Album Art

[abe]

Hello guys

When I rip a CD onto my computer and put it onto my Creative Zen V Plus the album art shows up. With my downloaded songs the album art is never there. Can someone please tell me why this is?

Thanks

[CrowdAds]

[Almoxil]

There are some reasons for that:

• First, your downloaded songs may not have embedded album art in them. You can use programs like WMP11, MediaMonkey, MP3Tag and others to embed album art inside your MP3 files, so that won't be a problem anymore;
• Second, what program are you using to sync your tunes? If you use, lets say, MediaMonkey for some albums but eventually copy albums through Windows Explorer or WMP11, you'll have problems with the album art not displaying properly. If that's the case, you'll have to format the memory of your Zen V Plus and re-sync all your albums using the same program (either WMP11, MediaMonkey, Winamp or other). The important thing is that you will have to choose one program, and keep syncing through this same program whenever you want to add another album.

[abe]

With my downloaded songs, what I do, is download the songs. Put them in my WMP11 library, find the album info for that song and then copy them onto my player. Every album that I ripped from a physical CD, even on WM10 showed the album art perfectly. It's only songs that I've downloaded which never show album art.

[Almoxil]

I'd try downloading MP3Tag. It's a very good tag editor. After you download and install the application, use it to verify some of your downloaded songs. If there's embedded album art on the tracks, it will show.

[Nigel]

I have been conducting some tests on Zen Album Art when synchronized by Win XP and Win 2K to a Zen V Plus.

SETUP

PC One

• OS = Win XP SP2
• WMP11
• MediaMonkey3 with ...
  Album of ten .mp3 tracks
  Tracks tagged to ID3v2
  Library Node = <Artist>\<Album>\
  Filename = <Track#:2> <Artist> - <Title>
  Single 200x200 embedded APIC tag image on each track
  Tagging verified with MM, mp3 Tag Tools, and mp3Tag

PC Two

• OS = Win 2000 SP4
• WMP9
• MTP Driver via MTP9x-2k.exe
• MediaMonkey3 with ...
  Album of ten .mp3 tracks
  Tracks tagged to ID3v2
  Library Node = <Artist>\<Album>\
  Filename = <Track#:2> <Artist> - <Title>
  Single 200x200 embedded APIC tag image on each track
  Tagging verified with MM Tag inconsistencies script (by Bex), mp3 Tag Tools, and mp3Tag

PROCEDURE

Using identical files from both PCs...

• Clear Zen of tracks
• Sychronise to the Zen from PC One using MediaMonkey3
• Clear Zen of tracks
• Synchronize to the Zen from PC Two using MediaMonkey3
• Over-synch single track from PC One (WinXP) on Zen that holds synched tracks from PC Two

RESULTS

Synching from PC One (WinXP)

• Tracks list and play correctly
• Album Art is visible in Now Playing (and enlargable)

Synching from PC Two (Win2k)

• Tracks list and play correctly
• Album Art not visible in Now Playing (and not enlargable)
• Happens whether synch from PC One has been cleared or not

Over-synching PC Two tracks with PC One (single track)

• Zen in the no Album Art condition is transformed to all tracks with visible art by over synching just one track with a WinXP PC

DISCUSSION

I have searched for any post indicating that the Zen can take Album Art from a PC with Win2k on...

• Creative Zen Forum
• MediaMonkey Forum
• Here

So far no go.
Has anyone here got any ideas please?

My guess is that the MTP porting kit for legacy OS's is comming up short in this respect, but I am curious as to why all Album Art appears when only one Album track is over-synched. My source of MTP9x-2k.exe was a MediaMonkey forum link, is there a different Creative version out there.
The VID & PID is correct in the .inf file.

I haven't used the Creative Media Explorer because I need to be Win2k compliant with this Zen V Plus (and have always used Media Monkey )

This isn't only for me, as I have found thousands of posts from very unhappy Zen Bunnies with legacy OS out there (ruined Christmas being a common theme) ....!

