Why HD is small size?

[chunhia]

I think HD of a logo or poster,... is high resolution and size.
Why just at Image Size 800 x 310px?

[gismo33]

I have a similar question:

It would be really nice if fanart will accept larger posters/wallpapers/logos etc. in the future.
I mean for e.g. you find much larger posters than 1000x1426 for newer movies and it is a pity to shrink the images. Same for wallpapers and logos etc.
So the current resolutions for posters/wallpapers/banners/.../ would be the minimum resolution, but larger resolutions (if available and if the ratio aspect is correct) are accepted too.
I think it would be the next step for fanart because the new 4K-TVs (3840×2160) or even larger like the new 5K-iMac are coming and they are getting cheaper and cheaper.
In generell every screen gets higher and higher resolutions. And fanart stands for High Quality images

[akovia]

Fanart is one of the biggest bottlenecks in most media centers. So much so that they even incorporate features to use higher compression to speed up load times.

From the Kodi Wiki:

Code: Select all

DDS artwork

XBMC uses the compressed format DXT1 or DXT5 in the form of a .dds file. These are GPU-friendly compressed formats which allow for very fast loading of textures. It comes at the disadvantage of a loss in quality - DXT compression can in some cases be very bad quality. XBMC uses libsquish which is reasonably optimal at compressing the images. In the future XBMC may use DXT5 in the YCoCg colour space which is the same size as DXT5 (i.e. 8bits/pixel) but is visually close to being lossless. For now, if XBMC deems the quality isn't quite good enough to use DXT1 or DXT5, we use ARGB (i.e. 32bits/pixel) which can result in some very large images on disk. On systems with slow disk access, these may take longer to load than .jpg or .png versions.
The generation of .dds versions of the artwork is automatic if you have set the <useddsfanart> advancedsetting. DDS versions are generated in step 7 above. Even if you haven't set the advanced setting, XBMC will still load .dds versions of the textures if they're available, so on slower systems you may wish to generate .dds versions offline and place them in the texture cache directly.

Raising the resolution even higher than what we allow would slow down media centers even further. Using this DDS compression defeats the purpose of larger images as you are reducing the quality to do so.
The images on the site are designed to work with the bulk of media centers and the machines running them. There may be a time in the future when 4K is much more the norm and computers are even faster that we could consider opening up some 4K sections, but I don't see that happening in the very near future.

I hope that helps to clear this up.

[gismo33]

Fanart is one of the biggest bottlenecks in most media centers. So much so that they even incorporate features to use higher compression to speed up load times.

You are right: 4K images mean higher work for CPUs. Personally i dont have the feeling that the CPU is the bottleneck. You can speed up for HTPC much more if you install an SSD. I mean even if the CPU is the bottleneck, very year Intel/AMD will release 1 or even 2 new cpu architecture and every time they are getting faster. In my experience even the Intel Atom Avoton from 2013 is fast enough. (So far i did not make the experience that the CPU is to slow for my XBMC and i have 1000+ Movies, HD-TV, Bluray-support and custom skins etc.)

I have to say that i dont use an ATV or Raspberry. But they are probably even too slow for a XBMC-custom-skin or for playing 1080p. And DDS-Fanart doesnt work with ARM.

There may be a time in the future when 4K is much more the norm and computers are even faster that we could consider opening up some 4K sections

Would not it be nice if a fanart would be one of the first that support 4K ? (I mean sooner rather than later^^. In my opinion, it would make more work in retrospect to replace all 1920p wallpapers with 3840p wallpapers. Especially because we already have 3840p wallpers TODAY).

So i am still fighting for 4K and i want to see an 4K section on fanart I mean it would be just great^^ and it would be fit very well into concept of fanart, isnt it? Just as an exemple: themoviedb is already accepting 4K posters and wallpapers

Not sure, but maybe one can open an new/sub-section only for 4K with a the API-parameter so that the the current Skins doesnt load the 4K by default (to avoid the things like the CPU is not fast enough). To load 4K i have to manually activate it in the settings. Maybe there are better solutions to avoid that 4K-content will be downloading on really slow HTPC's, it is only a first proposal.

