CoverArt plugin: Option to add title over the picture

[stettler 27]

Hello,

Some applications / themes don't display the title of movies / series / folders but only the cover picture. I would love if there was an option in CoverArt to add the title, as an indicator overlays, to the cover picture.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

Isn't the title already on your covers?

[Happy2Play 8296]

The server does that by default when there isn't a proper image.  

 

[stettler 27]

There is a proper image and, no, the title isn't always already on the movie cover itself... or if it is, it may be pretty hard to read... Try anime for example: except if you are pretty good at kanji, it may be very hard to find what you are looking for. 

[Happy2Play 8296]

That is where specifics and examples are required because anime is an animal in its own realm that needs it own support because it plays by different rules then the rest of normal media.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

All of my anime shows have solid covers but my collection is fairly small.  I can see how that's an issue but it sounds like one better fixed by photoshop/GIMP than cover art.  Of course that's the perspective of someone that will happily make movie posters when needed.  Your mileage may vary and this could make a lot of sense for someone without those tools.

I have a very deep aversion to text on my posters that isn't the movie title.  I'm used to editing posters that were designed for less particular users.

[stettler 27]

Here is some screencap from the Android app... it's not just about anime: there is many movies that don't have covers with their title in big, easy letters to read.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2016 by stettler

[stettler 27]

Edited September 21, 2016 by stettler

[stettler 27]

And here is one from WMC:

 

 

 

Agreed, it's nicer not to have text over covers. But when you have hundred of them and you have to scroll through them and look at the summary until you find the one you want....

 

And yes, some skin or apps may display the name. But not all. Which is why an "option" to add it would be nice.

[Vidman 589]

I have to agree with deathsquirrel the purpose of the poster/thumb is to identify the Item, if it does not do that you should download or create one that does. It does not seem to be the purpose of the cover art plugin

[stettler 27]

Sorry but the purpose of the poster is to look nice. If you wanted to "identify" the item, a plain text list of title would be much more efficient, faster and would take less space.

 

Sure, you can edit by hand each cover to hardcode the title in them. Tedious if you have hundred to do. Seeing that CoverArt already offer the possibility to overlay such "useful" information (to each his own I guess) as the resolution, aspect ratio, video/audio codec, why not offer the possibility to overlay the title for people that need it?

[Deathsquirrel 741]

I don't object to the option, I just don't see the point.  In many of the cases you screenshot you can easily solve the issue simply by choosing better posters.  There are Pandorum posters that are browseable in Emby that have legible text.  There are Fate Stay Night and Final Fantasy Last Order posters with larger, more legible labels, for example.

 

The purpose of a movie or show poster is absolutely to identify the show.  If it doesn't serve that purpose why use it?  If you want pretty artwork put it on a wall

Edited September 21, 2016 by Deathsquirrel

[ebr 14925]

In the Android app, is it not possible to change that view style to poster cards?

[stettler 27]

 

The purpose of a movie or show poster is absolutely to identify the show.  If it doesn't serve that purpose why use it?  If you want pretty artwork put it on a wall

 

 

We use what we have. Perhaps you don't have shows with this kind of problem but there is plenty where it's not possible to find a poster with an easy to read title.

 

And even for those with an easy to read title, it's very slow and tedious to try to decipher fonts of various typography, orientation and position. Frankly, can you really find a specific movie fast by trying to read the titles on hundred of covers? Kudo to you if you can, that's certainly not my case (and the concentration needed is not worth it).

 

If you don't need it, that's fine. But it doesn't mean that others don't need it. And it shouldn't be too hard to code as it's already possible to overlay information. It's even possible to overlay "special" when nearly all the template are already displaying it...

 

Nobody is saying that it's perfect and that we can't do better job by hand-editing every single poster. But it would be a quick fix for users that need it.

 

 

In the Android app, is it not possible to change that view style to poster cards?

 

That only display the first few letters of the title. The most useful layout would be the "list" one.

 

Or to answer in the same way as Deathsquirrel, "The purpose of a movie or show poster is absolutely to be pretty. If it doesn't serve that purpose why use it?". May as well go with a full text list and save bandwidth. (kinda ironic as one of Deathsquirrel's objection to overlaying the title is that it would make the cover "less pretty")

[stettler 27]

Ok, better idea (but more work):

 

Remove the whole "Media Info" overlay and replace it with a custom string using variables. Something like:

 

%V = video

%A = audio

%r = resolution

%a = aspect

%d = release date

%Y = year

%t = title

%P = PG rating

%g = genre

....

 

So it would be possible to enter something like that:

"%t (%Y) / PG:%P"  and get, for example, "Deadpool (2016) / PG:R"

 

Need a little work for parsing but users would be able to overlay whatever they want as long as there is a variable for it.

[Vidman 589]

Sorry but the purpose of the poster is to look nice. If you wanted to "identify" the item, a plain text list of title would be much more efficient, faster and would take less space.

 

Sure, you can edit by hand each cover to hardcode the title in them. Tedious if you have hundred to do. Seeing that CoverArt already offer the possibility to overlay such "useful" information (to each his own I guess) as the resolution, aspect ratio, video/audio codec, why not offer the possibility to overlay the title for people that need it?

We use what we have. Perhaps you don't have shows with this kind of problem but there is plenty where it's not possible to find a poster with an easy to read title.

 

And even for those with an easy to read title, it's very slow and tedious to try to decipher fonts of various typography, orientation and position. Frankly, can you really find a specific movie fast by trying to read the titles on hundred of covers? Kudo to you if you can, that's certainly not my case (and the concentration needed is not worth it).

 

If you don't need it, that's fine. But it doesn't mean that others don't need it. And it shouldn't be too hard to code as it's already possible to overlay information. It's even possible to overlay "special" when nearly all the template are already displaying it...

 

Nobody is saying that it's perfect and that we can't do better job by hand-editing every single poster. But it would be a quick fix for users that need it.

 

 

 

That only display the first few letters of the title. The most useful layout would be the "list" one.

 

Or to answer in the same way as Deathsquirrel, "The purpose of a movie or show poster is absolutely to be pretty. If it doesn't serve that purpose why use it?". May as well go with a full text list and save bandwidth. (kinda ironic as one of Deathsquirrel's objection to overlaying the title is that it would make the cover "less pretty")

For most humans it is quicker and easier to visually identify items with images than a list of text

[Luke 37099]

I would definitely suggest going to the apps and requesting settings for different view styles. You don't want to do this with Cover Art because the additional image processing is costly in terms of both cpu and memory consumption. Plus, since the treated image would be used everywhere, you would then end up with double titles in lots of places which I'm sure would not look good either.

[stettler 27]

I would definitely suggest going to the apps and requesting settings for different view styles. You don't want to do this with Cover Art because the additional image processing is costly in terms of both cpu and memory consumption. Plus, since the treated image would be used everywhere, you would then end up with double titles in lots of places which I'm sure would not look good either.

 

Why would it use more resources than what CoverArt is already doing? If I understand correctly, CoverArt generate new primary art pictures only once (or when you change the settings) and then those pictures are cached? Being able to choose, in a more generic way, what information is added to the covers isn't any different than adding the "3D" logo or the audio/video/aspect/resolution information.

 

Imho, I don't see much point in adding audio/video/aspect/resolution information to the covers (as it is currently doable): how many people will keep several copies of the same movie in various resolution or aspect ratio? So why not let people choose, in a more generic way, what is displayed? Imho, the PG rating, score, year of release, and yes, the title, for example, would be more useful.

 

But nvm, I will use ImageMagick to directly process the covers. It just annoy me to modify to original poster images directly.