[Canola] Cover Arts?

[vnguyen972]

how does it work? manual? or auto? either way, how do I achieve that?

Thanks.

[YoDude]

As the title says...

I would like a detailed tutorial on how to make C2 download and use cover art.

Be patient with us please, many of our gentle readers have never used or installed scripts on the tablets before. :)

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

EDIT: Thanks for merging these threads Reg

BTW I found this >>THIS<< (http://staff.get-e.org/?p=users/chenca/canola-tuning.git;a=commitdiff;h=82a486ffbfc1180930fa93c3 134b894ec6c3da44)

>>HERE<< (http://staff.get-e.org/?p=users/chenca/canola-tuning.git;a=summary)

What should be done with it?

[cmarcelo]

See this post to check what files you need.

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=113097&postcount=350

Put these files in your Home directory. You can use the Terminal application to run this scripts like:

python albumcover.py -w all

Open C2 and try to see your album art :-)

[fakebanana]

I prefer to use MediaMonkey on my PC to manage my album art. As a one-time process, I organized my music into <artist>/<album> folders and used a script I found on their user forums to extract my MP3's embedded album art, resize to 300x300 and 150x150, add them to the album directories. Then I used rsync to copy over the music collection to my N800. Once I created a symbolic link (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=112576&postcount=225) from ~/.canola/covers to my music collection, it displayed everything just fine.

[kingka]

so the covers that come up blank. is there a way to fix them? or direct the scrip to a specif cover?? blah....

[jhoff80]

Is there any n800 python script that will properly generate the covers from tagged album art? It appears that the script in that link does it from the internet?

[handful]

Jhoff80 for now no, but I think we will add this support like in Canola1. Just a matter of time. Sorry for that.

Marcelo

[e-motion]

Ok, the albumcover.py script works great for my albums, the videothumb.py generates the JPGs out of my video files, but it seems Canola is not using those JPGs out of the VIDEO_THUMB folder. Where does Canola expect to see these JPGs for the videos ?

[PinCushionQueen]

The albumcover.py script will work for only some of my album covers but then I get a Segmentation Fault -> memory allocation error. If I try to restart the script again, it starts downloading files from the very beginning, even though 75% have already been downloaded and are in the /.canola/covers folder. The little CPU/Mem widget at the top of the screen shows that my memory & swap (128MB) are being maxed out right before the Segmentation Fault.

Is there any way to prevent the script from starting from scratch everytime? If I could only run the script for the 25% left to download, the my memory wouldn't max out.

Thanks :D

[e-motion]

The albumcover.py script will work for only some of my album covers but then I get a Segmentation Fault -> memory allocation error. If I try to restart the script again, it starts downloading files from the very beginning, even though 75% have already been downloaded and are in the /.canola/covers folder. The little CPU/Mem widget at the top of the screen shows that my memory & swap (128MB) are being maxed out right before the Segmentation Fault.

Is there any way to prevent the script from starting from scratch everytime? If I could only run the script for the 25% left to download, the my memory wouldn't max out.

Thanks :D


The only way I can think of of doing that would be to only have maybe half of the albums on the memory card the 1st time, run the script, then backup the JPG covers to another folder and remove them from the COVERS folders of Canola, move the 1st half of the albums from your memory card to another folder, put the 2nd half of the albums in the directory Canola uses for your music files, update Canola's database with that 2nd half, and run the script again.

After all this is done, you should be able to copy the backed up JPG covers of the 1st pass to the COVERS folder of Canola and put all your music back into the folder used by Canola.

It's a drag but it should work.

[barbieri]

I think the script have an option to ignore already exiting covers, check for that with --help (I don't have it handy now)

[PinCushionQueen]

You are correct Barbieri, there is a way to skip the already downloaded jpgs.

python albumcover.py -w all -s

Works like a charm :D

[nilchak]

I an new to the Nokia OS , so please accept my ignorance a bit ...

Is tere a way to make a python script as a executable app on the application list with a Icon just as the other ones ?
Then that would make it easier to run alongside C2 whenever I add new albums to the media storage

[MikeL]

There is a status bar icon called "load-applet-run" which in addition to giving visual indication of cpu and memory usage, allows the user to type commands and run them. Another possibility is "Simple Launcher"

In both cases I am not sure about availability for latest OS2008.

[barbieri]

I an new to the Nokia OS , so please accept my ignorance a bit ...

Is tere a way to make a python script as a executable app on the application list with a Icon just as the other ones ?
Then that would make it easier to run alongside C2 whenever I add new albums to the media storage

this is untested, but will give you some directions:

1 - Copy albumcover.py to /home/user
2 - Create /usr/share/applications/hildon/albumcover.desktop with:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Canola Cover Downloader
Exec=python /home/user/albumcover.py -s -w all


This should place an entry in your menu (under Extras) and will run the script to download missing covers.

