:45

Thanks McoreD,

In the meantime, I was using itunes library updater 1.26.
It's extremely slow, maybe 1 soung per second.
That's probably because the partition Itunes library is in is almost full.

I'll fix that.
Still, in optimal conditions, is ITSfv faster thatn ITLU?

Thanks

Josh.

Oct 1 2007, 14:09

QUOTE(Jojo @ Sep 29 2007, 14:26)

QUOTE(Josh. @ Sep 29 2007, 09:50)

That page is modified from this script (dependencies can be found here)... I can't remember what exactly I changed but it should be pretty simple to find out as it wasn't difficult for me IIRC.

I think it was actually just modifying the end JPEG URL... as I tried it just now and it seems to get the thumbnail just perfect.

do you think the script would be working again when used with a valid iTunes account?

No clue.

I really haven't figured out on what condition, if any, Apple allows access to the non-encrypted art.

Jose Hidalgo

Oct 1 2007, 14:55

@McoreD : the new build works again so far. Thanks !

BTW, is it necessary to reset all prefs with each iTSfv update ? I would prefer if all prefs were conserved. Is it possible ?

~*McoreD*~

Oct 1 2007, 17:08

QUOTE(urlwolf @ Oct 2 2007, 01:45)

urlwolf, I really haven't tested both against speed. In optimal conditions iTLU will be faster because it does less checks? I am not really sure but I am going test it now. iTSfv does Synchroclean with one thing in mind: that tracks will never be accidentally deleted, which is not the case with iTLU because it doesn't do checks for user mistakes. For example, if you have music stored in F:\Music and you have don't have that path in iTLU music folder locations, then without warnings iTLU will delete any F:\Music\*.mp3 reference in iTunes. The difference is that iTSfv will refuse to synchronize if this is the case.

Jose, thanks for the feedback, it is not necessary to reset settings in every update. The bug in the previous build affected how the pattern was stored in the settings file. So I had to reset the settings file to read new values. Sorry about that.

Edit:

Tests were done for 15595 tracks. I ran synchroclean with same options for F:\Music.

iTLU took 21 minutes.

iTSfv took 27 minutes.

20071002T072422 Job Started: SYNCHROCLEAN
20071002T072422 Safety checks initiated before removing tracks outside of music folders.
20071002T072424 Looking for tracks outside of music folders to remove
20071002T072953 Finding new tracks in specified music locations...
20071002T075136 Finding new tracks in specified music locations... Done.
20071002T075136 Job Finished: SYNCHROCLEAN

I can make iTSfv do it 10 times faster however that needs some more testing.

Bluenote

Oct 1 2007, 18:50

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Oct 1 2007, 18:12)

I have not been able to reproduce that error. It didn't touch the ValidateDisc function at all. Advanced tab > Adjust Rating will not simply access Validate Disc code.

If you run Adjust Ratings as part of validating tracks/library, only iTSfv will update Tags.

OK, thanks for confirming that. I think the problem was with my iTunes library, some stuff was messed up after my computer crashed with it open. Working now.

Keep up the great work, Bluenote

urlwolf

Oct 2 2007, 02:58

QUOTE

I can make iTSfv do it 10 times faster however that needs some more testing.

That's great to hear!

BTW, congrats McoreD -and me

- now that we know that long filenames are a problem, I have managed to validate my entire library (Yay!). It took some effort, but the results should be worth it (great 600x600 artwork, pretty automatic).

After I'm done downloading artwork, I'd like to insert it in tracks (right now, my artwork is in folder.jpg). However, some of my scans are huge.

Adding that to each track would be a waste.
Is there any way you can tell ITSfv "resize any jpg too large to a manageable size (e.g. <100kb) before inserting it into the tracks?

Thanks

~*McoreD*~

Oct 2 2007, 04:04

Thanks and that's great news from urlwolf and Bluenote.

An option to resize large artwork ( over xxx KiB ) to ###x### resolution would be an excellent feature addition.

urlwolf,

I have emailed you build 5.12.7.1

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

5.12.7.1 If iTSfv finds there are tracks in iTunes which do not belong to any music folder location, instead of refusing, iTSfv will continue to Synchroclean, leaving those tracks
5.12.7.0 Implementation of finding new files to iTunes Library is now 100x faster which makes Synchroclean faster

I was quite amazed my self because, finding new tracks only took 10 seconds for a library with 15595 tracks.

