Album Art and ID3 Tags

[Buzzkill]

Is there a way to add album art using the Creative software? Can I had the picture named Folder.jpg to the music folder?


BTW, I know how to using WMP, etc.

[CrowdAds]

[Valdr]

You use XP or Vista?

[Buzzkill]

XP.

I think i figured it out. I can add a .jpg file to the music folder called folder.jpg BUT it has to be no larger than 200x200. Is this correct? What a pain.

[Valdr]

Nope, I asked about your OS because I'm not sure if it works with Vista.
But as you use XP it's easier than you think:
Browse your files in Zen Media Explorer and get to Music and folder where you keep specific album, then change View to Albums (it is in window's menu).
You should see album art in the upper part of window if it's missing you'll see something like CD case icon. Now all you have to do is drag and drop jpg file with album art on this icon. It should work with any resolution of jpg file (Media Explorer should resize it if needed) if you can see an album art in Media Explorer you can be sure it'll be visible in Zen.

[Buzzkill]

I transfered two folders onto my SD card and I can't see any album art. If I import them onto the player, I can.

Is this normal?

[qwerty_uk]

Yes. Don't expect anything on the SD card to behave well. No album art, no playlists, no resume, no sequential play (videos) etc etc.

[0m3g4Muff1n987]

Hey, I just got my Zen and I'm pretty happy with it, but I have a few questions.

1. I transferred my music onto it, which all had album art imbedded in the file by Mediamonkey, so it should have worked. But when I play a song on it, the art doesn't show up. By the way, I think I synced the music before I upgraded the firmware, maybe that could be it?

2. The sound quality is terrible. Is it the actual player, or just those headphones? I used to have a Sandisk Sansa Express, and even that little piece of crap sounded better than this with Sandisk's default headphones.

3. Movies. What formats are supported, and what should I encode it with? I have Super, which is pretty much the best converting program in the world, but I had some mp4's that apparently didn't show up on the Zen after I synced them.

If you guys could answer this, that'd be great. Thanks.

[dragnandy]

use the zen media explorer, and search where the folder you have the music in, then click view, then album. it will then show a album art on the top. if there isn't any, then drag one in.

-for movies, i know that mp4 wont work. im not sure about all of them, you can check on the compare for the specs in ABI. i know wmv,abi,divx,xvid works.

[Buzzkill]

Format the player, upgrade the software and try adding songs again with media monkey. I use it and my artwork shows up. I don't use the creative earbuds, but with my Shure E2c's, the sound is very nice. As good as any ipod or mp3 player I have owned. Try putting some .wav files and getting a good set of ear buds or head phones.

[thoots]

Originally Posted by 0m3g4Muff1n987

1. I transferred my music onto it, which all had album art imbedded in the file by Mediamonkey, so it should have worked.

2. The sound quality is terrible. Is it the actual player, or just those headphones?

I just bought a 32-gig version, and transferred a bunch of files via WMP 10 -- all with art embedded into the files. No art at all on the player.

Actually, the interface is so nice and clean, I'm really quite happy without the art. I'm sure thinking in terms of "not worrying about it at all" and just transferring a bunch of other files with no art on over to the thing.

Headphones make a huge difference. I've been using a good set of Sony earbuds (not even sure where they came from over the years), and I'm 100% satisfied with the sound quality. I've set it for bass boost and the "Acoustic" EQ setting, and I'm absolutely happy.

The main usage will be at the office, attached to a good-quality mini stereo system -- I'm not sure I'll need any bass boost there, and I'll see what sounds the best once I get back to work on Monday. But, I'm quite sure I'll be happy with one setting or another. Really, I've got no complaints about the sound quality, at all!

[0m3g4Muff1n987]

Dragnandy, abi? You mean AVI? And does WMV work if I have WMP11?

Also, my bad, I forgot to edit, but I downloaded the Zen Sync Manager (I couldn't get media explorer to install because it said no player was found, even though it was plugged in.) and synced my music there, and it put a picture file in all of the album folders and it displays it on the player now. But thoots, you said if you transfer with WMP10 the art will be there with no picture in each album folder? Does that work on WMP11?

And finally, are there any really cheap (let's say, 10 bucks or less) headphones that have decent sound quality? I'm 14 and poor and don't want to pay an extra $40 for better SQ.

[Buzzkill]

Originally Posted by 0m3g4Muff1n987

Dragnandy, abi? You mean AVI? And does WMV work if I have WMP11?

Also, my bad, I forgot to edit, but I downloaded the Zen Sync Manager (I couldn't get media explorer to install because it said no player was found, even though it was plugged in.) and synced my music there, and it put a picture file in all of the album folders and it displays it on the player now. But thoots, you said if you transfer with WMP10 the art will be there with no picture in each album folder? Does that work on WMP11?

And finally, are there any really cheap (let's say, 10 bucks or less) headphones that have decent sound quality? I'm 14 and poor and don't want to pay an extra $40 for better SQ.

The best sub $50 earbuds I have heard are the Sony MDR-E828LP.
Clear smooth highs, tight lows, non-fatiquing. Hard to believe they are $12. I still prefer these for working out over my Shure E2c's.

[dragnandy]

Originally Posted by 0m3g4Muff1n987

Dragnandy, abi? You mean AVI? And does WMV work if I have WMP11?

.

i meant like
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/compa...s/creative-zen

sorry for the confusion

[0m3g4Muff1n987]

Oh, ok. I'll try putting a WMV on there after I get back, because I'm leaving, but I'll see if it works later.