[MikeL]

1 - Copy albumcover.py to /home/user
2 - Create /usr/share/applications/hildon/albumcover.desktop with:
Had a go at creating the programme & icon and appears to work as you suggested. The only problem for the layman is we don't easily know if it works (no feedback) therefore if for example you are not connected to internet at time of running script, it cannot advise you on status. (and you cannot be sure scripts not looping without closing)

Thanks for the advise on how to add an application in the application list ;-)

Need to understand what i am doing a little more....:o

[barbieri]

Had a go at creating the programme & icon and appears to work as you suggested. The only problem for the layman is we don't easily know if it works (no feedback) therefore if for example you are not connected to internet at time of running script, it cannot advise you on status. (and you cannot be sure scripts not looping without closing)

Thanks for the advise on how to add an application in the application list ;-)

Need to understand what i am doing a little more....:o

chenca is writting such GUI to inform the progress, at least he asked me the progressbar in edje so it can look like Canola ;-)

[PJE]

Any thoughts as to why Canola be can't have an option to use the album art gathered by Kagu or one of the other media players?

[nilchak]

Any thoughts as to why Canola be can't have an option to use the album art gathered by Kagu or one of the other media players?

I guess that would entail that C2 be aware of other apps (like Kagu) and also do a search if Kagu or other media apps are installed or not and if yes, do a search of Album art from their repective locations.

Also some other 3rd party apps might not have album art support also like C2 itself, so that means C2 has to have a database of which apps have album art support and then do a search accordingly.

Sounds like quite a convoluted process.

I think its better that C2 incorporate the Album art search in C2 itself (legal matters permitting).

[handful]

""Any thoughts as to why Canola be can't have an option to use the album art gathered by Kagu or one of the other media players? ""

This is a little bit too problematic to implement correct. But the whole point for us is how to provide anice user experience out of thebox, without being stoped by legal issues.



" I think its better that C2 incorporate the Album art search in C2 itself (legal matters permitting). "

Yes, so we are reading you threads, trying to get almost all input possible and trying to figure out a way to place this =)

Marcelo

[e-motion]

... without being stoped by legal issues.


Wouldn't using the py script as a plug-in shield you from any legal attack ?

edit : already been answered by Barbieri in another thread

[handful]

e-motion you got the point =)

And for those who are not used to this linux things, you can now download and install this package using application installer :

https://garage.maemo.org/projects/canola-tuning/

This will provide a graphical way of using the plugin, while we fix the thirdparty support for plugins (in the options pane) where music download would be situated if it was a plugin.

Br

Marcelo

[MikeL]

And for those who are not used to this linux things, you can now download and install this package using application installer :

https://garage.maemo.org/projects/canola-tuning/

This will provide a graphical way of using the plugin, while we fix the thirdparty support for plugins (in the options pane) where music download would be situated if it was a plugin.

Br

MarceloDo you Canola Guys ever take a rest :) Merry Merry Christmas.

[handful]

Mikel : we wanted the full version =) but Renato did this small app to help the guys with problem, it would even nicer if someone places it on a repository.

Br

Happy christmas for everyone =)

[PinCushionQueen]

e-motion you got the point =)

And for those who are not used to this linux things, you can now download and install this package using application installer :

https://garage.maemo.org/projects/canola-tuning/

This will provide a graphical way of using the plugin, while we fix the thirdparty support for plugins (in the options pane) where music download would be situated if it was a plugin.

Br

Marcelo

Works like a charm! :D Thanks and Merry Christmas Marcelo!!

[nilchak]

great easy app again. thanks a lot for making usres lives easier.
happy holidays to the canola team . :D

[blakboy98]

I have some music that is trying to create an album folder with a : in it. This is causing the script the die and errors out showing the path it was trying to create but in the gui the progress bar just stops moving giving no error message.

I have removed the : from the album tag now the script and gui runs fine now.

[e-motion]

e-motion you got the point =)

And for those who are not used to this linux things, you can now download and install this package using application installer :

https://garage.maemo.org/projects/canola-tuning/

This will provide a graphical way of using the plugin, while we fix the thirdparty support for plugins (in the options pane) where music download would be situated if it was a plugin.

Br

Marcelo

Canola, the gift that keeps on giving :D

[jhoff80]

Works really well for most albums, downloading covers with this, though obviously I'd much prefer just using the art in my files, this is an okay workaround for now. (Its not like any other Maemo apps can use the tagged art anyway, and after using Canola 2 I can't go back to anything else.)

