[Karellen]

Of course it's in the settings page... Don't I feel like a noob now

Thanks for pointing that out @meowmoo

[DaveBlake]

Looking for ideas on how cdArt, or any other artist folder based storage can handle artists with the same name. Any thoughts @Stef.an?

Artist name is far from unique, as an exploration of the Musicbrainz database soon reveals. In my own collection I have music from John Williams the gutarist, and John Williams the composer of Star Wars film score.

Replies added here https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=319284 would be most welcome.

[gibxxi]

Some Kodi skins, (Titan included) prefer the moniker "disc.png" for all CD Artwork as a pose to "cdart.png", irrespective of media type, so using cdART Manager can lead to duplicated / inconsistent cd artwork across the library in some instances.

Hi gibxxi, I've tried Titan and it seems to use the cdart.png from my folders - not sure if they changed that in the skin or if there's something "wrong" with my tests. Not sure what to do with the existing files though, it feels like all existing disc/cdart files should be renamed when changing that option.

Indeed it does (sorry for the late reply). But Marcelveldt also has his own skin helper scripts he developed primarily for Titan, but also work in some other skins, that automate the download of cdart artwork (saved as disc.png). I can't remember off the top of my head the specific addon, but the upshot is, you will get duplicated cdarts if you have Titan + cdART Manager working on the same dataset. One might say, delete cdART Manager, which is ok, so long as you don't plan on using any other skins that aren't compatible with marcelveldt's helper addons. Hence the reason for the request (I like to rotate my skin choice occasionally).

Not a BIG issue, just a minor annoyance.

[meowmoo]

I'm using madnox as skin, cdartM and skinhelper, and I only have CdArt.png in my collection, I think that Shs, is picking up both, disc.PNG and cdart.PNG, but I'm not 100% sure.

[gibxxi]

It *may* be artwork downloader that is to blame, but I'm not convinced. Last time i delved into AD's settings I didn't see any option with regards downloading disc-art for music. I will check this again. However since installing Titan and it's dependency add-ons, I am now seeing some folders with disc.png AND cdart.png files that I wasn't getting prior.

Aside from the 'OCD' clutter aspect on my part, there's little point cdART Manager downloading the same artwork again. If it's easier to simply 'rename' on-the-fly any disc.png artwork files found, that would work for me too. Whichever solution that's the easiest to implement that prevents duplicates would be fine for me.

[thecubasekid]

Hi stef.an

thanks very much for this great script, makes my music collectoin look much better. 

missing the option to overwrite low-res however...

i read in earlier post that this no longer works due to missing size data in FanartTV API, however given minimum size for FanartTV is 1000x1000 is it possible to force this so if any image in my collection is less than 1000x1000 and there is an image on FanartTV, it will replace anyway without needing to check size on FanartTV?

Thanks!!!

[gibxxi]

Hi stef.an

thanks very much for this great script, makes my music collectoin look much better. 

missing the option to overwrite low-res however...

i read in earlier post that this no longer works due to missing size data in FanartTV API, however given minimum size for FanartTV is 1000x1000 is it possible to force this so if any image in my collection is less than 1000x1000 and there is an image on FanartTV, it will replace anyway without needing to check size on FanartTV?

Thanks!!!

I'm pretty sure cdART Manager does this by default anyhow, at least for cover artwork. In my experience, if I have sub-1000px artwork and FanART.tv has artwork, the local 'cover' artwork at least will be overwritten. If you sourced all your cdart.png files via cdART Manager, they should all be 1000px anyhow, because the same rule (I believe) applies to cdart.pngs as it does for cover artwork, with regards submissions, on FanART.tv. The only time the "overwrite low-quality cdart" setting is useful is if you have cdart.png's you've manually added to the album folder, outside of kodi/cdART Manager, that are then detected via cdART Manager's update scan, and better quality / higher res versions are available from FanART.tv. However, my understanding is that this setting affects cdart.png images ONLY and not cover artwork (which is always upgraded / overwritten - assuming you've triggered the lookup from cdART Manager in the first place).

[stef.an]

It's been a while since I've removed that function, at that time the fanart.tv data was inconsistent: https://forum.fanart.tv/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=403
While the API always reported an Image size of 1000px the actual Image was smaller. So we overwrote the Image with the one from fanart.tv and on the next run it was still 450 x 450px - redownloading it over and over again on every single scan...

If they've managed to remove all smaller Images or make the API Report the real size of the Image - I think then we could reenable it. But this had a high Impact on the Performance on slower machines for analyzing the sizes via python. So I'm not sure if that would be a good idea on e.g. a Raspberry?

Mhh, so my Edge browser now makes some words start with a capital!? Damn sometimes I really hate developers, harr.

