Album Art and ID3 Tags

[msa]

by the way, something i just saw:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZEN_(portable_media_player)

the wiki-page sais the following:

Album art source: Folder.jpg or from ID3 tag

folder.jpg, huh?
really? i havent tried it out, but that may solve the problem of always having to use the (a little bit annoying) media explorer.

[CrowdAds]

[brightonfemme]

Okay.. I had a few new CD's that I've 'ripped Audio CD' in Creative explorer.. but when I add them to a playlist.. they are all under the artists names.. not the album - and it's a complimation!

Is there anyway round this?

It does display on my Zen under albums.

[tamalazen]

Originally Posted by brightonfemme

Okay.. I had a few new CD's that I've 'ripped Audio CD' in Creative explorer.. but when I add them to a playlist.. they are all under the artists names.. not the album - and it's a complimation!

Is there anyway round this?

It does display on my Zen under albums.

Hi, I've only had my 8GB Zen X-Fi a few days and am also puzzled by why everything appears under Artists, even if some of it was specifically loaded into the Zen's Album folder. I guess the Artist section keeps an eye on what is stored on the Album folder and copies artists from there into Artist folder.

I'm also having difficulty figuring out how to create a Playlist.

I'm also trying to get my head round the Creative Centrale program which, as most forums point out, is not the best piece of software ever written.

So sorry I can't help much except to say I am in the same boat as you.

[moshel]

well u can give the same artist name to all the songs...i know it sound lame and stupid, but it will surely work.

im not sure abt this one but isnt it possible to make a playlist on comp and transfer it to zen?

P.S. someone please note that quick reply is not working properly in google chrome, i had to type the above thing three times!

[BobbyRS]

Hello and welcome.

Originally Posted by brightonfemme

Okay.. I had a few new CD's that I've 'ripped Audio CD' in Creative explorer.. but when I add them to a playlist.. they are all under the artists names.. not the album - and it's a complimation!

Is there anyway round this?

It does display on my Zen under albums.

Originally Posted by tamalazen

Hi, I've only had my 8GB Zen X-Fi a few days and am also puzzled by why everything appears under Artists, even if some of it was specifically loaded into the Zen's Album folder. I guess the Artist section keeps an eye on what is stored on the Album folder and copies artists from there into Artist folder.

I'm also having difficulty figuring out how to create a Playlist.

The Zen supports being an MTP (Message Transfer Protocol) device. This means, for music files, it organizes by ID3 Tags and not by files/folders. You need to make sure that all of the ID3 tags are filled in with the correct information so that it will reflect correctly when organized on the Zen

For more information on MTP.
For more information on ID3 Tags and here.
See the ID3 Tagging FAQ here.
See the Zen FAQ here.

EDIT: Thread merged with main ID3 Thread. You guys may want to check it out from the first page.

[tamalazen]

Thanks BobbyRS for the quick reply.

The only other MP3 player I have had is the BenQ Joybee 120; an excellent, tiny player and with a radio. However it used a very simple filing system without tags.

So I guess what has caught me out with the Zen X-Fi is the comparatively steeper learning curve required to get to grips with the Zen's much more comprehensive feature set. But I'll get there.

As for the player itself, well overall it's an A+ for most things. It sounds good enough, even when plugged into an old Denon amp. The Interface is OK ie buttons and graphics. The radio is strong and clear with 8 stations easily found, but slight movement of the 'antenna' can quickly change that (...I live in Central Scotland). One reboot required in the week I've had it. I've not yet tried to get video onto it yet, and I'm not looking forward to that either. But overall, I like the Zen X-Fi 8GB, so far.

[BobbyRS]

No problem. Yeah, there can be a learning curve, especially from what you are used too, but it is all well worth it in the end. Don't be shy with the Video (yes, another learning curve, but...). It is one of the stronger features of the Zen.

[theonewiththezen]

My album art works perfectly fine, except for the fact the album art are on the wrong songs :P.

