Removing artists from Library list?

[phunkysai]

Hope someone knows how to do this...

I scanned my music library so that I could use the "Library" function of XBMC, but when I switch to Library mode and select "Artists," some artists are displayed that I don't want to see there (such as artists on a compilation soundtrack). Is there a way to edit some file somewhere to remove unwanted artists from that list? I still want their name to show up if I play a compilation soundtrack - I just don't want them clogging up my artists list (which is already huge).

I tried doing the Advanced Settings.xml trick from the wiki, using the code for not displaying compilation artists (since the description is exactly what I wanted), but it didn't work as far as I can tell. I'm not sure if maybe I did something wrong, but I followed the instructions to the letter.

Any thoughts?

[C-Quel]

re-tag your files then scan again

[phunkysai]

re-tag your files then scan again

Um, re-tag my files to what?

I originally did all my tags in iTunes (that was where I collected my music until XBMC came along). I had them obsessively tagged too, and I also had all the compilation music tagged as 'Compilation', but as I said that was an iTunes tag so not sure if the compilation field carries over to XBMC.

[jmarshall]

It's possibly due to you screwing up the advancedsettings.xml - at least that is the first point of failure. Perhaps you could post exactly what you did?

You can also check in the db itself as to whether an artist is a compilation artist, by loading the db up in sqlitespy or similar. Any artist that appears only in the strExtraArtists column of the songs table is considered compilation only.

Also: An artist is regarded as a compilation artist if they are not bound to an album. i.e. the AlbumArtist field has to be filled with something else, the compilation flag set, or all songs from the album must be in the same folder with the same album tag.

Post your db if you want someone to analyse it for you (including the name of an artist you think is compilation only).

Cheers,
Jonathan

[sho]

Please do an search on these forums on how exactly XBMC handles compilations, it's been discussed to death.
You "may" solve your problems by having "Various Artists" in the Album Artist filed, but I just can't be arsed to search myself right now.
(Edit: apparently not since the master himself didn't suggest it)

[jmarshall]

As long as there is something else in the albumartist field it should be OK, yeah. Doesn't have to be "Various Artists" though that is the way (other than the compilations tag itunes gives) XBMC identifies compilations for the "Compilations" node. For instance, artists which feature on just one song on an album won't get shown in the artists list if you turn compilation artists off - only artists assigned to an album (whether primary album artist, or secondary artists).

Cheers,
Jonathan

[phunkysai]

When in Library mode, if I click on "Compilations" XBMC correctly lists all the albums I have tagged as compilations from itunes, so it appears it is at least reading the tags correctly. Just thought I'd post that before showing what I put in the advanced settings XML, which I'm sure I screwed up! :laugh:

Here's what I have in my advancedsettings.xml file:

<advancedsettings>
<musiclibrary>
<hidecompilationartists>true</hidecompilationartists>
</musiclibrary>
</advancedsettings>


And I placed it in my Application Support/XBMC/User Data folder, was that correct? Or does it need to be in the main app folder?

Thanks guys...

[sho]

Not sure what you mean by "Application Support/XBMC/User Data folder" but it should be in Q:\XBMC\UserData\ where Q: is your installation path (and should also be visible as a virtual path in any ftp app you use to connect to XBMC), the rest I will leave to JM.

[phunkysai]

The MAC version stores user settings (like sources.xml) in "Library/Application Support/XBMC" (at least that is my understanding, ELAN can chime in here), but I'll try it in the main app folder to see if it works...

[sho]

In that case you are probably right.. I did not check what subforum I was poking my nose in.

[elan]

The MAC version stores user settings (like sources.xml) in "Library/Application Support/XBMC" (at least that is my understanding, ELAN can chime in here), but I'll try it in the main app folder to see if it works...

Advanced settings is in ~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/UserData/AdvancedSettings.xml

[phunkysai]

OK I made sure the file is in the correct folder in OSX, but it still doesn't work...I'm assuming it's the coding in the XML file I've done wrong (pasted below)?

[jmarshall]

Please state exactly how your files are tagged, and where they reside as far as the filesystem goes.

Just because the compilation flag is set may not be enough to guarantee the artists are treated as compilations only.

Ofcourse we still don't know whether or not there's something wrong with the advancedsettings.xml file stuff. We really need to add some logging there.

