Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[dcwebman]

I'm sorry as I'm sure this has been discussed before and I tried looking via the Search but for some reason using the words "cover art" but I can only get 5-6 results. I KNOW there's more than that.

So anyways, I'm trying to decide if I want to store my cover art inside my MP3's or outside. I have had situations where I swear I added cover art outside and then later try to look at the image in MC 10 and it lists the path where it's supposed to be but the file is gone. I woudl imagine storing inside the file would prevent that problem.

What are the majority of people doing and/or what is the best way?
Jeff

[LonWar]

If you store it inside the file, then that image is being saved 10 or so times, If it is outside then it's being saved only once.

If you haev the space, I would store it inside. If something ever happened and you had to reimport your library, all your images would still be intact.

I keep mine inside...

[jleerigby]

I used to store cover art inside file but have changed all my files to store it in the artist\album folder as folder.jpg.  I use the QuickFind in File folder thing to tag the files in MC and it works great.  I have not had any problems whatsoever since I made the switch.  If you want to migrate your files to other media players then maybe it's better inside file otherwise I'd say keep it on your hard disk as a jpeg.

[iCamp]

If you store it inside the file, then that image is being saved 10 or so times, If it is outside then it's being saved only once.

I don't follow that.  Can you explain?

[MGD_King]

I used to store all the images inside the file but I had to store them outside of the file. I discovered that sometimes the ID3 tags get corrupted for some unknown reason. I discovered this by using my car's MP3 player and confirmed it by using a 3rd party ID3 tag editor. However, the files worked wonderfully in MC so if MC is all you're going to play your MP3's with, then I would store them inside.

[LonWar]

If your album has 10 tracks. You save the jpg inside the file, you are saving the jpg 10 times.

If you keep the jpg's in the folder your 10 tracks are linking to the 1 image.

[Alex B]

Outside. Cover art can also be a high quality image for full screen display. There is no sense in storing big image files inside every music file if it is possible to make links instead. If the cover art is linked you can also change it easily just by replacing the image file with another.

Actually I would like to see a possibility for linking unlimited number of still images to music files and perhaps moving images (videos/flash/etc) too. Cover Art display plugin could show them all in sequence.

In this thread I explained how I currently handle multiple cover art images: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=22841

Here is another thread about this subject:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=23224

[KingSparta]

If you keep the jpg's in the folder your 10 tracks are linking to the 1 image.

yes but the image of 3000 bytes will acualy take up about 32,000 bytes so saving that image in the file 10 times still may save drive space and you may really may not even use any space depending on the size of the media file and where it left off on the last sector of saved data.

this is because of the way windows uses the sectors on a formated disk and it will not split a sector with another file.

[paulr]

yes but the image of 3000 bytes will acualy take up about 32,000 bytes

That's only true if you are using FAT32.  With NTFS the cluster size stays pretty much the same no matter your partition size: 4KB (unless you change it manually).

So, you will only lose 1KB if your cover art is 3KB.  So it's negligible.

But, in my experience, most cover art is on the order of hundreds of KB.  If your cover art is 250KB, storing it once costs 250KB.  Storing it 10 times costs 2.5 MB...

Anyway, I think it comes down to preference.  I prefer not to weigh down my music files with images, so I keep mine externally.

[KingSparta]

your partition size: 4KB (unless you change it manually).

that is true, i also use NTFS at 4096


i have 27,000+ cover art images and 1\2 is 10k and under.

i do have some that go up to 1,313k

[bebop]

Sorry to butt in guys, but just how do you store your cover art inside the folder as a folder jpeg?  I did a search and didn't find anything.  King, I know your plug in finds cover art and then you can have it stored this way, but what about the stuff I already have?   ?

[KingSparta]

well you can't do this with MC, not sure why they have not done this and it may have something to do with the way many people store there music.

King, I know your plug in finds cover art and then you can have it stored this way, but what about the stuff I already have?

Check The Option "Do Not Search The Internet For Cover Art" within my program. It should find coverart in your coverart folder then save it as folder.jpg if the folder.jpg option is turned on (I think).

