Zune Supports Embedded Album Art: That's Frickin' Awesome!

[Jason Dunn]

<img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2006/zune-embedded-album-art-christen-j-nov12.jpg" /><br /><br />Know what that is? That's something that neither my Zen Vision:M nor my Gigabeat S can do: <strong>display embedded album art</strong>. What's that you might ask? Rather than the dysfunctional method of album art storage that Microsoft employs, where it dumps JPEG images into the same folder as the song and makes them hidden, embedded album art takes the JPEG image and injects it into the header of the audio file, making it a permanent part of the audio file. Meaning, if you email a song to a friend, it will have the album art. It's elegant, and is simply the <em>right way to do album art</em>. More on this rant later from me. The good news is that the Zune supports it, which is a thrill for me, because none of my previous audio players did. Does the iPod? Look below for the answer.<br /><div style="page-break-after: always;"><span style="display: none;"> </span></div><br /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2006/ipod-albumart-view1.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2006/ipod-albumart-view2.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br />Pictured above is a 5th generation, 80 GB iPod displaying the same MP3 as the Zune. My friend Jenneth from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.girlsgonemobile.com">Girls Gone Mobile</a> was kind enough to test it for me. I'm impressed that the iPod can do it - does anyone know if the previous 4th gen units could? Regardless, the Zune and the iPod are at parity here. But look at how it displays the album art, and tell me that the Zune doesn't look better. It certainly does - it uses up all the space, and gives a much more impressive, immersive display of the album art. Some people (Vincent!) seem to think this doesn't matter, but for highly visual people such as myself, this is a big deal. Score one for the Zune!<br /><br /><em>[side note: the MP3, and the album art, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.christenj.com">is from a friend of mine</a>, though I take full responsibility for the typo in the metadata]<br /></em>

[Jason Eaton]

I do like the look of the interface for the Zune. My only problem is I have a working iPod. Perhaps when I need to upgrade the nano after a couple years I will give the Zune a look.

Maybe then, MS will have a smaller dimension version available as well. :)

Until then, go Zune! Work the competition for me.

[Dyvim]

The 4th generation iPod color devices (aka iPod Photo) display album art as well although the screen resolution is lower than the 320x240 of 5th generation iPods. The diminuitive iPod nano also does album art albeit at even lower resolution (but it still looks cool and as you say is nice for visually-oriented people).

The portrait orientation of the Zune allows for much larger album art. How does it look when you're in landscape mode?

Even given the iPod's landscape orientation it still doesn't use all the available screen real estate (notice the bar at top and white borders at top and bottom) which is lame. The display layout on the Zune looks much better. The 5G iPod has the exact same screen resolution as the Zune, but does a lot less with it- really the iPod's UI look has changed little since the B&W lower resolution days and now looks dated I think.

[Timothy Huber]

And the way the Zune handles embedded album art is not helping!

I love my Creative Zen Vision:M and I've had great success with album art using WMP11. But it doesn't handle embedded album art just by transferring the music file over.

Reasons to switch to Zune:

Accessories (I don't want much, just a decent speaker dock. Like the fabled Creative Traveldock Z500 for the ZVM.)
Screen size
Interface
Subscription available through Zune Marketplace
Expected upgrades to take more advantage of video & Wi-Fi
Embedded album art
Soapbox integration(?)Reasons to wait:

I like my Zen Vision M
Already get subscription through URGE
My wife and daughter have Zen Micro players which Zune Marketplace won't support... I'd have to keep an URGE subscription as well
This is release 1.0... we know MS has a history of improving their offerings over time
There's little point to Wi-Fi if I don't have anyone to connect withDecisions, decisions...

Timothy

[ucfgrad93]

I agree, the Zune screen does look very nice. Better than the iPod.

[Jason Dunn]

The 5G iPod has the exact same screen resolution as the Zune, but does a lot less with it- really the iPod's UI look has changed little since the B&W lower resolution days and now looks dated I think.

Isn't THAT the truth? The iPod has a "decent" UI, but it looks clunky and dated - kind of like Windows 3.1 vs. Windows XP. I think the Zune has a much nicer, cleaner, faster UI. And the album art comparison is no contest...

[Aaron Roma]

The iPod has a "decent" UI, but it looks clunky and dated - kind of like Windows 3.1 vs. Windows XP.

Ah dang it! You stole my line! That was the first thought that popped into my mind as I started using my Zune. I was saving it up for my hands-on report, and now you've gone and took it! :)

[jdmountford]

If the Zune has anything over anything, it is plain and simple the interface. The way it flows, the text the schemes, everything is just so well done. The layout of album art was one of my favorite things about the Zune. It is just so well handled.

[PCKid]

I checked my album art and by right clicking on any file and selecting Get Info it shows that it has album art embedded in it but I only get the little album picture to the left of the screen not the larger album picture as show here on the Ipod screenshot of the two examples. What do I need to do to get the album art to display with the bigger picture?

[Darius Wey]

Welcome to Zune Thoughts.