Finding new tracks:

CODE

20071002T174802 Job Started: FIND_NEW_TRACKS_FROM_HDD
20071002T174802 Finding new tracks in specified music locations...
20071002T174810 Finding new tracks in specified music locations... Done.
20071002T174814 Job Finished: FIND_NEW_TRACKS_FROM_HDD

Using new finding new tracks method:

iTSfv took 5 minutes. (major chunk of that time is Looking for tracks outside of music folders to remove, which I am planning to make even shorter).

CODE

20071002T173839 Job Started: SYNCHROCLEAN
20071002T173839 Safety checks initiated before removing tracks outside of music folders.
20071002T173912 Looking for tracks outside of music folders to remove
20071002T174404 Finding new tracks in specified music locations...
20071002T174411 Finding new tracks in specified music locations... Done.
.
20071002T174443 Job Finished: SYNCHROCLEAN

If you could let me know how it goes when you press Explorer tab > Options tab > Get Tracks not in Library that would be splendid.

Thanks,
McoreD

urlwolf

Oct 2 2007, 11:37

I tried ´get tracks not in library´ and got a crash (emailed to you).

One question. Instead of using Artwork.jpg, can we tell ITsfv to use folder.jpg? All my art is in that format. that´d make itunes more complete.

Thanks

Jose Hidalgo

Oct 2 2007, 21:16

Maybe a small bug :

Prefs > Validate > Tracks

If I select "Import artwork in album folder from", I can type anything I want inside the pop-up menu in the right. That's OK.

BUT If I select "Import artwork in the following folder from", I can't type anything in the corresponding pop-up menu : I have only access to pre-defined options. This is the only pop-up menu to behave like this (if I go to Prefs > Validate > File System, both pop-up menus behave identically which is good of course).

What do you think McoreD ?

~*McoreD*~

Oct 3 2007, 01:29

QUOTE(urlwolf @ Oct 3 2007, 01:37)

urlwolf, you can press F2 to access the Options while you are in Tracks tab where you can change Artwork.jpg to Folder.jpg using the drop down menu.

About the crash: did you get that straightaway after iTSfv found new tracks OR while it was adding new tracks? I will be going through this later today.

Jose,

Some parts of that behavior was intentional. I will double check this later tonight.

Thanks,
McoreD

urlwolf

Oct 3 2007, 04:57

Crash: It was while it was adding new tracks

It might have to do with 8-bit chars, since I was adding some anime soundtracks.

Does itunes alter my genre tags? Because a good 2000 songs of my previously carefully labelled collection has "miscelaneous" as genre.
I'm new to itunes, and finding plenty of things to like AND dislike. This would be a major ofense though.

Itsfv misses plenty of small artwork even when I selected "consider small artwork if smaller than 600 x 600". No idea why. Itunes misses albums that it has in their db. For example, one song from Areito got a cover, whereas the rest of the album (which itunes considered independently, because it was in a different directory) got no cover. I know that iTunes has the cover for that album. No idea why it ignored it, though.

Jose Hidalgo

Oct 3 2007, 06:06

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Oct 3 2007, 09:29)

Some parts of that behavior was intentional. I will double check this later tonight.

Well, if it was intentional, how can I tell iTSfv to "Import artwork in the following folder from (%year%) %album%" for instance ?
("(%year%) %album%" being a new pattern, non-existing in the pop-up menu).
If it doesn't exist, and if I can't create it, how can I possibly do ?

Thanks.

~*McoreD*~

Oct 3 2007, 10:55

urlwolf,

iTSfv wouldn't modify any filled Genre tags in any way. iTSfv will show what iTunes can see. I will test more adding new files to iTunes. I haven't manged to crash it yet. I was wondering how was the speed compared to last time for the total time of synchocleaning.

Some important confirmations, I'd like:

1/ Do you mean 200x200 wasn't the smallest artwork you had, and iTSfv didn't report that in the low-resolution-artwork log file?