[handful]

Jhoff, I think it's clear for us the importance of the embedded album art. this will for sure be on the tablet in our first iteration now. But Even more, I would really like to give the "option" to those who have several covers, but sometimes they are wrong, to search (easily) download and choose the best cover. Like it was designed to be in the video (WUD VIDEO = marceloeduardo.blip.tv go to the last minute) unfortunately we can't put that on the package : /

Br

Marcelo

BR

Marcelo

[vnguyen972]

e-motion you got the point =)

And for those who are not used to this linux things, you can now download and install this package using application installer :

https://garage.maemo.org/projects/canola-tuning/

This will provide a graphical way of using the plugin, while we fix the thirdparty support for plugins (in the options pane) where music download would be situated if it was a plugin.

Br

Marcelo


Thanks for this utility. It works well for audio cover arts... but when I tried the video thumb... and after it said done... I loaded C2 and still didn't see the video thumb... what did i miss? i do have mplayer installed.

Thanks.

[divinerites]

Hello,

Just a small thing : cover.jpeg is not recognized as a proper cover. Need to be renamed cover.jpg.

[handful]

HI guys,

I think thumbnail is really not working in the current version. I asked the guy to take a look at it.

Br

Marcelo

[munky261]

when i use that plugin to display album art it works fine for the most part , butit doesnt download covers for all my albums , even after running it several times. most of these are common albums it should be able to find. i tried goin in with a filemanager to the .canola/covers directory and creating the directory in the proper format that the downloader did but it wont display the art i placed in those folders. can anyone help me with this as i want to have art displayed for those albums that dont have it and fix the ones that it didnt download the CORRECT album cover for.... any help???

[munky261]

never mind lol i started messin about a bit and figured out the solution... if anyone else has the same issue ill be more than happy... creating the directories and dropping art in should even work without using the downloader

[handful]

Hi Munky please point out for us the solution, so others can benefit and we can see where we missed up and fixed it.

Marcelo

[vnguyen972]

Basically download the covers manually and put them in the proper directory, Canola will display it... what I really like is to have Canola or the downloader figures out on its own for me base on the MP3 tags.

[e-motion]

Basically download the covers manually and put them in the proper directory, Canola will display it... what I really like is to have Canola or the downloader figures out on its own for me base on the MP3 tags.

Yes. You need two files : one called cover-small.jpg, sized at 150x150, the other cover.jpg, sized at 300x300. Also, directory name is case sensitive, for example if your Album field in the ID3 tag is Something To Live For, then your directory has to be named Something To Live For, not Something to live for (same goes for Artist name).

[handful]

vnguyen972:
It did that. But we removed because of legal issues. I need to clarify that we are a small company but with a big one name on it, so we have pressure to do not make mistakes in the legal issues, believe it or not, downloading of album art in canola would be illegal unless we have a " authorized" source etc. (like amazon store) but with a deal straight for us. So different from the opensource players (that are persons behind it) like kagu, ukmp and others we really cannot do it, that's why we are trying to create workarounds without breaking the law =)

BR

Marcelo

[munky261]

emotion is right handful , thats exactly what i did.... when you use the downloader plugin it doesnt download half of em right and seems not to be able to find fairly common albums...and it downloads a bunch extra that ate the hell out of my memory i went in and manually edited every artist and album (and had to create some directories) .... is a hell of a lot easier if you (on windows ...forgive lol) make a folder named "covers" then in "covers" make a folder for each artist , and in each artist folder make a folder for each album , and in the album folder drop in the appropriately named files that emotion mentioned. a real PITA but its worth it... and as he said , make sure the album and artist names EXACTLY match the tags. and when you are done copy the "covers" folder to your mem card and (i used the emelfm2 filemanager) drop it in the /home/user/.canola/ directory and you are in business!!

[jhoff80]

So after some more usage of this, I really think that the cover art view should advance vertically rather than side to side. I mean, the scrolling should go left to right still but it should be:

1 3
2 4


rather than

1 2
3 4

The reason for this is because you're not going to want to advance from left to right through and entire list of albums until its halfway through, and then go back to the far left of the list again to continue alphabetically, but instead view things in both rows the entire time, so you only half to scroll from the left to right once to look at all the albums.

[munky261]

id have to be in agreement on this one , and also to have the option of when in cover art view , to be able to have the albums grouped together by artist

[andersbk]

Why does the Canola 2 Audio player not just support "folder.jpg" or "cover.jpg" file placed in the media folder for the artist album like many other players do?
Or...am I missing something?

