Using media server can I linksheet artists?

Bloodshot · February 6, 2014, 7:48pm

I have Simplicity installed on two SMPs using the brewme redirect - the themes on 4G sticks in the back port. With +2500 linksheets on each, all is working fine. Excellent!

However, due to size, for music I am using media server, and play music via genre playlists.

I’ve edited the album_playback.xml to suit me, but what I’d really like to try is to make linksheets for all the artists and have the xml pull them up as the artist changes with each song.

I’m not entirely familiar with how the linksheet tag works though, and I’m wondering if this is even possible using media server. The xml changes the album art, can I have it change linksheets too?

I’m a tinkerer, not a masta like many here.

Am I wasting time pining for the sky? :smileyvery-happy:

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

KAD79 · February 6, 2014, 10:29pm

I think this should be possible

in general linksheets work for both playlist and for media servers

name of sheet must match the name of the title displayed

so it it displays

“Aerosmith”

then linksheet would be named “Aerosmith”

if it’s

“Aerosmith - Cryin”

then linksheet name must match as well

additional options

Joey found a way a while back to use linksheets based on Artist tag for music

but that would only be applicable to those using the WD to sort their music

Bloodshot · February 6, 2014, 11:36pm

Ok, that’s encouraging.

I’ll have to look harder at how the @@browse tag functions in different xmls though.

Not sure how to direct it to target info_album_artist

<image image =“@@browse_info_album_artist” x=…

It can’t be that simple, can it?

JoeySmyth · February 7, 2014, 12:32am

I did a bit experimenting with this on the Live Hub (things may differ on the SMP)

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Hub-Themes/to-all-the-themers-music-playing-view/td-p/412866/highlight/true/page/3

for music Linksheets you should be looking at album_playback.xml

KAD79 · February 7, 2014, 12:33am

if you have a playlist

.m3u or such being exported by a media server

then as already mentioned

it’s just standard linksheets

it follows the displayed name

no need to look for artist tag, etc

unless you are actually using the wd to sort your music

JoeySmyth · February 7, 2014, 1:03am

@KAD

which text tag displays the .m3u name during playback ? (ive never used playlists so i really don’t know)

edit found it @@album_name

i’m not sure if Linksheets for Playlist Artists During “playback” is possible … if you’re using playlists and can see the “Artist” name appear in text on the playback screen , then,yes it’s possible …(in my quick test of the playlist… i could only see the playlist name,not the Artist name) but if you can’t see it, then linksheets will not work.

also of note: it’s not possible to create new @@ “tags” as this is controlled by the firmware

just off-topic … linksheets for browsing music works fine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnRzaN8RMqM

KAD79 · February 7, 2014, 3:05am

oh good, you found, it, I was going to have to look it up

also just a note regarding playlist and media servers

I don’t use them much but I’ve tested once or twice so they do work

first playlist.

they appear like folders on WD

so MyPlaylist.m3u is actually just a folder and would follow the name/title used just live video browse pages, etc

clicking ok on the playlist, will give you a list of titles, which is again just the name displayed

for media servers

it’s just whatever name/title the media server sends

so from the posters first post

he’s got playlist that he’s accessing via media server

the media server does the parsing of the .m3u etc

so from WD’s end it’s just matching the title/name displayed to the linksheet

edit.

since he’s looking to edit modify albumn_playback.xml

how about

untested but

media server might use a different xml

audio_ex_playing.xml

Bloodshot · February 7, 2014, 3:36am

edit *** we were posting at the same time and yours came after I posted mine. I’ll give that a try in the AM. Distractions abound right now, and thanks for your efforts. ***

i’ve edited the album_playback.xml to include both the song title with @@songname and the artist with @@artist in different positions on the screen. This works fine.

I’ve used @@info_album_artist to pull up the full sized album art instead of the icon that was stock.

I’ve tried the @@album_name tag before with no success. I think this is because it requires media library, and that’s not an option for me.

I’ve left the @@panel_info as is for now, because at least it will show the album name

All the information is coming up though through the xml tags.

I’m not sure how my playlists are being delivered to the unit. They’re coming from my NAS, and the playlists must be hidden somewhere on it.