2/ Itsfv misses plenty of small artwork even when I selected "consider small artwork if smaller than 600 x 600" - do you mean iTSfv skipped those files without embedding artwork to them?

I see a tricky situation you described there, when same album located partially in seperate folders. Theoretically iTSfv is designed to handle that situation because, first iTSfv loads all the albums to Discs Browser, in this step, no matter where your files are, the tracks are sorted in to albums, and tracks will have artwork imported.

The only place I can see a possible trouble is If chkWinExportArtwork.Checked = True AndAlso chkImportArtwork.Checked = False Then but you have Import Artwork checked.

Jose,

The intentional part was so that we could only input new patterns from one comboBox for simplicity.

How can I tell iTSfv to "Import artwork in the following folder from (%year%) %album%" for instance? I see. I agree it was implemented in a confusing way! According to the current method, to do what you required, will need you to go to "Export artwork to the following folder as" comboBox, input the pattern, press Apply and come back to the "Import artwork in the following folder from" comboBox. I will make all comboBoxes editable. Thanks!

~*McoreD*~

Oct 4 2007, 08:37

urlwolf,

Loooking at your log file, it says:

Warnings during Validation:
Could not find file 'C:\Documents and Settings\xxxx\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml'.

That's quite an error there! I am not sure how that XML file could go missing. An error like that would not have parsed the Xml file properly, and that's like a cause of error for iTSfv crashing while adding files.

I have also revised the code to handle any NullPointer exception whatsoever.

5.13.0.0 Option to resize large artwork to resolution defined as lowest high resolution in Options > Tracks [urlwolf]
5.12.7.3 Attempted fix 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object.' while adding new tracks to library [urlwolf]
5.12.7.2 New artwork file names and file name patterns addable from all comboBoxes in Import and Export tabs [Jose]

20071004T221958 Job Started: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED
20071004T222006 F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork.jpg artwork 5569x5540 resized to 600x597 as Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222008 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\01 Shala Lalala.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222011 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\02 24_7 In My 911.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222013 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\03 Kiss (When the Sun Don't Shine).mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222014 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\04 Uncle John From Jamaica.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222016 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\05 Cheekah Bow Bow (That Computer So.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222018 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\06 48 Hours.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222020 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\07 Your Place or Mine_.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222022 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\08 Skinnydippin'.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222023 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\09 Take Me to the City.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222025 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\10 Forever as One.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222027 Added Artwork to F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\11 Opus 3 In D#.mp3 from F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork (600x597).jpg
20071004T222031 Replace 5569x5540 with 600x597 for F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Folder.jpg? False
20071004T222037 Replace 5569x5540 with 600x597 for F:\Music\Vengaboys\The Platinum Album\Artwork.jpg? False
.
20071004T222040 Job Finished: VALIDATE_TRACKS_SELECTED

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

The new checkBox is accessble from iTSfv > Tools > Options > Tracks
IPB Image

Cheers,
McoreD

~*McoreD*~

Oct 21 2007, 00:15

Hi All,

Hope this helps someone. Feature 5.15.0.0 is looking at tackling easily adding artwork with whiteborders typically from amazon.com. I got really annoying having to

1. save the artwork from amazon.com to find whiteborders and
2. crop the edges using some editor and
3. save final and embed it to to track

The Add Artwork Window will be prompted when you

1. Validate selected tracks and iTSfv finds a single artwork file in the album folder
2. Drag & Drop an artwork file from a website or folder to the Artwork panel for a selected Disc in Discs Browser

So basically when you validate a disc here after, when you don't find the artwork in iTunes Music store, what you willl be doing is basically doing a google search for the artwork.

1. Select the disc in Discs browser and
2. Drag the artwork from the site to the Artwork panel

If you find one that has borders you can now crop and press Yes to add the cropped image.

5.15.1.0 iTSfv will prompt Crop Artwork Wizard when importing single file artwork while Validating Selected Tracks
5.15.0.1 Explorer tab will not be automatically activated for Drag&Drop of files other than audio
5.15.0.0 Drag&Drop Artwork to a selected Disc in Discs Browser and crop artwork before replacing artwork in the disc
5.14.0.6 iTSfv crashed while checking for lyrics in some track [Heiko]
5.14.0.5 iTSfv crashed if artwork path HasIllegalCharacters while getting artwork source[JaEson]

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

iTSfv v5.14 was released!

