Topic: How have you stored your covers? (Read 5075 times)

SBrandsborg aka Mouseman · « **on:** May 10, 2003, 02:52:43 pm »

Hi
How are you guys storing your covers???
What is smartest?
What is fastest???

rocketsauce · « **Reply #1 on:** May 10, 2003, 03:22:42 pm »

I store them as folder.jpg in each albums folder, primarily because this is a WinXP convention. For a few files that aren't in specific album directories of their own, I have them in MCs cover art directory. There are draw backs to both methods, though.

If the images are in MCs cover art directory, the file has to be named artist - album.jpg (or [multiple artist] - album.jpg for various artist albums) in exactly the same way that the info appears in the file tags. If, for some reason, the cover art becomes disconnected with the corresponding music files and you have made changes in the artist or album tag info, then MC won't automatically associate the image when it scans the cover art directory. Also, if you scan your cover art (instead of downloading it) it's a hassle to have to manually name all the images correctly.

If you store cover art images in each album folder, it's easy to name them when you scan them. The problem here is that if you use the Rename Files From Properties Command and the music files get moved to a new directory based on changes in the artist or album title info, the image file gets left behind in the old directory and you manually have to move it to the new one.

Rob

Robert Taylor · « **Reply #2 on:** May 10, 2003, 03:23:29 pm »

I store my covers in each album directory as "Folder.jpg", so I get a nice thumbnail view under Windows XP Explorer.

All my cover art tags point to "folder.jpg".

Works perfectly!!!

Tolga · « **Reply #3 on:** May 10, 2003, 04:09:41 pm »

I totally agree with these.

large cover art stored in files created problems in my portable player once, and cover art directory may be difficult to syncronize if you change things.

whoeveryouare · « **Reply #4 on:** May 10, 2003, 04:32:36 pm »

I'm no doubt the odd man out... I use APE files almost exclusively, the average size of which--on my system--is 27 MB. The average size of my cover art files is 35 KB.

So, I store the cover art inside each individual file (adding 35 KB to a 27 MB file is something I consider insignificant). This keeps me from ever having to worry about missing image files, broken links, and so on.

I also store the vast majority of my music files in a single directory... go figure. I couldn't care less how it looks in Explorer (which I rarely use anyway).

zevele10 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 10, 2003, 09:29:59 pm »

I have it in each song.
Like it you do not care if you move folders or songs.
Space is not problem to me having 600 giga of hard rive.

But it can be a problem if you have a mp3 player with 62 or 128 MB storage.
I put bios ,note ,lyrics as well ,and this make any file really bigger

whoeveryouare · « **Reply #6 on:** May 10, 2003, 09:41:53 pm »

Quote

Space is not problem to me having 600 giga of hard drive. But it can be a problem if you have a mp3 player with 62 or 128 MB storage.

If you use something other than MP3 format to begin with, then it's not a problem--since when you convert it to MP3 to put on your portable player, the image and other stuff will have been removed in the conversion. The best of both worlds!

(Of course, converting can be a hassle...)

nila · « **Reply #7 on:** May 10, 2003, 11:39:15 pm »

Who, how big is your hard drives if you use 27Mb per song?
Mine are all 192kb/s mp3's which is meant to be almost perfect CD quality and even they take up almost 40 gigs. I cant imagine how much yours are taking up.

KingSparta · « **Reply #8 on:** May 11, 2003, 01:44:43 am »

>> Mine are all 192kb/s mp3's which is meant to be
>> almost perfect CD quality
Not Really, It Depends On Your Ears

For Me 32kbps Is CD Quality

Cmagic · « **Reply #9 on:** May 11, 2003, 04:42:24 am »

Quote

Not Really, It Depends On Your Ears

For Me 32kbps Is CD Quality

King's ears :

KingSparta · « **Reply #10 on:** May 11, 2003, 04:56:58 am »

Thats A Rare Picture Of Me and the wind was blowing.

whoeveryouare · « **Reply #11 on:** May 11, 2003, 08:12:32 am »

Quote

Who, how big is your hard drives if you use 27Mb per song?
Mine are all 192kb/s mp3's which is meant to be almost perfect CD quality and even they take up almost 40 gigs. I cant imagine how much yours are taking up.

I currently have a total of about 530-GB total disk space (OK, so I'm counting one external 100-GB drive which isn't currently hooked up), of which music gets a 100-GB slice (not counting another 100 GB to back it all up). This is fine since I have "only" 80-GB of music.

I used to use 192-kbps MP3s, but now that I am used to original quality, most MP3s sound bad to me. A well-made 192-kbps MP3 file (i.e. LAME ABR) sounds pretty good, though.

zevele10 · « **Reply #12 on:** May 11, 2003, 09:34:11 am »

If not for music ,i would have a second-second hand old laytop with a 10 hours a month dial-up connection.....
So my drive C: is only 20 ,just Windows and programs. No ofifce Word or stuff like it.
ALL my other drives are only for music and music related.
few hundreds cds from a friend. He wants them in MP3 ,me i want them in OGG.
So i riped to APE -kepping all of them until now- and converting to MP3 and OGG other night.
After this few hundreds cds in 3 formats ,and many other music ,i still have a lot of room......

