-Brading Software Message Board
+--Forum: Mp3/Tag Studio Support and Bug Reports
+---Topic: Is there support for "cover art"? started by dsperber
Posted by: dsperber on June 30 2010,17:41
Looking at another tag utility (MP3TAG) it appears that there is an ID3V2 tag frame type for "cover art".
Having just purchased a high-end portable music player I'd like to be able to update my MP3 files to include all of the cover art I currently have stored separately, in my CD Database software (Musifind Pro).
In other words, for each CD I have the cover art stored as a JPG. So I'd like to use this one JPG for all of the tracks I've created MP3 files for from this CD, and I'd like MP3/Tag Studio to do this for me. All of the MP3 files from a CD are located in a single folder (with Album title as the folder name, underneath the Artist name folder covering all albums by that artist).
Ideally, I'd like a "mass update" function to modify all tracks in that folder to contain the same JPG cover art. But I should also be able to do individual (one or more selected files) updates as well, if I want to.
Is there some way to do that now?
If not, is this a reasonable request for "future enhancement"?
Thanks.
Posted by: dsperber on July 02 2010,15:11
Still looking support for "cover art" in MP3/Tag Studio... if possible.
I installed MP3TAG, to see if I liked it and how it would deal with this JPG cover art item. Turns out it's very simple to do, and by selecting all desired tracks in a folder (i.e. one, or more, or all) and pointing to the JPG to use, the ID3v2 tag data for all tracks is updated to include a new APIC frame ("attached picture").
This cover art now imbedded within the ID3v2 tag can be displayed by Winamp itself (using "view file info"), or can be presented in the ##### window along with the ID3 tag data by a a "cover art" plugin (doesn't really work great), or can be presented along with ID3 tag data in a fade-in/fade-out window by a "track change notifier" plugin named TOASTER (works very well and looks good).
It would be nice if MP3/Tag Studio would support this APIC frame type, with the usual individual or mass capability (just like forcing an artist, year, album, genre, etc., into all track files within a folder).
Posted by: dsperber on July 10 2010,16:46
Well, I've finessed my way around this issue... and the solution does not require (or desire) that MP3/Tag Studio support the APIC frame type in ID3v2 (although that still would be a nice feature to have, consistent with many players and taggers).
Turns out that virtually all "modern" MP3 players support the presence of album art in several different ways:
(1) imbedded JPG/GIF/BMP/PNG within APIC frame in the ID3v2 tag of the MP3 file being played
(2) "%album%.jpg" in the folder in which the MP3 file lives, where %album% is the "album title" name from the ID3 tag for the particular MP3 file being played
(3) "cover.jpg" in the folder in which the MP3 file being played lives
(4) "folder.jpg" in the folder in which the MP3 file being played lives
So aside from (1), which has the negative downside of multiplying the JPG size into each of the MP3 files in that folder, solutions (2), (3) and (4) all accomplish the identical end result (of triggering the "album art" to appear in a window) but without the negative downside of JPG duplication into each MP3 file. In fact, solutions (2), (3) and (4) each allow a single JPG to provide the common single "album art" image for each of the MP3 files in that folder, which presumably corresponds to the single source CD from which all these MP3 tracks were produced.
So that's the approach I've now taken... (3), copying my album art for each of my 1000+ CDs from my CD Database folder into each corresponding MP3 "album" folder, and renaming it there to a constant of "cover.jpg".
So this works, and displays album art beautifully, either (a) when playing MP3 files using Winamp v5.58 on my PC, or (b) when playing these MP3 files folder-copied (along with the "cover.jpg" album art in each folder) onto my newly purchased Cowon J3 64GB portable media player.
But I still think it would be a reasonable "modern" feature if MP3/Tag Studio were enhanced to support APIC frames in ID3v2 tags, both to add and delete that frame, both for individual files as well as "mass" function.
Posted by: Phampson on July 18 2010,04:39
Hey some useful information there dsperber!
I think there is another way to do it you should add to the list:
I have been using the artwork tagging feature in media monkey for a while now and it seems, when I checked those files, the art was only saved into the track 01 of each album!
So it must be the way it is read also. I have had these files in an ipod nano and the album cover shows with every album...even though it is only tagging the first track.
saves space right...?
cheers
I wish the program we all like using, the reason we are here, would be updated soon to get over things like album art and windows 7 too
Posted by: dsperber on July 27 2010,00:34
Just in passing, I mention that using Winamp v5.50 or higher, there is now actually a new "Album Art" window, presented as part of Winamp itself.