So, in varying positions on the screen I have the artist, album, song and next song being displayed.

I did try to craft one of my album art jpgs into a pic without an extension eg A Foot In Coldwater.jpg → A Foot In Coldwater and dropped it onto my USB stick, then placed

into album_playback. No joy.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m flying a little blind here, and still have some reading to do, but hopefully I’m on the right track.

Thanks for the links. Could spend hours searching for what you guys toss out in minutes.

KAD79 · February 7, 2014, 4:03am

ok, so I took a look at dmaosd.log

both for media server and for network shares

it’s album_playback.xml

I think it’s definetely

that you want to be using

but I haven’t had time to test it

depending on other xml value’s

it’s possible you need to add bg=“0”

this would force the image to be displayed on top of everything else

but if it’s @@panel_info that causes the album name to display then that’s the one you might want to use

JoeySmyth · February 7, 2014, 4:55am

KAD79 wrote:

but if it’s @@panel_info that causes the album name to display then that’s the one you might want to use

@@panel_info will not work because Windows does not allow a colon " :" in a filename

(as the scrolling text [seen below] would mean the Linksheet would have to named eg.

Title : Fine Misadventures Artist : Present Nation Album : Swept Up and Gone)

Basically for Linksheets to work in the Music Playback screen you Must have either the

“Artist” text displaying and/ or the “Album” text displaying (see screenshot)

If you see neither of these, then Linksheets for @@artist and @@album won’t display

Now as a test, i turned Off my Media Library … i could not get either Artist or Album to display after that.

(basically disable the GREEN sorting button and becomes plain file/folder mode with no Artist or Album notification on the playback screen)

I then turned to Media Library back on … then the Artist and Album displayed.

GREEN sorting button works now … Sort by “Album” displays the Artist and Album … Sort by “Folder” displays the Album Folder name which also can be a Linksheet.

JoeySmyth · February 7, 2014, 8:00am

Here’s some further testing … test video and notes below

Test Video (6MB)

http://www.mediafire.com/download/hqczvcscao9bo3l/MusicPlaybackLinksheettest.mkv

This is the contents of my “Theme” folder

album_playback.xml

Avril Lavigne ---------------------- 1280x720 Linksheet No File Extension

Avril Lavigne - Let Go ---------------------- 1280x720 Linksheet No File Extension

i added the following modification to the album_playback.xml

etc.

Pressed the GREEN button to sort by “ALBUMS” the Linksheet displayed is @@artist (Avril Lavigne)

Pressed the GREEN buttion to sort by “FOLDERS” the Linksheet displayed is @@album_name (Avril Lavigne - Let Go)

Turned OFF the MEDIA LIBRARY … no text at the top and NO Linksheets displayed

(Note: the @@panel_info is now missing the Artist and Album info)

Pressed the GREEN button to sort … Warning Message Followed

Conclusion: Almost Certain Linksheets for Music Playback will Not Work unless you have the Media Library Activated.

Note: this was tested on WDTV Live Hub Firmware 2.07.17 and may differ from other Firmwares and on other devices.

Bloodshot · February 7, 2014, 2:02pm

Working!?ish

I created a linksheet using some album art. It is a transparent background with the image positioned down and to the left.

I named it the same as the folder the music was in eg. A Foot In Coldwater, and dropped it into my theme folder.

then plugged this into album_playback.xml right after <include filename="./inc_loading.xml" />

and then tried to play something from that folder. **I'm using media server as the input, and the media library is turned off**

So, to get there, these are the options presented to me along the way:

Audio

Music/Photo/Video -->pick Music

By Genre/By Folder/All Music/Smart Playlist/By Album/By Artist/ etc.... -->pick By Folder

I'm then presented with my folder structure, and I drill down to it from there, finally opening the

A Foot In Coldwater folder which presents me with 4 albums from them.

I scrolled to an album without selecting it, and hit play.

