[stokedfish]

in another thread kurtwarwick came up with the idea of having a cd wall with random cd covers during playback:



at first i was a bit scared if a thing like this wouldn't eat all your cpu resources, but it turns out it almost runs as smooth as a breeze:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCfjJX_5B88

I won't use it, but it's a nice feature for people who haven't got 100% fanart in their library. By the way, it would be cool to be able to browse albums in this album wall view. I think some other skins already have this. I've got more than 800 albums in my library so a wall view (or whatever it's called) would be a great addition!

[ronie]

I'd like to have this kind of background during music playing also. Visualisations are Ok to have but I don't particularly fancy them. It would be nice to have this as an option or maybe have some key that swaps between visualisations and wall but definitely interesting.

most likely i'll add this cd wall as an option.
i'm not sure if it would be easy to add a 'switch' button to the osd that allow you to switch between visualisation / fanart (slideshow) / cd wall.
i'll have to test if it can be done in a sane manner.

I understand that this creates a changing wall using your own cd covers and not some preset stock images.

true, but you need to set it up yourself.
you'll have to copy all cd covers to a folder and select the folder in skin settings.
at least, that how i think i'm going to implement it.

I won't use it, but it's a nice feature for people who haven't got 100% fanart in their library. By the way, it would be cool to be able to browse albums in this album wall view. I think some other skins already have this. I've got more than 800 albums in my library so a wall view (or whatever it's called) would be a great addition!

yup, it's one of those to do things.
there certainly will be a wall view in Transparency! at some point. ;-)

[maocul]

true, but you need to set it up yourself.
you'll have to copy all cd covers to a folder and select the folder in skin settings.
at least, that how i think i'm going to implement it.

Not to sound ungrateful but I kinda hope you implement this in the same way that you have CDART and CLEARART, maybe pulling the FOLDER.jpg. The additional folder seems like an AEON style hack that never sat well with me.

On the other hand I have no idea what goes into implementing it so if its way more work then consider this post moot!!!

[ronie]

Not to sound ungrateful but I kinda hope you implement this in the same way that you have CDART and CLEARART, maybe pulling the FOLDER.jpg. The additional folder seems like an AEON style hack that never sat well with me.

i know what you mean and i feel the same way.
if there was any other method, i'd certainly use it.

problem is, all the cd covers need to be in the same folder,
the skin can't just recursively scan all subfolders for cd covers.

what i did is copy over a bunch of images from xbmc's cache folders:
userdata\Thumbnails\Music\0
.
.
.
userdata\Thumbnails\Music\f

to a new folder and that's it. it only takes a minute or two to set up.

now i could use the cache folders directly, but for some reason a lot of artist thumbs ended up in there as well.
i'm not sure why, as it seems artist thumbs are supposed to be cached to userdata\Thumbnails\Music\Artists ?

[remo]

Hello,

Congrats for the skin and the ongoing mods. I love the CD coverart wall.

I'm looking into moding the tvshow screen.
I would like to have a wall of tv screens (proper picture still to be found) with a bunch a screencap (typically found in thumbs) cycling on them.
At the moment I have hacked the python script to fetch thumbs in the episodeview table and pick 4 of them at random in the list.
The script executes each time the tvshow button is pressed. So screencaps change between going to and back from the tvshow window. It is too static for what I'd like to obtain.
It basically works BUT (and it's a big but, which I like, that I can't deny) the script running each time the button is pressed makes it a real ressource hog.

And here comes the question :
For the CD coverart wall, did you copy the coverarts in a directory once and for all or is it something that the recentlyadded script does each time XBMC is launched ?
Anyway, I'm gonna try that and see if it works smoothly for me ...

[ronie]

And here comes the question :
For the CD coverart wall, did you copy the coverarts in a directory once and for all or is it something that the recentlyadded script does each time XBMC is launched ?

i just manually copied all the images to a folder. there's no scripts involved ;-)

[maocul]

i know what you mean and i feel the same way.
if there was any other method, i'd certainly use it.

problem is, all the cd covers need to be in the same folder,
the skin can't just recursively scan all subfolders for cd covers.

what i did is copy over a bunch of images from xbmc's cache folders:
userdata\Thumbnails\Music\0
.
.
.
userdata\Thumbnails\Music\f

to a new folder and that's it. it only takes a minute or two to set up.

now i could use the cache folders directly, but for some reason a lot of artist thumbs ended up in there as well.
i'm not sure why, as it seems artist thumbs are supposed to be cached to userdata\Thumbnails\Music\Artists ?

