View Full Version : N900 and iTunes album covers
fringant
2009-09-28, 09:07
hi everyone,
I'm really excited by the N900 but one thing makes me doubt about the purchase : the iTunes covers.
having an account on the itunes store I have all the covers of my albums (50 gb of legal music) and if Maemo 5 doesn't generate them I won't buy the device.
Is there a way of knowing this before the release ?!
Soulfarmer
2009-09-28, 09:16
I guess N900 doesn't interact with your itunes account at all so I also guess no covers either. I am no expert so don't count on my answer solely.
No, we're not Apple, so unfortunately we cannot log into your iTunes account.
Perhaps you could ask Apple to open up iTunes so that you wouldn't be locked down to only Apple products.
fringant
2009-09-28, 09:23
I've not expressed myself correctly :/
my covers are on Itunes even when i'm not connected to my account or even to the internet.
I've just got them with the account.
Maemo's player show's the album art from id3 tag. Itunes doesn't copy the album art automatically to the id3 tag.
You have to use an program like CoverScout to copy those images to the id3 tag or do it manually :) I did with coverscout for my 120gb collection and it wasn't difficult at all.
I don't get it, why the itunes doesn't copy all those images automatically to the id3 tag. All other than apple devices are using the id3 tag image album art.
@bbin: wtg dude :)
(thanks) For being helpful and descriptive without being condescending.
I don't know if this covers your requirements, but there's also an open source project by Ivan Frade that seems to allow cover downloading on-device, according to its description:
https://garage.maemo.org/projects/mussorgsky/
More information (and a screenshot (http://blog.ifrade.es/__oneclick_uploads/2009/06/mussorgsky-edition.png)) can be found on the Author's blog (http://dz015.wordpress.com/).
ossipena
2009-09-28, 10:45
I don't get it, why the itunes doesn't copy all those images automatically to the id3 tag. All other than apple devices are using the id3 tag image album art.
you ansvered your own question. they insist you use iPod. everything else is either impossible or very very hard. why would they give you a hand if you dont buy all of their products? ;)
Nelson L. Squeeko
2009-09-28, 11:37
Other than covers, do we know if the n900 will play music downloaded from the iTunes store. Its in the .m4p format, can the n900 even play that format?
@bbin: wtg dude :)
(thanks) For being helpful and descriptive without being condescending.
Exactly what I was thinking...
zkyevolved
2009-09-28, 11:56
I saw that it can play a lot of formats as long as it's not DRM. It plays AAC AAC+ and all those itunes formats, just NO DRM obviously.
I don't use iTunes at all but doesn't it store all its album information in another file that only Apple devices can use? If the music is non-DRM then there are a plethora of programs out there that will embed the album art into the ID3 tag (which is what pretty much every other device/media player will use)
Mandibela
2009-09-28, 12:25
iTunes embeds the image in the id tag too, if you assign an image to the files yourself. http://www.onetipaday.com/2006/12/31/how-to-add-itunes-artwork-to-mp3-id3-tags-using-itunes/
HangLoose
2009-09-28, 13:08
But if the N900 doesnt then get a Palm Pre...
ops... not possible either.
I hate the lock down of Apple products... thats one o my main reasons to be actually giving up my itouch and going for the n900.
got sick tired of that crappy slow thing called itunes.
There's an apple script to embed all of the iTunes albums into the id3 tag (half way down the page is the how-to)
http://gizmodo.com/5363273/how-to-rip-your-music-like-a-pro
If you're a Windows user then Media Monkey is the app to use. Embeds in the ID3 tag correctly. I use this so I get my art when used on my Symbian devices.
iTunes embeds the image in the id tag too, if you assign an image to the files yourself. http://www.onetipaday.com/2006/12/31...-using-itunes/
Yes it does. That's what I was talking about when i said you can put it in manually by yourself.
generationally
2009-09-28, 13:57
iTunes embeds the image in the id tag too, if you assign an image to the files yourself. http://www.onetipaday.com/2006/12/31/how-to-add-itunes-artwork-to-mp3-id3-tags-using-itunes/
The problem with iTunes' method of embedding artwork into the mp3 file is that the id tag containing the artwork is named 'Other' rather than 'Front Cover'. At least S60 devices do not recognise 'Other' and thus do not display the artwork. If the id3 tag is renamed to 'Front Cover' then the artwork is displayed correctly on S60 devices.
How N900 behaves in this aspect, I do not know...
Apart from the id3 Tag, I also sometimes dowload covers from Amazon MP3.
And this feature is built into the Canola music player. It can download covers from Amazon or last.fm or use the id3 tags itself. I am not sure if the built-in player in N900 has this feature - but I am sure we will get Canola's features ported to N900 sometime eventually.
If you're a Windows user then Media Monkey is the app to use. Embeds in the ID3 tag correctly. I use this so I get my art when used on my Symbian devices.
Media Monkey is a good product. For about 10 years I've been using Tag & Rename to manage the meta-data in the collection. Timely and useful upgrades are a plus.
fringant
2009-09-28, 18:04
iTunes embeds the image in the id tag too, if you assign an image to the files yourself. http://www.onetipaday.com/2006/12/31/how-to-add-itunes-artwork-to-mp3-id3-tags-using-itunes/
Thanks a lot fort this link !
I've tried it and it works perfectly ! my E 71 is now showing album covers so I suppose the n900 would to...
Thanks everyone !
munky261
2009-09-28, 19:28
I have a question, I loaded all my artwork via Itunes and everything shows up correctly if I browse my library using winamp. Looks as if itunes embedded all my artwork correctly. Then again, I manually downloaded every cover from amazon and other places and dragged and dropped to every track. So is it safe to assume my artwork will show up correctly on the N900?
McChicken
2009-09-28, 20:14
Media Monkey is a good product. For about 10 years I've been using Tag & Rename to manage the meta-data in the collection. Timely and useful upgrades are a plus.
Another album cover finder / organiser with good reputation seem to be http://amphonicdesigns.com/ there is a free Trail, full version costs $14.95.
have not used it myself but do work with both Windows and MAC together with iTunes as well, will D/L the Trail now actually. and try it out
timsamoff
2009-09-28, 20:27
I have a question, I loaded all my artwork via Itunes and everything shows up correctly if I browse my library using winamp. Looks as if itunes embedded all my artwork correctly. Then again, I manually downloaded every cover from amazon and other places and dragged and dropped to every track. So is it safe to assume my artwork will show up correctly on the N900?
Usually, this is the case. If there are issues, you can just use the aforementioned app -- which works very well.
Tim
NZtechfreak
2009-09-28, 20:34
Mediamonkey is good for this, as others have mentioned, although I had some problems with embedded album art using it.
I use mp3tag now, and get the album art via albumartdownloader, which searches multiple online cover art repositories. I find this combo best since I albumartdownloader lets me choose nice clear images, usually at 600x600 pixels (which is increasingly important as mobile displays keep improving), and because mp3tag just works with everything I've thrown at it - my PS3, WinMo phones (in all three media players on my last WinMo phone too), Symbian, Windows... Its good to have a solution that works when you change OS environs so often...
Soulfarmer
2009-09-28, 20:55
Thanks a lot people. So far I have not used album art at all, but I might like them enough to go thru my collection and use them in N900. Didn't know how to start amassing the album covers, but now I feel it might actually be very easy.
ceeceebee
2009-09-28, 21:05
Maemo's player show's the album art from id3 tag. Itunes doesn't copy the album art automatically to the id3 tag.
I don't get it, why the itunes doesn't copy all those images automatically to the id3 tag. All other than apple devices are using the id3 tag image album art.
Two things at play here. First Apple stores the art as meta-data in a datebase. This allows FAST access to the art, so cover-flow works. If they did not do this, the ipod would have to open EACH file to extract the art, (my ipod has 25000 songs) that that would take a long long time. So, into the meta-data it goes. Ratings stored there too, btw.
Second, once it is in the meta-data, apple figures WHY write it as a tag too? That wastes space, each art JPG is 100-300K, per SONG, and that adds up to something.