[munky261]

i have written a guide with details instructions on how to get canola 2 to properly display cover art... youve got it partially right if ya want the guide , just pm me with you email addy and ill send it

[handful]

Andersbk: You can read the other threads about it, but what I can say : there are several cases where this don't apply and people want more and more flexibility. That's why. It's really the simplest solution but it's too simple for hitting the most cases.

You can read here in the forum some of the cases that people really have strange things, or sometimes: because of disk space people copy only 3 o 4 songs of each album without copyting the folder structure... people that have a songs organized only by artist not by folder and a lot more. : /

Believe me is not that easy : / but we are trying to find ways to solve most of those problems.

BR

Marcelo Eduardo

[MikeL]

Marcelo

Seeing as this thread gets a lot of reads I will add my overall thoughts here for reference in addition to thoughts/comments included in bugzilla on both this and id3 tagging issues etc.

My understanding is that many experienced users store copies of their source music on their main PC's in folders by Artist, Album where they then store a master *.jpg, *.png in the Album folder to represent the album cover.

Additionally many users including myself also understand that if we are going to copy the contents of say a playlist, which will take a number of tracks from one or many albums (Throwing the resulting mp3’s and playlist in ONE folder with no album covers etc) then we are going to need the album cover storing in our id3 tagging data of each track.

Where we have an album of various artists in my case I store all these albums in a folder called Various Artists, Album and then mimic the method for Artist, Album above.

Generally if I store any AV material on my NIT it is not my master source!

Using a UPnP media server such as Twonky with the Media Streamer application on the NIT's results in a perfect album cover presentation when playing tracks from my personal selection using the above methodology as a base.

So as was mentioned in another thread, perhaps prioritise album cover look up of Canola2 beta (UPnP or Local) as follows:-

1) Cover art of id3 tag of track (or itunes.db equivalent ;) )
2) *.jpg *.png of Album Folder

Notes:

Need to consider scaling the album art to fit Canola interface as users will store different quality images based on availability of correct cover art.
No issue for Canola with legalities as it is user’s responsibility to source and if users have no Art stored then NO album art will appear.


3) Plug-in to search Internet for cover to represent track being played to add to id3 tag and/or folder of album. (Ensuring these are never over writing existing Album Art storing them in complementary but separate folder structure only when users have no Album Art stored via 1 or 2 above)

[handful]

Hi Mike thanks for the detailed feedback. I will add this to the notes to consider like always =) but just a note : the 3rd point is the legal problematic. =)

BR

Marcelo

[andersbk]

MB. Point taken. Since memory on the IT is limited it makes sense what you have implemented thus far. I do agree with others that C2 should honor the image in the tag if present.

I used the python script to get cover arts, and for me it worked flawlessly. I tag all my originals using Musicbrainz, so that may be why the script had no problems.

I like what the previous poster talked about. Since the IT is really only for storing your portable music (originals on your "server"), then it's easier not to have to organize by Artist/Album/Title, rather just a single (or several) folders with the audio content therein. Using this methodology begs for tag embedded cover arts.

I understand that C2 requires two seperate cover art files. What about using netpbm to scale on the fly so only one art file was required?

[handful]

Hi Guys,

This is already evolving =) The guys just confirmed that the folder file support is already on testing, and we are after the other details. So I think in the end, in what legal is not concerned we are going to have a much more improved support for the arts.

Still not the best thing or what we really wanted to do, but it will be closer to the user's need.

Thanks for all the feedback on this subject.

br

Marcelo Eduardo
-----------------------------
www.marceloeduardo.com

[munky261]

one thing i would ask for , is that when and if you get a legal and suitable solution for getting the cover art from within canola , have the option for it not to be auto matic , as i like being able to make sure ever cover is the correct cover , even the my manual method is a PITA , of with an automatic way give a choice of what to place in the folder , as i do not want a bunch of extras downloaded like the current plugiin does... that eats up way too much memory

[handful]

Munky : it wouldn't =) have you seen the video how it was supposed to be (actually you have both options : massive download (auto) + individual covers, even if you find out that you got a wrong cover (singles etc) for a particular album.

Take a look in the video, this is more or less what we are also doing even without the downloading (it chooses from what the downloader got and also you can point a file)

marceloeduardo.blip.tv ( see the WUD 07 video, last minute )

BR

Marcelo

[ghoonk]

@handful, out of curiousity, where is the Album Cover applet getting its images from? Understanding the sensitivity of the question, you can PM me and let me know. I've noticed that not all my albums are properly identified, and almost all of these albums appear in Amazon

[handful]

Last.fm (that gets from amazon) but I think we will improve it to allow multiple sources, need to check with renato his plans.

BR

Marcelo