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More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: tgack on March 15, 2006, 03:24:24 am

Title: Problem importing MP3 cover art
Post by: tgack on March 15, 2006, 03:24:24 am

I am having problems viewing the coverart in some of my mp3 files through media center.  If I download the files outside of media center and save them to my hard drive, other programs are capable of displaying the coverart just fine. 

Here is a sample of the mp3 file that is causing problems ...

http://libsyn.com/media/chinesepod2/chinesepod002_A2_20050906.mp3

(FYI it happens to be a podcast mp3 file, but I believe the issue does not lie within the podcast section of Media Center but within the way Media Center reads the tags on import.  I mention this because even if I download the file externally and then just try to import it into Media Center it still does not display the cover art.)

Any ideas why this cover art shows in most other programs (iTunes, Mp3Tag, etc) but not Media Center?

Title: Re: Problem importing MP3 cover art
Post by: Alex B on March 15, 2006, 08:10:56 am

The embedded image is in an ID3v2.2 frame named "PIC" (In general, ID3v2.2 is considered obsolete).

The newer ID3v2.3 standard uses "APIC" instead. Obviously MC supports only "APIC".

You can fix the problem e.g. by converting the ID3v2.2 tags to ID3v2.3 with iTunes (Advanced > Convert ID3 tags). BTW, my Mp3tag v.2.35g cannot display the image.

Title: Re: Problem importing MP3 cover art
Post by: tgack on March 16, 2006, 07:34:29 pm

Thanks a ton Alex-

Makes total sense.  Maybe at some point Media Center could add support to convert these tags the same way iTunes is capable of doing, or at least recognizing it is an older version and not allowing it to rewrite the tags from library in ID3v2.3 which seems to corrupt the embedded cover art.

One interesting point... I too had just downloaded Mp3tag v2.35 and the cover art in the original ID3v2.2 file (if downloaded outside of media center) shows up just fine for me when I view the "Tags..." pop up window in Mp3tag.  My software says it is the latest version when checking for new versions, so I am not exactly sure why yours is not working or your v2.35G is something else then v2.35...