Remove non-audio media filter

[jprjr]

Database Migration

NO

Description

It removes the filter to strip out non-audio media from a release.

The current implementation is confusing (I didn't understand why I could see certain releases in Musicbrainz but not in Lidarr).

With this change all media types are available in Lidarr. This adds support for releases based on audio-only blu-rays (or more accurately - downloads associated with audio-only blu-rays), DVD concert rips, and so on.

Screenshot (if UI related)

Backend-only, no screenshots.

Todos

• Tests
• Translation Keys (./src/NzbDrone.Core/Localization/Core/en.json)
• Wiki Updates

Issues Fixed or Closed by this PR

• Fixes Allow DVD and Blu-ray sources  #4123
• Fixes Albums missing for artist #2084

[mynameisbogdan]

Maybe we should take into consideration the points you raised in #4123 as well in this PR, if doable?

[jprjr]

Hi @mynameisbogdan - issue #4123 was closed as a duplicate with no further explanation. I did not see that until I went to open this PR. I went ahead and opened it anyway since I had already made the change, tested, and pushed up a branch.

Based on the tags of "won't fix" and whatnot, my concern is if I perform any additional work that it will be unwanted/rejected.

If the project is receptive to the change I would request the issue be re-opened and that communicated, the response I got indicates the project is not interested.

[mynameisbogdan]

Hello @jprjr,

It's not that the project isn't interested, but this project doesn't have support for what you want to do.
And the changes in this PR at this point isn't changing that. How are you doing to support ISO files or directory based Blu-Rays? How are you going to tag metadata into them, how will you detect their quality and so on.

Take also into account that no other arr has support for ISO, DVD or BluRay media for a good reason.

[jprjr]

Hi @mynameisbogdan - my expectation is to support all releases from musicbrainz, regardless of the type of media set - it's a source for metadata, not audio data.

From my point of view - it's not like we can tag physical CDs, tapes, or vinyls, so why would Lidarr need support for tagging blu-ray directories, etc? It's up to the user to prepare taggable audio files that represent the songs (via ripping a CD, recording from Vinyl and chopping it up, etc), and to place them somewhere Lidarr can access it.

Whether the original source is a CD, a recording made from Vinyl or cassette, a rip from blu-ray - it seems like quality is primarily determined based on whether file is lossless/lossy, sample rate, and bit-depth, not what the original source is, unless I'm mistaken. But anything beyond that would be subjective - I don't think there's an objective way to truly state, CD > Vinyl or Vinyl > CD, that's mostly user preference.

So I would extend the same logic to blu-ray. As long as the audio file has the higher sampling rate and bit depth, it's probably better (save for cases where a "high-res" re-release is made from the same poor-quality master etc, but that seems out of scope).

Ultimately: all I really want to do is use Musicbrainz releases as a metadata source, not an audio data source, so I'm not sure why any media type is being filtered. If I have some files that I say represent a VHS tape, vinyl record, or blu ray, I should be able to do that - because to me that's no different than saying I have some files that represent a CD.

[mynameisbogdan]

The tests are broken?

From my point of view - it's not like we can tag physical CDs, tapes, or vinyls

But we do, if it's one of these extensions.

You're going to rip the media into separate files so you can import every song individually?

[jprjr]

From my point of view - it's not like we can tag physical CDs, tapes, or vinyls

But we do, if it's one of these extensions.

No see, that's what I'm getting at - an MP3 file, FLAC file, etc is not a CD, tape, or vinyl. It's a representation of that. It's a file that contains audio data, that I say came from one of those sources.

So following that logic - as long as I have the audio data in a format supported by Lidarr, the metadata source could be anything, right? If Musicbrainz has a listing for an album released only on a cylindrical record, and I have some files that I say represent that record, I should be able to link it up. If some avante-garde band made a "VHS Album" in the 80s - as long as musicbrainz has an entry, and I have some files that match up to the musicbrainz metadata, I should be able to link that as well.

Ultimately, that is what we're already doing. We're saying "I have some files that represent this CD", "I have some files that represent this vinyl record" - it's no different.

You're going to rip the media into separate files so you can import every song individually?

People do that all the time. They do it with CDs, they make recordings of vinyl records and chop them up, the extract the audio out of concert videos. They all have varying levels of effort involved (CD being easiest - already digitized, already has a concept of tracks, etc), but that's essentially what needs to happen to any set of files representing a release, regardless of what the source type is.

This isn't about making Lidarr support whole new media or file types. All audio must still be in some supported format.

My core argument here is, I don't think there's a great reason to strip "non-audio" sources out of results returned from Musicbrainz, because as far as I can tell that media type isn't actually used anywhere, anyway - not for searching for files, not for comparing quality, that's all driven by the audio properties of the downloaded files.

This is just about letting me sync files up with whatever Musicbrainz entry I would like.

[jprjr]

To put it another way:

Music companies are putting out lossless, high-quality releases as audio-only blu-ray discs. Maybe there's technically a video component to these discs, maybe there's extra data on there, whatever.

People are already ripping these discs and packaging them up into FLAC files, tagged with track indexes, etc. As far as media-management goes from Lidarr's point of view, these are fundamentally no different than CD rips, Vinyl rips, etc. They're in supported formats and organized in a Lidarr-compatible way. If there's extra data in a download, it will be handled exactly as it would be in a CD-based release - probably discarded unless the user added the file extension to the list of file extensions to keep.

These releases are ignored by Lidarr, because it queries Musicbrainz, and Musicbrainz says the media is a "non-audio" media.

As far as I can tell, this is the one and only thing Lidarr really does with this piece of information (besides presentation-related things - this is the only place where it's used in application logic).

The ask here isn't to download and manage ISOs or blu-ray folders, or add new audio formats, it's to let Lidarr handle these existing releases that it can already otherwise handle.

[mynameisbogdan]

I understood what you're trying to sell. 😋

We'll have to wait for the lead dev to decide on it.