Bug 3350 - Browse Artwork doesn't recognise Various Artist albums correctly
: Browse Artwork doesn't recognise Various Artist albums correctly
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: Logitech Media Server
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Web Interface
: 6.5b1
: PC All
: P2 normal with 3 votes (vote)
: ---
Assigned To: Dan Sully
:
Depends on:
Blocks:
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Reported: 2006-04-30 06:40 UTC by Patrick Dixon
Modified: 2008-12-18 11:11 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Category: ---


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Description Patrick Dixon 2006-04-30 06:40:21 UTC
CC (rpm install)
SlimServer Version: 6.5b1 - 7218 - Linux - EN - utf8

When Browsing by Artwork sorted by Artist, Various Artist albums are attributted to the first track's Artist rather than to 'Various Artists'.
Comment 1 sbjaerum 2006-05-01 12:15:41 UTC
I also see this.
I specify artwork filename on the %ARTIST-ALBUM format.
When looking up the artwork file, the artist of the first track is used.
One possible way to solve this could be to substitute the ALBUMARTIST tag for %ARTIST if the ALBUMARTIST tag is present, if not present, use the track artist as today.

Comment 2 KDF 2006-05-07 12:39:53 UTC
This could be tricky.  various artists are processed post-scan, as is browse_artwork.  However, both draw from collected data during the scan.  ideally we'd use the results of various artist fixes.  using 'albumartist' may be the only simple solution, but that would only work for the tagged case, not for the times when we modify that field in the db.  

Another option would be to take the thumbnail processing out of the equation.  With the recent GD caching being done to resize the image, storing thumb records might be redundant.  We could process the images on the fly as we do for the cover art at the single album level and in now playing.  This would be a long wait when browse artwork is first used, but less so after that.

Just to confirm, do you find that the variable artwork is correct when you navigage to the album level for the large cover art, or any of the songinfo pages?
Comment 3 sbjaerum 2006-05-07 14:16:55 UTC
I can't find artwork any places for such albums.
Comment 4 sbjaerum 2006-05-07 14:34:04 UTC
Using --d_artwork, I see that the artist for the first track is substituted in artwork retrieval when browsing to album view.
Comment 5 Patrick Dixon 2006-05-08 00:50:30 UTC
Don't know if it helps, but I notice that using Fishbone, the album order uses the track 1 artist of a VA album, but the text underneath says .... by Various Artists.  Mouse over the thumbnail gives .... by 1st track artist though.

Navigating to a VA album via Browse Artists, gives the the correct artists for each track AFAICS.
Comment 6 KDF 2006-05-08 10:48:13 UTC
Patrick, are you talking about 6.5?
The text under artwork uses artistsAsHTML, which lists each artist comma-separate.  This is the same for EN and Default.  In 6.5, all three skins made up of a majority of common code.

The tooltip still uses item.artist, which is where you get "various artists" from.  As far as which goes where, clearly a UI design spec is required.  Frankly, I dont even like the text under the images.

In regard to order...default is by album title.  That, and any other ordering is done by the server.
Comment 7 Patrick Dixon 2006-05-08 11:21:13 UTC
Yes, 6.5b1 - 7321 - Linux - EN - utf8

"Frankly, I dont even like the text under the images." Me neither!

I have BROWSE BY ARTWORK ORDER set to Artist, Year, Album

I'm not suggesting it's a skin bug, just that the skin is showing up the inconsistency, and that the 'coorect' info is in there somewhere. 
Comment 8 KDF 2006-06-16 22:33:21 UTC
change 8029 should correct the problem with tooltips.
Comment 9 Dan Sully 2006-06-28 17:45:15 UTC
Patrick / Steinar - there have been a lot of changes in this area recently.

Can you verify if this is still an issue?

Thanks.
Comment 10 Patrick Dixon 2006-06-29 06:11:38 UTC
AFAICT, it's been fixed since kdf's change.
Comment 11 Dan Sully 2006-06-29 08:11:00 UTC
Great. Please reopen if you see this again.
Comment 12 sbjaerum 2006-07-02 09:08:16 UTC
The artist of the first track is still used when doing the %ARTIST-ALBUM substitution.
This is easily seen by using --d_artwork.

When I try to reopen the bug, I get this message:
'You tried to change the Status field from RESOLVED to REOPENED, but only the assignee or reporter of the bug, or a sufficiently empowered user may change that field.'
Comment 13 Patrick Dixon 2006-08-09 02:08:58 UTC
6.5b1 svn 8880

This seems to have re-appeared following the skin changes for sorting option.

Albums are listed as by 'Various Artists', by sorted per the artist of the first track
Comment 14 Patrick Dixon 2006-08-09 04:49:45 UTC
Multi-Disc VA Albums appear to be listed using a different sorting order that I can't quite make out!

ie. neither under 'V' for Various Artists or under the artist of the first track either.
Comment 15 Dan Sully 2006-08-09 08:51:48 UTC
Subject: Re:  Browse Artwork doesn't recognise Various Artist albums correctly

So is this a bug just for multi-disc VA albums, or all VA albums?

Which sort order are you using?

Comment 16 Patrick Dixon 2006-08-20 11:34:30 UTC
Sorry missed your question.

All VA albums - single and multi-disc

Artist/Year/Album
Comment 17 Jim McAtee 2006-08-20 11:53:03 UTC
I'm also seeing VA albums not being grouped together in browse Albums, when sorted by Artist/Year/Album or any other sort.  This is for all VA albums, both single and multi-disc.  