I checked my album art and by right clicking on any file and selecting Get Info it shows that it has album art embedded in it but I only get the little album picture to the left of the screen not the larger album picture as show here on the Ipod screenshot of the two examples. What do I need to do to get the album art to display with the bigger picture?

On the iPod, you can cycle through different views while music is playing (Now Playing mode), simply by pressing the centre button a few times.

[Jason Dunn]

What do I need to do to get the album art to display with the bigger picture?

You're asking for iPod tech support in a Zune forum? I have no clue. ;) Maybe there's an iPod owner here that can tell you...

[Darius Wey]

You're asking for iPod tech support in a Zune forum? I have no clue. ;) Maybe there's an iPod owner here that can tell you...

Support offered - though I confess to having never owned an iPod. ;)

[PCKid]

Welcome to Zune Thoughts.



On the iPod, you can cycle through different views while music is playing (Now Playing mode), simply by pressing the centre button a few times.

Cheers mate now it works a treat :D

[PCKid]

You're asking for iPod tech support in a Zune forum? I have no clue. ;) Maybe there's an iPod owner here that can tell you...

My fault. But it did show the ipod here with the 2 different screenshots. Got my answer anyway thanks guys. Will check out the Zune when we see it here in Australia. Screen size and interface look impresses me.
Ipod interface does look old hat compared to the Zune screenshots but seeing it in the flesh will tell. My 30 Gig Ipod video is kept in a Ipod sock in my pocket with car keys coins etc so I don't know if the Zune will be too heavy or bulky for that. :confused:

[Jason Eaton]

I imagine there are a few iPod supporters lurking about. They are devious like that. :)

[semjaza]

I saw this thread thanks to Google and decided to register to ask a question.

I notice on your Zune the album art appears to be rather clear. My question is, really, how did you do that?

The album art that downloads off the Marketplace is generally terrible. So, I've taken it upon myself to find higher resolution images. However, whenever I paste them into the Zune software, they seem to resize and compress rather badly. Very few of my album covers look nice on the screen, which is made even worse by how large the covers are displayed.

I've tried resizing the images in Photoshop to fit the size the Zune software displays them at, but even then they look really bad on the screen.

Is there some trick to this I'm not getting?

[Jason Dunn]

I saw this thread thanks to Google and decided to register to ask a question. I notice on your Zune the album art appears to be rather clear. My question is, really, how did you do that? The album art that downloads off the Marketplace is generally terrible. So, I've taken it upon myself to find higher resolution images. However, whenever I paste them into the Zune software, they seem to resize and compress rather badly.

That photo was taken by a friend of mine who had a Zune before they were sold in stores, so when I did up this post it was before having first-hand knowledge of what the Zune did. Now that I have a Zune, I sadly have to agree with you: the album art is utter crap. It looks horrible, and I'm really disappointed in how Microsoft has implemented this. I'll write about it in more detail in my upcoming review, but it seems to be that the Zune software (WMP11 basically) will take album art embedded in the header of the song, extract it, convert it to 200 x 200, and save it as a JPEG with about 50% compression. So it takes beautiful, gorgeous art, and destroys it. If it finds the album art in the Zune Marketplace, it does the same thing. Yeah, it sucks. There's no way to fix it, avoid it, or get better quality album art. Our only hope is that someone at Microsoft will understand how bad of a decision they made with their implementation, and fix it later. :(

[semjaza]

Hm, thanks.

I thought I'd try embedding the images into my mp3s with a separate program... but that doesn't seem to be working out well either.

This is a big disappointment to me. Most people wouldn't care, I imagine, but it just makes the player seem a lot crappier than necessary. If I want to associate 150kb JPEGs with my music, I think I should be able to.

Coupling this with the idea that the Zune software apparently recompresses all of my mp3s (why did I spend time ripping them in v2??) and I'm really starting to question my purchase.

[Jason Dunn]

I thought I'd try embedding the images into my mp3s with a separate program... but that doesn't seem to be working out well either.

Give MediaMonkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com) a try, it's amazing. But the Zune doesn't seem to show embedded album art, it shows the art that it extracts.

Coupling this with the idea that the Zune software apparently recompresses all of my mp3s (why did I spend time ripping them in v2??)

Nope, that's not what it should be doing - what's it doing that makes you think that? As long as your audio files are in MP3 or WMA format, it shouldn't have to re-encode anything.

[semjaza]

I don't have it in front of me currently, but in the software options it asks you what you want to transfer the songs as to save space. There's two options, let Zune do it automatically or select from a slider. The highest choice is 192k. There isn't an option to just leave it as it is.

It gave the strong impression that when songs are sent over they'll be transcoded. Perhaps I misunderstood it.

[Jason Dunn]

I don't have it in front of me currently, but in the software options it asks you what you want to transfer the songs as to save space. There's two options, let Zune do it automatically or select from a slider. The highest choice is 192k. There isn't an option to just leave it as it is.

Unfortunately you're a victim of your own curious nature. ;) If you don't touch any of those settings, the Zune will do what it needs to do automatically, which is not transcode any of your music. Set it back to automatic, and it will not touch your music - unless you have music outside the range of what the Zune can play (I think 320 kbps MP3 is the limit).