Conductor / Orchestra not showing in 0.52

[simoncn]

This is a very complex subject, because of:

1) The ways that different servers handle AlbumArtist tags

2) The ways that different people use AlbumArtist tags

3) The ways that different control points use AlbumArtist information sent by the server.

As an example of 3), I discovered recently that Kinsky uses the <upnp:artist role="AlbumArtist"> tag on a track in DIDL-Lite to show correct artist information for playlist tracks when grouping playlist tracks by album. MinimServer doesn't currently send AlbumArtist information for tracks, which means that Kinsky playlists don't show grouped "Various Artists" albums correctly.

This doesn't directly affect the issue being discussed on this thread, but it shows how pervasive the use of AlbumArtist has become and how difficult it is for a server to handle the AlbumArtist tag in a way that works "properly" for all scenarios.

The server sends the following information to the control point:

a) <upnp:artist> information for tracks. MinimServer currently takes this from a combination of Conductor, Artist and Orchestra tags. It doesn't include AlbumArtist tags.

b) <upnp:artist> information for albums. MinimServer currently takes this
i) from the AlbumArtist tag if present, and
ii) from a combination of Conductor, Artist and Orchestra tags otherwise.

c) <upnp:artist role="AlbumArtist"> information for tracks. MinimServer currently doesn't send this (see above discussion). For Kinsky, it should send the same information as b). For other control points, I suspect this might cause problems, so I'll need to add a property to control this.

d) <upnp:artist role="AlbumArtist"> information for albums. MinimServer currently doesn't send this. I'm not aware of any situation where this would be needed, but I won't be surprised if someone tells me their favourite control point isn't showing some of their albums correctly because of the lack of this information.

In a future release of MinimServer, I'm planning to make the information in a) and b) ii) configurable. The issue described on this thread relates to b) i). I think making step b) i) optional would solve this issue, but I need to think this through in more depth to convince myself that it wouldn't cause problems for other scenarios.