Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

[zlentrian]

Hi! I've been testing Asset UPnP & Asset Control for some time and these questions have arised.

1) I prefer to have all my artwork in the "Scans" subfolder to the album. It's much more practical when editing the scans to have them separated from the FLACs. Especially when comparing my own covers with potentionally better ones I might find on the net. It's a bit awkward to have to move jpg's back and forth to the motherfolder all the time.

Would you be so very, very kind and add an option to select the artwork folder? Maybe also the filename (I've been using front.jpg for years now but Asset only supports cover.jpg and folder.jpg). Actually, I think this subfolder will be inevitable in the future anyway, since sooner or later people will want an easy shortcut to their booklet scans directly from the "Now Playing" screen so they can slide the pictures while they play their music.

2) I've been trying to tag multiple genres like this: "GENRE=Rock;Pop" or "GENRE=Rock; Pop" (without the quotes of course) but they only show up as one genre, not two, so the separator doesn't work. Is it mandatory to use the method of "GENRE=Rock" + "GENRE=Pop" for multiple genres in Asset? Is there a UPnP standard for this? I've been googling this and cannot find a standard but only differing recommendations.

3) I can't get COMPILATION=1 to work as I want. When I set this tag, it should exclude the artists on that album from the artist listing. But it doesn't. And I can't find a "Compilations" listing; to find a compilation I have to browse "All Albums". What can be wrong? (I only use ARTIST and ALBUM, I don't use album artist nor any kind of artist- or albumsort.)

4) Can Asset decode HDCD and pre-emphasis on the fly?

5) Since I only use FLAC, can I make Asset faster by disabling all other filetypes in the settings?

[dbfan]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

1. Is very unlikely as it is unique to yourself.

The genres need separating if writing flac tag, this is the standard for flac.

3. Compilation of 1 does not exclude the artist, instead it brings together the track for the single album which would normally be separated, it sounds like you need Album Artist.

4. No

5. It would not make any speed difference.

[zlentrian]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

Thanks for the fast reply!

1) I have to disagree that this would be unique to me. In fact, I'd say that the vast majority of those who keep booklet scans uses a subfolder, and if they want to use Asset they have to adjust and put a cover in the album folder too. Only those who keep one single jpeg cover omits the subfolder.

Besides, implementing support for a subfolder shouldn't be too hard. To make it easier you could fix the subfolder name, since the name isn't important but the subfolder feature is.

2) So there is actually a FLAC standard for multiple genres that is universal and not only for Asset? And this standard is to repeat the GENRE tag instead of using the ";" as a separator?

(Sorry to ask again but other UPnP servers support the ";" method and if I'm gonna re-tag my entire collection I need to be 100% sure about the standard. I don't want to re-tag my collection ever again.)

3) Maybe I wasn't clear. I want the tracks to be united to one album, and that album to show up when I browse Albums but not when I browse Artists. This should be accomplished with COMPILATON=1 (no need for Album Artist). But what happens is that every artist on the compilation shows up separately when I browse Artists (even if I don't have any other album with that artist).

If I browse "All Albums" the compilations show up under their respective album name, but there is no way to see an overview of just the compilations in the collection. Where does Asset collect and show the compilations?

[garym]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

2) So there is actually a FLAC standard for multiple genres that is universal and not only for Asset? And this standard is to repeat the GENRE tag instead of using the ";" as a separator?

(Sorry to ask again but other UPnP servers support the ";" method and if I'm gonna re-tag my entire collection I need to be 100% sure about the standard. I don't want to re-tag my collection ever again.)

Yes, this is true for Genre, Artist, etc. But I should note that some "players" or databases REPORT/DISPLAY the multiple tags as if they are one item with a ";" or "," separating. (I'm not an ASSET user, I'm simply referring to several different systems I use with my FLAC files (logitech media server and Squeezeboxes or Foobar2000). So I might have TWO genre tags in a flac file (both Holiday and Rock) and a player might display these as "Holiday, Rock" or "Holiday; Rock".

[zlentrian]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

Thanks for the input, garym!

