Totally new - please help!

[vaderag]

Firstly, can i say that this looks like an excellent piece of software and absolutely perfect for my needs.
However, i've just started playing with it, but there seems quite a lot that i cant find out how to do, even after reading the forums etc.

Couple of questions that spring to mind at the moment are:
1) How do I make it download all the cover shots for my cd's automatically?
2) Where can i find already created skins by people. There are tons of screenshots of various skins littered around the site, but i cant seem to find the skins to download (http://www.xlobby.com/skins - doesnt have a large selection!) Ideally, i'm looking for a skin that can deal with Music, Movies (with one section for DVD's and one for things on my Hard Disk, and also preferably with a section for TV shows and one for Movies), Weather, Roms, News (not essential) Pictures, and Files. If anyone knows of a skin that looks similar to the default skin with these features, it would be incredibly useful for me to modify to my needs!

Thanks in advance for any help!

[rembetis]

1) If you have your music files in Artist / Album / Songs folder heirarchy, just put the cover art in the songs folder and Xlobby should import it with the standard import under F2 > Basic.

(If you're asking whether Xlobby will automatically search and download the covers, it won't. You need to use the spiders and do it individually. Do a search for spiders.

2) Check the skins forum as well. Most of us end up customizing our skins, so maybe you were seeing variants. Colby's Bluez Skin has about as complete a feature set of any skin out there, while still being quite useable for the newbs.

p.s. I think 20 skins is a very nice selection sample, especially compared to a few other frontends I've seen.

[Marbles_00]

Most skins include a "Spider" screen or overlay where after selecting your album, click on the option to download covers from the web. You can then select the cover which looks the best. That is about as automated as it gets currently. Otherwise you will have to go into Setup/Databases and then get the covers via spider manually.

Most of the skins offer what you want, though you still have to create your own databases. One of the most popular seems to be the Heavy Metal series as it offers just about everything you have listed. You may still have to modify it to suit your individual needs, but it looks to be your best match.

Most of the people that post skins will have links in their posts to download them.

rembetis....you beat me to the punch

[vaderag]

(If you're asking whether Xlobby will automatically search and download the covers, it won't. You need to use the spiders and do it individually. Do a search for spiders.

Thats wierd, coz on http://www.xlobby.com/features page, it says that its built in?!?

I'll check out the skins you both suggested tomorrow - thanks!

[rembetis]

Thats wierd, coz on http://www.xlobby.com/features page, it says that its built in?!?

Not to split hairs, but what it says is that Xlobby has a "built-in cover art downloader." That's certainly true -- these are the "spiders" Marbles and I were talking about, and many skins have integrated them directly into the skin (you can also access them under F2 > Databases > Music > Edit). However, its isn't "automagic." You have to do each manually.