I'm thinking of moving this setting to the GUI anyway - it seems more and more people want it.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[phunkysai]

Alrighty then...

I originally tagged my music in itunes before XBMC came along, and was rather anal about it. Right before moving my music to my mac mini, I went thru it all and made sure they AT LEAST had the following tags:

- Artist
- Album
- Year
- Track name
- Track number
- Genre
- Compilation, if necessary
- Album Art

The music files are currently sitting on the local machine in my User/Music folder. Inside the Music folder, there are subfolders for each artist (except for the ones in compilations, which are in their own 'Compilations' folder which is how itunes originally organized it).

Does that help?

[eduo]

When in Library mode, if I click on "Compilations" XBMC correctly lists all the albums I have tagged as compilations from itunes, so it appears it is at least reading the tags correctly. Just thought I'd post that before showing what I put in the advanced settings XML, which I'm sure I screwed up! :laugh:

Here's what I have in my advancedsettings.xml file:

<advancedsettings>
<musiclibrary>
<hidecompilationartists>true</hidecompilationartists>
</musiclibrary>
</advancedsettings>


And I placed it in my Application Support/XBMC/User Data folder, was that correct? Or does it need to be in the main app folder?

Thanks guys...

The last part of the path should be "UserData", one single word, no spaces.

The name of the file should be AdvancedSettings.xml

An option would be to open a text terminal and do the following:

sudo opensnoop | grep -i advancedsettings.xml

Leaving that opened (it will ask for the administrator's password) and starting XBMC should show whether the file is being accessed:

eduo$ sudo opensnoop | grep -i advancedsettings.xml
501 67808 XBMC 10 /Users/eduo/Library/Application Support/XBMC/UserData/advancedsettings.xml


By the time the main interface comes up the file should've been accessed.

Also, checking the tags in the files themselves with a 3rd party program might be a good idea. iTunes has, in the past, kept the tags in its internal database.

iTunes uses the standard "compilation" tag from the newer versions of ID3, so that won't be it. But it may be possible that tags have an older standard and sometimes iTunes won't upgrade the tag version. In those cases you can use a program like MP3 Rage (or Media Rage, these days) to upgrade the tags. This will also create truncated names (older tag versions had smaller limits).

In the end I'm almost sure this may be the AdvancedSettings file itself. Is it in the proper directory? Is it being loaded?

[phunkysai]

Yeah I was writing from memory when I was posting the folder structure and goofed on the syntax...I have it in the correct folder as you mention.

I'll check and see if it's being accessed as you show below.

Thanks!

[jmarshall]

Yeah - that's a good idea.

I've checked the code, and the logic is as follows for MP4 tags:

If the compilation tag is set, and if the albumartist tag is NOT set, then set it to "Various Artists", else, if the compilation tag is set and the albumartist tag is also set, don't touch it.

Then, when scanning, if the albumartist is set we ignore the song with respect to determining various artist albums (as clearly the user knows what they're doing) from the folder scheme.

So yes, assuming they're MP4 files, it should be fine.

Note that I believe that XBMC does NOT read the compilation "flag" (an itunes invention) from ID3v2 tags at all, though I haven't actually checked the libid3tag source to check (I wrote this bit of it in anycase, so I'm reasonably certain!)

Once you've checked advancedsettings.xml and determined that the file is at least being read, and you've also toggled it on and off to test whether any difference at all (just check number of returned artists) between both modes, we can then take a closer look at the tagging you've got and find the reason why it's doing what it's doing (and if it's appropriate or not).

Cheers,
Jonathan

[phunkysai]

OK, i finally got around to doing this...i ran the first command, opened xbmc, exited xbmc, and terminal had the following response:

501 1606 XBMC 10 /Users/media/Library/Application Support/XBMC/UserData/advancedsettings.xml

Does that mean it was accessed?

[jmarshall]

I believe so, yes.

[phunkysai]

ok, now that we know advancedsettings.xml is being accessed, what should i do next?

I notice that when I first scanned my music into my library that XBMC correctly recognized the 'Compilations' and put those albums in its own category in Library mode. Does that mean anything?

[jmarshall]

Supply said files that you think are scanning in incorrectly so that someone can check them out. Megaupload.com or similar is probably an option.