Complete Album Art - Sleeve Notes - Booklets

Obviously a big bump on this feature request from me - I have raised the issue a few times on other threads.

To answer the OPs question, this thread on another music site provides some ideas:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-general-forum/album-art-cover-art-search-strategy-9327/

But unless you have the originals to scan or obtained some offical scans with your download, then the approach can be a bit piecemeal. That’s not to say that it’s not possible, far from it.

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Lack of good data source is what’s preventing this :frowning:

Could you at least add an option to display any PDF files found in the same folders as the tracks for an album so we can use Roon to see any additional data we have?

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@philr – that is on the roadmap!

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@danny glad to hear this is on the roadmap, definitely keen to have this feature.

Also glad to hear. Really hope this comes soon. As mentioned in another thread, Roon advertises itself as bringing back the glory of the LP gatefold sleeve with the associated pictures and information - but we are still waiting for this feature.

I would add that as well as PDF, roon would need to be able to read and display other formats also, such as .jpg. Most of my 5000+ albums have folder.jpg (front cover), rear.jpg (rear cover), cd.jpg (image of the CD or physical media) as well as jpg’s of the liner notes and booklets. Currently missing this aspect!

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Disappointed that there has not been any progress on this matter in Build 88.

This was promised in the notes I read about Roon back in June when I joined and one of the main reasons for committing to Roon.

Regards,
Tim

It would have been great if it had made it into this build, but I hadn’t been expecting it to. I hope it makes it into the next one though. It was one of my main reasons for committing too.

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Would love this feature. Still nothing with latest update
Audirvana 2.3.3 now supports pdf scans… just saying :slight_smile:

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any update on this?

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Not too hopeful that this is going to be on the Road Map any time soon.

I asked for a comment from either @brian @danny or @mike but none of them have been on this thread to let us know where we are with this feature.

Have to say I’m quite disappointed this feature is so far down the priority list because as I’ve said before, this was mentioned as a feature of Roon way back in June when I took out me subscription .

@timlumley – we have yet to find a partner to give us the liner notes for any reasonable set of data at any reasonable price. The PDF support is still on the roadmap, but we’ve not gotten to it because we’ve been so focused on Audio for the last year (other than early editing release).

This upcoming year, we will be doing a lot more work on metadata as well as mobile platforms.

Is there any way of sharing user data to achieve this or are covers and booklets under copyright also?

When I use Music Collector to catalogue my CDs AFAIK, it has its own database of covers that are community generated.

It would seem reasonable to me for me to have digital copy of a CD booklet I own, whether this copy was done by me or some other Roon subscriber would seem irrelevant.

If the Roon subscriber base became a source of data, it could only strengthen and improve Roon for us all.

SJB

I scanned booklets in pdf format when I ripped my cd collection. Also when buying music from Qobuz or other online stores digital booklets are often included. I would already be happy to be able to view these directly from within roon.

Now it’s only a few clicks away but still it would be nice to have a “booklet” button next to the “credits” button.

The way I do it now on mac is: track info -> open the link to finder location -> open pdf in preview


That’s as it had seemed Danny, regarding the focus on audio rather than software features per se. Very glad to hear your comment regarding it still being on the roadmap, as well as the “work on metadata”.

You mention that you have not yet found a partner to give you the liner notes - I was not even aware that such a database existed. I think that many users (myself included) have their own local copies of the liner notes etc that they would like to use. This is how I had envisaged Roon taking this forward (though if an official partner was found, then great - however finding the right liner notes for the particular edition and release could be a challenge!).

A second point is regarding the format of the liner notes and other images. In my experience, image formats (mainly JPG but likely others also) are more common that PDF formats for pictures of the other covers and notes. Can I check that you will be implementing both (all my images of covers and notes are in JPG format; e.g. CD.jpg, rear.jpg, booklet1.jpg, etc etc). In fact for me, the most important extra liner image would initially be the rear cover.

Having the images separate in this way confers an advantage over a single PDF file containing all the notes - Roon could differentiate between the images - e.g. rear cover, inside cover, booklet, inside of rear cover, etc - and allow the user to select the one he wanted, rather than scroll through the whole lot. One example of how it might be implemented - have small icons light up or show (e.g. icon of booklet, physical media, rear cover, etc) if they are present, allowing the user to then click on them and open that image.

Like Tim, I’m also surprised that this feature has been so far down the priority list, given that it was one of the primary selling points of Roon (bringing back the image-rich feeling of the original vinyl booklets etc). However I understand that the team have found it necessary to focus on other priorities such as audio implementations which might further their business model (and hence help keep them in the game for the long term) - so I am willing to be patient.

I second SJB’s idea, that would be great if possible. And agree with Steve - having it as part of Roon’s slick interface would be much better than having to open it in a folder in explorer or finder.

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Thanks for the reply @danny

Still disappointed that this feature appears to be way down your priority list.

With MQA coming to Tidal and to my aged ears not able to tell much difference between the SQ of Roon and Tidal on its own, also with most of my Albums being Tidal Albums, I will have to think very hard if this feature does not appear before my subscription is due for renewal in June whether to continue with Roon. This was the feature that attracted me to the software in the first place and if it’s not going to be available I may say goodbye for the time being.

Metadata is all very useful and I can see why you have and continue to major on this feature but for me it was the “complete Album experience” I have been looking forward to.

Fiddling with Metadata, as a user, is all very well but the listening to the music is what’s important.

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I would like the ability to link to the PDFs I already have. A lot of the downloads I have purchased come with a PDF and, if they were in the music folder with a standard name (like booklet.pdf or something equally imaginative), an automatic link to open said PDF would be wonderful!

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+1 … I have many PDF booklets from download sites, but for my CDs that I’ve ripped, I’ve started making my own booklets.

If you Google for the front and back CD insert images, you usually also find images of the booklet’s inside pages, as well. Then, using Acrobat, it’s quick to just drag-and-drop these images into a new PDF and voila: booklet.

Krutsch - may I ask why you combine the images into a “booklet”? I too have front, rear, CD, and liner notes JPGs for most of my albums in the album folder. I can view them and go forward/back between images. I’m curious as to why you would want to combine them into a single file?

Well, I use MPD of playback on my systems, most of the time. The iPad app, MPaD, allows you to configure a standard name for booklets in the folder containing an album (e.g. booklet.pdf). You can tap/hold and the pop-up menu includes “Show Liner Notes”. Works great and is easier than loading individual images.

I am hoping that Roon will include something similar, like presenting a tappable image/icon for albums that include a PDF in the same folder.