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  #1  
Old Mar 17, 2016, 07:20 AM
rsc-pl rsc-pl is offline
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Default Higher quality cover?

Hi, I wanted to upload higher quality covers and other scans from CD, but I can't delete pictures.
How can I do it?
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  #2  
Old Mar 17, 2016, 08:57 AM
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Upload your scan and change the name of the lower quality one to something like "DELETE".

Staff will take care of the rest.
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  #3  
Old Sep 3, 2017, 01:16 PM
mmuffins mmuffins is offline
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Reviving a somewhat dated thread to expand on the initial question - I noticed that some albums (e.g. here or here) have album art that's named 'Front (small)'.

Are these entries separate from the regular ones? In other words, if I notice an album with xx (small) covers and I have higher quality files available, should I replace the small art with the higher quality one or should both entries be kept because they are separate categories?
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Old Sep 3, 2017, 01:24 PM
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Secret Squirrel Secret Squirrel is offline
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You are always welcome to upload a replacement for any small cover. We usually delete the small one when someone uploads a better one, though sometimes we miss it.
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  #5  
Old Sep 4, 2017, 12:09 PM
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Nice thread, too bad I didn't see it before...

Is the rule that "Sets are priority over front scans" still in place?
For the people here not aware of it, it seems that "to avoid discrepancies" if you replace an existing front cover with a HQ scan one it'll still be rejected if the full set (booklet) has already been uploaded and even if existing cover quality is poor...
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  #6  
Old Sep 4, 2017, 02:41 PM
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Myrkul Myrkul is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daemonskald View Post
Is the rule that "Sets are priority over front scans" still in place?
For the people here not aware of it, it seems that "to avoid discrepancies" if you replace an existing front cover with a HQ scan one it'll still be rejected if the full set (booklet) has already been uploaded and even if existing cover quality is poor...
It's not a "rule". It's something i have been applying since the beginning because i think it's nicer to have a complete set of scans than have a superior front scan than the rest. We should have a special (display) fonction that would use the best scan available.
You could answer that having 1 more image does not kill, but huh it's like that

Note that i am not managing anime nor publications scans anymore, so you can do whatever you want there. I plan to be annoying about game scans as long as i can.
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  #7  
Old Sep 5, 2017, 03:05 PM
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Well, I see it another way.

Here, people are allowed to "improve" any piece of information on any given entry by adding barcode, CD staff, correcting tracklist, romanizing names, etc...
Everybody else can benefit of these improvements, as "tiny" as they are sometimes.

To me, same apply for scan. Any improvement is welcome. I understand that a complete set of scan looks nicer but you'll be hard pressed to find anybody here on VGMdb who doesn't want a better scan. Be it for front or back or sticker or whatever. Have you ever heard somebody complaining that a scan doesn't match a set because it was bigger/nicer? Don't think so...

Too bad you think that way; there are officials HQ front covers for Falcom/Square albums but they cannot be submitted then if we follow you...

Why not keep both together as you say: win-win for everybody! For the ones who only care highest quality covers and for the ones who enjoy complete sets.
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  #8  
Old Sep 6, 2017, 02:12 AM
LiquidAcid LiquidAcid is offline
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In my opinion scans have a special role, as their primary function is to:
(a) provide album metadata
(b) verify existing metadata

If some 300dpi scans already accurately do this (where accurately means that I don't have to guess kanji because of the lack of resolution), then there is no need to go for 600dpi or even 1200dpi.

I'm totally with Myrkul here. Consistency over anything.

Also I want to point out, as it was discussed in some older thread, that hosting scans is potentially legally problematic. So with that in mind, we should try not to overdo it. VGMdb should remain a database, and not some scan hoster.
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  #9  
Old Sep 6, 2017, 08:45 AM
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When it comes to default scans displayed in an album entry (usually the Front cover), I don't think the size really matters. It's resized and processed on the server, so the result can be of varying quality and in my personal opinion these downsized high-res scans sometimes look worse as the default display image in comparison to a small front cover.

Generally the aim should be to provide full sets of high-res scans, but personally I wouldn't link quality with just DPI and I prefer a "Front (small)" in many cases to a lacking or badly scanned high-res picture (e.g. for display in foobar)

Also we don't really have a definition of size categories for pictures. Suruga-ya is a good resource for CD covers and while they've been improving the size of pictures, it's still considered small by VGMdb standards -- not that I mind..
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  #10  
Old Sep 7, 2017, 07:11 AM
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I vaguely remember something from years ago but what is the point of us keeping the images that are essentially just auction pictures of the package front + back (sometimes shrink wrapped) when higher quality, individual scans exist for front, back, +inserts +obi? I remember someone saying to not delete them but I don't think it makes sense to keep them when higher quality versions exist, especially when you can't even read or make out metadata on some of them.
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  #11  
Old Sep 7, 2017, 10:15 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dancey View Post
I vaguely remember something from years ago but what is the point of us keeping the images that are essentially just auction pictures of the package front + back (sometimes shrink wrapped) when higher quality, individual scans exist for front, back, +inserts +obi? I remember someone saying to not delete them but I don't think it makes sense to keep them when higher quality versions exist, especially when you can't even read or make out metadata on some of them.
I am always deleting small scans / or images from auctions when we got better scans with few exceptions
- Keep small scans if we don't have better quality scans/full set of scans
- Keep auctions case scans if they are contributing to something (ex: because it shows the obi & we don't have that scan, or because the front/obi color is off, or maybe because there's no back cover, etc...)


So.. here's how i do it:

1) Front pictures will always use the best quality available until we get a complete set of scan
2) A good complete set of scans will replace a bad complete set of scans
3a) A good front cover only scan will not replace a mid front cover if the full set have the same (mid) quality
3b) A digital cover will never replace a good/mid front "physical" scan if we have a complete set (unless the quality is extremely low)
3c) Set of scans without watewark will always replace set of scans with huge/annoying watermarks (this is very rare)
4) Final product pictures will replace placeholder/preview/sample pictures (even with low quality)
5) Digital releases will always use the best pictures available


I am also applying the following:
I am not keeping scans if they are completely useless/unreadable (unless the set is complete and we don't have alternatives).
I am not keeping cropped pictures, unless it's informative and readable (credits, etc...)
I am privileging "stitched" scans over single scans (they have to be of better or near equal quality, this is also limited by the size)
I am keeping contents or packaging scans when it's informative

I am used to this and have been handling the queue like this for 10 years, this won't change until i am out.
This apply to GAME music as i am not handling anime scans anymore, i don't know why but anime picture contributers does not care about all of this.
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  #12  
Old Sep 7, 2017, 11:05 AM
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I was just curious. I'd be more inclined to post in an album thread and say "review this" than I would be to just outright delete it, especially since pictures aren't recoverable once deleted. Which is contrary to the tracklist/album edits I make, which can always be rolled back or restored from the edit history.
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  #13  
Old Sep 8, 2017, 02:55 AM
mmuffins mmuffins is offline
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This thread has beeen really interesting to follow. My takeaway so far is that there doesn't seem to be an official site-wide guideline on how (and in what circumstances) images should be replaced with higher quality ones. So I suppose the most reasonable approach to take, from an uploader's perspective, when they come across an album where they could contribute images, is to just upload them and let the mods sort it out.

Don't get me wrong, if that's the established workflow, then I'm absolutely fine with that. I understand that every submission needs to be checked for quality and content. The intent of my original question was to avoid creating additional workload for both uploaders and staff by understanding what kind of submission is (generally) accepted.

At least for game soundtracks I now have a fairly good idea on how to handle them since Myrkul was kind enough to give an insight over his decision process when reviewing album art.
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