Cover Art

Jens24 · Post by **Jens24** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:31 pm

I love your product!! I have used it for about 300 movies and show dvds I have. But the Cover clips always show up as the first frame of the movie - usually black. This is a BIG request. Or perhaps even another program - but to make a cover replacement by going to the web and downloading the DVD cover from IMDB.com. Your AWESOME program could even be better!!!
Thanks!

baggss · Post by **baggss** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:22 pm

I'm not sure that really fits in with what HB is really supposed to be/do. Cover art is a tag and I don't think there are plans for other tags to be added either. I just go to Amazon and get my artwork manually, usually as I am ripping the show itself and add it via iTunes.

Kerensky · Post by **Kerensky** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:57 pm

Perhaps a good compromise would be to add an image well to the interface so a picture could be easily dragged and dropped into it to use the cover art tag?

baggss · Post by **baggss** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:43 pm

From the HandBrake main page:

HandBrake is a GPL'd multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter.

Again, I'm not sure where adding art or any tag info is really relevant to what HB is supposed to do. It's an interesting idea but I don't see the App going in that direction, sorry.

GJSchaller · Post by **GJSchaller** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:56 pm

I scanned through the Requests forum, and saw several posts stating this was canned, but would like to make a logical plea for a simple reason to add it as a future feature.

I realize that adding a fully-featured Cover Art / Metatag system is asking a lot, and that iTunes can handle this for you - that's not an issue, and I actually mostly prefer iTunes to do it in. (The "Next" button makes it very easy to process a bunch of clips in a row.)

However, one field that would be extremely beneficial to have automated by Handbrake is the "TV Show" field. As an example, I just got a season of one of my favorite shows on DVD, and ripped 22 episodes of it. I had to manually enter the title on each of 22 files, along with the other data.

While this doesn't seem TOO bad, I'm cringing at the thought of all 16 discs of the next series I want to rip. Episode numbers are easy, but pasting the title 64 times gets tedious. If I could type it in once while ripping them all (Keeping it as a consistent setting, while queueing up a long string of rips), it would make adding them to iTunes a heck of a lot easier. This is especially true since iTunes keys off the series name to group / sort the files in the iTunes library, thus affecting how you apply the rest of the metadata (They're unrgrouped until you add the Series metatag).

If the consensus is no, I understand, and I do agree Cover Art and some of the othe tags might be a bit much. But there's more of a case for this feature than "This would be cool" - it actually makes a HUGE useability difference after the file has been ripped.

Thank you very much for your consideration!

jbrjake · Post by **jbrjake** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:37 pm

GJSchaller wrote:I had to manually enter the title on each of 22 files, along with the other data.

While this doesn't seem TOO bad, I'm cringing at the thought of all 16 discs of the next series I want to rip. Episode numbers are easy, but pasting the title 64 times gets tedious. If I could type it in once

Solution: only use episode numbers for the filenames.

Suggested format:
seriesname.sXeX.format.container

Example:
firefly.s1e6.x264.mp4

Then you'll only be typing the episode titles once, in iTunes.

Seriously. We're not turning HandBrake into some lame iTunes peripheral. That's a sucker's game. There are plenty of tools for adding iTunes metadata: see MetaData Hootenanny or Lostify. There is no need for us to re-invent the wheel.

There's this old geek proverb:

The Law of Software Development and Envelopment at MIT:
Every program in development at MIT expands until it can read mail.

it also goes by the name jwz's law:

Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.

Guess what, though? We're trying to avoid that kind of pointless bloat. This is an open source program that at its core is a Unix-style C library. We are following the *nix philosophy of small tools:

It is the Rule of Parsimony: Write a big program only when it is clear by demonstration that nothing else will do—that is, when attempts to partition the problem have been made and failed. This maxim implies an astringent skepticism about large programs, and a strategy for avoiding them: look for the small-program solution first.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch13s04.html

GJSchaller · Post by **GJSchaller** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:42 pm

Fair enough. The metadata is unconnected to the filename (The files were already named as you suggested, but I still needed to enter the metadata for iTunes to pick it up and organize it properly), but what you say makes perfect sense.