Below is the result. ** edit - I leave the screen in this position all the time and don't use the "now playing" screen ever because you lose the ability to FF songs **

TheLounge_2014.02.06_23.06.49.jpg

Here's a link until the embed shows up -->

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo322/biffboffo/TheLounge_20140206_230649.jpg

It seems to work. Be nice... it's proof of concept at this point, but now that I see it working, I'll redesign the page more to my liking once I figure out what would look best.

The image lower left is the linksheet, and the image right is the album cover of the current song.

There was one album in this folder titled "Foot In Coldwater" instead of "A Foot In Coldwater", and the linksheet didn't come up, so I can conclude it is drawing off of the @@artist tag.

The end result is that I should be able to select "By Genre", and the linksheet and album art should change during playback.

I'll need a thumbgen template for this, as there is no way I'm doing a few thousand artist by hand.

Below is the full text of my current album_playback.xml if you want to mess with it...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<page background="image/RV-BG-ALBUM.jpg">
<ctrlgrp>
<button valkey="PLAY_ALBUM" />
<linebreak />
<button valkey="INFO" />
<linebreak />
<listbox valkey="browselist" autoenter="1" autoswitch="0" move="row" cols="1" rows="12" lbmask="udlr" loop_scroll="0" turbo_trigger="10" turbo_multi="10" fixed_scrolling_pos="12" />
<linebreak />
<textbox valkey="metadata_overview" numlines="6" directkey_table="UD" />
</ctrlgrp>
<include filename="./inc_loading.xml" />


<image image="@@artist" w="1280" h="720" bg="1" />


<wrapper><text text="@@info_temp" x="1022" y="74" w="200" h="26" align="right" fontsize="18" textcolor="0xFFFFFF" bg="1"/><text text="$$Temperature I" x="980" y="74" w="200" h="26" align="right" fontsize="18" textcolor="0xFFFFFF" bg="1"/><text text="@@info_time" x="1075" y="35" w="150" h="44" align="right" fontsize="40" textcolor="0xFFFFFF" bg="1"/> <image x="1067" y="35" w="44" h="44" image="@@info_temp_icon" scale="100" bg="1"/> </wrapper>


<text text="@@songname" x="140" y="140" w="600" h="38" speed="1" delay="1" fontsize="36" textcolor="0x07b5ff" align="hcenter" disable="@@disable-audiopanel"/>


<text text="@@artist" x="190" y="210" w="500" h="38" speed="1" delay="1" fontsize="36" textcolor="0x07b5ff" align="hcenter" disable="@@disable-audiopanel"/>


<image image="image/file_icon_001.png" x="874" y="160" w="263" h="365" scale="100" bg="1" disable="@@disable-audiopanel"/>
<image image="@@info_album_artist" x="761" y="160" w="488" h="560" align="left,top" disable="@@disable-audiopanel" scale="100" scale_type="fixratio" />
<image image="image/album_playback_playing_bg.png" x="761" y="600" w="488" h="95" />
<text text="@@play_time" x="904" y="620" w="104" h="22" fontsize="16" align="right" disable="@@disable-audiopanel" />
<text text="@@total_time" x="990" y="620" w="90" h="22" fontsize="16" align="right" textcolor="0x998855" disable="@@disable-audiopanel" />
<text text="@@panel_info" x="160" y="84" w="958" h="27" textcolor="0x998855" fontsize="16" align="hcenter" disable="@@disable-audiopanel" auto_translate="1" speed="1" delay="2" />
<image image="@@wrongkeyicon" x="563" y="282" w="154" h="155" align="hcenter" />
<image image="@@keyicon" x="1063" y="71" w="65" h="45" align="hcenter" />
<image image="image/album_cover_frame.png" x="921" y="221" w="324" h="324" scale="100" scale_type="fixratio" />
<include filename="./inc_decoration_player.xml" />
</page>

The bear climbed over the mountain.....

JoeySmyth · February 7, 2014, 2:25pm

OK, couple of points

Sorry, KAD confused me … i thought you did’nt want to use the Media Library, but re-reading the posts i assume that you are using it

Cool, glad you got it working … now time to work out a way / structure / sorting / method that requires the least amount of work.

Quote: The end result is that I should be able to select “By Genre”, and the linksheet and album art should change during playback.