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

Version 5.14 - 20071014

5.14.0.4 Synchrocleaning more than once still showed up and attemped to add the new tracks detected from the first synchroclean
5.14.0.3 iTSfv will not quit while running active jobs if Close button was accidently pressed; ask for confirmation
5.14.0.2 Disc Browse will not show DiscCount tag in the Disc Name anymore to prevent unexpected misgrouping of tracks
5.14.0.1 DiscCount filling method will not clear existing DiscCount if user validates partial albums i.e. only disc 2 and disc 3 etc. [Daniels]
5.14.0.0 Context Menu operations for Disc Browser with ability to copy Tracklist to Clipboard
5.13.0.1 Genre tag in ID3v1 would be overwritten with Genre index in ID3v2 2.4. Tags via TagLib# are saved in ID3v2 2.3 to overcome this problem.

Cheers,
McoreD

Jose Hidalgo

Oct 21 2007, 09:33

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Oct 21 2007, 08:15)

I got really annoying having to

1. save the artwork from amazon.com to find whiteborders and
2. crop the edges using some editor and
3. save final and embed it to to track

You bet it is ! I wish you had done this earlier, it would have saved me a lot of time !

Thanks McoreD !

heathabear

Oct 27 2007, 12:46

Wow. I'm in shock. I think this may be the single most useful add-on for anything that I've ever come across. Now if only I'd found it a week ago! I recently moved all my songs to a different drive and directory the hard way, which meant following a tutorial to manually edit the library file to reflect the new directories (by letter, so it was only 26 find/replaces). It worked, except for whatever reason, it didn't work for my songs with artists that started with a number. (311, 2Pac, etc.) Before I realized it, I had already cleaned my library of any orphaned files with iTunes Library Updater, and so I just decided to cut my loses, seeing as losing ratings and play counts for 30 or so tracks was better than losing it for 7000. With your program, though, I was able to open my old library from my sister's computer, back it up, and then carry over most of those ratings using your backup/restore feature on my computer. However, there are still about 10 songs where the ratings and play counts that didn't carry over. I checked the backup xml file and it does have the play counts for those songs, but it's just not putting them in, even when I ran the restore feature a second time. Now, 10 songs isn't the end of the world, but more than anything, I'm just curious as to why that'd happen, so I just thought I'd throw that out there.

Edit: I'm using version 4.10 of iTSfv, if that helps, and version 7.1 of iTunes. ~~(I originally got iTSfv from somewhere else and it seemed 4.10 was the latest stable release. Now that I see that isn't so, I can try it with the new version and see if that does the trick!)~~ Tried it, still the same!

One more thing: Is there anything that would be able to go through my playlists and add in any tracks that had been deleted? During this whole process, I know some of my playlists must have lost songs, especially because there were about 20 more that had been corrupted for other reasons and then deleted as orphaned files. I have all the playlists backed up, so I can go through manually and compare, but I was just wondered if there was an easier way to do it.

Anyway, thank you so, so, so much. This little tool is about the neatest thing I've ever seen. Being able to back up my ratings gives me great peace of mind.

Another Edit: (Wow, you're gonna kill me.) Just upgraded to 5.14 - very cool! One more question, though, and then I swear, I'm done: For "delete tracks not in music folder", if I mouse over it, it gives the destination as the iTunes folder. I keep my music elsewhere, so I changed it to that directory in options > explorer. However, it still gives the iTunes folder destination when I mouse over "delete tracks not in music folder." Additionally, if I close the program and re-open it and then go back to options, the folder I added as one of my music folders has disappeared. If I re-add it, is it safe to say that I can use this feature without having all my tracks deleted? (I'd back up the library, so I suppose it doesn't matter. But I'm just wondering.)

I'm done now. I swear. Again, thanks so much. Playing around with this thing has proven to be a great alternative to doing my homework.