Longshot: I presume no-one has found a way of tricking the Zen into UMS without partitioning?

Cheers folks

[Nigel]

Anyone got any ideas why Album Art doesn't synch under Win 2000?

[BobbyRS]

I think your guess is along the lines of being correct. Can you try doing the same test again, except this time sync/transfer using WMP instead of MediaMonkey? Don't use DRM tracks though.

You can also try using this MTP driver from Creative instead:
http://us.creative.com//support/down...US_1_01_00.exe

[Nigel]

Hi BobbyRS,

I tried WMP somethime before and no go, but I will try again and will re-post findings.

I am using P4S_PCDRV_US_1_01_00.exe already.

I am also working on a similar problem with a Samsung YP-U3. I see that the problem has been fixed with a UMS firmware update discovered by your posters on this forum. Any chance of a similar fix for the Zen V Plus?

Thanx,

Nigel

[BobbyRS]

The Zen V/Plus is still strictly an MTP device. No MTP to UMS "fix" that I am aware of.

[mysticstylez]

Simple question, hopefully simple answer.


Thanks.

nm...maybe i should read the forum a tad more..sorry

[BobbyRS]

Yes it sure does. From the ABI review:

Album art is displayed on the “now playing” screen and can be made full screen by pushing the center of the 5-way joystick. This player handles album art better than most other MP3 players by reading it directly from ID3 tags. Some other players require an actual JPEG file under a specific size and dimension in the album folder residing on the player. It works, but it can get messy and may take extra steps to get it to work properly. This problem does not exist with the Zen V. The Zen V will read the embedded album art and display it correctly without problems or additional steps. When you are not adding album art to your ripped CDs, the Zen V handles album art from pay downloads and subscriptions just as well.

[BobbyRS]

Oh, you may want to make sure your Zen V has the latest 1.32.01 firmware since it directly resolves album art issues.

Filename: ZENVPlus_PCFW_L22_1_32_01.exe
This download contains an improved version of the firmware found on your Creative ZEN™ V Plus. It improves the support of album art display. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.

Added Features or Enhancements:

• Improves support for album art display.

Requirements:

• Microsoft® Windows Vista™, Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP (Service Pack 1 or higher)
• Windows Media® Player 10 or later
• USB port
• Creative ZEN V Plus

Notes:

• To install this firmware
  1. Download the ZENVPlus_PCFW_L22_1_32_01.exe file into your local hard disk.
  2. Close all application windows that are currently running on your computer.
  3. Connect your player to your computer.
  4. Double-click the downloaded file and follow the instructions on the screen.

[lyokoLover910]

Also the picture file may be corrupt

[BobbyRS]

Check out the Tagging FAQ here. Like mentioned before, if the album art is embedded, it should show.

[Toelly]

Hi
I' new here. After visiting this site for a while, I decided to log in on the forum
But i have a problem with my Zen V. Normally it should show album art, and it did, for a while... But it doesn't anymore.
I've tried everything, and i'm sure that my songs contain album art.
To me, it looks like I've accidentally pressed the option 'don't show album art'. But as far as i now, there isn't an option like that.
Does anyone know what to do?

[BobbyRS]

Welcome Toelly. Thread merged with main Album Art thread. You may want to give it a read for a possible solution.

[Toelly]

Ok thanks, I'm going to try some different software i think

[BobbyRS]

Good luck. Be careful when using multiple sync managers. It is a good way to end up with duplicates. It may be easier to verify that they contain album art (either move them back to the computer or check the copies backed-up on the computer) and then re-sync. If you already have a backup copy on the computer that you use to sync between, it may be better to just Format the Zen to erase the files and re-sync after you verify album art is embedded within their ID3 tags.

[Toelly]

OK, thanks for the tip

[BobbyRS]

No problem and good luck! Album art issues can be a pain.