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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11-12-2007, 10:02 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,291
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I was hoping this was something that would be fixed on V2. I've had problems with the Zune displaying the incorrect album art. Media Monkey and even the desktop zune software will both show the correct art, but then when loaded to the Zune, for a few songs, the incorrect art will show. I have to manually write down these songs when I see them, go into the zune desktop software and have it regrab the album information. Then it displays the correct art.
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11-12-2007, 10:45 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Gohlke
I was hoping this was something that would be fixed on V2. I've had problems with the Zune displaying the incorrect album art.
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Huh, interesting! I haven't seen this problem with the original Zune software, but hearing that doesn't surprise me. 
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11-13-2007, 12:09 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1
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I have a similar love of using high quality album art for my music files. I listened to your comments on this topic during Ian Dixon's podcast a little while back. I am tidying up my music folders now in preparation for the new Zune software being made available.
I will let you know my experience with embedded album art as I work things out.
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11-13-2007, 06:22 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 81
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Strange, I've never had a problem like this with album art. I have oodles of tracks that have *only* embedded images, and they've always ended up showing correctly, both in the Zune PC software as well as the device.
The only problem I see with album art is if I don't have any embedded image, it will take some random image from the folder the track is in, which causes problems if I'm not organized properly.
On the other hand, I've had other problems with the Zune software reading the wrong data from tags. I've had a few instances where the Genre tags were out of sync -- one Genre listed in ID3v1 and a different one in ID3v2, and in some cases it's taken the (unwanted) ID3v1 tag rather than the v2 one.
Perhaps your experience is related to the version of ID3 that your art was written with?
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11-13-2007, 09:39 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisW
On the other hand, I've had other problems with the Zune software reading the wrong data from tags.
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Yes, I've had some puzzling problems with the Zune software picking up the metadata wrong and saying that some songs are part of an album, when they're not. It's all a bit ugly actually - I don't know why Microsoft can't get something so simple right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisW
Perhaps your experience is related to the version of ID3 that your art was written with?
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Maybe. I use MediaMonkey to embed all album art.
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