So if you tag a track with "GENRE=Holiday;Rock" then Asset will misinterpret and if you tag a track with "GENRE=Holiday" and "GENRE=Rock" then LMS will misinterpret... For me, this means re-tagging my whole collection if I wanna use Asset, and if I later wanna try something else I might have to re-tag again. Sigh...

Of the two approaches, is there one way that is more correct than the other? Or a trend, that new UPnP servers and players can or should follow?

[garym]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

Thanks for the input, garym!

So if you tag a track with "GENRE=Holiday;Rock" then Asset will misinterpret and if you tag a track with "GENRE=Holiday" and "GENRE=Rock" then LMS will misinterpret... For me, this means re-tagging my whole collection if I wanna use Asset, and if I later wanna try something else I might have to re-tag again. Sigh...

Of the two approaches, is there one way that is more correct than the other? Or a trend, that new UPnP servers and players can or should follow?

No, I don't think that's what I'm saying. If I have both "Genre=Holiday" and "Genre=Rock" in a single FLAC file, LMS handles it correctly in its database and display. And foobar2000 handles it correctly too. I don't use ASSET so I'm not sure what ASSET does.

[zlentrian]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

3) I really do need an answer to this one. From what I can see, Asset handles as follows:

a) COMPILATION=1 combines the tracks to an album with artist "Various Artists". Nothing else. It only affects the Album listing, so if there are 10 new artists on an album, there will also be 10 new artists in the Artist listing. Nothing you can do about that.

b) ALBUM ARTIST does only one thing, and that is to rename "Various Artists" to something of your choice.

Are these conclusions correct? Please tell me I have missed something.

-

Since I have many compilations with numerous artists on them that contribute to one single track in my whole collection, they essentially pollute the Artist listing. I need something like "exclude artists on compilations from the Artist listing".

Is there a way to do this in Asset?

[zlentrian]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

No, I don't think that's what I'm saying. If I have both "Genre=Holiday" and "Genre=Rock" in a single FLAC file, LMS handles it correctly in its database and display. And foobar2000 handles it correctly too. I don't use ASSET so I'm not sure what ASSET does.

So you mean that LMS handles correctly, but DISPLAYS with a separator? But what happens when you browse the genres - can you browse "Holiday" and "Rock" separately or just as a combo of "Holiday; Rock"?

[garym]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

So you mean that LMS handles correctly, but DISPLAYS with a separator? But what happens when you browse the genres - can you browse "Holiday" and "Rock" separately or just as a combo of "Holiday; Rock"?

Correct. Even though there are two separate genre tags within a single file, LMS (and foobar2000) handles correctly and "displays" "holiday, rock" when I look at an album or song. But, I can browse separately. That is, if I browse the HOLIDAY genre, I see the album/songs there that are under both Holiday and Rock. If I browse the ROCK genre, I see all the ROCK albums there, even those that *also* have the Holiday genre tag. And I can use dynamic playlists within LMS to, for example, play all Rock genre items in a random playlist but exclude those that also have the HOLIDAY genre tag.

[garym]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

3) I really do need an answer to this one. From what I can see, Asset handles as follows:

a) COMPILATION=1 combines the tracks to an album with artist "Various Artists". Nothing else. It only affects the Album listing, so if there are 10 new artists on an album, there will also be 10 new artists in the Artist listing. Nothing you can do about that.

b) ALBUM ARTIST does only one thing, and that is to rename "Various Artists" to something of your choice.

Are these conclusions correct? Please tell me I have missed something.

-

Since I have many compilations with numerous artists on them that contribute to one single track in my whole collection, they essentially pollute the Artist listing. I need something like "exclude artists on compilations from the Artist listing".

Is there a way to do this in Asset?

I understand your point, as I have the capabilities you are wanting in my LMS setup.

1. There is an option setting that allows me to choose to display ALL artists, even those on compilation albums or I can choose to NOT show any artist that ONLY shows up on a compilation album. This keeps the hundreds of one-off artists (that may only have one song on one album) from showing up when I browse by artist.

