Resize album artwork?

[Mike48]

Can MinimServer resize album art before sending it to a UPnP control point?

I ask for this reason: When I started ripping CDs, I chose a rather large size (1200 x 1200) for album art. Most of it, I've scanned myself. However, my favored control point app has been crashing, and we think it is due to memory problems from artwork. The author has made changes, and he also mentioned that some UPnP servers can make the album art smaller automatically (similar to transcoding, I suppose, but a lot less CPU-intense).

So, can MinimServer do this, and if so, how would I set it up? If not, is the feature a good candidate for a future release?

[simoncn]

(18-03-2013 23:45)Mike48 Wrote:  Can MinimServer resize album art before sending it to a UPnP control point?

I ask for this reason: When I started ripping CDs, I chose a rather large size (1200 x 1200) for album art. Most of it, I've scanned myself. However, my favored control point app has been crashing, and we think it is due to memory problems from artwork. The author has made changes, and he also mentioned that some UPnP servers can make the album art smaller automatically (similar to transcoding, I suppose, but a lot less CPU-intense).

So, can MinimServer do this, and if so, how would I set it up? If not, is the feature a good candidate for a future release?

This isn't supported at present. It has been discussed a few times, and it's on my list of planned enhancements for a future release. Some people who have had this problem have found that it helps to use BubbleUPnP Server (see this page) as a proxy for MinimServer.

[Mike48]

(19-03-2013 03:21)simoncn Wrote:  [Resizing album art] isn't supported at present. It has been discussed a few times, and it's on my list of planned enhancements for a future release. Some people who have had this problem have found that it helps to use BubbleUPnP Server (see this page) as a proxy for MinimServer.

Thanks for the info & reference to the Bubble program.

I'm trying to understand the problem: My UPnP control point (like most) shows thumbnails while browsing, and the full-sized artwork while the track is playing. Does Minim generate the thumbnails, does it send full-sized artwork while browsing, or something else?

[simoncn]

(19-03-2013 06:32)Mike48 Wrote:  Thanks for the info & reference to the Bubble program.

I'm trying to understand the problem: My UPnP control point (like most) shows thumbnails while browsing, and the full-sized artwork while the track is playing. Does Minim generate the thumbnails, does it send full-sized artwork while browsing, or something else?

At present, MinimServer sends full-size artwork all the time. Any downsizing needed must be done by the control point.

The correct way to do this if the control point supports DLNA is for the server to offer multiple resolutions of the same artwork and let the control point choose which one it wants. For example, it could offer 160x160, 500x500 and 1200x1200. The server could create the downsized images on request, or it could create them in advance and store them in a cache.

The problem with this approach is that the control point might want 240x240 (for example), so it would need to get the server's 500x500 version (already downsized by the server) and do a further downsize to produce 240x240.

Linn has proposed an alternative approach where the control point can ask the server for any custom size. This is ideal for the control point, but not so good for the server because the server no longer has a small number of downsized images to maintain, but might need to provide a large variety of different sizes, especially if the user has a number of different control points.

I'm planning to implement the DLNA style of doing this because it is fairly simple and should work with a wide variety of control points.

[Mike48]

(19-03-2013 10:36)simoncn Wrote:  At present, MinimServer sends full-size artwork all the time. Any downsizing needed must be done by the control point.[...]

I'm planning to implement the DLNA style of doing this because it is fairly simple and should work with a wide variety of control points.

Glad to hear you're planning to add this. Based on my experience, it's an important feature, and as such, it's included -- in some form -- in the other decent DLNA servers I have used (Asset UPnP and JRiver).

Cheers!