Bug 14801 - Cover art is worse in 7.4 than in 7.3.3 ???
: Cover art is worse in 7.4 than in 7.3.3 ???
Status: ASSIGNED
Product: SB Controller
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI
: unspecified
: PC Ubuntu Linux
: P3 normal with 2 votes (vote)
: Investigating
Assigned To: Squeezebox QA Team email alias
:
Depends on:
Blocks:
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2009-10-16 10:40 UTC by Greger
Modified: 2010-02-26 14:06 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Category: Task


Attachments
Cover art as seen on webUI (727.54 KB, image/jpeg)
2009-10-18 03:54 UTC, Greger
Details
Cover art on controller (296.41 KB, image/jpeg)
2009-10-18 03:55 UTC, Greger
Details
500x500 version of Cover art (44.19 KB, image/jpeg)
2009-10-18 12:14 UTC, Greger
Details
240x240 version (44.00 KB, image/jpeg)
2009-10-18 12:15 UTC, Greger
Details
From another album, again 500x500 (499x501 actually) (43.63 KB, image/jpeg)
2009-10-18 12:17 UTC, Greger
Details
And since I needed to check, I loaded upp 7.3.3 on a PC and downgraded the Controller through that. And here's how good it looks then... (168.69 KB, image/jpeg)
2009-10-18 12:35 UTC, Greger
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Greger 2009-10-16 10:40:49 UTC
When a song is playing and the cover art shows up, I get the feeling that the quality is much worse than it used to be in 7.3.3
Also, should the bottom bar with battery, signal strength indicators be above cover art (the bar is transparent)
7.4.0r7571
Comment 1 James Richardson 2009-10-16 11:00:14 UTC
Why is your controller on such an old firmware version?  you should be on r7790, not that this will change the behavior as you describe it.
Comment 2 Ben Klaas 2009-10-16 11:22:34 UTC
The bar over the cover art was by design

The edge-to-edge artwork means that a larger widthxheight image is rendered. If the source image is of (very) low quality, it will be more visible with the new skin. If your artwork is of at least 240x240 pixel resolution, there will be no degredation in perceived quality between 7.3 and 7.4.

Whenever design refreshes are made they don't please everyone. Apologies, as it seems clear you aren't pleased with this refresh, but the overwhelming response for the Now Playing screen has been positive for these changes.

marking as WONTFIX
Comment 3 Greger 2009-10-17 02:49:31 UTC
Ok to the bar over the cover art!

However, almost all my cover art is of a lot higher quality than you suggest. Mainly 500x500 and some even higher than that. 

On the webinterface when looking at the cover art for Mama Mia! as an example,
I can easily read the text at the bottom where it sais "ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING"

On my controller I can barely distinguish the text at the top which is even larger font, "THE MUSICAL..."

This is a 43k JPG file, 96dpi and bit depth of 24 500x500 pixels.

Do I have something wrong in my settings or what? There is no way anyone can think the cover art I am watching on my controller is ok.
Comment 4 Greger 2009-10-17 02:50:36 UTC
I should also add that in comparison, the physical size of the picture is quite similar when holding up the controller to my screen.
Comment 5 Ben Klaas 2009-10-17 13:44:48 UTC
The image is resized to 240x240 pixel depth, as this is the maximum resolution within that space on the controller (The resolution of the entire screen is 320x240). If you have 500x500 artwork, it will be rendered at a lower resolution on the controller, so comparing it to a 500x500 image on your PC screen is not a valid comparison.

Assigning to QA, but AFAICT there has been no regression between 7.3 and 7.4 on the controller.
Comment 6 James Richardson 2009-10-17 15:50:58 UTC
Greger: please attach the image art in question to this bug
Comment 7 Greger 2009-10-18 03:54:05 UTC
Created attachment 6156 [details]
Cover art as seen on webUI

Note windows properties reports 150x150 pixels, physical size roughl the same in mm as screen size of Controller though.
Comment 8 Greger 2009-10-18 03:55:33 UTC
Created attachment 6157 [details]
Cover art on controller

I don't have a very good camera, Nikon Coolpix 5600, 5Mpixel using Macro setting. To get it to focus correctly I used some lined paper that I put at the same level as the screen (a few mm below the surface).
Comment 9 Greger 2009-10-18 03:58:49 UTC
Hi,

I understand the resizing thing and agree that it's unfair to compare 500x500 to a 240x240. In order to try and get things to an optimum I have used Photoshop to resize the picture so it is now actually 240x240. I have then rescanned the entire library. However I see no difference in quality on the Web UI or the Controller after doing this.

And since you bring the issue of comparing the webUI with Controller up, the fact is that windows reports the picture size on the web UI to be 150x150... 
See pictures (sorry for the Moiree effect on the PC shot, can't get away from it).

Hope this helps...

BR,
Greger
Comment 10 Greger 2009-10-18 04:02:25 UTC
I forgot to mention that I also have upgraded the Controller to 7.4.0 r7790
Comment 11 James Richardson 2009-10-18 07:58:41 UTC
Greger: thanks for the photos, but I wanted teh 43k JPG file you USE as cover art, so we can investigate the issue here
Comment 12 Greger 2009-10-18 12:14:27 UTC
Sorry my mistake, here are both the 500x500 and the 240x240 version. I can add some other for good measure...
Comment 13 Greger 2009-10-18 12:14:59 UTC
Created attachment 6163 [details]
500x500 version of Cover art
Comment 14 Greger 2009-10-18 12:15:24 UTC
Created attachment 6164 [details]
240x240 version
Comment 15 Greger 2009-10-18 12:17:20 UTC
Created attachment 6165 [details]
From another album, again 500x500 (499x501 actually)
Comment 16 Greger 2009-10-18 12:35:36 UTC
Created attachment 6166 [details]
And since I needed to check, I loaded upp 7.3.3 on a PC and downgraded the Controller through that. And here's how good it looks then...
Comment 17 James Richardson 2009-11-05 09:36:59 UTC
QA to verify with 7.5.0
Comment 18 Chris Owens 2010-01-04 16:00:39 UTC
Changing priorities due to management guidance.
Comment 19 Markus Seeger 2010-02-26 03:41:16 UTC
(In reply to comment #2)
> The bar over the cover art was by design

One of the first things I recognized after buying the duet was the bottom bar over the cover art.
For me it is annoying, it "destroys" the overall impression of the cover art.
What do others think? Perhaps it can be "customizable" as mentioned in general for the whole skin.