In other words, you don't need that old archaic album art plug-in that doesn't work very well, and you don't need TOASTER which taps into the "track change" logic and makes ID3 data and album art appear for maybe 5 seconds and then fade away at each track change event.
I wasn't aware of this new window, because I'd been using an old skin from many many years ago and it was not written to know about this new window. But when I experimented (just on a flyer) with the new "Winamp Modern" skin provided with the program, not only did I really like how it looked but I also suddenly saw the Album Art window appear... since I'd placed cover.jpg album art in each of my MP3 album folders.
So, again, the acquisition of the new Cowon J3 PMP (32GB primary and 32GB microSDHC card) has resulted in me getting much more enjoyment out of both Winamp on the PC as well as playing music on the Cowon, by virtue of implementing album art using a method that is compatible with both player mechanisms and thus displays automatically on my computer screen as well as on the Cowon J3's GORGEOUS screen.
Posted by: dsperber on Nov. 12 2010,04:59
Just in passing...
I don't actually use "imbedded art" in my MP3 files, because it's a pain in the neck. I much prefer the far simpler and more convenient "cover.jpg" single album art image in an album folder solution, which works perfectly for me since my music collection is organized by \Music\Artist\Album anyway.
So, consider the handling of "imbedded art" (in the APIC frame of an ID3 tag) as more of a theoretical question.
However, I point out that both FLAC tags and APE tags also support imbedded album art, for FLAC and APE files respectively.
Furthermore "rival program" MP3TAG (which many people tout highly) supports ALL OF THESE TAG FORMATS... ID3, FLAC and APE... as well as supporting imbedded album art in all three tag formats.
For me, I prefer the user interface of MP3TS (probably because I've been using it for years and have gotten comfortable with it), but when I want to maintain FLAC tags in my FLAC files I'm forced to go to MP3TAG, since MP3TS supports only ID3 tags and nothing else.
==>> I know, it's just a suggestion for the next version of the program: how about extending the tag formats supported by MP3TS to include FLAC tags and APE tags, along with MP3 tags? It would be great if the user-interface of MP3TS could be retained and I could do any kind of tag maintenance I wanted to, and not be forced into MP3TAG because I'm working on a FLAC file.
And while I'm suggesting, I repeat my request for support for imbedded album art in all tags formats which support imbedded art.
Posted by: dsperber on June 12 2011,02:14
---------------------QUOTE BEGIN-------------------
==>> I know, it's just a suggestion for the next version of the program: how about extending the tag formats supported by MP3TS to include FLAC tags and APE tags, along with MP3 tags?
It would be great if the user-interface of MP3TS could be retained and I could do any kind of tag maintenance I wanted to, and not be forced into MP3TAG because I'm working on a FLAC file.
And while I'm suggesting, I repeat my request for support for imbedded album art in all tags formats which support imbedded art.
---------------------QUOTE-------------------
Just thought I'd bring this up again, as a general "wish list" suggestion for a new release/version of MP3TS. MP3 may have been the only format originally that had tags which supported imbedded album art. But now FLAC and APE are available and at least with FLAC is now very very very common with users who have high-quality portable music players (such as the Cowon J3 and similar products). So it really does seem to me to make good sense for MP3TS to support at least these very common FLAC tags (i.e. OGG comments), possibly including imbedded album art in both ID3 and FLAC tags.
APE is not that common for music collections, so that could certainly be ignored. And I, personally, do NOT use imbedded album art, so I could easily live without that feature as well... in any tag format. But support for FLAC tags does seem like a very very important basic function, which would allow me to continue to use MP3TS instead of MP3Tag.
Of course, addressing the shell-related problems running under Win7 (both 32-bit and 64-bit) would be appropriate to work on at the same time.
Maybe even finally looking into a solution for the "large fonts" GUI problems (both in WinXP with "large fonts (120DPI)", and also in Win7 with "125% medium fonts") would be a terrific fix after all these years.
Naturally, I'm not Magnus so I can't just decide to take the precious time to work on these enhancements. I'm not the author of this fine product. But it sure would be nice to have MP3TS usable for FLAC tags.
Posted by: nikkil on Jan. 20 2013,15:43
Hi. Any news yet if there's a support already for cover art?
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