11-12-2007, 06:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Zune v2: Strange Album Art Problem...Zune Finally Supports Embedded Album Art?
As much as I like the new user interface and functionality of the new Zune desktop software, it has some curious glitches and bugs. I'll delve into them in my upcoming written article, but I decided to explore one of the "visual" bugs: the Zune software doesn't seem to see my album art. In this video you can see me find a Green Day track that has no album art associated with it. The problem? It does have album art - it's embedded in the file, and Vista can see it from the shell. I didn't film this, but Windows Media Player also shows the file as having album art. I think the root cause of this problem is that the Zune software completely ignores embedded album art...but only some of the time.
I say "some of the time" because after I shot this video I did an experiment where I took an album I knew the Zune marketplace wouldn't have album art for, and I removed it from the library. I turned on hidden files and protected files, and deleted all the hidden album art files that had been generated. All I had was the MP3s with the embedded album art inside the file. I added the album back into my monitored music folder, and the Zune software picked it up within a few seconds. I checked the folder again after the scan, expecting to see a few hidden album art files generated by the Zune software. Nothing was there.
Puzzled, I synced the album, sans folder album art, over to my Zune...and much to my amazement, the Zune displayed the album art! If I'm understanding what I'm seeing correctly, this means that the new Zunes finally support JPEG images embedded inside the audio files. This is something I've been hoping for since the first Zune information leaked more than a year ago, and it seems it's finally a reality! The question is, why doesn't the Zune desktop software pick up the embedded album art in the Green Day track? It picks up the album art from the album folder where I deleted the hidden albumart.jpg images. Does it scan the folder and read the embedded album art inside a folder, but not from a single file? So many questions - but it looks like at least part of my wish has been granted. Lots more to figure out...I look forward to your feedback on this issue once you get the new Zune software installed. Let's figure this one out together.
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