When I actually took half a minute to think about it I could work out that it was not like cdart and clearart since its pulling images not linked to the current item. I should lear to think THEN type!!!!!

[adsoto]

If the wall concept is implemented in this way (manually copying all the folder.jpg files to a folder) , would that mean that anytime we add a new album we'll have to copy the cover too?

[remo]

Hello again,

I just tried your method (copying files in a new directory) and using multiimage and it works certainly better than what I was doing previously.
I was a bit worried that the time needed to copy the files would be visible but it's done in a snap, which is good.

Here is a sample of the python script tvshowscreencap.py (it is more than loosely based on yours !) :

Code:

def _copy_all_tvshow_thumb( self ):
        dest_path = xbmc.translatePath( "special://profile/Thumbnails/Video/TVShow_Thumb")
        if ( not os.path.isdir( dest_path ) ):
            os.mkdir( dest_path )
        # set the request that grabs all and every episodes. No jealous here
        sql_episodes = "select * from episodeview"
        # query the database
        episodes_xml = xbmc.executehttpapi( "QueryVideoDatabase(%s)" % quote_plus( sql_episodes ), )
        # separate the records
        episodes = re.findall( "<record>(.+?)</record>", episodes_xml, re.DOTALL )
        # enumerate thru our records and set our properties
        for count, episode in enumerate( episodes ):
            # separate individual fields
            fields = re.findall( "<field>(.*?)</field>", episode, re.DOTALL )
            # get cache names of path to use for thumbnail
            thumb_cache = self._get_media( fields[ 24 ], fields[ 23 ] ) [0]
            # initial thumb path
            thumb = "special://profile/Thumbnails/Video/%s/%s" % ( thumb_cache[ 0 ], thumb_cache, )
            # if thumb exists, copy it in a temporary directory
            complete_path = xbmc.translatePath( thumb )
            if ( os.path.isfile( complete_path ) ):
                shutil.copy(complete_path, dest_path)

It runs independently of recentlyadded.py, as I wanted it to run without conditions.

A last question : How did you managed to have the coverarts change in no particular order and not all at once ?

Here is the xml I added in my home.xml

Code:

<control type="group">
    <posx>300</posx>
    <posy>120</posy>
    <control type="multiimage">
        <posx>0</posx>
        <posy>0</posy>
        <width>300</width>
        <height>200</height>
        <imagepath background="true">C:\datas\Programs\XBMC\userdata\Thumbnails\Video\TVShow_Thumb</imagepath>
        <aspectratio>scale</aspectratio>
        <timeperimage>4000</timeperimage>
        <randomize>true</randomize>
        <fadetime>500</fadetime>
        <include>backgroundfade</include>
    </control>
    <control type="multiimage">
        <posx>310</posx>
        <posy>0</posy>
        <width>300</width>
        <height>200</height>
        <imagepath background="true">C:\datas\Programs\XBMC\userdata\Thumbnails\Video\TVShow_Thumb</imagepath>
        <aspectratio>scale</aspectratio>
        <timeperimage>4000</timeperimage>
        <randomize>true</randomize>
        <fadetime>500</fadetime>
        <include>backgroundfade</include>
    </control>
    <control type="multiimage">
        <posx>0</posx>
        <posy>210</posy>
        <width>300</width>
        <height>200</height>
        <imagepath background="true">C:\datas\Programs\XBMC\userdata\Thumbnails\Video\TVShow_Thumb</imagepath>
        <aspectratio>scale</aspectratio>
        <timeperimage>4000</timeperimage>
        <randomize>true</randomize>
        <fadetime>500</fadetime>
        <include>backgroundfade</include>
    </control>
    <control type="multiimage">
        <posx>310</posx>
        <posy>210</posy>
        <width>300</width>
        <height>200</height>
        <imagepath background="true">C:\datas\Programs\XBMC\userdata\Thumbnails\Video\TVShow_Thumb</imagepath>
        <aspectratio>scale</aspectratio>
        <timeperimage>4000</timeperimage>
        <randomize>true</randomize>
        <fadetime>500</fadetime>
        <include>backgroundfade</include>
    </control>
    <animation effect="rotatey" center="700" start="6" end="6" time="0" condition="true">Conditional</animation>
    <visible>[Container(5040).HasFocus(3) | Container(5041).HasFocus(3)] + !Player.HasVideo</visible>
</control>

