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[Michael S.]

Sometimes after ripping a CD, I notice the cover art is not what was intended and want to replace in Media Center.

There appear to be several options: you can copy and paste cover art from different files (for example, from CD2 to CD1 in a multi-CD set etc).  Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't.  I don't know why.

You can also load cover art from a file.  This seems to work more consistently.

One question I have is, do you need to update the cover art file in the source folder to update properly?  When you just copy and paste from different files to replace the cover art in MC, it seems like the cover art file in the source folder does not get updated.

Anyone have suggestions for best approach on updating cover art?

[HPBEME]

In the event you are not aware: 1st thing to understand is that MC allows you to apply cover art on a per track basis.  Consequently, pasting cover art on one track does not automatically apply it to all the other album tracks.

If you want to ensure that whatever cover art image you are pasting will apply to every track for a given album, make sure you either: first select all that albums tracks, or paste the selected image on top of the album in an album view.  Doing the latter will automatically apply the pasted image to all the album's tracks.

This approach should always work, however, if the track your pasting the image to is currently playing, it won't reflect the updated cover until you stop play, and refresh the view.  Depending on what view you have active while performing the copy/paste, refreshing the view is often necessary to see the updated image.

One question I have is, do you need to update the cover art file in the source folder to update properly?  When you just copy and paste from different files to replace the cover art in MC, it seems like the cover art file in the source folder does not get updated.

When I copy/paste, it always updates the source folder cover art image as well.  That said, MC has several options for how you store the cover art. I don't think it would behave differently for the different methods, but it might. With that caveat...

For the record, I store all album covers in a single folder, but based on numerous posts I have read over the years, that seems to be the less used method.  Honestly, I am not sure why that is though.  I find having all the album art in a single folder enormously beneficial. In addition, MC automatically uses the album tags to name the cover art image.jpg file as Artist – Album Name.  The only thing I would change is for MC to add the Year before the album name - then it would be perfection.

Whatever the advantage is in having thousands of files identically named folder.jpg in thousands of different folders eludes me. I would be interested as to why some users apparently feel it is superior to the single folder approach. I did try the folder.jpg approach when I first started using MC 17+ years ago, but all I remember at this point is I found it painful to whatever I was trying to accomplish at the time. Maybe with the perspective of how others make use of it, and my much deeper knowledge of MC in general, I can be convinced it is the better method.

[comox]

It depends on how fussy you are and what resolution of cover art you want.

I want 640x640 saved inside the audio files, and I am medium high fussy.

I have created 2 custom links in JRiver for searching for cover art.

1) Spotify uses 640x640 as their standard resolution and has good enough artwork for about 50% of the albums I search for. They don't use a high enough jpg compression so I resave at 85% quality to reduce audio file bloat.

2) Album Art Exchange has the best artwork available anywhere but it's more work because you have to select the best version from multiple choices at 1000x1000 and 1500x1500, then resize to 640x640 and save at 85% quality.

After searching with JRiver I save several candidates to disk, then open them full screen with Irfanview to choose the best, resize to 640x640, save at 85% quality compression.  The add from file with JRiver.

[HPBEME]

Hello comox... If I remember right, I'm the one who got you pointed towards Album Art Exchange.  Love that site… I probably obtain at least half of my cover art from there. I have uploaded ~150 album covers to AAX as well.  FYI… Apple music is actually a great resource for album covers too.  AAX quality is typically better, but Apple Music has a much larger selection for when you can't find an album cover anywhere else.

I am definitely at the superhigh, extremely fussy about cover art end of the spectrum.  I always pick the highest quality one I can find on AAX, and then I use a online image resizing program called simply enough, Resizer https://resizing.app/.  Depending on the kind of image it is (e.g. photo versus illustration) it can often reduce a 1500 x 1500 native 2mb image down to as little as 300 kB, at 100% quality to boot.

I personally have set 300 kB as the max cover art file size I embed (and make the necessary image pixel size reduction and compression adjustments required to achieve it). I then upload that to JRiver's cover art database.  For a 10 song album, that amounts to an additional 3 MB to the total album file size (typically 250 to 300 MB) - to me, that is trivial.  Others of course may feel differently and don't want to add anything to the audio file size.

In any event, it's not clear to me which method cover art storage method you use (all art in one folder, or one image in each album folder) and why you think it is better?

[comox]

Yes HPBEME, you introduced me to AAX and I am very grateful. Thanks!

I find at 640x640 I am usually able to stay under 100k per file.

I store art inside the audio files so am not too concerned about the secondary storage but I have it configured to save in one folder. It is occasionally handy to be able to go to that folder and search for images that do not meet my current specs. Also handy when upgrading audio quality with better rips and using the Quick Find feature to add artwork I know is already good.

I probably should upload images to JRiver's database but I don't because my policy is to never upload anything unless I understand what is going on.