[BobbyRS]

Yeah, some of mine are that way. Usually (if I want to correct) I usually just delete the song from the Zen, make sure the file on the computer has the correct artwork, and then re-sync. However, I don't really have much care for album art these days since I just drag-and-drop files anymore.

[msa]

i feel like i'm forced to get an album-art tagged, because it looks kinda odd when it doesnt show the art xD like something is missing

and by the way, i recently tried the folder.jpg-method.
i created an folder named by the album, put some files in there and the album-art as folder.jpg (basically just like the zen explorer creates the .alb-files and puts it to the albums music files)
the zen didnt show any art, though.

i'm just telling you because the english wikipedia-article about the zen sais that it is able to do folder.jpg-album-art.

[BobbyRS]

Yeah, I don't believe the Zen will work with folder.jpg files like the previous Zen's. It looks as though someone put some incorrect information on the wiki; perhaps they just copied the infor from the ZVM or something.

[msa]

yeah, i guess

i dont have an account in the english wikipedia (why doesnt 1 account work for all languages anyway?) and honestly, i'm too lazy to create one... so anyone who has please remove that false imformation from the english zen wikipedia-article (click me, i'm a link!)

/edit:
haha ok, i forgot that you can edit articles even without an account. i just edited it.

[BobbyRS]

Yeah, that is partly the problem with wiki's. You can easily find inaccurrate information, but then again, it is easily corrected.

[Andreas14]

Album art doesn't appears when I play a song
can someone help me.

[BobbyRS]

Andreas14, thread merged with main album art thread. Please check out this thread and the Zen FAQ for more information how to get album art to show.

[Mp3Mike]

Yeah, I don't believe the Zen will work with folder.jpg files like the previous Zen's. It looks as though someone put some incorrect information on the wiki; perhaps they just copied the infor from the ZVM or something.

It works for me. All I do when I rip a cd or download some music is put the files in a folder named 'whatever' inside another folder named band - album. In that folder I download a cool picture (not always band related) using google image search and save the pic as folder.jpg. Everytime it plays a song in my Zen it always shows whatever I downloaded into the folder as folder.jpg
I thought it was a cool feature they added, I didn't realize some people had problems getting album art to show. Try my method.

So: \My Documents\My Music\anything\Band - Album\folder.jpg

[msa]

Originally Posted by Mp3Mike

It works for me. All I do when I rip a cd or download some music is put the files in a folder named 'whatever' inside another folder named band - album. In that folder I download a cool picture (not always band related) using google image search and save the pic as folder.jpg. Everytime it plays a song in my Zen it always shows whatever I downloaded into the folder as folder.jpg
I thought it was a cool feature they added, I didn't realize some people had problems getting album art to show. Try my method.

So: \My Documents\My Music\anything\Band - Album\folder.jpg

thats odd - its exactly what i did.

the only difference being, that i named the folder "album" (well, the actual name of the album, of course), without the bands name in front of it (because thats the way the zen media explorer creates folders when you transfer songs through it)

i guess i'll try the "band - album"-foldername-format to see if that works for me.

[gony]

i thought about buying the 16gig zen, but then i found this:

However, what Sansa is lacking is the ability to read multiple items in one tag (separated by semicolons), which WMP11 can do, and this feature omission is a major detriment in my mind. In WMP11 if you view the library by Contributing Artist, any song that has multiple contributing artists specified (separated by semicolons) will appear separately under each artist. This is enormously useful for obvious reasons. I've got a lot of Ella Fitzgerald songs, a lot of Louis Armstrong songs, and a lot of Ella & Lous duets. How do I tag the duets? In WMP11 I list them both separated by semicolons and the duets are shown under each artist, but not in Sansa; it only appears under the first artist listed.

has the zen the same problem or can he "interpretate" multiple tags?

[bakseetdrivr]

i think you got the wrong forum :P this is the creative zen...but im sure someone will move it over soon enough lo

[gony]

read the question under the quote