First thoughts

[LuckyLuciano]

I have been using for years EAC, not seriously. Once willing to archive my CD collection to FLAC, I thought take a chance with DBPA.....what can I say, this software is great, works smoothly has lot's of features. I will buy this software!

Some questions:

1) Genres are basic gracenote-like; could it be possible in the future to query other sources such as last.fm to enrich genres to higher levels? Maybe you could stuff results in the meta window allowing users to choose genre source too.

2) While scanning album arts on the fly, although I'm selecting large formats, such as 1000x1000 for future use, DBPA will limit the picture size to 740 x 740. Is there a way to bypass this?

3) Some fonts in the user interface are rather small.



As I'm using large DPI scaling at 150% in Windows 7, however the fonts highlighted in the attached picture won't scale accordingly...

Awaiting from you.... best regards

[Spoon]

Re: First thoughts

1) No, we only use commercial providers we can license
2) Options >> Metadata & ID Tags >> there is a maximum size option there (note it is there for some players which cannot go above this)
3) R15 will allow propper scaling (we have to redo the artwork at 4x the scale)

[eaglescout1998]

Re: First thoughts

One thing about album art. Album Art Exchange is an excellent source.

2) While scanning album arts on the fly, although I'm selecting large formats, such as 1000x1000 for future use, DBPA will limit the picture size to 740 x 740. Is there a way to bypass this?

If I understand what you're saying, dBpoweramp will scale down large album artwork to a size you specify. I use 300x300 myself, but to each their own. Click on Options and then Options (under Meta Data). Adjust Maximum Pixel Size to your preference.

One other thing: In your screen shot, I notice that is says "Album Art 2 of 2". When I add my own artwork (i.e., different from the fetched artwork), I hit the minus (-) button first so it clears out the fetched artwork.

[LuckyLuciano]

Re: First thoughts

1) No, we only use commercial providers we can license

Could you clarify? MusicBrainz & Mediamonkey use last.fm plugin/API to access extend Genre info....


P.S. - A bug due to DPI scaling...

[LuckyLuciano]

Re: First thoughts

- Alt + M (review Metadata) is ignored... nothing happens

- When removing a CD from the tray, a small rectangle will be shown prompting for disc insertion. Exiting the program will leav this small box on screen endlessly

[Spoon]

Re: First thoughts

Alt + M only shows if you get live data from the internet, click the metadata button, then click Review Metadata.

[LuckyLuciano]

Re: First thoughts

1) No, we only use commercial providers we can license

I think lastfm API is free, so there shouldn't be any economic issue, I see some programs using happily scripts to query extended genres (mediamonkey & musicbrainz), expanding Genre classification to higher extents. There shouldn't be any licensing issues...

[Spoon]

Re: First thoughts

Extended Genres should be stored as Styles, which CD ripper does write.

[LuckyLuciano]

Re: First thoughts

Extended Genres should be stored as Styles, which CD ripper does write.

Where in the user interface? Can't find that...

[Spoon]

Re: First thoughts

Metadata tab (bottom middle)

[LuckyLuciano]

Re: First thoughts

Maybe you could allow users to choose querying to lastfm for genres?

Should be very easy here's a PHP code snippet to query tags:

<?php

// Include the API
require '../../lastfmapi/lastfmapi.php';

// Get the session auth data
$file = fopen('../auth.txt', 'r');
// Put the auth data into an array
$authVars = array(
	'apiKey' => trim(fgets($file)),
	'secret' => trim(fgets($file)),
	'username' => trim(fgets($file)),
	'sessionKey' => trim(fgets($file)),
	'subscriber' => trim(fgets($file))
);
$config = array(
	'enabled' => true,
	'path' => '../../lastfmapi/',
	'cache_length' => 1800
);
// Pass the array to the auth class to eturn a valid auth
$auth = new lastfmApiAuth('setsession', $authVars);

// Call for the album package class with auth data
$apiClass = new lastfmApi();
$albumClass = $apiClass->getPackage($auth, 'album', $config);

// Setup the variables
$methodVars = array(
	'artist' => 'Green day',
	'album' => 'Dookie'
);

// Make the call
if ( $tags = $albumClass->getTags($methodVars) ) {
	// Success
	echo '<b>Data Returned</b>';
	echo '<pre>';
	print_r($tags);
	echo '</pre>';
}
else {
	// Error
	die('<b>Error '.$albumClass->error['code'].' - </b><i>'.$albumClass->error['desc'].'</i>');
}

?>

[LuckyLuciano]

Re: First thoughts

3) R15 will allow propper scaling (we have to redo the artwork at 4x the scale)

Bought it!

One question: will R15 enlarge all small fonts accordingly?

See here....really too small:

[Spoon]

Re: First thoughts

Yes it will do.

[LuckyLuciano]

Re: First thoughts