Thank you for the insight, as an IT guy, I can respect it completely.

baggss · Post by **baggss** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:19 pm

GJSchaller wrote: However, one field that would be extremely beneficial to have automated by Handbrake is the "TV Show" field. As an example, I just got a season of one of my favorite shows on DVD, and ripped 22 episodes of it. I had to manually enter the title on each of 22 files, along with the other data.

While this doesn't seem TOO bad, I'm cringing at the thought of all 16 discs of the next series I want to rip. Episode numbers are easy, but pasting the title 64 times gets tedious. If I could type it in once while ripping them all (Keeping it as a consistent setting, while queueing up a long string of rips), it would make adding them to iTunes a heck of a lot easier. This is especially true since iTunes keys off the series name to group / sort the files in the iTunes library, thus affecting how you apply the rest of the metadata (They're unrgrouped until you add the Series metatag).

I use Lostify for this as it is a PITA in iTunes.

GJSchaller · Post by **GJSchaller** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 2:57 am

Ah, wonderful, thank you!

lhotka · Post by **lhotka** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:56 pm

You can also use the Set Video Kind of Selected script from Doug's Applescripts. Automates the video kind, show, season, and episode number. Now that iTunes 7.1 ignores the number and sorts by ID, I tweaked it (in about 2 seconds) to update the ID to the same value as the number. Saves a TON of time.

Carlsen · Post by **Carlsen** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:57 pm

@jbrjake

Handbrake is a great, focused app. I agree that it should stay that way.

I used Nero for windows for several years. This however reached an end with one of the later releases. A full Nero install took up almost 600MB's of space, and all of sudden Nero was pushing to be used as a filemanager, mediaplayer, photo manager etc. etc. What I ended up with was an application that -could- to it all, but wasn't really good at any of it. They should have stuck with burning software.

Sorry for OT.

ElanioBro · Post by **ElanioBro** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 5:33 pm

Let me impart some very good knowledge for all you amazon imdb google search album/cover art grabbers.. Don't bother with any of those methods.

The size's vary, and you are left having to filter through many many pages to get that one cover you are seeking.

http://www.cdcovers.cc

That is your one stop shop for every DVD/GAME/MUSIC/PROGRAM cover art that there is. In most instances, they even have multiple versions of the art, in diffrent languages and regions such as R1-R6.

Feel free to repay your grattitude by helping me figure out 2 issues.
1. why do some animations appear interlaced, and there for jagged
2. more importantly, why can I not play .mp4 video files inside of Itunes on the winXP platform.

baggss · Post by **baggss** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 6:26 pm

GJSchaller wrote:Ah, wonderful, thank you!

I recently found some Apple Scripts at Dougs Applescripts.com that have made Lostify useless. Take a look around there, there are ones that allow you set Video Category (TV, MOVIE, Music Video), Show Name, Season Number all from withing iTunes for a bulk of videos. There are others that allow you to transfer the episode numbers from the file name to the track number/episode number fields and so on.

A process that took 20 min with Lostify is reduced to 2 or 3 with these scripts.

hawkman · Post by **hawkman** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:30 pm

Agreed - AppleScript is the way forward! If you have even basic scripting skills, it's pretty easy to customise a script to your own workflow and make sure you input the minimum data.

cbud · Post by **cbud** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:56 pm

hawkman wrote:Agreed - AppleScript is the way forward! If you have even basic scripting skills, it's pretty easy to customise a script to your own workflow and make sure you input the minimum data.

FYI

This might have changed with the most recent release of iTunes, but these scripts you are talking about, they do not modify the metadata of the video file, they modify your library database.

For example, if you use a script to set your video kind to TV show and then re-import that file into a new iTunes library, it will lose the tag. I can't remember all the tags that do this, but Video Kind and long description are two of them.

But if you use Lostify to set Video kind, it is permanent.

hawkman · Post by **hawkman** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:23 pm

iTunes doesn't seem to be consistent in what it stores where. Title, album, and various other tags are stored in the file. You're right, video kind is not, and I don't think artwork is either (but I'm not sure).

Not a bother for me, I appreciate the massive speed advantages tagging in iTunes gives over Atomic Parsley-based solutions (though don't get me wrong - AP is an awesome piece of kit, I love it). That and the batch processing...

