album art on X7

[JackBauer83]

Originally Posted by meurglys0

I have two ways for this and they both are guaranteed to work.

a.
1. Embed the album art to the files using mp3tag (You can select all the files at once and embed the image to them at once)
2. Drag and drop the album folder into the music folder on the X7 hdd


b.
1. Place the artwork in the album folder along with the music files and name the image "cover.jpg"
2. Drag and drop the album folder into the music folder on the X7 hdd
...

If you want different images to be displayed while playing different tracks in one album, you will have to embed different images to music files individually.

I don't see why you would want to prefer the hassle of syncing via the moderation of a third party software to the ease of drag and drop in windows explorer... but it's your music files, your time and your player, so you call the shots...

i've tried A, dont always work. as for why i use mediamonkey? its an amazing piece of software that i use to manage my huge music collection

[CrowdAds]

[system11]

Originally Posted by meurglys0

I don't see why you would want to prefer the hassle of syncing via the moderation of a third party software to the ease of drag and drop in windows explorer... but it's your music files, your time and your player, so you call the shots...

When you have the device sync profile set up it makes life easier I find - I don't have to remember which files I've updated tags on, re-encoded etc - I just auto sync and it checks what's on the device vs what should be on there, and updates whatever is needed.

Since you have a different profile for different devices, you can choose exactly what gets synced, and skip certain folders if you want, or change the destination folder layout (for example mine is nested but my girlfriends Sony X series isn't, both synced from the same library). You can also get it to convert music, so if you had a small device you didn't want to use flacs on, the sync can auto convert your flacs to mp3 on the fly.

Finally, Mediamonkey (and I'm sure others too), has a function that can spot files which are missing album art, genre tags, etc. I think the investment of time initially configuring it was worth it overall.

I wouldn't use it if I had to enable MTP mode though.

[JackBauer83]

Originally Posted by system11

When you have the device sync profile set up it makes life easier I find - I don't have to remember which files I've updated tags on, re-encoded etc - I just auto sync and it checks what's on the device vs what should be on there, and updates whatever is needed.

Since you have a different profile for different devices, you can choose exactly what gets synced, and skip certain folders if you want, or change the destination folder layout (for example mine is nested but my girlfriends Sony X series isn't, both synced from the same library). You can also get it to convert music, so if you had a small device you didn't want to use flacs on, the sync can auto convert your flacs to mp3 on the fly.

Finally, Mediamonkey (and I'm sure others too), has a function that can spot files which are missing album art, genre tags, etc. I think the investment of time initially configuring it was worth it overall.

I wouldn't use it if I had to enable MTP mode though.

well said, however what you mean by:

"I wouldn't use it if I had to enable MTP mode though"

where is the album art check function on MediaMonkey?

3rd, do u have the X7? do u have any problems with flac files? problems transfering files to device? problems with album art? displaying multiple album art?

[system11]

Originally Posted by JackBauer83

well said, however what you mean by:

"I wouldn't use it if I had to enable MTP mode though"

The X7 can work in MTP mode or MSC mode - the latter means it appears as a normal USB storage device, works with any operating system and needs no special software. I *refuse* to buy MTP only players, which are still commonly found in Europe - it's a horrible Microsoft thing.

Originally Posted by JackBauer

where is the album art check function on MediaMonkey?

Look down the list of files/etc - there's a section called 'files to edit' - it can tell you when art is missing or out of sync on the tags, they get listed in there.

Originally Posted by JackBauer

3rd, do u have the X7? do u have any problems with flac files? problems transfering files to device? problems with album art? displaying multiple album art?

I have the black 160Gb model flashed to latest firmware. No problems transferring (even 40gb at once), either through sync from Mediamonkey, or drag and drop with Vista, Windows 7 and Linux so far on 3 different PCs. No problems deleting files through the browser (someone said it caused trouble for them so I had to try..) No problems with flac files. No problems displaying multiple album art (although I don't like the feature so I actually stripped my collection down to only cover images).

Only problem I did have was one album where the title begins with "..." - wouldn't show up at all. I didn't actually check to see if the files really were on there before deciding to just rename the album and re-sync the library from MediaMonkey, which fixed it (drag & drop would have worked just as well).

I do wish they'd fix the picture browser though - having it find all cover.jpg on the entire device when you just want to look in the Pictures directory is a pretty poor design choice. That and playlists - I don't care about them but a lot of people do.

[meurglys0]

Originally Posted by system11

When you have the device sync profile set up it makes life easier I find - I don't have to remember which files I've updated tags on, re-encoded etc - I just auto sync and it checks what's on the device vs what should be on there, and updates whatever is needed.

Since you have a different profile for different devices, you can choose exactly what gets synced, and skip certain folders if you want, or change the destination folder layout (for example mine is nested but my girlfriends Sony X series isn't, both synced from the same library). You can also get it to convert music, so if you had a small device you didn't want to use flacs on, the sync can auto convert your flacs to mp3 on the fly.

Finally, Mediamonkey (and I'm sure others too), has a function that can spot files which are missing album art, genre tags, etc. I think the investment of time initially configuring it was worth it overall.

