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[6233638]

Is there any chance we will see improved cover art quality in MC19?
I've brought this up before, but the JPEG compression used on the cover art is really terrible at most sizes.

I just bought another couple of albums which really highlighted how poor the quality still is.
I've added a couple of examples from the last topic again as well.

[adamt]

With the screen resolution of many computers and televisions increasing, it seems like this would be a big improvement. 

[Vocalpoint]

Is there any chance we will see improved cover art quality in MC19? I've brought this up before, but the JPEG compression used on the cover art is really terrible at most sizes.

I don't understand the question. Where/how - does MC have any say over art quality?

I have been adding my own cover art to my FLAC tracks - like forever. Every art file is a jpg, lovingly prepped in Photoshop at 500x500 pixels and all my cover art looks outstanding.

If quality is being effected - AFTER I add my art - that is an issue - or am I misunderstanding something?

VP

[6233638]

I don't understand the question. Where/how - does MC have any say over art quality?

If you copy & paste art, Media Center resaves it as a medium quality JPG.

Media Center will also only add JPG art to files, so if you have lossless PNG art for something, it will be resaved at a lower quality when MC embeds it in a file.
Sure, it's only a handful of albums which have PNG art, but why would you ever want to replace a lossless file with a lossy version? (even 100% quality JPG can show compression artifacts)

Every art file is a jpg, lovingly prepped in Photoshop at 500x500 pixels and all my cover art looks outstanding.

You might want to reconsider 500x500. With modern phones coming with 1920x1080 screens, and tablets with 2560x1600 and beyond, that low resolution art doesn't look so good any more. Televisions will be moving to 4K soon, which is even higher resolution.

The highest resolution art I have is 3400x3400, though most are around 1500x1500.

If quality is being effected - AFTER I add my art - that is an issue - or am I misunderstanding something?

The issue shown in this topic, is when displaying art in the library view. As you resize the thumbnails, MC snaps between different quality levels, so if you are below a certain size, it's full of JPG artifacts as shown above. The "high quality" images are how the art would look without that compression. (I resized the source files in Photoshop)
iTunes has no problem adding PNG art files, and I don't seem to recall it using compression for its thumbnails either. (it has been a while since I used iTunes though)

And when resizing covers that have fine text, as with the two Carmen Gomes Inc. albums, it's also best to be using linear light scaling. (in Photoshop, this means doing the resizing step in 32-bit)
It would be nice if Media Center could do the same.

[mojave]

If you copy & paste art, Media Center resaves it as a medium quality JPG.

When getting cover art from the internet, if you right click the image and click "Copy image" and then in JRiver use "Paste from clipboard (image or URL)", the image will be recompressed. However, if you right click the image and click "Copy Image URL" and then in JRiver you "Paste from clipboard (image or URL)", the image will not be recompressed.

[Vocalpoint]

If you copy & paste art, Media Center resaves it as a medium quality JPG.

I see now. I do not copy/paste art so no worries for me.

You might want to reconsider 500x500. With modern phones coming with 1920x1080 screens, and tablets with 2560x1600 and beyond, that low resolution art doesn't look so good any more. Televisions will be moving to 4K soon, which is even higher resolution.

Well - all our at 500x500 art looks stunning via our HD 1920x1080 projector to our 92 inch big screen downstairs  - so if it's good there - it's good enough for me. Also looks deluxe on the iPad with JRemote....

I embed every piece of art into every file so - I really do not care for a 1500x1500 pixel image taking up that much space. Supply is always an issue too. I do not have a scanner so if I could find a reliable source of 1500x1500 art for my growing rip collection - I might consider it - but even my primary source AlbumArtExchange - is still offering probably 90% of it's material @ 600x600 max.

VP

[6233638]

Well - all our at 500x500 art looks stunning via our HD 1920x1080 projector to our 92 inch big screen downstairs  - so if it's good there - it's good enough for me. Also looks deluxe on the iPad with JRemote....