It seems to me that the VA grouping behavior needs to be different for the different sort orders in browse Albums.  In sort by 'Album', I wouldn't expect VA albums to be grouped together, as you're sorting purely on the album title.  It's only when the 'Artist' field is thrown into the sort mix that you want to group them.
Comment 18 Patrick Dixon 2006-08-30 08:12:02 UTC
Not sure if it's related but in Browse Artists I get:-

Artists
1396 albums with 21366 songs by 582 artists.

Whereas in Albums Gallery I get:-

Albums
1396 albums with 21366 songs by 2374 artists.

So it looks like Albums Gallery mode sees all the artists rather than just the non-VA ones.
Comment 19 Jim McAtee 2006-09-05 17:55:54 UTC
Here's something I just discovered... In browse Albums when sorting by Artist (Artist/Album or Artist/Year/Album), VA albums are being sorted into the list with the album's first track artist that also has a complete album.  Any VA albums that have no such artist are sorted corectly into the list under 'Various Artists'.
Comment 20 Dan Sully 2006-09-17 14:38:27 UTC
This is not going to be fixed for 6.5 - sorry all. It's too risky with a
release right around the corner.
Comment 21 KDF 2006-11-13 12:37:46 UTC
*** Bug 4505 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 22 Jim McAtee 2007-01-04 15:18:25 UTC
The update checked in today (04-Jan-2007) for bug 3255 should fix this problem.  Check tonight's 6.5.1 nightlies and report back whether these problems still exist on your system.  It's now working perfectly for me.
Comment 23 Jim McAtee 2007-01-06 23:55:07 UTC
Patrick, this should now be fixed in the most recent 6.5.1 nightlies. Please verify and close the bug unless anyone else objects.
Comment 24 Ivan 2007-01-07 14:55:52 UTC
Using b11131, sorted by Artist, Year, Album in Album view: Still a problem with the sorting--albums with ALBUMARTIST/BAND/TPE2 specified sort to Various Artists, but really should be sorted to the ALBUMARTIST. VA should only show as VA when ALBUMARTIST/BAND/TPE2 is blank, right?
Comment 25 Jim McAtee 2007-01-08 17:54:38 UTC
(In reply to comment #24)
> Using b11131, sorted by Artist, Year, Album in Album view: Still a problem with
> the sorting--albums with ALBUMARTIST/BAND/TPE2 specified sort to Various
> Artists, but really should be sorted to the ALBUMARTIST. VA should only show as
> VA when ALBUMARTIST/BAND/TPE2 is blank, right?

I have one VA album (Flac album tagged explicitly with COMPILATION=1) and an ALBUMARTIST.  It gets sorted correctly using the album artist instead of VA in browse Albums.  I'm guessing that it's some particular combo of tags/conditions that you're seeing.

The fix that was implemented essentially assigned an 'owner' to every album in the library to avoid conflicts on VA albums and albums with more than one artist when it comes to sorting by artist in the album view.  It sounds like there may be some instances where the ALBUMARTIST doesn't override the VA artist as owner.  I wonder if it happens when the compilation is detected, rather than tagged with a COMPILATION tag.
Comment 26 Ivan 2007-01-08 19:17:24 UTC
(In reply to comment #25)
> 
> I have one VA album (Flac album tagged explicitly with COMPILATION=1) and an
> ALBUMARTIST.  It gets sorted correctly using the album artist instead of VA in
> browse Albums.  I'm guessing that it's some particular combo of tags/conditions
> that you're seeing.
> 
> The fix that was implemented essentially assigned an 'owner' to every album in
> the library to avoid conflicts on VA albums and albums with more than one
> artist when it comes to sorting by artist in the album view.  It sounds like
> there may be some instances where the ALBUMARTIST doesn't override the VA
> artist as owner.  I wonder if it happens when the compilation is detected,
> rather than tagged with a COMPILATION tag.
> 

Strange, because as far as I know, the COMPILATION tag is NOT a standard ID3 tag, but an iTunes "enhancement". It seems that Slimserver should logically determine if an album is actually a compilation based on the existence of the ALBUMARTIST tag on all files in a sub-directory. I don't see the need to set both, especially when one is "non-standard"?
Comment 27 Jim McAtee 2007-01-09 01:24:16 UTC
(In reply to comment #26)
> Strange, because as far as I know, the COMPILATION tag is NOT a standard ID3
> tag, but an iTunes "enhancement". It seems that Slimserver should logically
> determine if an album is actually a compilation based on the existence of the
> ALBUMARTIST tag on all files in a sub-directory. I don't see the need to set
> both, especially when one is "non-standard"?

Like I said, my library is all Flac.  COMPILATION is a tag that is recognized by SlimServer.  The compilation determination is primarily whether different tracks have different artist makeups, not based on the existance of an ALBUMARTIST tag.
Comment 28 Ivan 2007-01-09 02:37:49 UTC
(In reply to comment #27)
> Like I said, my library is all Flac.  COMPILATION is a tag that is recognized
> by SlimServer.  The compilation determination is primarily whether different
> tracks have different artist makeups, not based on the existance of an
> ALBUMARTIST tag.

Well, my library is also 80% FLAC. However, I do have MP3's in my collection as well. It would seem that SlimServer should support a method that works with standard ID3 tags.

In any case, I tried adding COMPILATION=1 to both a MP3 and a FLAC album. Under the Album view, they are still sorted incorrectly with Various Artists after a full delete and rescan. So at least in my case, the COMPILATION tag doesn't make a difference.

On top of that, I have seven "Charlotte Martin" albums sorting in the "M" section (rather than the "C") among albums by artist whose first names start with "M"--another anomaly.