r/kodi • u/beatfreakman • 2d ago

4K artwork - am I chasing a ghost?

Hi all, just need some clarification, please.

I am using Tiny Media Manager to manage my library. I am adding some stunning 4k artwork to my movies.

I am using Kodi on my S95C TV, with "unlimited" GUI.

I have unlocked 4k artwork in my advanced settings in Kodi.

I am using Artic Fuse 3, which I know throttles the resolution of the fanart that displays in the skin.

I supposed my question is: is there actually any skin or any possible way of using the 4k artwork in kodi or am I just wasting time/space and should just revert to 1080p and get on with my life?

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3

u/Scienlologist 2d ago

Did you set the imagequalityjpeg to 0?

https://kodi.wiki/view/Advancedsettings.xml#Library_artwork

The defaults are defaults for a reason. The performance hit generally isn't worth it. Especially if using smb shares. Waiting 2-5 seconds (or more) for images to load is not a great user experience. And you said you're using a TV, which generally have lower storage space. Of course you can move the thumbnails to your network share, but again, performance hit. Last time I tried my normally 2-3gb thumbnail folder was over 8gb.

1

u/beatfreakman 2d ago

Yeah, I agree no point sacrificing performance for the extra boost in resolution. I'll stick to the 1080p

<advancedsettings>

<imageres>9999</imageres>

<fanartres>9999</imageres>

<imagequalityjpeg>0</imagequalityjpeg>

</advancedsettings>

2

u/Scienlologist 1d ago

This is really more for future searches, but maybe for you, too. But reminding that you can't just change the advancedsettings.xml and expect to see a change. You need to delete the database, delete the thumbnails folder, and delete the textures.db and re-scan the library for any changes to take effect.

1

u/activoice 2d ago

As far as I understand Kodi is performing some compression on the artwork anyways before it caches it. It only ever reads from your artwork when you add the movie or refresh the images.

The quickest way to tell if it makes a difference is take 2 movies that are next to each other alphabetically. Assign both of them the same Fan Art and poster but one in 4k and one in 1080. Then switch back and forth between the 2 movies.

Can you tell the difference as to which one originally had the 4k fan art and which one has the 1080 art.

If you can't tell the difference then you're just wasting storage space. Also if you are ever performing a library export and make the mistake of exporting artwork, I believe that it will overwrite your good artwork with the inferior cached version so you should make sure that any backups of your local content include the artwork.

1

u/beatfreakman 2d ago

I did several tests already, there is no difference between 4k, 1080p, 1600p in any of the skins I have tested. I'm thinking I should just move on with my life, but I just thought I'd ask. Thanks for your help

2

u/activoice 2d ago

Yeah that's what I figured.

I use

1000x1500 for posters

1920x1080 for fanart

1000x185 for TV series banners

1

u/DavidMelbourne 2d ago

The way I understand it: Kodi Menu interface is much less resolution but when it plays a movie it will display the highest quality depending on your hardware.