EDIT: Yep, thanks, one of my WMV's was displayed, but its frame size was too big. I'll have to convert all mah vids And dang is it slowwwww. Maybe Super would be faster than Any Video Converter.

[thoots]

Originally Posted by 0m3g4Muff1n987

But thoots, you said if you transfer with WMP10 the art will be there with no picture in each album folder? Does that work on WMP11?

Hehehehe. I don't have WMP11 on my system, so all I know is WMP10. I initially transferred over about 8 gigs of mostly WMA files (maybe 5% MP3 files in the bunch), and each and every file had album art embedded into it, mostly done by myself via MP3Tag. Otherwise, I didn't have any of the usual WMP album art files anywhere on my computer.

And, indeed, I wound up with absolutely no album art on the Zen, at all.

So, that's one pretty specific situation. It's definitely different than, say, ripping everything via WMP and then synching it -- perhaps "drinking the Microsoft koolaid" might make it work.

No problem with me, though -- I really like how the Zen displays things without the art, so that's fine with me.

So, I'm now in the middle of replacing everything with 320 kB/s MP3 files, and adding a ton more -- I've got 29 gigs just about ready to go, just need to clean up some tags. I sure like having the room to put a ton of high-quality MP3 files in there -- that ought to take care of my MP3 player needs for quite a few years!

[khaytsus]

Originally Posted by 0m3g4Muff1n987

Dragnandy, abi? You mean AVI? And does WMV work if I have WMP11?

Also, my bad, I forgot to edit, but I downloaded the Zen Sync Manager (I couldn't get media explorer to install because it said no player was found, even though it was plugged in.) and synced my music there, and it put a picture file in all of the album folders and it displays it on the player now. But thoots, you said if you transfer with WMP10 the art will be there with no picture in each album folder? Does that work on WMP11?

And finally, are there any really cheap (let's say, 10 bucks or less) headphones that have decent sound quality? I'm 14 and poor and don't want to pay an extra $40 for better SQ.

Look here for about $20 for an excellent set of noise-isolating headphones. After very minor modifications, the sound is quite decent, and after some additional modification (if you so desire) it is very good.

http://www.headwize.com/projects/cmoy4_prj.htm

[Mich321]

Originally Posted by Addie_Goodvibes

I have a provblem A few times when I have downloaded songs from My PC Harddrive to My ZEN the Album Art that should be with the album or track is replaced by Album Art from a different album /track

Does anyone else have this problem with Album art mix-ups? and what can be done to get the zen to upload the correct album art?

I have had this issue myself. What is odd is that in WMP, the art shows up correctly and even in the Zen (thru WMP) its correct. When I look at a song on the Zen itself though, it's wrong. For instance, Jewel and Leona Lewis both have albums called "Spirit". I had Jewel on my Zen first. When I synced Leona Lewis' "Spirit", even though WMP had the correct album art, the Zen used Jewel's "Spirit" art. Weird. Annoying little thing.

Before you ask, yes, I use Tag & Rename and spent almost 3 weeks updating all my music, so it's all good.

[Addie_Goodvibes]

I have managed to get songs on my Zen with no more album art mixups,
I first open the music file and properly tag it, then play it through WMP 11 , in the library view the track shows up I then highlight the track right click and the option comes up to find album info. through there I can chose the album art I want, for example if i have a song that was downloaded from a Greatest hits album, i can retag it to its original Album info and find the correct album art to match it to, then i sync to Zen from WMP 11.


WMP 11 has some nice new features very Zen friendly!

[whatahw]

I have recently invested in a Zen 8GB and everything is working great except I can't get my head around one thing - displaying album art using WMP11.

I have synced some albums using WMP11. They all have album art covers displayed in WMP but not on the Zen. I don't know why this is

However, I then tried using Zen Media Explorer ("Add Media" button) and as well as transferring all the music files it also copied the Folder.jpg, AlbumArtSmall.jpg etc. of the associated album into folders (titled with the artist name) in the main "Pictures" folder on the Zen. For example, when I browse "Photos" on the Zen it might look like;
Pictures\Daft Punk\Homework\AlbumArtSmall.jpg

I would use the Zen Media Explorer method only that I like the sync option in WMP11 where you can chose maximum bitrate and also it would be nice not to have all the album art mixed with my own pictures on the Zen.

The music files are .mp3 and the album art was originally acquired by WMP automatically during ripping. But I'm not sure if those files are embedded or not. How do I find out if they are? Do I have to use software like MP3Tag or MediaMonkey or can I get WMP to do it?

Thanks anyway.

[BobbyRS]

Album art needs to be embedded into the ID3 tag in order to be transferred to the Zen and shown correctly. The Zen will not read album art by a separate (not embedded) .jpg photo file from the audio track and its metadata (ID3 Tag). WMP and MP3Tag both work great at doing this.

By default WMP doesn't embed them into the ID3 tag. It uses a separate database made of those .jpg files you see. With WMP11, you can use the Advanced Tag Editor on song titles when in Library view or you can copy and paste a .jpg image into the library album art placeholder to embed album art into the audio file. WMP11 also has the capability to search an online database for album info and art that can also be embedded into the ID3 tag.

With MP3Tag you can also add cover art by select that option on the album art placeholder and selecting the photo file you may have or do an online database lookup (much like WMP) that will apply the album art and tag info.

Like I said, both work great. Zen Media Explorer, I've heard works great as well. I believe you have to use the "Add Media" option in order to embed album art to audio files. The nice thing about the Zen Media Explorer is if it shows in the Zen Media Explorer, you can just about guarantee that it will show up on the Zen.

Oh, and make sure to keep album art no larger then 200x200 in order for it to show on the Zen properly.