Oh, and they also want you to keep buying ipods! ;^)
Soulfarmer
2009-09-28, 21:32
Oh, are you sure N900 player doesn't show the album art if it is only as folder.jpg for example? That would be SO much easier...
Oh, are you sure N900 player doesn't show the album art if it is only as folder.jpg for example? That would be SO much easier...
brainstorm this!
Laughing Man
2009-09-28, 21:56
Thanks a lot people. So far I have not used album art at all, but I might like them enough to go thru my collection and use them in N900. Didn't know how to start amassing the album covers, but now I feel it might actually be very easy.
It shouldn't be to bad, one time over summer as an undergraduate I spent a few hours a week just fixing tags and cover art on my mp3 files. Finding covers isn't to hard between Wikipedia, Amazon, or any program that will do it for you.
Soulfarmer
2009-09-29, 00:27
brainstorm this!
At least I'd like to first get confirmation that the stock player doesn't already support folder.jpg type of album art implementation.
Soulfarmer
2009-09-29, 00:28
It shouldn't be to bad, one time over summer as an undergraduate I spent a few hours a week just fixing tags and cover art on my mp3 files. Finding covers isn't to hard between Wikipedia, Amazon, or any program that will do it for you.
Album Art Downloader, when I first tried it, looked like finding all the covers I want very easy. But if I need to embedd each cover to each single song's id3tag and do it manually, that would be a hassle. So I hope the folder.jpg album art in each album folder is enough.
NZtechfreak
2009-09-29, 00:37
Its pretty easy to do in mp3tag though, you can embed art for each album at one time.
Soulfarmer
2009-09-29, 00:55
Its pretty easy to do in mp3tag though, you can embed art for each album at one time.
I haven't tried that one yet. I trust there are methods of doing this efficiently and easily. On the other hand tho, I hope both methods of album art would be supported. While folder.jpg is very easy and efficient way to show album art without making the mp3 files themselves any bigger, embedded album art works everywhere with single song for example, not just by whole folders.
I usually transfer only whole albums, so for me folder.jpg would be my way to go if possible, but for more universal album art usage, tag-embedded album art could be my option later on.
Laughing Man
2009-09-29, 01:20
Mp3tag helps a bit, but yeah you still gotta do some work. As standard practice now, I always do both a folder.jpg in the folder along with embeding the cover for any new albums or songs I get.
NZtechfreak
2009-09-29, 01:21
If you're getting all the album art individually as saving them as folder.jpg its very simple to then open mp3tag --> select every song in the album --> right click --> extended tags --> choose album art --> click OK. I always save them from albumartdownloader as folder.jpg then do the above, by default mp3tag will open the albums folder where you have saved the folder.jpg file.
Its well worth the effort, I resisted sorting out my tags for a long time, then spent a few hours one afternoon sorting them all out. Once you get to that point its easy staying on top of things as you get new albums, and your collection becomes very robust in terms of changing devices/OS environs.
Soulfarmer
2009-09-29, 01:27
Yeah, now I tried mp3tag and it is as simple as I wanted it to be. Thanks again for the help from this thread. I didn't actually think I'd need this but hey, this easy and simple, wouldn't want to go back :)
Guys, do you happen to know what is the maximum resolution of the album art beeing displayed by the music player ?
Because i want to embed album arts in all my songs at exactly that resolution to have a pixel by pixel display of the album art.
APPLE suck, by the way, you guys should stop using apple products. They are for *****s, and i believe at least people browsing this forum, are smarter than that and know better than to buy shity locked apple ********.
munky261
2009-10-01, 07:18
When you download the large image of the cover off amazon theyre almost always 240x240. Unless you manually scan your own thats the highest youll find.
Its pretty easy to do in mp3tag though, you can embed art for each album at one time.
Unfortunatly for us, mp3tag doesn't detect id3v2 tags on aacs, and you can't embed album arts on aacs, only on pretty much everything else. As i use exclusively aacs, this is bad thing from me. Other than that, mp3tag is the BEST and i mean the very BEST tagging program that exists on the market. If it had this capability, it would have been my one and only program for tagging.