~*McoreD*~

Oct 27 2007, 19:20

Hi heathabear,

Glad you like it.

iTSfv will look for the track in all the music folder locations (this means the default iTunes music folder plus the additional folder you specify in iTunes > Options > Explorer)
However I noticed the tooltip still only showed the iTunes music folder only. This cosmetic bug is fixed for the next beta release. Thanks.

It is safe to run Synchroclean the way it is now.

Version 5.15 - 20071215?

5.15.2.2 Delete tracks not in music folder tooltip will now display all the music folders set by user [heathabear]
5.15.2.1 Validating only disc 1 of a multi-disc album would have overwritten disc count
5.15.2.0 Ability to overwrite Disc Number and Disc Count before adding new files
5.15.1.2 Handle errors that can occur during forcing tags while adding files [Scott]
5.15.1.1 Fixed application crash while backing up Ratings for URL tracks [Mike]
5.15.1.0 iTSfv will prompt Crop Artwork Wizard when importing single file artwork while Validating Selected Tracks
5.15.0.1 Explorer tab will not be automatically activated for Drag&Drop of files other than audio
5.15.0.0 Drag&Drop Artwork to a selected Disc in Discs Browser and crop artwork before replacing artwork in the disc
5.14.0.6 iTSfv crashed while checking for lyrics in some track [Heiko]
5.14.0.5 iTSfv crashed if artwork path HasIllegalCharacters while getting artwork source[JaEson]

Is there anything that would be able to go through my playlists and add in any tracks that had been deleted? I am not sure I understood you properly. If iTSfv / iTunes Library Update deletes the invalid tracks from the Library, then they are gone from the playlists also. Pro grammatically remembering what files were deleted and upon adding the files to the library, adding the new tracks back to relevant playlsits would be really nice. Is this what you meant? If so, I have the idea in the head.

Quite a mystery there with the 10 non restored songs. The only thing I can think of is if you back up the ratings, change Album/Artist name before restoring them, it will be lost. Most likely you might not have done this but that's the only possible reason I can think of.

kanak

Oct 27 2007, 22:18

I just wanted to thank mcored for this super useful tool, and more importantly, implementing pretty much every feature requested

. Thank you for your tireless work.

heathabear

Oct 27 2007, 22:38

Wow, thanks for getting back to me so quickly! And you even made a new beta to fix the music folder tooltip!

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Oct 27 2007, 19:20)

I am not sure I understood you properly. If iTSfv / iTunes Library Update deletes the invalid tracks from the Library, then they are gone from the playlists also. Pro grammatically remembering what files were deleted and upon adding the files to the library, adding the new tracks back to relevant playlsits would be really nice. Is this what you meant? If so, I have the idea in the head.

Ah, yes, that's what I mean. Sort of the same as the back-up/recover play counts/ratings feature, but for playlists.

Thanks again! I'm definitely having way too much fun with this thing. I just discovered the overwrite feature, so now I can update playcounts on those 10 mysterious tracks without manually playing the end of the song however many times to get the count up to speed.

Jose Hidalgo

Oct 28 2007, 10:21

QUOTE(kanak @ Oct 28 2007, 06:18)

I just wanted to thank mcored for this super useful tool, and more importantly, implementing pretty much every feature requested

. Thank you for your tireless work.

I think McoreD should be nominated for the "Developer of the year" awards, in "Most proactive developer" & "Coolest dude". categories.

heathabear

Oct 28 2007, 10:41

QUOTE(Jose Hidalgo @ Oct 28 2007, 10:21)

QUOTE(kanak @ Oct 28 2007, 06:18)

I just wanted to thank mcored for this super useful tool, and more importantly, implementing pretty much every feature requested

. Thank you for your tireless work.

I think McoreD should be nominated for the "Developer of the year" awards, in "Most proactive developer" & "Coolest dude". categories.

Oh, I second that! Forget nominations, let's just give him the award. Really, I can't think of anyone who'd come close.

christian_s

Nov 19 2007, 16:16

Can I make iTSfv scan my albums in Itunes and attempt to grab artwork for albums that do not have albumart in iTunes? Most of my albums now have albumart about 75% I guess, but I still have a significant number of albums without artwork.

I can see that Tools > Options > Advance > Internet has an option to download artwork if available, but I want to be sure that iTSfv only attempts to fetch artwork for albums that do not have any art at the moment.