The bottom line is, though, your files aren't very portable unless you then work with iTunes' database. Again, with a bit of basic scripting you can quite happily move your files to another computer and retain all the information you'd set.

cbud · Post by **cbud** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:38 pm

Yeah, the scripts are easy and fast, and I guess you could pull the data out of the library database if you could find it. Perhaps Doug will make a script for that someday.

Lostify also adds MPAA ratings to your files. I think eventually AppleTV will have some parental controls and will read that tag to decide if little Johnny can watch Robocop or not.

Has anybody noticed that when adding cover art to an un-Lostified file it goes quickly, but if it’s been Lostified first it takes forever?

hawkman · Post by **hawkman** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:54 pm

Yeah, I wondered if iTunes chooses to store information like that in the file if it's had certain tags inserted already? It seems to make most edits drag a bit. Of course, if that's true then there are certainly advantages to it, too - unfortunately, it seems impossible to have your cake and eat it.

cbud · Post by **cbud** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 7:13 pm

hawkman wrote:Yeah, I wondered if iTunes chooses to store information like that in the file if it's had certain tags inserted already?

I thought it was that as well, but an un-Lostified file will still have its artwork embedded, it just gets applied faster. Maybe if the file already has tags, iTunes has to re-construct all of them before adding the artwork, perhaps it does not like the way Lostify writes the metadata. In fact, I have also noticed the reverse happening. If you add artwork via iTunes first, then use Lostify, it will take Lostify longer than if it was a raw video file fresh from HandBrake. Hmm... We are talking many seconds longer, which can amount to many minutes or eventually many hours of our time waiting on these programs. Lostify needs to add cover art!!

I would use the scripts, but I would hate to lose all my description tags, especially the ones for each TV show episode.

loyalty_anchored · Post by **loyalty_anchored** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 7:42 pm

cbud wrote:Lostify needs to add cover art!!

from lostify's website wrote:Future Plans

Here are the features I or others have thought of, and may get around to implementing when I have time or motivation.

* Simplified user interface
* More powerful batch-tagging features
* Add a full-fledged progress bar, rather than just a spinner
* Add support for tags: podcast flag, podcast category, podcast keyword
* Streamline support for other video kinds besides just TV Shows
* Embedding of cover art
* iTunes integration: automatically import videos into iTunes after tagging (maybe)
* iTunes integration: run from script menu and update videos that are already in iTunes (double maybe)

http://lowellstewart.com/lostify/about/

nightstrm · Post by **nightstrm** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 7:45 pm

Unfortunately, Lostify has set unmodified (and no news updates) since January. I really hope a new version comes soon, but I can only imagine someone else is working on a killer video tagging application.

Maybe I should dust off my objective-C programming books...

loyalty_anchored · Post by **loyalty_anchored** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 7:50 pm

nightstrm wrote: Maybe I should dust off my objective-C programming books...

i am tempted to start learning, but i dont have the slightest when it comes to coding... so if you do, go for it man !

hawkman · Post by **hawkman** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 7:52 pm

cbud: Yeah, that's the problem, losing info. I may look into a script to extract the data from the database file and reapply it. It can't be too difficult... Not gonna happen during my exams though!

Does Lostify have batch support? I made a simple tagging application in AppleScript Studio some time ago, but really didn't want the hassle of trying to implement batch processing... If I don't have that to compete with then I might get around to updating my own efforts eventually

cbud · Post by **cbud** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 10:26 pm

hawkman wrote:cbud: Yeah, that's the problem, losing info. I may look into a script to extract the data from the database file and reapply it. It can't be too difficult... Not gonna happen during my exams though!

Does Lostify have batch support? I made a simple tagging application in AppleScript Studio some time ago, but really didn't want the hassle of trying to implement batch processing... If I don't have that to compete with then I might get around to updating my own efforts eventually

No batch support. It lets you lock fields so you don't have to re-type everything, but thats it.

I have stopped all tagging for right now. It takes forever and I would rather spend my time on encoding. Hopefully after I am done encoding my DVDs Lostify will be updated or there will be something new out.

baggss · Post by **baggss** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 11:23 pm

cbud wrote: Has anybody noticed that when adding cover art to an un-Lostified file it goes quickly, but if it’s been Lostified first it takes forever?

Oh GOD yes.....

Cover Art

Cover Art

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