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[Marc]

 ?

OK, I've now got three image locations that MC is tracking:

1).  C:\Documents and Settings\marc\Application Data\J River\Media Center 11\Cover Art
2).  C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 11\Data\Cover Art
3).  D:\Cover Art

Since my D:\ drive is my media drive, I'd like to standardize on D:\Cover Art as my central location.  I've read some various threads about a convoluted procedure involving creating a playlist, exporting it, deleting the library files, editing it, re-importing it, etc. - *but* that didn't work (my library contains 18,673 audio files).

Shouldn't it be as easy as editing the filename using Library Tools -> Find and Replace - just like when you change location of the actual music files?

Can somebody please provide me with instructions that work?   ?

Marc

[marko]

the easiest way to fix things would be:

open options in MC, go to 'file location' and set coverart to a specific location and set that to D:\Cover Art

Using explorer, go to the other locations and copy everything from them into D:\Cover Art

Select all audio files, right click > image > remove image > NO, don't remove from hard drive.

right click again, Image > Quick find in file/cover art directory

BUT:
Using that system won't reconnect files with art if the album or artist name has changed at all since the art work was first connected with the file.
Example: You have an album by The Electric Light Orchestra and have art associated. You change the artist to E.L.O. The art remains associated, but using the above method will not reconnect that art.
I think whichever method you choose, you will not be able to avoid some manual list checking. There used to be an option to remove unused cover art, but sadly, it fell by the wayside and the net result is that an external cover art store is now prone to filling up with many many orphan files because when you delete an album, the art is left behind.

[Matt]

In my opinion, the easiest solution is to keep the art in the file.  Then you'll never have to fuss with external files again.

MC make quick work of this.

[Marc]

Marco,

It worked with only 300 "orphan" files - I can easily plow through those in an hour or so.  Thank you for the clear, instructive, accurate information.

Marc

[Marc]

In my opinion, the easiest solution is to keep the art in the file.  Then you'll never have to fuss with external files again.

MC make quick work of this.

Matt,

Yabbut...my cover art files range from a low of 2 KB to a high of 1,148 KB in size.  I've got 2,173 files taking 69,427 KB, making an average of 31.95 KB per album cover image.  Now, let's assume my average album (99% of my audio files are complete albums) conservatively contains 10 songs and I've got 18,697 files now (just added another album) - that makes 1,869.7 complete albums.

Since I'm only saving one image per album the way I do it now, this would make my image library approximately (1,869.7 * 31.95 KB) 59,736.7 KB - which is less than the actual 69,427 KB amount - hence my conservative estimate is fairly accurate.

If I choose to store my album art inside each file, there will be 10X more images stored per album (using the above assumption of 10 tracks per album).  This would make my net image storage space 1,869.7 * 10 * 31.95 KB) 597,367 KB.  Although it would be contained within audio files, the net increase of 537,631 KB or 1/2 GB is not trivial at this point (almost out of HD space - need new one).  More tracks per album increase this number.

Once I get a new, larger HD purchased and installed, then the 1/2 GB becomes trivial.

Marc

[datdude]

In my opinion, the easiest solution is to keep the art in the file.  Then you'll never have to fuss with external files again.

MC make quick work of this.

Yes highly recommended.  All my album art problems vanished when I tried this.

[marko]

I don't like that when inside files, the image action window can only display the art for single file selections.

[lalittle]

I don't like that when inside files, the image action window can only display the art for single file selections.

I have to agree that this is annoying.  I've always wondered why this was the case given that MC clearly can tell whether or not all the art is the "same" (it will say "various" if it's not.)  Why not, therefore, make MC display the FIRST album's art as long as ALL the selected tracks (or all the tracks in the track window) have the "same" art.

Even with the limitation, I still like to keep the art inside the file, but it would be nice if MC would display the art for multiple files as long as the art is the same.

Larry

[RobOK]

I don't like that when inside files, the image action window can only display the art for single file selections.

Agreed, I never understood this.  It's saying "I know art is in there but you can't see it!"

[sdgrizdan]

this sounds like a feature request... 

[Robert Taylor]

Why don't you keep cover art  as "folder.jpg" in each album directory?

