Sync'ing album art files from MM to iPod [#6741]

[StLouisRod]

Can anyone please confirm that Media Monkey is NOT currently designed to sync an iPod's album art database with images UNLESS those images are stored WITHIN the meta-tags of the song files themselves?

In order to save space on my 160gb iPod classic, I have removed all album art from within the files themselves and saved nearly 1/2 a gig of space. Instead, I have been using iTunes (shudder) to obtain high quality (50k or so) album art images for my music collection. Since iTunes sucks, nearly 1/2 my library is not found, and therefore I have to utilize other methods (i.e. MP3Tag Pro, MM album by album manual load, etc.) to complete the rest. Then I use iTSfv to export the iTunes encrypted images to a "album_art.jpg" file within each respective album folder. That way MM shows the album art when playing. However, when I sync those songs to my iPOD, the album art does not get applied to the iPod database, and therefore does not come up when I listen to my iPOD (or when playing through the $2000 Kenwood head unit in my car).

Shouldn't MM be able to update the iPOD database just like iTunes, or is this yet another proprietary Apple-inflicted hurdle that makes it too difficult to develop and include in MM?

Thanks!

[nohitter151]

I can't say from personal experience because I always leave my art in the track tags, but as far as I understand it the art should work fine whether stored in tag or linked via MM.

The iPod uses it's own database to store artwork, so it's not like the iPod reads the art directly from the track tags. In the event that the art is saved in the track tag, MM will have to extract it for the art database on the ipod anyway.

[jmbattle]

I also opt to store the album art in a separate JPEG ('folder.jpg' in my case) rather than embedded with each MP3.

In my experience MediaMonkey will transfer the artwork correctly if the music is catalogued in the database, however if you simply drag a folder from Explorer onto the iPod icon, the artwork will not be transferred.

I do hope the devs change this behaviour in future releases.

Cheers,
James
x

[StLouisRod]

I also opt to store the album art in a separate JPEG ('folder.jpg' in my case) rather than embedded with each MP3.

In my experience MediaMonkey will transfer the artwork correctly if the music is catalogued in the database, however if you simply drag a folder from Explorer onto the iPod icon, the artwork will not be transferred.

I do hope the devs change this behaviour in future releases.

Cheers,
James
x

Thanks, James! Your explanation highlighted what I needed to do; namely I needed clear my library and rescan all my tunes. Then MM picked up the JPG artwork file within each album folder and cataloged it. The trick is making sure when an album node is selected, it's album art file should appear in the MM album art window. This was not happening before I rescanned, and now it does. But the best part is that once MM had cataloged the images, when I synced it to my iPOD, all album art transferred to the iPOD's internal database and displays fine on the unit.

Now there is virtually no need to use the abominable iTunes ever again. I only need to use iTunes once to update my iPOD's firmware and fetch high quality album art for most of my library. I then go to sites like the AlbumArtExchange to fill in the ones iTunes missed. After that, I can uninstall that POS.

Thanks again, James.

[Peke]

@James,
Can you elaborate steps to reproduce if you think MM have bug, we are certainly willing to investigate.

[jmbattle]

@Peke,

My apologies for this slow reply...

[quote=Peke]@James,
Can you elaborate steps to reproduce if you think MM have bug, we are certainly willing to investigate.[/quote]

It may not be a bug, but actually intended behaviour.

Essentially, I find that dragging an album folder of MP3s and folder.jpg album art onto MediaMonkey's iPod toolbar icon will transfer the MP3 tracks to the device correctly, however the folder.jpg album art will not be transferred. As noted previously, if the folder has been catalogued by MM's library (and the folder.jpg appears) transferring using the 'Sent To...' right click menu transfers the MP3s and the folder.jpg correctly, however there are often times when I simply want to transfer an album (with its album art) without having to catalogue it in MM's library.

Note that I am coming to MM from Winamp (primarily due to the improved support for modern iPods), where it is was possible using either ml_ipod.dll or pmp_ipod.dll to simply drag a folder into the connected iPod's MediaLibrary listing and have it transferred (with folder.jpg album art).

I hope this helps - fingers crossed this functionality can be implemented in a future MM release.

Cheers,
James
x

[Peke]

Yes it helps, THX added as http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=6741

BTW Welcome to MonkeyBusiness