2. If COMPILATION=1, then it will show up under the "Various Artists" listing in the "artist" browsing, UNLESS I have added an ALBUM ARTIST tag and the compilation will show up under that ALBUM ARTIST. I often use this, for example, to show a compilation album under a specific album. A Bob Dylan tribute album I might put "Bob Dylan" as the ALBUM ARTIST, this way the album shows up if I browse for Bob Dylan even though none of the actual track artists are Bob Dylan.

But this is how it works in LMS. I have no idea about how to get this outcome in ASSET.

[zlentrian]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

Correct. Even though there are two separate genre tags within a single file, LMS (and foobar2000) handles correctly and "displays" "holiday, rock" when I look at an album or song. But, I can browse separately. That is, if I browse the HOLIDAY genre, I see the album/songs there that are under both Holiday and Rock. If I browse the ROCK genre, I see all the ROCK albums there, even those that *also* have the Holiday genre tag. And I can use dynamic playlists within LMS to, for example, play all Rock genre items in a random playlist but exclude those that also have the HOLIDAY genre tag.

Well if LMS handles two separate genre tags within a file, maybe it's a sign that it's universal enough that I might take the jump and re-tag my collection.

[zlentrian]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

1. There is an option setting that allows me to choose to display ALL artists, even those on compilation albums or I can choose to NOT show any artist that ONLY shows up on a compilation album. This keeps the hundreds of one-off artists (that may only have one song on one album) from showing up when I browse by artist.

This is exactly what I'm looking for. I can't find anything similar in Asset. I'm hoping that Spoon can explain if you can do it in Asset or not.

[garym]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

Well if LMS handles two separate genre tags within a file, maybe it's a sign that it's universal enough that I might take the jump and re-tag my collection.

and again, so does Foobar2000, which is a very widely used player on Windows machines.

[zlentrian]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

garym, I've got some additional questions about LMS, if you don't mind.

1) I suppose LMS is tailored for Squeezebox, but is it generic enough to work /well/ with other devices?

2) Does it support having covers in a subfolder (my very first question in this thread)?

3) Does it support custom tags (=make your own tag and have it in the browse tree)?

[garym]

Re: Artwork subfolder - Multiple genres - HDCD - Pre-emphasis

garym, I've got some additional questions about LMS, if you don't mind.

1) I suppose LMS is tailored for Squeezebox, but is it generic enough to work /well/ with other devices?

2) Does it support having covers in a subfolder (my very first question in this thread)?

3) Does it support custom tags (=make your own tag and have it in the browse tree)?

1. Yes, meant for squeezeboxes but there are lots of "software emulations" of squeezebox now that can run on generic hardware. Many people use the software "squeezelite" to run on netbooks, micro computers (a Pi, etc.) or other computers to emulate a hardware squeeezebox. Lots of discussions of this sort of thing at the forums: forums.slimdevices.com
*note this may be why squeezeboxes are discontinued. The software is fantastic, and one doesn't actually need the hardware as one can emulate the hardware with other stuff. Bad idea for a company that gives the software away and sells the hardware. Sonos on the other hand makes it almost impossible to "emulate" a sonos device.

Recently there are folks becoming successful with using LMS to feed any generic upnp/dlna device. Of course such devices are somewhat crippled as compared to LMS as a music service (there are just lots of things the DLNA standard doesn't deal with very well). But if one wants to use LMS to stream to DLNA devices, one can. See for example:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?102496-announce-squeeze2upnp-a-bridge-between-LMS-and-uPNP-devices

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?102203-uPNP-control-point

Also note that LMS has a DLNA/Upnp plugin that one can use out of the box (just install the plugin). This will allow one to feed some DLNA devices just fine. But doesn't work with others. Sort of hit and miss.

2. Yes, I can have different folder.jpg or cover.jpg in each subfolder (e.g., different cover for the different disks in a multidisk set)
3. Yes, one can use custom tags and use a custom browse function to use those tags. In LMS, this requires Erland's Custom Browse and perhaps MultiLibrary plugins.