I have even went so far as to mail the maker of the program. Incredibly, he just told me the program can't read id3v2 tags from aac, and gave me no reason what so ever as to why he refuses to implement this capability EVEN in FUTURE updates. I was stunned to learn this, esspecialy when there are way more basic programs out there that can' detec id3v2tags in aacs.
Hello there NZtechfreak. Long time no see !
I actualy dot album arts from the internet to all my songs with minim resolution of 500x500. Will be no problem resizing them and embeding them into aacs, i use tag scanner for that. I just need to figure out the resolution that's beeing displayed. I thinking it's 300x300, but i'm not sure.
I don't think there's a real maximum for cover size. It's just an embedded image file that can be of any size and gets scaled up or down by the software for displaying.
I don't think there's a real maximum for cover size. It's just an embedded image file that can be of any size and gets scaled up or down by the software for displaying.
I know that, but what i want to know is to what resolution the music application scales down the image art, because there absolutly no reason to embed a bigger resolution image in the music file.
Bytales, I know what you're saying, and I too used to like to get pixel-perfect things. But on-device scaling at runtime is pretty good these days, and even if you found out the exact dimensions to use for this player, if you changed to a different player it might display the cover art at a different size anyway, so it seems a bit over the top to hard-wire or optimise your cover art just to suit this one player. Just put the cover art in at any resolution you like and it'll probably work. In relation to the size of the music file, the cover art will be miniscule (just a few dozen kilobytes at most).
Bytales, I know what you're saying, and I too used to like to get pixel-perfect things. But on-device scaling at runtime is pretty good these days, and even if you found out the exact dimensions to use for this player, if you changed to a different player it might display the cover art at a different size anyway, so it seems a bit over the top to hard-wire or optimise your cover art just to suit this one player. Just put the cover art in at any resolution you like and it'll probably work. In relation to the size of the music file, the cover art will be miniscule (just a few dozen kilobytes at most).
Just to suit this player you say ?
The thing is this will be the only player i will ever use. So no point in keeping optimized for everything else.
Besides i kinda have a feeling the resolution is 300x300 pixels. But i need a screenshot in bmp format for this to be sure, but it seems its 300x300
Soulfarmer
2009-10-03, 08:59
brainstorm this!
Umm... as I don't do any dev work nor have any experience in coding other than php with wordpress, I don't really know what I should be doing over there at brainstorm. :)
If you're a Windows user then Media Monkey is the app to use. Embeds in the ID3 tag correctly. I use this so I get my art when used on my Symbian devices.
100% agreed.. I have both a 30G Zune and an iPod Nano 4th Gen.. I basically use the zune software to load the zune and Media Monkey to manage the music and also load onto my Nano... Media Monkey is fantastic software.
The Zune software seems to not touch my tags that i've set in Media Monkey, which is nice, though I have yet to upgrade to 4.0. iTunes scares the crap out of me, I wish I never had to even install it, but MM uses a dll installed by iTunes to be able to communicate with the Nano.
There's an apple script to embed all of the iTunes albums into the id3 tag (half way down the page is the how-to)
http://gizmodo.com/5363273/how-to-rip-your-music-like-a-pro
Don't do this if you want to use the covers on other systems than Mac. The images does have an additional headers and the files (extracted from mp3) won't be displayed as pictures on other systems than Mac computer.
Use CoverScout, Musicbrainz Picard, Mediamonkey and the great command line tool eyeD3 instead. With some litte bash, id3tag and eyeD3, you have some great tools to manage you collection.
I'm on tagging 'some' GB own collections bad/untagged since some months and I tried nearly all programs I could find for Mac, Linux and Windows.
fhmutairi
2010-02-05, 17:25
It's weired sometimes when I change the album cover through iTunes it get changed in N900 media player and sometimes not!
Is that some sort of bug? actually sometime N900 completely mess all my album covers I had once most of my files with the cover of a Sting album!
Actually this questions make perfect sense and I'm sad to say the answer is no. I have the covers included in the mp3tag on all my tracks, but only a few actually shows up on my n900. It's kind of strange since every other mp3 player I use actually manages to display them all..
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