[ronie]

Hello again,

I just tried your method (copying files in a new directory) and using multiimage and it works certainly better than what I was doing previously.
I was a bit worried that the time needed to copy the files would be visible but it's done in a snap, which is good.

Here is a sample of the python script tvshowscreencap.py (it is more than loosely based on yours !)

It runs independently of recentlyadded.py, as I wanted it to run without conditions.

i'm very interested in this code. i hope you're willing to share it once you've finished it.
i have a few questions myself:
- what would be a sane way of invoking the script? i guess you'll only have to run it once to copy all the episode thumbs to a new folder...and probably run it again after you've added some new episodes to the library?
- could a similar thing be done for cd cover thumbs? it would save users a lot of trouble if it can be done by a script instead of manually having to copying everything to a new folder.

A last question : How did you managed to have the coverarts change in no particular order and not all at once ?

you'll have to use a different <timeperimage></timeperimage> value for each multiimage control. in my cd wall i'm using values varying from 4000 to 5000.

let me know if you need any other info, you certainly got me interested. ;-)

[ronie]

If the wall concept is implemented in this way (manually copying all the folder.jpg files to a folder) , would that mean that anytime we add a new album we'll have to copy the cover too?

well, you don't have to, but if you want the new cover to show up in the wall, yes.
it may be difficult to find a certain cover between all the others in the xbmc cache folders though...

[kizer]

i know what you mean and i feel the same way.
if there was any other method, i'd certainly use it.

problem is, all the cd covers need to be in the same folder,
the skin can't just recursively scan all subfolders for cd covers.

what i did is copy over a bunch of images from xbmc's cache folders:
userdata\Thumbnails\Music\0
.
.
.
userdata\Thumbnails\Music\f

to a new folder and that's it. it only takes a minute or two to set up.

now i could use the cache folders directly, but for some reason a lot of artist thumbs ended up in there as well.
i'm not sure why, as it seems artist thumbs are supposed to be cached to userdata\Thumbnails\Music\Artists ?

I wonder if that script I pointed you to earlier that pulls Movies and Tv shows out of the database into seperate folders could be tweaked to do music as well or on its own?
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=56153

I Pm'd the author to see what he says. Of course its a shot in the dark or its the solution depending on what he says or if hes willing to aid us.

[ronie]

I wonder if that script I pointed you to earlier that pulls Movies and Tv shows out of the database into seperate folders could be tweaked to do music as well or on its own?
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=56153

I Pm'd the author to see what he says. Of course its a shot in the dark or its the solution depending on what he says or if hes willing to aid us.

cool thanx.
i hope either remo or skaymakca would be willing to code something up for us. :-)

[remo]

cool thanx.
i hope either remo or skaymakca would be willing to code something up for us. :-)

In the albumview table of the music db, there's a field with the album thumb.
I'm gonna look into that today if I can.
Also I have to tweak it into something smarter to avoid copying everything everytime. It would be definitly better, especially with big libraries.

Cheers

[ronie]

In the albumview table of the music db, there's a field with the album thumb.
I'm gonna look into that today if I can.

that would be great! whenever you have the time of course, no hurry.

Also I have to tweak it into something smarter to avoid copying everything everytime. It would be definitly better, especially with big libraries.

hence my question of when to run the script.
i'm thinking of a similar way i'm doing with the recently added script,
in Transparency! it only runs at startup and will only ever run again if you've updated your library. it's far better than having it run each time you enter the home screen as other skins are doing.

for instance, the cd wall MOD will have to be enabled in skin settings.
i can make the script run when you enable this cd wall MOD.
and i can also invoke it again after a library update.

i think i can do the same thing with your tvshowscreencap script.