(or don't you use that struture?)

I have ~41000 audio files, MOST of which are structured as follows:

M:\01.MP3s\[Album Artist(Auto]\[Year]-[AlbumName]\[Track#].[Trackname]

at the [Year]-[AlbumName] level, each album has its coverart stored as "folder.jpg".

MC works perfectly this way, and the cover art automagically shows up as folder thumbnails under Windows Explorer, too.

I have never had any problems with this method apart from the odd buglet - but this hasn't happened in a long time (thanks JRiver!!)

[Alex B]

I don't like that when inside files, the image action window can only display the art for single file selections.

Agreed, I never understood this.  It's saying "I know art is in there but you can't see it!"

I have to agree that this is annoying.  I've always wondered why this was the case given that MC clearly can tell whether or not all the art is the "same" (it will say "various" if it's not.)  Why not, therefore, make MC display the FIRST album's art as long as ALL the selected tracks (or all the tracks in the track window) have the "same" art.

Even with the limitation, I still like to keep the art inside the file, but it would be nice if MC would display the art for multiple files as long as the art is the same.

The "inside file" cover art images are physically separate in each audio file. MC cannot know if the images are the same or not.


My system for avoiding chaos is:

- Keep the cover art image inside the album folder.
- Name it as [Album Artist (auto)] - [Album]
- Import it and fill the Artist and Album tags from the filename.
- Include this cover art image in the selection when moving album files. (I have created view schemes without a media type restriction for this.)

[marko]

Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.

spooky or what

I very rarely use a file manager to browse my audio, and when I do, I am always in 'details' mode. MC is such a powerful manager when it comes to media files, just about everything I do with them is done from inside MC, so I have no need of a folder.jpg file. It's purpose was precisely to show those folder thumbs in explorer and every one latched on to it. I think if I did ever move to the "cover art beside the files" system, I'd choose album - artist.jpg, and import the file into the library too, so that I could ensure that when the files moved, the coverart didn't get left behind.

Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, I may look into that a bit further later on today. If nothing else, it would cut down on the orphans etc.. Wouldn't it?

way back, MC used to display art in the action window if all files had the same art stored inside. It got changed in the name of speed.

[lalittle]

The "inside file" cover art images are physically separate in each audio file. MC cannot know if the images are the same or not.

I thought that MC said "varies" when the art in the files was not the same, but I took another look and it only says "varies" when you select a group of files where some of them contain art inside the file, and some contain no art at all.

Thanks for clarifying this,

Larry

[Alex B]

... way back, MC used to display art in the action window if all files had the same art stored inside. It got changed in the name of speed.

This must have been library tag based. I don't think MC had a bit compare tool for checking the code inside the file tag.

Having different cover art for each audio file inside an album has never been restricted.

I have some multi-disc albums that have more than one cover art, but only one album tag. Here's an example:

   


With my video files this happens often since I use the same album tag for a bunch of video files (e.g. TV series) even though each video file is linked with a separate captured image file.

[marko]

This must have been library tag based. I don't think MC had a bit compare tool for checking the code inside the file tag.

I'm not sure. it was a long time ago. I think it would extract all the art to a temp location and if there was only one, it would display it, and if there were more than one, it would say varies.

Having different cover art for each audio file inside an album has never been restricted.

I have a few box sets with different art for each disc like this too. I wasn't suggesting that they couldn't be different.

[Alex B]

I have a few box sets with different art for each disc like this too. I wasn't suggesting that they couldn't be different.

I know you didn't mean that. I was just trying to be cautious. Sometimes the fine developers at JRiver respond almost too quickly to new ideas... 

I think if I did ever move to the "cover art beside the files" system, I'd choose album - artist.jpg, and import the file into the library too, so that I could ensure that when the files moved, the coverart didn't get left behind.

Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, I may look into that a bit further later on today. If nothing else, it would cut down on the orphans etc.. Wouldn't it?

I suppose so. I haven't had orphans in years.

Also, the cover art link would be always correct because MC doesn't store the directory path if the cover art file is linked from the audio file folder.

I usually have several imported album related files in the album folder, like in this old MC11 screenshot: