Compilation albums hiding artists and sort order.

[audio_elf]

I have a number of compilation albums and soundtracks - "Best of 2006"; "Inception OST", etc. I have (in the Artist tag) the original artist of each track and (in most cases) Various Artist in the AlbumArtist tag. In many UPnP servers, Artists where they only have compilation albums arn't shown in the list of artists - is there any way to achieve the same in MinimServer?

Second question, can I put a sort tag for composer and artist?

Thanks
Eloise

PS. Hope I described the situation I mean well.

[simoncn]

Hi Eloise,
Welcome to the MinimServer forum! I've read a lot of your posts on the Computer Audiophile forum, and I've found them extremely informative and helpful.

(20-09-2012 15:22)audio_elf Wrote:  I have a number of compilation albums and soundtracks - "Best of 2006"; "Inception OST", etc. I have (in the Artist tag) the original artist of each track and (in most cases) Various Artist in the AlbumArtist tag. In many UPnP servers, Artists where they only have compilation albums arn't shown in the list of artists - is there any way to achieve the same in MinimServer?

Not exactly, but you can get close. MinimServer provides an "Artist" index and an "All Artists" index. If an artist only has tracks in albums tagged with a "Various Artist" AlbumArtist tag, the artist will appear in the "All Artists" index but not in the "Artist" index. The idea is that the "Artist" index gives you the main artists for your albums, and the "All Artists" index gives you a complete list of all the artists for your tracks.

Quote:Second question, can I put a sort tag for composer and artist?

This is a planned future enhancement. For these names, there are three possible values involved:
1) the index name that's shown in the browse index
2) the sort name that's used to sort the browse index
3) the display name that's sent to the control point and shown in the "now playing" display and the playlist contents

A future release of MinimServer will provide various ways to control these names.

One option is the conventional "double tagging" style which requires separate tags for the index name and the sort name, such as:
COMPOSER=Ludwig van Beethoven
COMPOSERSORT=Beethoven, Ludwig van

An alternative option is to use a single tag in "last name first" style:
COMPOSER=Beethoven, Ludwig van
This value is used for the sort name, and the index name is created automatically by transforming the sort name without the need for a separate tag.

With either of these options, the user can choose whether the index name or sort name is used as the display name.

Best regards,
Simon

[winxi]

(20-09-2012 15:58)simoncn Wrote:  One option is the conventional "double tagging" style which requires separate tags for the index name and the sort name, such as:
COMPOSER=Ludwig van Beethoven
COMPOSERSORT=Beethoven, Ludwig van

An alternative option is to use a single tag in "last name first" style:
COMPOSER=Beethoven, Ludwig van
This value is used for the sort name, and the index name is created automatically by transforming the sort name without the need for a separate tag.

Hi, i want to point out shortly that i'd personally prefer the former alternative. IMHO, a media server should better never try to guess information out of the tags, as this would unavoidably lead to errors. In the mentioned example with 'COMPOSER=Beethoven, Ludwig van', this method would cause trouble for any COMPOSER containing a regular comma.

[simoncn]

(20-09-2012 16:27)winxi Wrote:  Hi, i want to point out shortly that i'd personally prefer the former alternative. IMHO, a media server should better never try to guess information out of the tags, as this would unavoidably lead to errors.

You'll have the option to do this.

Quote:In the mentioned example with 'COMPOSER=Beethoven, Ludwig van', this method would cause trouble for any COMPOSER containing a regular comma.

If there are such composers (do you have any examples?), this unusual case could be tagged using the first option.

[winxi]

(20-09-2012 19:47)simoncn Wrote:  You'll have the option to do this.

That's great news! Thanks once again for all the efforts you put into this project!

Quote:If there are such composers (do you have any examples?), this unusual case could be tagged using the first option.

To be honest, i don't have a composer with a regular comma in my mind right now.
Generally speaking, I prefer to have as much control over the appearence of my library in the control point as possible and I have the feeling that this could be achieved by the possibility to apply a sort order tag to each indexed tag (and maybe even a 'display' tag), as I stated already in my suggestions-thread and by additionally having a few options concerning the sorting (ignoring special strings, absecending/descending). In principle i think about the same functionality as it already exists with the albumSortTags property, but just for all other indizes, too.
But that is just my opinion and of course I can imagine that other users would prefer the latter alternative, especially if they have tagged their composers/artists already in the 'last name, first name style'. I would be happy just to have this optional and not as a fixed feature (i guess that you have planned this anyway).

cheers, winxi

[simoncn]

(20-09-2012 21:44)winxi Wrote:  

(20-09-2012 19:47)simoncn Wrote:  You'll have the option to do this.

That's great news! Thanks once again for all the efforts you put into this project!

I think my original response might not have been completely clear. When I described two options, I meant that these are two options that the user can select, rather than two alternative approaches that I might choose when implementing the feature.