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Author Topic: Microsoft Media Center and Album Art  (Read 2707 times)

johnfriend

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Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« on: July 03, 2004, 11:28:05 pm »

I love jriver media center (jmc) but also love microsoft media center(msmc}.  I hate windows media player but it feeds msmc.

Is ther some way to use jmc to set the album art for msmc?  

The album art shows up fine in jmc but msmc uses some odd setup that doesn't read the art from jmc... help!!!

Thanks!!
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jleerigby

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2004, 07:25:32 am »

Do a test to see if msmc handles cover art if it's stored in the album folder as folder.jpg.  If it does then here's how to change all your cover art to folder.jpg:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=21577;start=msg150677#msg150677

You'll need KingSparta's cover art finder from www.spartasoft.com
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KingSparta

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2004, 09:04:53 am »

also try lyrics finder

it has over 305,000 lyrics that can be automaticly found.

The largest source for lyrics on the internet.
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johnfriend

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2004, 12:29:43 pm »

I'm lost??  I need to create another folder?  

I store the cover image inside the file.  MC finds the cover image on the internet usually just fine or I copy and paste it in.  

I'm really glad for your help but this is new to me.  MSMC does find a few of the covers but I couldn't tell you why.

Any ideas?
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KingSparta

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2004, 01:22:39 pm »

Quote
I'm lost??  I need to create another folder?

me too

but most people save there media files in folders like

artist\album\

if so some people save the coverart external in that folder as folder.jpg

but you don't need to
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johnfriend

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2004, 03:37:25 pm »

I have all my files in my music.  I did a search of jpg files and jmc stores all the cover art in a folder called C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\Data\Cover Art

Do i need to save them somewhere else?

Help!
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KingSparta

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2004, 04:46:41 pm »

no
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jleerigby

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2004, 02:36:46 am »

You said that msmc can't find your cover art.  That's because it's stored in MC's cover art folder.  I said try putting cover art in the same folder as the album as folder.jpg and see if msmc can see that.  If it works I gave you instructions as to how to convert all your cover art from the cover art folder to a folder.jpg file in the album folder.

Which bit don't you get?

Like King said, I do recommend that you use the file naming convention that most people use i.e. [some directory of my choice]\artist\album.  You can do this by selecting all files and right click>Library tools>Rename files from properties.  Make sure you check the 'use assorted for multi-artist albums' so that compilation albums are kept together in a folder called assorted\album name.  Test this on a few files before doing them all.

Then locate the .jpg file cover art for one of your albums and place a copy in the album folder.  Play the album in msmc and see if it displays the cover art.  You might need to --do something-- in msmc to make this happen.  If it works follow the instructions in the link above but this will incurr some effort and it may not work for all files i.e. you may have to manually copy some cover art across.
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johnfriend

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2004, 05:33:50 pm »

I'll try that.  

As I understand msnc needs each album in its own folder?

c:\mymusic\artist1\album1 and in this folder put the coverart  And name the cover art folder.jpg in each album file?

I guess i'm spoiled by jmc... it just works

I'll let you know

And THANKS!!!!  I'm usually the one people call for computer advice... i just don't get this.
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KingSparta

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #9 on: July 05, 2004, 06:03:32 pm »

Quote
As I understand msnc needs each album in its own folder?

no

I personaly don't see whats so confusing

if MC does not find cover art it is because it can't find it.

it is not perfict

my plug-in may do a better job than MC

it needs no specal folders, locations or anything else you wish to add to the math problem.

the only thing it needs is the artist name and album name in the proper locations and in the correct fields.

don't read to much in this

people giving advice here are only talking about how people store there media, not that it will be found any better.

End of story

turn the LP over if you wish to hear more
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jleerigby

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #10 on: July 06, 2004, 05:30:30 am »

Quote
people giving advice here are only talking about how people store there media, not that it will be found any better.

That's not quite true.  I was responding to this comment:

Quote
The album art shows up fine in jmc but msmc uses some odd setup that doesn't read the art from jmc... help!!!

with this...

Quote
Do a test to see if msmc handles cover art if it's stored in the album folder as folder.jpg.  If it does then here's how to change all your cover art to folder.jpg:

This was not advice about how I store my media, it was a suggested solution.

Quote
if MC does not find cover art it is because it can't find it.

it is not perfict

my plug-in may do a better job than MC

I think you are misreading this King.  He doesn't have a problem with how MC finds cover art.  His problem is with msnc.
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KingSparta

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #11 on: July 06, 2004, 05:47:55 am »

I stand corrected

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johnfriend

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2004, 04:29:52 pm »

you were right...

JRiver Media Center keeps all the album art in a single file...smart

Microsoft Media Player wants all the artist\albums\folders.jpg  in their own file... stupid

Will JRiver "auto move" these files for me based on artist name and album name?  It does everything else.

Thanks all for your help!!!
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GHammer

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #13 on: July 11, 2004, 04:43:10 pm »

WMP, if allowed, uses AMG data and cover art to update your selections. It creates a desktop.ini for each folder and also puts 4 jpg files in there. A small and a large cover art and the same two named by including a hash value in the filename. That is done so that when you open My Music with Windows Explorer (not Iinternet Explorer) you will see cover art for each folder. A neat idea, but I have to ask why they needed to have 4 files when 2 would do.

The other thing that WMP will do is to set folders and some files to read only status.

Any time I used to run WMP I always had to reset the readonly atributes on the entire directory for some other apps to work properly.

I avoid the whole thing now because I use audio formats that WMP does not support. The Godfather does a nice job of getting full info on selections/CDs/artists. Also gets cover art and can save it in the directory as cover.jpg or CD Name.jpg

I stay oldfashioned, even with APE files I store the cover art inside the file. Yeah, bigger files, the art is duplicated in each selection. But I have never lost the cover art either.
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jleerigby

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Re:Microsoft Media Center and Album Art
« Reply #14 on: July 12, 2004, 02:28:09 am »

Quote
JRiver Media Center keeps all the album art in a single file...smart
MC will store the album art inside the music files themselves, or in a single cover art folder or in the artist\album folder.  You have the choice.

Quote
Will JRiver "auto move" these files for me based on artist name and album name?  It does everything else.
I already told you how to do that.  See my first post above.
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