[bebop]

Thanks, goin to give it a try.  Bet

[Alex B]

I usually select all the album files in MC, then right click -> Image -> Add from File. If you do that you can use any filename you like for the image. (And also whatever folder you prefer.)

[TAFKAFEX]

If you haev the space, I would store it inside. If something ever happened and you had to reimport your library, all your images would still be intact. I keep mine inside...

So do I.
I have to move my files sometimes. Every few weeks there is a new update of MC to instell (what I like). Every few months there is a new external drive to store or backup my files. First I stored the images outside. After loosing hundreds of them (I'm sure I did something wrong) I decided to keep them inside. Never had a problem since then. Just import.

...But, in my experience, most cover art is on the order of hundreds of KB.  If your cover art is 250KB, storing it once costs 250KB.  Storing it 10 times costs 2.5 MB...

A single MP3 album costs me around 60 'til 90 MB. So I don't care abour 2.5 MB to avoid the problems and loosing on hour after the another searching the images I had before (see above). Every dupe is worse.

[edbro]

The problem with filesize is when you go to copy it on to your portable players. I have a Karma with a 20Gig HD and it is already full. If each song had a copy of the coverart, I'd have to delete quite a few albums.

So as somebody mentioned above, it is fine if all you do is listen to music with MC on your home computer.

[hit_ny]

A single MP3 album costs me around 60 'til 90 MB. So I don't care abour 2.5 MB to avoid the problems and loosing on hour after the another searching the images I had before (see above). Every dupe is worse.

Lets look at the math here.

2.5MB for 1 album (assuming 250K images for an album of 10 tracks)
25MB for 10
250MB for 100
2.5GB for 1000

So for 1000 albums saving images in the tracks loses space that could have held (27 - 40 Albums)

Personally i store my images in the folder as opposed to in the file for the above reason. Never had any problems with upgrading since 9.0. The images stay in the album folder as opposed to the MC folder. It only contains thumbnails.

I have to say that i dont really tend to move tracks out of album folders once they are placed in there. If i were to move any albums, MC takes care of the setting the images properly.

[Nolonemo]

Well, I resize my cover art to 300x300 medium quality jpg, and the image file is around 25K.  Having a larger image isn't important to me.  I calculated that even with the image stored in each mp3 file, it's costing me less than 1% of storage space, so I store them inside.  I also keep a copy of the jpg in the folder that the tracks are in (my filing scheme is one album per folder, I have both tag based and folder-based portable players).  

[TAFKAFEX]

Lets look at the math here.
2.5MB for 1 album (assuming 250K images for an album of 10 tracks)
25MB for 10
250MB for 100
2.5GB for 1000
So for 1000 albums saving images in the tracks loses space that could have held (27 - 40 Albums)

O.k., let's look at the math here.

After your bill you'll  loose between 2.7 and 4.0 % of your space .

IMHO not worth to collect between 960 and 973 images again in the worst case. Loosing my time.

[KingSparta]

i would just buy a bigger hard drive

[hit_ny]

OK...how bout multiple image files (back, sleeve notes etc) per album ?

What do you do then ?

Why limit yourself to just one image in the file.

Of course you dont, so where do you put those extra image files ?

in the album folder.

so why put the image in the file in the first place !

[eirikso]

I have tried to find an answer to this question here at interact, but I think I have serious problems with the search function in this forum.

However, this thread is the closest I get, and this is my question:

I am ripping my CD's using MC and MC puts the cover art in the directory specified for cover images under options.

I would very much like to store the automatically downloaded cover art in the folder with the corresponding albmum as a file called "folder.jpg". I think this is the most compatible way to do it.

So,

1.
I have found a function in MC that will store the image inside the file if possible. Is there a way to store the image inside the folder? I would like to choose all my albums, and tell JRiver to move ALL the cover art out of the dedicated cover art folder and into all the different music folders.

2.
Is it possible to set up under options that for the albums I rip in the future the art should be placed directly into the music folder?

_eirikso

[paulr]

Use KingSparta's cover art finder plugin.  Click on the link in his signature a couple of posts up.  I think you can accomplish both with that plugin, but I am not 100% sure if it will do #1.