How players display covers?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Pinnell
  • Start date Start date
T

Terry Pinnell

How do players like WMP9, MediaMonkey, WinAmp, etc display album
covers please? Do they find the JPG file online, or is it part of the
MP3 or WMA? If the former and I went offline, would it be necessary to
place a JPG in that same folder?

On a related issue, I have many files of the form
AlbumArt_{0AA37719-0319-41AA-B89E-C55176D61F0D}_Large.jpg
AlbumArt_{0AA37719-0319-41AA-B89E-C55176D61F0D}_Small.jpg
scattered around. What organisation methods do more experienced users
recommend please?
 
How do players like WMP9, MediaMonkey, WinAmp, etc display album
covers please? Do they find the JPG file online, or is it part of the
MP3 or WMA? If the former and I went offline, would it be necessary to
place a JPG in that same folder?

On a related issue, I have many files of the form
AlbumArt_{0AA37719-0319-41AA-B89E-C55176D61F0D}_Large.jpg
AlbumArt_{0AA37719-0319-41AA-B89E-C55176D61F0D}_Small.jpg
scattered around. What organisation methods do more experienced users
recommend please?
Click to expand...

Programs such as WMP download the album art and save it as "Folder.jpg" in the
album folder. If you want to manually add your own artwork, save the file (200 x
200 or greater) as "Folder.jpg" (no quotes) and it will appear on the album's
thumbnail icon in Windows Explorer. Windows will create several other hidden
system files, with odd names, such as
"AlbumArt_{0AA37719-0319-41AA-B89E-C55176D61F0D}_Large.jpg" There's no need to
worry bout those. Folder.jpg is all you need.
 
Galley said:
Programs such as WMP download the album art and save it as "Folder.jpg" in the
album folder. If you want to manually add your own artwork, save the file (200 x
200 or greater) as "Folder.jpg" (no quotes) and it will appear on the album's
thumbnail icon in Windows Explorer. Windows will create several other hidden
system files, with odd names, such as
"AlbumArt_{0AA37719-0319-41AA-B89E-C55176D61F0D}_Large.jpg" There's no need to
worry bout those. Folder.jpg is all you need.
Click to expand...

Thanks - appreciate the fast reply. But the example I've just tried
doesn't seem to square fully with that. I have a WMA

Benny Goodman - Swing Sessions - Body and Soul.wma

in a folder. There's no 'Folder.jpg', but there is a file

AlbumArt_{E6F24B73-BFA0-4C4D-A320-838123FA8D78}_Large.jpg

On d-clicking, WMP9 plays and the album name 'Swing Session' and the
cover picture are shown at top right, in the Now Playing mode, in the
area underneath 'Find album information'.

If I remove that JPG and d-click again, the picture disappears (but
the album name remains). Yet if I go to Media Libary mode and click
'View album info', I get the picture and all details. On returning to
Now Playing, the picture has gone (replaced by the standard 'musical
note' image).

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK



an empty folder and d-clicked it.
 
WMP uses:
AlbumArt_%WMID%_%size%.jpg
first, and then falls back to Folder.jpg Since in this instance you removed
the AlbumArt image and didn't have Folder.jpg, you didn't have art to
display.

But Galley was correct: for general usage, you don't need to worry about
AlbumArt_%WMID%. That will override Folder.jpg so if it exists you might
want to delete that file if you wish to supply your own Folder.jpg, but you
don't need to worry about sorting out the %WMID% value for each piece of
content. =)
http://www.zachd.com/pss/pss.html#albumart

-Zach
--
(speaking for myself and doing this in my free time)
See http://www.nwlink.com/~zachd/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
Following up to your post with the resolution is good netiquette.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Now Playing: "When She's Gone" by "Electronic" in Windows Media Player.
--
 
WMP uses:
AlbumArt_%WMID%_%size%.jpg
first, and then falls back to Folder.jpg Since in this instance you removed
the AlbumArt image and didn't have Folder.jpg, you didn't have art to
display.

But Galley was correct: for general usage, you don't need to worry about
AlbumArt_%WMID%. That will override Folder.jpg so if it exists you might
want to delete that file if you wish to supply your own Folder.jpg, but you
don't need to worry about sorting out the %WMID% value for each piece of
content. =)
http://www.zachd.com/pss/pss.html#albumart

-Zach
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think they may have changed things somewhat with the release of WMP9.
Then again, I don't use WMP.
 
zachd said:
WMP uses:
AlbumArt_%WMID%_%size%.jpg
first, and then falls back to Folder.jpg Since in this instance you removed
the AlbumArt image and didn't have Folder.jpg, you didn't have art to
display.

But Galley was correct: for general usage, you don't need to worry about
AlbumArt_%WMID%. That will override Folder.jpg so if it exists you might
want to delete that file if you wish to supply your own Folder.jpg, but you
don't need to worry about sorting out the %WMID% value for each piece of
content. =)
http://www.zachd.com/pss/pss.html#albumart
Click to expand...


Thanks Zach. It's becoming gradually clearer; I've been using your web
page material too. I need to do more experiments to drive it home
though. It may be that my confusion partly arose because WMP was just
not *finding* any album art...

On a related minor point, in WMP9 Media Library, in the Media Info
column, what is the difference between 'Unknown' and 'Not Found'
please?
 
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