[roscopm]

Hi all I'm trying to add my database
I have around 28000 local discs and so far I've been waiting a week for the initial scan to complete, I've used this before but lost the database due to problems with kodi so having to start from scratch, is there not an easier way to 're add my database.
Thanks for a brilliant script!!!

[gibxxi]

Hi all I'm trying to add my database
I have around 28000 local discs and so far I've been waiting a week for the initial scan to complete, I've used this before but lost the database due to problems with kodi so having to start from scratch, is there not an easier way to 're add my database.
Thanks for a brilliant script!!!

You can do it two ways.

1. Back up (manually) the 'l_cdart.db' file (%AppData%\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.cdartmanager\l_cdart.db). You can then overwrite the default file with your backup upon re-installing the addon (Although not while cdART Manager or Kodi are running).

2. Install the addon 'Backup' (from the program add-ons section of the Kodi repository) and select all items pertaining to 'addons' in the add-ons configuration section, as well as any other categories you'd like to preserve, and back it up to a folder / destination of your choice. Compression (.zip) can be used by the addon to save space / clutter on the backup file.

NOTE 1: Since cdART Manager gets it's info from querying the Kodi music library, be sure that there are minimal changes in your source media folders before restoring the cdART Manager database to it''s default location and/or do a library refresh of Kodi's own music library, prior to 'updating' cdART Manager's database. Also, for 1st run, i'd disable the check for Current / Up-to-date MBID's as this can greatly reduce the scan time in cdART Manager. Finally, do not use the database 'refresh' option. This clears the cdART Manager database and creates a new one to start from scratch. Badly worded IMHO. It would be better named as 'Reset the addon database'.

NOTE 2: In the case of option 2: The backup addon does not restore the guisettings.xml file (core Kodi settings) as this file is modified on exit with current settings that would over-write any restored file, so this needs to be backed-up separately to the Backup addon.

[alexsisk]

Hi guys,

I just downloaded cdART Manager the other day, and I'm having a bit of trouble. I've been using Kodi for about 1.5 years, and I'm currently running v17.6 on the Nvidia Shield TV.

I started out by putting in my Fanart API Key, and choosing a folder for the artwork. I completed some sort of scan among the many options (sorry for being vague) which allowed me to have the information about my music library available to the add-on. I then completely went through the download process and got whatever was available for "cdARTS," "Artist Thumbs," and "Cover Arts."

I know I did something out of order, or something else wrong - I'm wondering if submission of a log and troubleshooting is the next step, or if I just need to start from scratch.

Notes:
-I've searched for a "getting started" kind of basic tutorial (trust me - I realize this isn't a complicated add-on - I just know I did something out of order.) but no luck finding anything.
-The README on Github didn't have any information with regard to getting started.
-Kodi sees my music files in an iTunes Library folder on another computer via SMB, and playback is no problem. I tried to make that where the artwork was stored, but it refuses...must be a write problem?
-Instead, I selected an alternate folder for storage of the images, since the software said that was OK.
-No matter what I do, I cannot get the library to be affected in any way by cdART Manager's downloads. I cannot figure out what links the metadata/images to the tracks, and when that is supposed to take place.

Thanks for your help! I have a feeling I'm royally screwing something up. Happy to provide any additional diagnostic info.

[stef.an]

Hi alexsisk,
this really sounds like an access problem with your share to me. While you can set another path in the options, this will only be honored for artist-related artwork. Disc related fanart is always stored to the disc's folder because Kodi expects it there (which might change in the future).
If you drop a log to pastebin and post the link I'm sure we'll find the problem.

[alexsisk]

Hi alexsisk,
this really sounds like an access problem with your share to me. While you can set another path in the options, this will only be honored for artist-related artwork. Disc related fanart is always stored to the disc's folder because Kodi expects it there (which might change in the future).
If you drop a log to pastebin and post the link I'm sure we'll find the problem.

Thank you! I’ll do that after work tonight.

[alexsisk]

@Stef.an I know how to pull Kodi-specific logs, but not this add-on specific log. I've been trying to figure it out on my own for like 2 hours, and as cliche as it may sound for someone who can't figure something out to say this.... I'm truly not a moron! I have looked everywhere. Please help or point me to a wiki/user guide when you get a chance. Thank you.

[McVicar]

Hi 

why does the cdartmanager read wrong musicbrainz_artistid they are in the mp3-tags and the program takes some. Here in my missing list under FELIX is a completely different ID than in Mp3 TAG
https://imgur.com/a/MnadJ
https://imgur.com/a/68F4k
this has happened to me several times already and I have to edit the I_cdart.db and read the program again so I get the pictures of Fanart.tv.

Another improvement would be nice if, for example, there is an improved image that is then changed by the program (compare date).
Because as a mod, I see the pictures are permanently improved only it is then very laborious to load the individual images and then move to the right folder.

Cheers
McVicar