I wouldn't use it if I had to enable MTP mode though.

You totally persuaded me that syncing via a third party software has many benefits!

When you add an album to media monkey and then sync it to the player, do you keep the folder as it is on your pc hard drive, or do you delete it? I used to have a Zune 120 and if I deleted the files from my pc, the Zune software (which basically does what media monkey does) had problems... So I had to keep all the folders I synced into the Zune in a directory titled "Zune Library", which simply meant having double flac albums of the same title; one for the Zune Software, one for my own archival purposes. In my non-zune-related archive I kept all the cue sheets, artwork, extra info etc. along with the flac files, and the folders in the Zune Library had only the flac files...

[kclay]

Originally Posted by meurglys0

I have two ways for this and they both are guaranteed to work.

a.
1. Embed the album art to the files using mp3tag (You can select all the files at once and embed the image to them at once)
2. Drag and drop the album folder into the music folder on the X7 hdd


b.
1. Place the artwork in the album folder along with the music files and name the image "cover.jpg"
2. Drag and drop the album folder into the music folder on the X7 hdd
...

If you want different images to be displayed while playing different tracks in one album, you will have to embed different images to music files individually.

I don't see why you would want to prefer the hassle of syncing via the moderation of a third party software to the ease of drag and drop in windows explorer... but it's your music files, your time and your player, so you call the shots...

Same issue with album art here, some of my album art is in the folder with album but is still too large for screen. Will try to redo some and see how works.
Syncing is definitely easier for me, I personally can't see how dragging and dropping tons of files after many changes or rippings is easier than syncing.
I reripped 30 cd's this weekend, cleaned up about 75 songs that weren't tagged properly, plugged in and left it, synced all just as I had changed. Had I dragged and dropped......I would have had to hunt each one of my changes and the albums. Done this too long, syncing much easier for my situation.

[system11]

Originally Posted by meurglys0

I used to have a Zune 120 and if I deleted the files from my pc, the Zune software (which basically does what media monkey does) had problems... So I had to keep all the folders I synced into the Zune in a directory titled "Zune Library", which simply meant having double flac albums of the same title; one for the Zune Software, one for my own archival purposes. In my non-zune-related archive I kept all the cue sheets, artwork, extra info etc. along with the flac files, and the folders in the Zune Library had only the flac files...

Deleting stuff that is no longer in the library on the PC is optional, you can set it in the sync profile to delete, leave, or ask. There's no reason you can't leave the library as-is though with all cue sheets + etc, it won't try to sync those extra files - what it actually does is sync songs rather than directories/files.

I'm not saying it's the ultimate program for managing music, it's just the one that was recommended to me by a friend a year or two ago - and I'm the type of person who will keep using the same tool if it's still working, even if better ones exist. There is a free version, but you have to buy a license for all features. I think the only paid feature I use (and I could easily just use a standalone mp3 encoder) is converting flacs to mp3. I keep flacs in an archive and only put 320k mp3s on the player - I honestly can't tell the difference at that bitrate.

[mdk1970]

Originally Posted by system11

If you go to the picture browser it browses all your pictures AND all the cover.jpgs on the entire machine, which is also crazy.

Regarding the problem that album covers are automatically transferred to the picture viewer: has anyone tried hiding the cover.jpg files? Go to the properties of the cover.jpg files and check the checkbox 'Hidden'. I own an S9, and this way I make sure the cover.jpg files aren't listed along with the music files when browsing by folder. Perhaps this will also hide them from the picture viewer?

[skip252]

Originally Posted by meurglys0

You totally persuaded me that syncing via a third party software has many benefits!

When you add an album to media monkey and then sync it to the player, do you keep the folder as it is on your pc hard drive, or do you delete it? I used to have a Zune 120 and if I deleted the files from my pc, the Zune software (which basically does what media monkey does) had problems... So I had to keep all the folders I synced into the Zune in a directory titled "Zune Library", which simply meant having double flac albums of the same title; one for the Zune Software, one for my own archival purposes. In my non-zune-related archive I kept all the cue sheets, artwork, extra info etc. along with the flac files, and the folders in the Zune Library had only the flac files...

You may have another lossless format confused with FLAC. Neither the Zune software or hardware works with FLAC. The only lossless format that's supported is WMA Lossless.

[meurglys0]

Originally Posted by skip252

You may have another lossless format confused with FLAC. Neither the Zune software or hardware works with FLAC. The only lossless format that's supported is WMA Lossless.

Yeah, the archive library I mentioned was and is all in FLAC and it's also the format I currently use with my X7, so it slipped my mind that my Zune library was all in WMA...

[Resiak]

Originally Posted by kclay

Same issue with album art here, some of my album art is in the folder with album but is still too large for screen. Will try to redo some and see how works.
Syncing is definitely easier for me, I personally can't see how dragging and dropping tons of files after many changes or rippings is easier than syncing.
I reripped 30 cd's this weekend, cleaned up about 75 songs that weren't tagged properly, plugged in and left it, synced all just as I had changed. Had I dragged and dropped......I would have had to hunt each one of my changes and the albums. Done this too long, syncing much easier for my situation.

