Yep. This is my third day of foobar, and I see how easily extensible yet sorely lacking in some features it is. This one stuck out. I will post updates here until I have something in alpha. My plan is a simple context menu button or a "Fetch All Album Art" option that streamlines the process. The solutions I have seen so far are much too cpmplex for the user and are only hidden within larger components (e.g. foo_discogs).

This came to me on a whim just now... I will edit soon with some design specs.

So far I'm using foo_run in conjunction with Album Art Downloader and furthermore some scripts to edit the downloaded art in appropriated programs.
Do you have any ideas how to ensure the quality of downloaded images? I for myself have about 15 sources in Album Art Downloader to get a high-res/high-quality album cover. And even those need often editing due to being scans of inferior quality.
Some way to automatize this would be great, but I fear the quality will suffer, just like automatically downloaded lyrics.

Feel free to build my artist images service into this: http://artists.trivialbeing.org

I think I will use Last.fm for artwork. Seems to be the most navigable source. Any other suggestions?

One pattern I seem to find with these types of programs is that everybody seems to have their own favorite source for artwork. It always seems like someone comes along and asks "Can you add a search for (Walmart,Amazon,iTunes,etc)?" That's why I like the script system that Album Art Downloader has. The user can just select the search engines he/she wants.

already exists

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=29876

I want to design a foobar component. I could write a standalone program for this purpose in java pretty easily, but my c++ is rusty and I haven't done jack with foobar sdk.

I wrote a modified version of foo_uie_albumart ages ago that had downloading capabilities, using Python scripts to specify image sources, it did not depend on external applications and was entirely C++, when I can get my hands on the source code ill send it to you in case it's of any use, it will be about 4 weeks since im currently away from home.

If anyone remembers my original coverdownloader (before the current .NET one that AlexV?? has taken over development of), it looked like this:

It was that interface, integrated into a foobar component. As for automated art downloading, I think at least a window like this should appear for each album, where the user simply clicks the one they like most and the window reappears for the next album, which would be almost as fast as fully automatic downloading, but with the guarantee of quality.

i'd also like to request mass downloading of album art instead of selecting album "-> get album art" every time. If you can manage todo that, i will love you like a cute puppy.

look three posts up

I know but there are two things wrong with it:
1. the download link isnt working
2. its an external application called by foobar. not integrated.

If it's going to be a one-shot deal, and download art for your entire library, I don't see why it needs to be integrated into Foobar. Besides, those kinds of programs aren't very reliable in my opinion.

You can download AAA here, though: http://team.thenexusnet.com/nexus/download...ator_latest.zip

Thanks for the download link
Shame it only grabs from Amazon...low quality

I have found AAA to be the best since it is standalone and just ports the image in whatever name you want, so it solves my cover art problems without a hitch. However the sources are lame, and I have no need for japanese covers nor do I care about tiny sized ones or odd colored ones. The best album art is thru iTunes but you have to get all the itc files and convert them to jpg with other software. This week alone I must have converted thousands of itc files but then its a pain to find the albums individually and put them in the folders... so thats where it gets tricky. The itc files need to be obtained and converted into jpg and renamed.

If you could do that it would be amazing but I dont think its possible. Also having sources like amazon and wal mart is fine but they suffer from inconsistency. My personal strategy was the AAA program which I used for the first month and got most artwork, then I got snobbish and only wanted hi res 500x500 plus images and found many of the ones I liked doing google image search. Is it possible to integrate the google image search as a source? I do like the idea of a new album art integration too through foobar, it just has to do all the things people expect, and some more on the side. Goodluck.

fwiw, discogs will fetch albumart along w/ tags