Audiobooks (and Music?): Hide Artwork for Individual Tracks

[Chyron 256]

I don't particularly like the look of having artwork showing for each individual audio track. Additionally, the artwork showing for each individual track is the art that is embedded in it, meaning if I choose to change the album artwork, the art for each track remains the same unless I also manually change each one of them.

The UI would look more professional if it showed artwork for the album, not for each track.

This request applies to various apps, including the Web App, and the Android TV and Android Mobile apps (which are the ones I use).

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chyron

[Luke 42078]

HI, this was done based on looking at other audiobook apps, such as Audible for example. Are you saying what they've done is not professional?

It is also fairly common for audiobook users to have different embedded images in each track, so that's another reason.

[Chyron 256]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

HI, this was done based on looking at other audiobook apps, such as Audible for example.

What?!

No, Audible does not have individual covers for each chapter. I just checked---the mobile app does not; the web app does not. Also, Plex does not; nor does Bookcamp, Chronicle, Audiobookshelf, or even Sirin (which is a standalone audiobook player).

If you're going to say "other audiobook apps do this", I have many other audiobook apps, and they definitely do not. And so yes, what they've done looks more professional.

Also, to what purpose would someone have different embedded images for each track, if the book is split by chapter? If it is not split by chapter, then having different artwork for each chapter mark in a single file is not possible.

 

If I remove the embedded artwork for a chapter (ie. file) from Emby, Emby will use the album art instead.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chyron

[Luke 42078]

Audible:

[Chyron 256]

That is a podcast. Not an audiobook. Those separately released, individually recorded episodes.

For reference,
This is Audible: https://i.imgur.com/mJBdewB.jpg
This is Audiobookshelf: https://i.imgur.com/SHqYksK.png
This is Bookcamp: https://i.imgur.com/ExCKYeT.jpg
This is Sirin: https://i.imgur.com/KCiQJlC.jpg
 

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chyron

[Luke 42078]

Those apps set the terms and then you live by it. We have a system that allows everything to be customized, and so we have to display that information. It is fairly common for users to have different images for each episode in the audio book.

[Chyron 256]

4 minutes ago, Luke said:

We have a system that allows everything to be customized,

Then allow me to hide the artwork and the summaries on each chapter. I think it looks ugly the way that it is.

....and you asked me to submit audiobook-related feature requests.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chyron

[Chyron 256]

53 minutes ago, Luke said:

Those apps set the terms and then you live by it.

Actually, no. Only Audible does.

Audiobookshelf is a self-hosted audiobook server-client app (which treats audiobooks and podcasts differently); Chronicle accesses my Plex server (as does Prologue but I don't use iOS); Bookcamp accesses my Plex server but the dev has planned to eventually implement a cloud-based server solution; and Sirin is a standalone mobile app that accesses local files.

Multiple of those are open-source.

 

As it stands, I have been using Bookcamp (and more recently Audiobookshelf) as my daily drivers for audiobooks. Now that Emby properly supports them, it has a real shot at being an amazing all-in-one solution. It's just that the UI for audiobooks needs refining. The way it looks now, it looks rather dated.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chyron

[Chyron 256]

For one thing, on the Emby Web App, you can only see 4 chapters/tracks before scrolling down.

It just... that doesn't look very clean. It looks dated. When I mouse over any one chapter, the highlighted box is very large indeed.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chyron

[Happy2Play 9780]

Your still only going to see 4 item without the track image.  But I guess that depends on what info you have per track (1 line vs 5 lines)

[Chyron 256]

The track length doesn't need its own separate line. It's wasted vertical space to do that. Also, that summary for that track of The Knight is just a copy of the summary for the album (at the top). It would be unnecessary to devote screen real estate to repeating the same summary umpteen times, assuming you had multiple tracks/files.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chyron