[akovia]

I am not opposed to some 4K sections, but I just don't see it being practical just yet. The real litmus test is to see what the devs of the main media centers think about it. You can see the top 10 API users of 2013 here.

If the reception is good and it seems like it something that can be done, you can follow the guideline set out here to start requesting a new section. I don't see anymore of the existing section being replaced for 4K content. They would stay as they are and everything 4K would be in entirely new sections respectively.

I'm not trying to put you off of it, just trying to get across that it most likely only appeal to the most esoteric crowd that can afford 4K TVs and computers that can keep up. Not only does that limit the amount of people that could use that content, but also the people that are willing to generate that content. Of course if there is enough interest and the devs will support it, we will follow suit, but it has to be driven from the media centers themselves with their support.

[gismo33]

I understand.

But:

The real litmus test is to see what the devs of the main media centers think about it........Of course if there is enough interest and the devs will support it, we will follow suit, but it has to be driven from the media centers themselves with their support.

(1)
I am not quite sure what you mean with that, because as far as i know the devs of the main media center (XBMC/KODI) has integrate already support for 4K with the new Helix v14, which means you can use XBMC (with custom or default skin) with 4K-content already right now.

http://kodi.tv/kodi-14-0-helix-unwinds/
-> "To begin, Kodi has been updated to use FFmpeg 2.4.4. For users, this means Kodi will now be capable of playing back h.265 (also known as HEVC) and VP9 video codecs"
-> "Users with particularly large libraries or interest in 4K video may be especially likely to appreciate this update"


(2)
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=195728
A user asked this question:
"Ultra High-Definition televisions (also known as Ultra HD television, UltraHD, UHDTV, and UHD) with a native 3840x2160 pixels resolution are by now beginning to become more affordable, so wondering if and when the XBMC GUI engine will have natively support these higher resolutions for skins?"

Answer from a XBMC-Team-Dev:
"XBMC's GUI engine already supports whatever resolution you like. Right now. No changes needed.
The skinners can code in 12039124080 x 2384787 if they want to."

(3)
Here a screenshot that XBMC can handle 4K. Even the 4K-logo is there:

Not only does that limit the amount of people that could use that content, but also the people that are willing to generate that content. Of course if there is enough interest and the devs will support it, we will follow suit, but it has to be driven from the media centers themselves with their support.

Of course right now not all people have 4K TV or can afford one because its new on the market. But i am 99,9% sure it will be the new standard in the near future and i don't understand why we should wait until many people has a 4K TV.
So i guess its our part to create content which also takes time

[akovia]

That's great to hear that the GUI already supports 4K. The real question is...what kind of GUI performance can you expect when browsing a library full of 4K artwork. The 4K support for video really has no relevance for our site though.

I have no doubt that eventually it will become the standard, but until it's more popular we will probably hold off on opening up any 4K sections. The good thing is that you've laid the groundwork for that to happen when the time is right. You can use this thread as a place to garner support for the section and maybe even open a thread on the Kodi skinning forum to gauge interest there. We will certainly respond to user support if it's there. We have always been at the forefront of fanart and I don't see this as being any different.

The thing you have to remember is that we are composed of volunteers and opening a new section is a big undertaking. We have many request for new sections but we just can't open them until there are enough volunteers to commit to generating the art. (Not to mention finding the content that big to make the fanart) If it turns out that even though the Kodi GUI can support 4K, but makes it so slow that nobody uses it, then people will stop generating art for it as well. We have had some sections that never did very well, (character art come to mind) and would rather not open a new section prematurely.

I'd love to hear if anyone has done any tests with a library of 4K artwork to see what kind of performance they are getting in relation to the HD content that is used now. (non DDS)

[chunhia]

In present, I think the standard size just rise up double to be good for all. I hope that!