Music Playback v7

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by broderp

Similar but different question about album art.

Does SageTV read image information from the MP3 file itself and display this or can it still use a image the folder for the songs?

Can you select wich image to use?

I have 100x100 sized images embeded in my MP3's so I an get them to work in my car radio and load quickly. But blown up this would look awefull on my 60" LCD TV. My image files are 500x500 or greater, I'd like to use those instead.

As far as I can tell, if you have a photo embedded in the MP3 itself, it will display that, but if you don't, it will display a local jpg ("folder.jpg") rather than just the "empty" disc-and-note symbol. If you have tagged the MP3s with a program that creates hidden jpgs in the folder (like WMP), rather than embedding the files with the jpg, then the "folder.jpg" file in that folder will override the tagged (but separate) hidden jpg (hope that makes sense). The only way to get those tagged files to show their correct art is to manually delete the "folder.jpg" file.

For a long time I was using Windows Media Player to tag my MP3s and it gave me many headaches. As mentioned above, when you use WMP to tag files manually, it doesn't embed the pics in the files, it just creates hidden jpg files in the folder with the MP3. That's fine if you have every single song in per-album folders, but if you have a folder with a mix of songs, you'll end up with them all showing the jpg from the last-tagged file, "folder.jpg".

I recently started using MP3Tag (after reading a great three-part article on MP3 tagging in lifehacker that someone linked in a thread here) to actually embed the art into the file, and it's working great. I've also been deleting all the hidden jpgs within the folders where I'd previously used WMP, just to be safe. As far as sizing, I don't know that the visualizations show different sizes in SageTV - seems like every one I have seen has been the same size, regardless of what size the jpg is that you embed. I could be wrong, though.

Another thing I have learned is that, if you tag a new (or fix an old) MP3 that is already in the Sage database, Sage does not always pick up on the fix (even if you refresh media). In other words, sometimes it still sticks with the old jpg that was attached to a file. So if you go back and fix some tags, you need to go into the Sage setup, to system configuration, and remove the path(s) where your music is located, then do a media scan so that Sage sees there as being NO MP3s, then go back and re-add the path(s) to the music, then scan the media again to re-add all your music. That's the safest way I have found to get the pics to show up correctly.

[wado1971]

As we're on the subject.... I too have been spending more time with SageTV music and have a couple suggestions.

- Ability to tag title metadata with a rating (1-5). I've been experimenting with the JRiver stvi which allows this function and found it very usable.

- Changing metadata genres of albums would also be useful.

- Please bring a real visualization to the client software. I understand the HDx00's have implemented this - correct?

rob

[reggie14]

So, I just tried using the new music screen in v7. I used to use SageMC. I was never a big fan of the music playback in SageMC, but I had been using it such a long time I forgot about the quirks in Sage's stock UI.

I have to say, it's really unpleasant to use. Like some of the other posts in this thread, I really, really wish there was a better way to skip tracks. I'd much rather have the skip buttons on the remote skip tracks than switch between different views. Although, I understand that creates a consistency problem with the interface, since the skip buttons act as view change buttons in the menus.

I see a couple possibilities. What if the skip-forward/smooth-fast-forward command switched views, and the skip-forward#2 command went to the next track. I realize the unfortunate fact that this would have to be global change, rather than just impacting the music screen.

But, I'd be more happy with just another music screen that had a better way of interacting with the current playlist. There's really no single screen where you can see what's currently playing, see the playlist, and easily select a song from the playlist. While I'd prefer being able to skip a track with a physical button on the remote, I'd settle for an on-screen button (which is what I think they used in the 'Now Playing' screen in SageMC).

[neurocis]

BUMP re Song Skip.

[Loz]

BUMP Again
Would be amazing if the SageTV team could do a final release with an option under customizations or even the hidden extras menu to remap track skip button to skip music track, prefferably with or without the vizualizations running.
Pretty, pretty please!