Also is it possible to afterwards see a log of which albums artwork was succesfully retrieved for?
- Chr

Teknojnky

Nov 19 2007, 16:56

Well, silly me tried to use this application without itunes installed (since it did not specifically state that itunes was required)...

When I opened the options, then press OK the below error occurs...

CODE

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

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at iTSfv.frmOptions.sSettingsSave()
   at iTSfv.frmOptions.btnOK_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: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
iTSfv
    Assembly Version: 5.9.0.2
    Win32 Version: 5.16.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///J:/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
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    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: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
McoreSystem
    Assembly Version: 1.12.0.1
    Win32 Version: 1.12.0.1
    CodeBase: file:///J:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/McoreSystem.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.iTunesLib
    Assembly Version: 1.10.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.10.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///J:/Program%20Files/iTSfv/Interop.iTunesLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
gua32km6
    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.832 (QFE.050727-8300)
    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*~

Nov 19 2007, 23:14

Teknojnky,

Indeed. Noticed you are running a interim beta version. Could you download the latest stable beta version: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989

and reproduce the issue?

Update: I got mistaken for the assembly version. I see you are running a pretty much latest build. I will look into this issue. Does this happen to you every time you press OK after loading Options?

The 5.9 manual says

Requirements
* Latest iTunes version
* Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher
* Tracks with Album, Artist and Name tags completed

I will update the website to say iTSfv requires iTunes, thanks.

christian_s,

There is only one method in iTSfv to automatically grab artwork - this is some of us figure out how to decrypt the Album Art from Apple iTunes Store. iTSfv cannot automatically grab artwork for you in other means. Tools > Options > Advance > Internet has an option to download artwork if available works only when this is possible.

What you could do is with an iTunes Store Account, you can right click the tracks in iTunes and "Get Album Artwork" and then if you hit validate in iTSfv, then iTSfv will extract the Artwork as JPEG for you and store in the album folder.

Latest iTSfv versions support debug/log facilities that tells you where the Artwork was added from.

heathabear & Jose,

Thanks guys for the nice feedback.

christian_s

Nov 20 2007, 13:40

@McoreD - thanks for the reply. Yep that is the process I use now. I select a album and "get album art". Then I make sure I have selected one album in iTunes and then I use the Album browser in iTSfv to validate the album. Doing this I automatically get the folder.jpg and related files.

Before I knew of iTSfv I was manually copying the art out of iTunes by using right click > Get Info > Art tab > Mark Art > CTRL+C > jump to Explorer and CTRL+V to paste the bmp file to the harddrive. After that I would then open the 1Mb bmp file in photoshop adjust image and save as jpg at the filesize between 20-100Kb depening on the artwork complexity.
After this I use mp3tag to embed the artwork - I have an action (macro) set up for that.

Artwork looks great, but man oh man is it laboursome to get in place if you do not have it setup to begin with.

Thanks for making iTSfv! - it's a great swiss army knife for finetuning the iTunes database.

Jose Hidalgo

Nov 20 2007, 13:54

Hey Christian,

I'm interested in your mp3tag action (macro). Thanks in advance !

Teknojnky

Nov 20 2007, 14:19

QUOTE(~*McoreD*~ @ Nov 19 2007, 23:14)

Teknojnky,

Indeed. Noticed you are running a interim beta version. Could you download the latest stable beta version: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=243989

and reproduce the issue?

Update: I got mistaken for the assembly version. I see you are running a pretty much latest build. I will look into this issue. Does this happen to you every time you press OK after loading Options?

Yea, it happened every time, even if no changes were made.

The 5.9 manual says

Requirements
* Latest iTunes version
* Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher
* Tracks with Album, Artist and Name tags completed

I will update the website to say iTSfv requires iTunes, thanks.

I had downloaded from sourceforge linked on the first post, so I assumed it was the most current.

I mostly missed the website, I just followed the links in this thread first post and did not notice anything stating itunes required. I assumed it used the itunes store without itunes, which is why I tried it out.

I am not really interested in re-loading itunes, my library is far too large for itunes to effectively manage it anyway.

It looks like a really cool and useful app tho!

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