Well, the way I feel is that if I have a high resolution display, I want high resolution artwork to go along with it. If I'm replacing the physical album with a digital copy, I want it to at least be as close to the original as possible.

I embed every piece of art into every file so - I really do not care for a 1500x1500 pixel image taking up that much space.

That's very true - I wish there were a better solution, but to get art on all devices, it seems necessary to embed it. At most, art is going to be 5MB, so that's what 100MB or less per album? If you're already storing lossless files it's not a huge problem. I suppose space is an issue with portable devices though, especially now that everything but the old iPod classic uses flash memory, and 64GB or less of it.

Supply is always an issue too. I do not have a scanner so if I could find a reliable source of 1500x1500 art for my growing rip collection - I might consider it - but even my primary source AlbumArtExchange - is still offering probably 90% of it's material @ 600x600 max.

Yes, this is always difficult. I have a Google search set up in Media Center that usually produces good results, but I still find myself spending some time having to compare files (the largest image/filesize is not necessarily the best quality one) or find the best one and fix it up myself.

I'd really love it if there were a service which actually cared about the resolution and quality of cover art.
In some cases, I have been reduced to scanning in an image myself, but I only have a sheet-fed scanner that I bought to go paperless, which produces reasonable results, but it's not nearly as good as "proper" art provided by the record label.

[Vocalpoint]

At most, art is going to be 5MB, so that's what 100MB or less per album?

Wow - that's hard core...my biggest pieces of album art (1500x1500) rarely exceed 750KB let alone a MB...and I would never stick a 5MB art file into a track.

Also - remember that the art moves with a conversion as well...can't have multiple MB sized art moving into the MP3 that go onto the iPod..where space is really a concern.

VP

[6233638]

Wow - that's hard core...my biggest pieces of album art (1500x1500) rarely exceed 750KB let alone a MB...and I would never stick a 5MB art file into a track.

Well I did say at most. On average it's probably 1MB or less.

Also - remember that the art moves with a conversion as well...can't have multiple MB sized art moving into the MP3 that go onto the iPod..where space is really a concern.

I'd probably replace the art with lower resolution versions for files going on mobile devices with limited space. The retina display on an iPod/iPhone only needs art which is 640x640.
I don't really do a lot of portable listening though - I don't like having duplicate files or reduce the quality, and things seemed to have stopped at 160GB with the iPod classic. Everything else seems to be 64GB or less now, so I tend to just copy over a handful of albums at a time.
With 128GB iPads, I have hope that maybe the next generation of phones will at least move to that, though I'd prefer 256GB+

[chrisxyz]

However, if you right click the image and click "Copy Image URL" and then in JRiver you "Paste from clipboard (image or URL)", the image will not be recompressed.

I thought that there are problems with cover art images in flac files with more than 500x500 pixels. Is there a possibility to use higher resolution images without problems? (it would be great).

[Vocalpoint]

I thought that there are problems with cover art images in flac files with more than 500x500 pixels. Is there a possibility to use higher resolution images without problems? (it would be great).

I have done 1500x1500 to FLAC before....but as mentioned - my current standard is 500x500 simply to keep the graphic payload reasonable.

VP

[6233638]

I thought that there are problems with cover art images in flac files with more than 500x500 pixels. Is there a possibility to use higher resolution images without problems? (it would be great).

I guess it's lucky that I use ALAC then. I just hit a new "record" last night as well - a cover that is 4134x4134. It appears to be a "source" file, and I wish every album had art like that.

When you consider that 4K displays (3840x2160) are going to be mainstream soon with 8K already in the works, I don't know why you would compromise on cover quality. Notebooks are already sold with 3200x1800 displays today. High density displays are the future.

[JimH]

I know of no limits for cover art in any format that supports internal art.

[chrisxyz]

I know of no limits for cover art in any format that supports internal art.

JimH & Vocalpoint: Thanks for your answers!