For those interested. This is for those running a linksheet theme that resides on a USB stick - NOT internally.
I am currently running Simplicity theme, have an 8G stick in the back, and Media Library is not used - ever.
To redirect loading of the theme from your USB stick, you’ll have to get there yourselves. Lots of “how to” out there.
Pupose: I have too much music for the media library to handle, so I run a media server native to my NAS. This gives me almost instantaneous random play of everything according to genre. I want this to be mobile and possibly remote, so I don’t want to rely upon an internet connection for scraping info.
Operation on the SMP ----------- Home > Audio > Music > By Genre > pick Genre > play.
Music plays and I get a linksheet backdrop for each artist which changes with each song. The xml draws the linksheet from the “@@artist” tag associated with the current song so your music has to be tagged exactly the same. Problems encountered have almost entirely been due to incorrect spelling in the tag, however slight.
i’ve created an Artist Template which can be inserted into the templates folder of Thumbgen. It’s not perfect, but it works for me. You’ll need ThumgenDesigner if you want to mess around with it. Put the Artist Template folder in with the rest of them. You might want to create a “current profile” for it. I did. Be sure to create metadata if you ever want to change them.
Thumbgen settings that NEED to be modified – advanced settings / “use also the following…” Add music extensions…ogg, mp3, flac, wma, etc… so thumbgen will pick up their folders for generation, and check “only first movie in a folder” on the main page when you clik Process files/folders.
I’ve uploaded all the linksheets I’ve churned out (older template though), the tgmd files, and the blank wallpapers for each artist at this other post where all other relevant information (as well as the learning curve) can be found.
Here are a few examples of the finished product. The short bio, band members, etc… are contained in the tgmd files at the other link if you want that in your sheet. That’ll take some shuffling around on your end. I find them interesting… for now. Album art might look better bottom right and a color change for song title could help , but meh…
This has taken some 6 months to plow through. It’s been a labor of love. Why else would I do it?
I check in now and then here, but won’t be supporting this daily - so this post assumes some know-how.
Enjoy.
