HOW TO: Add Stark like covers

[tyborg]

StarkCovers has a new home here or
http://www.simplify-i-t.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=17&sid=4841f53f61e05ff237f50a7b88d99e12

This will add a glossy overlay and round the corner of your folder.jpg images saving them as folder.png and renaming your original folder.jpg to folderbkp.jpg by default. It is very easy to do.

1) Download the zipped StarkCovers file. Unzip this anywhere you want on your computer.

2) In the StarkCovers folder you will find a StarkCovers.bat file. Right click it and choose edit. In your text editor you will see some options and examples. You basically need to add a line without the preceding REM that will run StarkCovers.exe on your movies folder. An example of an added line would be.
StarkCovers M:\Movies

If the path to your movies has spaces in it you need to surround the path with quotation marks like this.
StarkCovers "M:\My Movies"

3) If you want to go back to your original posters after you have changed them use the -revertjpg switch like this.
StarkCovers M:\Movies -revertjpg

4) You can add different effects and cases by using different parameters. If you want to change from a previous effect or case make sure you add the -revertjpg parameter. An example would be
StarkCovers M:\Movies -revertjpg -noround

5) To add the different backgrounds indicate the profile you want from one of the folders in StarkCovers. To specify one particular image follow the profile name with a colon and the name of the image in that profiles folder.
StarkCovers M:\Movies -revertjpg clearcase or
StarkCovers M:\Movies -revertjpg clearcase:mkv

6) To add a banner at the bottom use the banner profile
StarkCovers M:\Movies -revertjpg clearcase:clearcase banner

7) You can do TV series using the "Series:", "Season:" and "Thumbs:" parameters. This will only work on the folder format you specify and requires the standard folder & file format as implemented by metabrowser. You need to activate the particular folder type and then specify the profile to use like this for using diamond on Season folder.jpg images and tv on the episode thumbnails.
StarkCovers M:\TV -revertjpg Season:Diamond Thumbs:TV

8) Once you have your commands in the batch file save it and close it. Then just double click on the batch file and it will run StarkCovers.exe and feed it your parameters.

9) If you want to run this as a schedule then make sure you remove the "pause" line from your batch file so that the black command prompt window will just close when it is done. Then open up your scheduled tasks and point it to your StarkCovers.bat file.

10) I think these covers look even better without the outline surrounding them in the coverflow view so I used Soultakers modifications to create a 2.0.11 build without the outline in coverflow. This will be incorporated into the next build, but you can grab it now below.

You can modify the supplied images however you like and then call them in your command line by name to use them. If you have a new background profile that you want to use just post it and I will add it.

You also no longer need GIMP to do this. The following are the command options.

Just run StarkCovers.exe without parameters to get a list of command line options. Here is an example of a complex but accurate command line option to do videos and TV covers.
StarkCovers M:\Media Clearcase -filetype Series:Clearcase\TVseries.png Season:diamond Thumbs:TV

Update 7.6.2009
1) -revertjpg will now revert thumbs as well.

Update 6.30.2009
1) Fixed issue when type was not identified the previous folder cover type was used. Now defaults to default image in the profile folder(same name as the profile)
2) Set dates of folder.png to those of source image
3) FeLiX added new profile for the Diamond theme called... Diamond!
4) Added option to run on TV Series images. Do TV series using the "Series:", "Season:" and "Thumbs:" parameters. This will only work on the folder format you specify and requires the standard folder & file format as implemented by metabrowser. You need to activate the particular folder type and then specify the profile to use like in the example below for using diamond on Season folder.jpg images and tv on the episode thumbnails.
StarkCovers M:\TV Season:Diamond Thumbs:TV
5) Other minor fixes

Update 6.23.2009
1) Fixed bug with avi videos not being recognized and FeLiX provided new avi cover and case images
2) Fixed memory leak reported on hack7mc
3) Fixed TV and Movie backdrop issues where it couldn't find image file
4) Added Movie option to add a moviestrip overlay to backdrop images
5) You can no longer specify an overlay image using the TV or Movie parameters such as tv:samsung.png will not work. It will automatically and only use the coinciding png files in the backdrop folder. This will be modified in a future release to better support TV seasons.

Update 6.11.2009
1) Clearcase, case, sidelogo and banner profiles now determine media type by default. Sample command:
StarkCovers.exe “\\Antec_HTPC\Movies” clearcase –revertjpg
It will first search mymovies.xml for type based on the <Type> element. If not found there it will determine based on filetype. If the file extension is not recognized it will then use mediainfo.dll to determine the codec. Once determined it will use an appropriate image from the selected profile’s folder of images. If you prefer to sort codecs before file extension use the –codec switch. If you want a certain image to be applied to all covers just specify it as before like “clearcase:mkv” and make sure that mkv.png image is in the profiles folder of images. You no longer need the .png extension when specifying these file names, but it does continue to support it as well.
2) If you want to use the charcoal MediaInfo colored cases you will have to rename them to the standard image names so they will be used instead of the originals during the default sorting for media type.
3) When using TV profile “backdrop (2).jpg” or “backdrop2.jpg” will be used instead of “backdrop.jpg” if present. “backdrop (2).jpg” will be used if both “backdrop (2).jpg” and “backdrop2.jpg” are in the directory.
4) The overlay was removed from TV\samsung.png and is now TV\overlay.png. I decreased the opacity and it can now be disabled using –nooverlay command
5) FeLiX provided multiple new images to accommodate more filetypes and codecs. Thanks!
6) Thanks to the tylor and FeLiX for running this through the wringer and finding bugs!
7) Now that mediainfo.dll is incorporated I will be able to start including AR, resolution, audio & video codecs, etc… on covers in future builds.