I am waiting for a kind of Ipod able to play MANY FORMATS.
I saw a ??- do not remember the brand - with 60 giga stockage.

But this does not make sense if you can put only mp3 on it.
Such monster needs to play losslessformat.
I do not think it will be APE or other 'indee formats'.
But ,minimum the new Windows 9 lossless format.
I did gave a try to Windows 9 lossless format : size smaller than APE fast ,but just a little bit smaller.
Rip time the same.

You can use MusicMatch SuperTags to get tags and sleeves BUT MC does not show you the sleeves .
Quite a problem in my opinion

DocLotus · « **Reply #13 on:** May 11, 2003, 10:48:19 am »

By name of "Folder.jpg" are we referring to the Cover art file actually being named "Folder.jpg" or do we mean to name the file the same as the Album name such as "Double Rainbow.jpg"?

KingSparta · « **Reply #14 on:** May 11, 2003, 12:39:48 pm »

I store Mine Just As MC9 Sticks Them Into The Cover Art Folder.

My Program Saves Them To The MC9 Cover Art Folder In The Same Manner.

I Am Thinking Of Also Allowing My Program To Collect BIOS And Also Allow Users To use The Artist Picture Like This.

Faith Hill

If they Do Not Wish The Cover Art It's Self, And Prefer To See An Artist Picture.

zevele10 · « **Reply #15 on:** May 11, 2003, 01:29:56 pm »

Allowing My Program To Collect BIOS

-=-=-=

To put WHERE? In MC bios ? It is not working

KingSparta · « **Reply #16 on:** May 11, 2003, 01:56:40 pm »

Since I Can't Put It In Bios The Current SDK Does Not Allow Me In The Standard Way I Use It Now. I Can Put The BIOS In "NOTES"

I Use This Now

MyLyrics = MJFile.Lyrics

There Is Also A

MyNotes = MJFile.Notes

But there Is No

MyBios = MJFile.Bios

Like I Said In my Other Thread Not Sue Why

I Think I Will Ask If They Will Add Bios And Change The Way It Works.

Cmagic · « **Reply #17 on:** May 11, 2003, 10:23:40 pm »

Hi,

It occured to me that there is possibly another way to manage cover arts by managing them as pictures.
It is possible to make a view scheme group for audio and jpegs. If you store some jpegs inside your albums directories, you can import the images along the music files, you can tag them like your audio files with at least Artist and album name.

The Drawbacks:
- The views will show both audio and image files. (I know some don't like to mix jpg and mp3..)
- Statistics for the albums will show the total number of files (music+jpg's) which is not the real number of tracks. Same thing for the popup in album thumbnail mode.

The Advantages:
- When using the copy / move.. all files (music + images) are copied
- You can add more than just the cover art, and by selecting the Image Display plugin your album playback will be enlightened by a nice slideshow.
- As a bonus, when you view your album directories as 'Miniature' inside WXP explorer you get some nicely decorated folders/

For example let's look at the inside of my folder for "Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup':
There are 10 mpc files for the 10 tracks plus the following jpg : Cover front, cover back, cover inner1, cover inner2, the soup.
Each music file is associated with only the cover-front jpeg so that thumbnails (album group if logical) view will show the cover-front only.

I'm not really using this scheme, but I'm just wondering if this could be a possible strategy ?

Have a nice day,

christian

whoeveryouare · « **Reply #18 on:** May 11, 2003, 10:26:04 pm »

I don't know, but could you have used ANY other album as an example?

Cmagic · « **Reply #19 on:** May 11, 2003, 10:38:36 pm »

Dont' like soup ?

In fact that's the only ones (my stones collection) where I have several pictures for my albums.

Azure · « **Reply #20 on:** May 12, 2003, 05:25:20 am »

The problem I've run into with storing the album covers inside of the files themselves is this: while using Media Server to serve the files to computers on our network, the connecting computers never "see" the cover art in the files. Which kind of sucks.

iCamp · « **Reply #21 on:** May 12, 2003, 08:21:48 am »

Quote

By name of "Folder.jpg" are we referring to the Cover art file actually being named "Folder.jpg" or do we mean to name the file the same as the Album name such as "Double Rainbow.jpg"?

Actually naming the image "folder.jpg" is what is being discussed. Doing so tells WinXP to associate that image with the audio files stored within that folder.

I use APE too. I store the image inside each file and use the "folder.jpg" method as well. Why both? Storing the image inside the file is perfect when navigating my collection via MC while the "folder.jpg" method is handy when navigating via Windows Explorer.

DocLotus · « **Reply #22 on:** May 12, 2003, 08:32:57 am »

Thanks iCamp

I was wondering about that.

Marra · « **Reply #23 on:** May 13, 2003, 03:03:21 pm »

Thanks for informing me about using folder.jpg to store album covers. The problem I still see is if you re-name your music files by using option in property tools, you lose the connection to your album cover. For example, I store music files under directory rule [ARTIST]\[ALBUM]. If I change either artist or album name, re-name files,
connection to cover art is lost.
Solution : New option under "re-naming file from properties" in property tools to also move cover art to new location of music files.

Any thoughts or other ways around problem?

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: How have you stored your covers? (Read 5075 times)

zevele10

nila

zevele10

zevele10