I kinda suspect it won’t “automatically” change without any user interaction … it would probably require a “key-press” to refresh for a new linksheet.

But, hey … i could be wrong on that (havent tested much with music playback linksheets)

will test it tomorrow (pretty late now … zzzz )

Bloodshot · February 7, 2014, 2:50pm

Joey Smyth - i thought you did’nt want to use the Media Library, but re-reading the posts i assume that you are using it

**I’m using media server as the input, and the media library is turned off **

Joey Smyth - it would probably require a “key-press” to refresh for a new linksheet.

Even if it is drawing off of the @@artist tag?

I’m unsure about this as well. It obviously works playing from a specific folder, but whether it will work after I linksheet all the artist and then play a “genre” playlist is still in question.

From my last post – There was one album in this folder titled “Foot In Coldwater” instead of " A Foot In Coldwater", and the linksheet didn’t come up, so I can conclude it is drawing off of the @@artist tag.

To be clearer, scrolling to this album and hitting the play button, the linksheet didn’t work, so there was user interaction and a button press.

The jury is still out I guess until I can try it with an actual playlist.

Bloodshot · February 7, 2014, 3:36pm

I’ve now tried it with a small playlist and it works.

I have a “Christmas” genre with only two artist in it. Elvis and Christina Aguilera. There are two ablums of Elvis and one album from Aguilera.

I created linksheets for both artists folders, and then played it as a “genre” playlist set to play randomly.

As I hit the forward button (right of OK) during playback

When the artist changes the album art changes and so does the linksheet.
When the artist doesn’t change but the album does the linksheet stays the same and the ablum art changes.

When left alone to play without user interaction, the function is the same. Linksheets change when artists change, and album art changes when albums change.

A raving success!

Joey Smyth and KAD79, thanks so much for pointing the right direction. Big KUDOS

KAD79 · February 7, 2014, 5:00pm

props to both of you for tracking this down, I was pretty certain that something in there would work

but yeah, now just need to refine it

since I’m unaware of any automatic moviesheet/linksheet generator for music

I could forsee quite a bit of work for a set up

hopefully @@artist will be a solid working solution, as that would cut down huge on the amount of work done

I know I don’t want to create linksheets for each individual song name

edit - maybe another interesting try

regarding the @@panel_info issue joey mentioned

remove the disable option, in theory that should force the text to always be on screen

but yeah, just another theory for anybody interested in testing

Bloodshot · February 7, 2014, 6:27pm

Well, refining it is definitely the issue now.

NO, I’m not creating linksheets for every song. I’d need a 60G USB stick for that!

Just the artists will do fine for me.

I’ll probably end up disposing of the @@panel_info tag, just because it’s a drag on resources. I’d have to increase the font size and I found that makes it sloooooooow. The other info it offers is extraneous to me or redundant.

I’m currently wondering if Thumbgen can be stroked somehow to pull up sub-folder names (actual albums) and place them as a list in the same way TG templates put a synopsis into the linksheet, or episode names.

Then I’d just <— ha ha “just” - have to troll the internet for appropriate backgrounds.

Here’s the general idea of what I might be driving for.

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo322/biffboffo/TheLounge_20140207_041247.jpg

*edit - forgot to mention it still has a problem pulling album art from .flac files - what you see is my default image

JoeySmyth · February 8, 2014, 1:24am

Happy to hear you’re getting this sorted

Thumbgen Music support ? been requested and promised many times… unfortunatly zilch

Apart from Google Images … here’s a website with lots of Artist Backgrounds

http://www.htbackdrops.org/v2/index.php

Bloodshot · February 8, 2014, 2:17am

So am I. Thanks for the link.

Thumbgen - I didn’t expect any metadata mining for music. I know it wasn’t designed for that, but any ideas as to whether it can be made to dig out sub folder names to make a list I can embed in the sheet?

Pining for the sky again…

JoeySmyth · February 8, 2014, 2:21am

Bloodshot wrote:but any ideas as to whether it can be made to dig out sub folder names to make a list I can embed in the sheet?

i have no idea unfortunately

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Using media server can I linksheet artists?

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