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[benn600]

I would like to request a feature to allow users to resize album cover art on sync.  Right now I sync to a folder that gets copied to my iPhone through iTunes.  When I open the mp3s in Windows Media Player, I see the cover art and it does get copied directly without a resize.  This means that about 1.5MB of space is taken up for each song.  On my sync collection of 4,000 songs, this is around 5GB.  I could really use this space back as I am dangerously close to the 32GB capacity.

I have MC add my cover art to the tags.  Right when it is adding the cover art, MC could down size the cover art to 320x320 good quality.  No sizing options, just a checkbox to force downsize cover art.  This would help anyone who stores fairly large cover art (500 pixels, etc.)  In my case, I not only store 1200x1200 cover art but it is also saved at 100% JPG quality.  The biggest trouble is that each cover art image gets copied to every single mp3.  Not just once per album, which would reduce the impact.  Of course the iPhone displays cover art as 320x320.

Thanks.

[sunfire7]

Thats a great request, i own a w980 [i plan to buy an ipod touch, but still the lack of eq is holding me  ] and it cant show cover art if is more than 100kb, so a resize [and if possible jpg quality] on sync would be great!!

[benn600]

That is probably a more valid reason than my own.  In your case, you can't even see the cover art.  Please seriously consider this feature.  Utilize the existing image resizer for syncing images -- just inline with the cover art adding to tags process.

[hit_ny]

So you would like on sync

- MC to remove the HUGE image file you embedded in every single file
- resize it + re-embed it back into the file ?

Out of curiosity does that player of yours recognise album art if its stored along with the files in the folder or does it absolutely require the image file to be embedded inside the file itself ?

[benn600]

Sorry for not communicating my situation more clearly.  I like your layout of the issue.

Currently, MC stores my cover art as folder.jpg files next to my 100% FLAC library.

On sync, I sync my 4/5 star songs to a folder, converting them to MP3 with the option to add cover art to the tags enabled.  At the point where MC copies folder.jpg into the MP3 tags, I would like it resized.  My player is the iPhone and it handles the cover art beautifully (even at 1200x1200).  The problem is that these files average 1MB.  On 4,000 songs (what I currently sync), that means 4GB is wasted for all this cover art.

In MC, only ONE copy of each cover art is stored (folder.jpg).  On sync, since the iPhone and other devices aren't as good at handling shared cover art, it makes sense to just embed the cover art in each song.  If the cover art was 100KB or less (Amazon, other sites, etc.) I wouldn't mind the impact.  That would be a tenth the space: 400MB...likely even less.  As you can see, on a 32GB flash based iPhone (or my previous 8GB iPhone!) this makes a gigantic impact.

When I sync, I look at each MP3 quality increase as an order of magnitude increase in size.  Adding cover art requires as much space as jumping to extreme from high or normal.

Ultimately, if the cover art could be downsized on the fly, then my device would be happy with an extra 3 - 4 GB for video while not diminishing the value I receive from having this HQ cover art.  It is nice when viewing on HD video displays which can almost show pixel for pixel.

Thanks!

[hit_ny]

On sync, since the iPhone and other devices aren't as good at handling shared cover art, it makes sense to just embed the cover art in each song.

That's the oversight in the portable !!

Imagine the savings without having to embed in each file or even doing a resize. In this case what you save in resize is minute compared to being forced to embed into each file.

You ought to bring the point up wth the portable's vendor for the reasons below

If the cover art was 100KB or less (Amazon, other sites, etc.) I wouldn't mind the impact.  That would be a tenth the space: 400MB...likely even less.  As you can see, on a 32GB flash based iPhone (or my previous 8GB iPhone!) this makes a gigantic impact.

When I sync, I look at each MP3 quality increase as an order of magnitude increase in size.  Adding cover art requires as much space as jumping to extreme from high or normal.

Ultimately, if the cover art could be downsized on the fly, then my device would be happy with an extra 3 - 4 GB for video while not diminishing the value I receive from having this HQ cover art.  It is nice when viewing on HD video displays which can almost show pixel for pixel.

Makes me wonder if there are any other portables that can intelligently handle shared cover art ?

[Daydream]

Makes me wonder if there are any other portables that can intelligently handle shared cover art ?

That doesn't sit well with the initial procedure described. If you sync by criteria like 'all 4/5 stars songs' then what shared coverart? Coverart needs to be embedded.

On the other hand, Ben, I can't help but smile how you can't have your cake and eat it too. After blasting small covers in favor of 1200x1200 hand-scanned ones, now the thing fights back when it comes to portables!

[benn600]

It wouldn't be fighting me if there was any way for me to obtain a 64GB iPhone now that they have a 64GB iPod Touch...

At first I thought hit_ny's comment was a sarcastic Apple/iPod/iPhone sucks post.  But it sounds genuine as I read further.  As far as shared cover art--I'm not as worried about it on a portable and quite honestly, almost would rather just store the cover art in each file.  It makes the most sense.  I want the file system to tie data together as much as possible so if MC goes crazy, NTFS will give me some basic data/structure to fall back on.

[hit_ny]

That doesn't sit well with the initial procedure described. If you sync by criteria like 'all 4/5 stars songs' then what shared coverart? Coverart needs to be embedded.

Fair point.

I guess thats what many end up doing, favorites from all over the place.

[benn600]

So you are asking why I don't just sync everything?

The summer of 2006 I began constructing my FLAC library from scratch in MC.  Only a few short weeks ago I finished rating the latest song.  100% of my ~17,700 songs are rated 1 - 5 stars.  It was grueling, trying 3 years but I finally finished.  Now, it will be a little easier to maintain as I import small stacks of CDs at a time.

What devices could actually store this entire library?  I'm thinking hard drive based players exclusively.  Especially when I would like high or extreme MP3 encoding.  I'm just waiting for the chance to store lossless!  The audio hardware in the portable player should probably be beefed up a bit before then, though.

Not quite sure how we got on this subject or how that quote of mine was chosen...the point is that on my portable player, my first goal is to make my limited portable music endeavors as streamlined and efficient as possible.  The last thing I want to do on a run, road trip, or flight is search for songs and find each 2nd song junk...you know how it just continues playing from that CD or genre.  Playlists help...

[hit_ny]

So you are asking why I don't just sync everything?

No, just conceding that art HAS to be embedded for use on a portable when tracks are pulled from disparate sources. Its actually the simplest solution to always having art display correctly on it.

As a potential solution to your request, i wonder whether its simpler if MC were to just pull the smallest cached thumbnail and embed that inside the file to save space instead of doing the extra step of resizing ?

It would require the thumb to have been generated beforehand in the library tho or MC could do them on demand. Expect they would be very small and adequate for display. In any case the resizing functionality is already present within MC, just needs to be applied in this particular instance.

Do you forsee any problems with making this default behaviour when syncing mp3s to a portable ?

Is there a case where one would not want to have a low quality image embedded.

[benn600]

As a potential solution to your request, i wonder whether its simpler if MC were to just pull the smallest cached thumbnail and embed that inside the file to save space instead of doing the extra step of resizing ?

Great solution.  Although if JRiver decided to add this, it would be a piece of cake I'm sure.  I mean come on, resizing an image is something MC does thousands of times a day I'm sure...especially when building thumbnails as you pointed out.

At a minimum, I think this should be a checkbox to enable small cover art on portable devices.  I don't think those who want the HQ cover art (which may be me in the future) should be forced into this issue.  A drop down to select a few pre-selected configurations would be good but a checkbox is simpler for everyone.  We just need a good happy medium.  I think 320x320 and under 100 KB.