INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => Media Center 14 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Sheugel on July 19, 2009, 02:25:19 pm

Title: m4a embedded art
Post by: Sheugel on July 19, 2009, 02:25:19 pm

Hi,

I have some trouble with iTunes purchased files (iTunes Plus m4a files). MC doesn't display the embedded art (jpeg). With the CCCP codec pack (Haali Media Splitter), I'm able to access visualization which didn't work before through Quicktime. But no art.
What should I do?
Thanks,

Sheugel

Title: Re: m4a embedded art
Post by: bspachman on July 20, 2009, 10:12:27 am

MC can barely read the most basic tags on MP4 files (including m4a, m4p, m4b, etc. etc.) Also, MC cannot write tag changes to these file types. All information is stored in the library.

There has been no indication that this situation will change in the future.

The only solution is to strip out the embedded cover art (using a different program) and save it as a separate file. You can then tell MC to use that file as the 'cover art'.

brad

Title: Re: m4a embedded art
Post by: Sheugel on July 20, 2009, 03:38:55 pm

Thanks, that's what I did. Easy workaround.
That's a luck MC is so flexible, compared to other cra... softwares like, hum, iTunes...
I hope MC will however improve the m4a support in the future: direct playback, album art support, ...
If I've understood properly, this container is not proprietary and mp4 has better specification than mp3.  Considering the monopoly of Apple on digital music market in many countries...

Sheugel

Title: MC 14 does not display all artworks from iTunes
Post by: seamonster on November 29, 2009, 05:36:26 pm

I have been using iTunes and all my albums have cover art.  I just switched to J River Media Center (MC14).  Everything seems fine except that it does not show all artworks from iTunes.  A lot are missing which seem to be the ones I downloaded from the iTunes depository.  I tried to manually add the artwork from copy and paste from the iTunes info and download from internet. 

If I try to copy and paste, it does not get any thing from the clip board.

If I try to download from the internet (very interestingly many I thought easy titles can not find the artwork), the artwork may appear for about 10 sec and then disappears and never to show again.   

Hope someone can help.

Title: Re: MC 14 does not display all artworks from iTunes
Post by: JimH on November 29, 2009, 06:46:36 pm

Here's the article on cover art in our wiki:
http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Cover_Art

If they are missing, they are probably not embedded in the tag.  What file type are they?

Title: Re: MC 14 does not display all artworks from iTunes
Post by: Sheugel on November 30, 2009, 01:52:42 am

I guess they are m4a files. The embedded art of those files is curiously not handled by MC...:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=52981.0 (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=52981.0)
...although this must be the most widespread audio standard next to mp3...
Anyway as you can see in the post there's an inelegant workaround.
I hope the MC team will improve that in the future...

Title: Re: MC 14 does not display all artworks from iTunes
Post by: seamonster on November 30, 2009, 07:45:24 am

Thanks for your replies.  My files are not M4a. All my music files are AIFF. 

Title: Re: MC 14 does not display all artworks from iTunes
Post by: JimH on November 30, 2009, 08:12:09 am

Try build 101 on the MC14 board.  Native AIFF support was only added recently.

Title: Re: MC 14 does not display all artworks from iTunes
Post by: seamonster on November 30, 2009, 10:03:10 am

Already using the build 101.  Same problem.  Some artworks are missing.

Title: Re: m4a embedded art
Post by: seamonster on November 30, 2009, 10:18:26 am

This is getting more interesting.  I can find the cover arts in the specificed cover art folder:

C:\Users\CK\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 14\Cover Art\

But they do not show up in the media center view.  What is the problem.

Title: Re: m4a embedded art
Post by: Alex B on November 30, 2009, 03:32:17 pm

Quote from: Sheugel on November 30, 2009, 01:52:42 am

Anyway as you can see in the post there's an inelegant workaround...

Not sure how inelegant workaround this is, but you can use Mp3tag (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/) for extracting the embedded pictures to folder.jpg files. It has a built-in script for mass-extracting art. It is available under Mp3tag's "Actions". After the script is configured you can simply load all m4a tracks to Mp3tag, select them and run the Action. It doesn't remove the embedded images so you can continue to store them in the file tags.