I have all my files on a folder on the PC, which I initially transferred to the X7. Any music that I rip after that, I rip to a new folder and then copy those files only, to the X7 and to the folder on the PC. Once done I delete the new folder. No syncing required. It is a matter of preference, so I guess it doesn't matter which way one does it. To me though, transferring new music my way seems simpler and quicker.

[JackBauer83]

The problem I have with album art is I'd transfer about 90gb of music only to find about 98% of album arts working fine leavin a few that arnt, an the only way to get the other 2% working is to re-sync the offending albums using the other USB mode. But that only makes the art appear-the multiple art won't work on the 2%. so clearly the USB mode has an effect on album art.

[mdk1970]

I just received my X7 (purple, 160 GB, from Exportprive) and I must say: I am very pleased with it! The sound is absolutely fantastic and so far I haven't experience any of the problems I have read from other users. Indeed, the user interface is a little awkward or even old-fashioned, but I really dont't mind that much. And who knows, a few firmware updates might improve the whole experience. By the way: it's no problem at all to install the international firmware on the Korean model (currently v2.07).

Now, concerning the album art: the reason most album art doesn't fit on the X7 display is because the dimensions of the X7 display are different! On most players (at least the ones I know of), the dimensions of the album art are square. But on the X7, the dimensions are 272 (W) x 480 (H). So if you resize your album art to 272 x 480, or for example 544 x 960, it fits perfectly. I admit it's not very bright of Cowon (to put it mildly), because most album art is square, but at least it's not an 'official' bug. And if you know your way around photo software like Photoshop, you can actually create some nice artwork of your own ;-)

[Resiak]

I am surprised that you have found a way to show the full album cover. I had tried all sizes and tried again with the dimensions you suggested. It made no difference whatsover! At times filling the screen with the centre of the cover can look nice but I really want the full cover resized automatically as on the J3. Others may not agree, but I consider this a bug and a pretty annoying one too.

[mdk1970]

Hmm, that's odd. I made my own artwork as follows:

- height: 480 px
- width: 272 px
- resolution: 200 px/inch (although resolution doesn't matter much)
- saved as cover.jpg in the album folder (and set the file properties 'hidden' so it doesn't show up in the song list when browsing by folder)

And it looks fine!

Originally Posted by Resiak

I am surprised that you have found a way to show the full album cover. I had tried all sizes and tried again with the dimensions you suggested. It made no difference whatsover! At times filling the screen with the centre of the cover can look nice but I really want the full cover resized automatically as on the J3. Others may not agree, but I consider this a bug and a pretty annoying one too.

[leblabbiy]

What resolution images are you guys using? Are any of you using high resolution folder.jpg's? Just out of curiosity could I talk anybody who is using the folder/cover.jpg method into trying a higher resolution image? Say maybe 1000 pixels? I'm just really curious as to how a higher quality image would look...

[meurglys0]

Originally Posted by JackBauer83

The problem I have with album art is...

Originally Posted by mdk1970

Now, concerning the album art...

Originally Posted by Resiak

I am surprised that you have found a way to show the full album cover...

Originally Posted by leblabbiy

What resolution images are you guys using?...

Friends, why don't you give this UCI a try? That is if you haven't already... It's totally uninstallable, but I' don't think you will want to do that, as it is a great improvement over the native UI. Among its many nice features, the album art is displayed in its original *square* form. Just try it...

[Resiak]

I downloaded, unzipped the files and put them in the correct folder in the flash drive. I can see them there but I can't find a way to make a difference on the X7. Is there some trick I am missing here? I have tried all options on the X7.

[meurglys0]

Originally Posted by Resiak

I downloaded, unzipped the files and put them in the correct folder in the flash drive. I can see them there but I can't find a way to make a difference on the X7. Is there some trick I am missing here? I have tried all options on the X7.

When you are on the native desktop (icon menu) press and hold the m button for a few seconds; an option for choosing the menu style will come up titled "change themes." Select the second theme, that is the "text theme."

Now when you are on the text theme menu in the bottom right corner there is a circular button with a "power" symbol on which, if you press it, brings up the "power off, lock, sleep mode" menu. Do not bring up the menu or close it if you did so... Put your fingertip on this power button and just drag it to the left. You will see that a hidden menu is dragged along with it. The first button from the left takes you back to the native icon theme where you came from; the second one cannot be pressed (and should be blue) for it symbolizes the text theme you are on. The button on the right takes you to the Chakra theme that is where you want to go. On the Chakra theme in the bottom a similar menu system exists. The symbol with three vertical lines brings up the theme menu, if you want to go back to the previous themes. I never did...

If you read the thread you downloaded the Chakra theme from thoroughly, you will see we have discussed it thoroughly. Btw, don't forget to be careful to download the latest version from further in that thread, for it's simply better...

[Resiak]

meurglys0
Can't thank you enough for the trouble you have taken to go through the procedure in such detail. I am sure it will help a few others too. Thanks again.