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[lalittle]

On a 5th gen iPod, non-square cover art appears in it's native shape, while the text is shifted slightly in order to end up the same distance from the art on the "Now Playing" screen.  In other words, the 5G is specifically designed to handle non-square art using its native dimensions.  With the 6th gen, however, all the cover art gets "padded" with black so that the picture ALWAYS ends up square.  This results in ugly black areas on any art that is not square.  This obviously effects CD box sets (which often have "tall" art), as well as Podcasts and audiobooks, all of which commonly use non-square art, but it ALSO effects normal CD art, however, since this art is often not "exactly" square, which results in an ugly black edge on a lot of my albums.  The end result on 6th gen "Classic" ipods is a LOT of art that has ugly black areas.

Is this a "bug" with the 6th gen, or is it a limitation of the way these new iPods work?  My first thought was that it's a bug since this does NOT happen with the 5th gen, but I don't know if the new units handle art differently, perhaps due to the "Cover flow" feature.

Even if it IS a limitation with the new iPods, would it be possible to pad the art with "transparent" pixels instead of with "black" pixels?  In other words, even if the art HAS to be square on the new iPods, would it be possible for the padding to be invisible so that it didn't display the ugly black areas?

Thanks,

Larry

[SwellGuy]

We noticed this too. We'll look into it.

[SwellGuy]

Look for this fix in build 12.0.405. You will have to clear your iPod and re-sync.

[lalittle]

Look for this fix in build 12.0.405. You will have to clear your iPod and re-sync.

That's great news -- thanks for the fast fix.  I'll give it a try tonight.

Just to clarify (while I wait to actually try it), will the "edges" of non-square art just be "transparent" now -- i.e. will we simply see a bit more "behind" art that's tall and thin, for example?  Will this work in lists, Playing Now, AND Cover Flow?

Thanks,

Larry

[lalittle]

I finally got a chance to test this, and the art for the "Playing Now" and "Cover Flow" is now being cropped rather than padded.  The smallest dimension of the art is sizing to fit within the available square space, and the rest (i.e. the top and bottom of "tall" art) is simply being cut off.  The iPod ends up with square art by cropping any non-square images.

It "seems" like the wrong dimension is being fit to the space provided -- i.e. it should be the longest dimension that is first fit to the space rather than the smallest.  This is what happens on the 5th gen iPod, where non-square art is essentially shrunk to fully fit in the space provided, and it is neither padded nor cropped.

Note also that with the small art that displays in album lists, non-square art is still padded with black.

Thanks for any further investigation on this,

Larry

[SwellGuy]

Larry,

We believe it is now functioning in accordance with the image specification for the device and identically to how iTunes handles cover art.

Rick

[lalittle]

Larry,

We believe it is now functioning in accordance with the image specification for the device and identically to how iTunes handles cover art.

Rick

So the iPod Classic is supposed to just crop non-square art?  That just seems odd given that the 5th gen iPods display non-square art correctly with no padding OR cropping -- I'm surprised that the 6th gen would be a step down in this regard.  Are you sure that this isn't just an issue with MC fitting the shortest dimension to the image placeholder instead of fitting the largest?  It "seems" like it should fit the largest dimension to the image placeholder first (which would prevent cropping), and then put "nothing" in the unused areas of the place holder.

Then again, I'm wondering if the problem is that when you do this, the sides are automatically padded with black by the iPod -- i.e. that "black" is what the iPod displays for "nothing."  Is this the case?

Thanks again for your help with this,

Larry

PS.  Note that the "small" art in the albums lists is still placing

[lalittle]

Larry,

We believe it is now functioning in accordance with the image specification for the device and identically to how iTunes handles cover art.

Rick

Rick,

I just synced a few files to my Classic using iTunes, and you're correct -- it appears to work the same way that MC does.  The Coverflow and playing now screens crop non-square art, and the small pictures in albums lists show the full art with black padding.

I also checked on some other iPod related forums, and there are quite a few iPod users that have complained about this, which of course has absolutely zero effect on Apple ever addressing the issue.

Larry

[SwellGuy]

Larry,

The artwork on the iPod is of a fixed resolution and it's square. To do what you're asking would require transparency which is not yet supported by the iPod. I'm sure it's coming and when it does we'll jump right on it.

Rick