Update 6.8.2009
1) Added TV profile with samsung.png that creates a foler.png from your backdrop instead of folder.jpg Use tv:samsung.png
2) Added ability to skip a folder if a folder.dna is present. To create just right click and choose new text file and rename to folder.dna
3) Added FeLiX's Quicktime covers

Update 6.2.2009
1) Added clear case images from FeLiX
2) Can use -scale# with the case: profile to bring the cover to the right edge of the case. -scale6 seems to work perfect to cover the case details
3) A few images cleaned up a bit

Update 6.1.2009b
1) profiles are no longers case sensitive.
2) updated MKV and h264 banners by FeLiX

Update 6.01.2009
1) Changed the command line parameters to use a "profile" command and then filename
2) Added the SideLogo profile
3) Organized images into subfolders based on profiles to reduce clutter and confusion
4) Added Codec/Container images provided by FeLiX, very nice, Thanks!
5) Few other minor bug fixes

Update 5.29.2009
1) fixed -revertjpg so that you can run it inline with other switches and solo.

Update 5.28.2009
1) Added -bdcasemi, -hddvdcasemi and -dvdcase which will give you a grey tone case similar to the color of the resolution displayed when using mediainfo.dll
2) -revertjpg can no be used inline with other parameters instead of running it twice, i.e. StarkCovers.exe -revertjpg -clearcase -dvd would restore all covers and then apply the clearcase and DVD banner to covers.
3) -nooverlay parameter will disable all light gradients or "glossy" overlays.
4) All cases and banners were touched up and resolutions were increased. Meaning they all look pretty sweet now, check them out!
5) A great way to run StarkCovers.exe on your library based on the type of movie found in the mymovies.xml is shown here


Update 5.27.2009
1) Added -hddvdcase to use hddvd case just like -bdcase
2) Actually put the StarkCovers.bat in the zip file

Update 5.26.2009
1) Added -dvd switch to add DVD banner to bottom of covers
2) Added -mymovies switch to use mymovies-front.jpg instead of folder.jpg. By default it will now use folder.jpg even when mymovies-front.jpg exists.
3) Fixed the clear case cover sizing. I didn't realize it until I saw some screen shots posted that I borked the scaling after I touched up the clear case image file.

Update 5.23.2009
1) Added clear case using -clearcase switch. Can use the -hd -hddvd or -bluray switches to add banners at the bottom.
2) Added Blu-ray case using -bdcase. Can use the -noround -round# and/or -allcorners switches with this
3) Added HDDVD banner to bottom of cover using -hddvd
4) -revertjpg now deletes the folder.png instead of renaming it to folderbkp.png. Folderbkp.png files are no longer created
5) removed -revertpng and -delpngbkp as they are no longer needed.

Update 5.19.2009

1) Added HD banner with HDDVD/Bluray at bottom of covers with blend using the "-hd" switch
2) Moved Bluray banner to bottom of images and blended to covers using the "-bluray" switch
3) folder.png is now resized to a maximum of 1080 height which can drastically reduce size on larger images. Smaller images will not be touched. The original folder.jpg will not be resized just renamed to folderbkp.jpg so you can maintain the original high-res compressed jpg.

Update 5.18.2009
1) Fixed problem with indexed pixel format throwing exception and added better handling of exceptions.
2) Added -bluray option to add a bluray banner at the top of the cover. This will alter the original folder.jpg aspect ratio, but will not cover any of the folder.jpg image.

Update 5.9.2009
1) I added a -scale# switch that only has effect when -plaque is used. It's 1-9 just like the -round switch.
2) The overlay.png and glassplaque.png are now in the directory and not compiled in the .exe so you can modify them however you like and resave them. Also you can just create your own overlay.png and see how it looks on the covers. If you have any overlays or backgrounds you really like send it to me and I will incorporate it for everybody.
3) Removed the new & improved overlay. Oops! :oops:

Update 5.6.2009
I'm pretty sure I got the kinks worked out in yesterday's build so give this new one a try. I also added the Ultimate User glass plaque option by using "-plaque". You can specify no rounding of the corners with "-noround" or adjust the rounding using "-round#" where # is a single digit 1-9(5 is default). I think that covers all the previous requests for now besides a gui, which isn't going to happen. Let me know how it goes and upload any other overlays or background you think would look good on your covers. I also messed with the overlay that I am using a bit and am happier with it now.

Update 5.5.2009
Thanks to markkeogh I posted a new release that does not require GIMP.

MediaBrowser2.0.11.NoOutline.zip
_

[JMGNYC]

Are these custom images or just the regular DVD images with some effect given to them via some code?

[tyborg]

Thanks Demonseed and tp546 for the screencaps to show off some of the covers.

[tyborg]

created an app that runs a script-fu script in gimp creating a folder.png image from all your folder.jpg images placing a glossy looking overlay on top. Also used soultakers modified coverflow.mcml from the svn trunkto remove the framed outline of the currently highlighted image. I wish I knew how to hardcode something like this into the source code to create the effect on your images.

[soultaker]

very sexy!

[tylor]

Wow - looks really impressive :)

Would be very interested if you manage to crack the hardcoding
8-)

[gthrift]

Are you going to share the app? Those covers look great.

[BrianAz]

I'm most interested in the white line being gone. Looks great! That slated to be included in an upcoming release?

[tyborg]

Yeah the outline is removed in the coverflow view in the trunk. I compiled a 2.0.11 build with just that change that I will post in awhile. Got to take care of the kids for a little while longer and then I can sit down and post some things.

[tyborg]

Put it in the first post.