no artwork in naim nstream - is iTunes to blame?

[vogtlancs]

Hi all,
I just got round getting my Mac Mini fit as music server with the latest Asset UPnP. I use iTunes for ripping (onto a USB-connected SSD as music library), and this works nicely, automatically, and ‘headless’. The only snag is that the album artwork does not appear in the naim nstream app (it just shows the same silhouette for artist, and the same CD sleeve for each album), whilst the artwork is certainly visible in iTunes.

Should I be able to see the album artwork in this combination of iTunes / Asset / nstream, or should I rather use a different CD ripper, such as dBpoweramp? With iTunes I like the integration with my iPod/iPhone…
Any help much appreciated!
Thanks,
Stefan

[mville]

Re: no artwork in naim nstream - is iTunes to blame?

I just got round getting my Mac Mini fit as music server with the latest Asset UPnP. I use iTunes for ripping (onto a USB-connected SSD as music library), and this works nicely, automatically, and &*8216;headless&*8217;. The only snag is that the album artwork does not appear in the naim nstream app (it just shows the same silhouette for artist, and the same CD sleeve for each album), whilst the artwork is certainly visible in iTunes.

Should I be able to see the album artwork in this combination of iTunes / Asset / nstream, or should I rather use a different CD ripper, such as dBpoweramp? With iTunes I like the integration with my iPod/iPhone

Asset UPnP uses embedded artwork or artwork saved in the album folder as a single graphics file.

iTunes saves artwork in it's library which is not readily available to any other 3rd party software. Asset UPnP does not see the iTunes artwork and cannot serve the artwork to the Naim. There are apple scripts that can extract the artwork from the iTunes library, which may resolve this issue.

However, in the long run, I believe you would be better off ripping CDs using CDRipper, with the option of embedded artwork or a single graphics file, saved in the album folder. You also get all the other benefits of ripping/tagging in CDRipper, which IMO, when compared to iTunes, is in a different league.

Having said all that, I have no experience of dBpoweramp Music Converter on the Apple platform, as I use a Windows PC and the software on the Apple platform is still in it's infancy. I only use iTunes to sync my mp3 library with my iPod Classic 160GB.

So my advice would be to rip your CDs to a FLAC/ALAC master library, which you can stream to the NAIM. Then, create an mp3 library (from the master library using dBpoweramp), which you can add to iTunes and sync with your iPod/iPhone/mobile devices.

[vogtlancs]

Re: no artwork in naim nstream - is iTunes to blame?

Thank you so much, mville,
you are indeed a dbpoweramp guru, and very kind!
Merry Christmas!
Stefan

[vogtlancs]

Re: no artwork in naim nstream - is iTunes to blame?

On the Mac, can I set up CD ripper so that it rips automatically whenever a CD is inserted, please?
I want to run the Mac mini headless (no display, Mac mini located in the hifi rack), and I'm a little worried that all the options of CD ripper do not really allow trouble-free auto-ripping?
Thanks, Stefan

[mville]

Re: no artwork in naim nstream - is iTunes to blame?

On the Mac, can I set up CD ripper so that it rips automatically whenever a CD is inserted, please?
I want to run the Mac mini headless (no display, Mac mini located in the hifi rack), and I'm a little worried that all the options of CD ripper do not really allow trouble-free auto-ripping?

No, I don't think you can with CDRipper. You could try taking a look at Batch Ripper, maybe this will rip automatically.

However, I don't believe there is such a thing as trouble-free auto ripping. IMO, the idea that you can insert a CD into a PC and rip it automatically with no issues/errors with the tags is flawed.

The online metadata databases are not error free. I would advise you to check each CDs metadata and edit as necessary, BEFORE ripping. Building an audio library is time-consuming, so the more you get right at the initial ripping stage, the fewer issues you will run into later with media player/server software and your audio devices.

[vogtlancs]

Re: no artwork in naim nstream - is iTunes to blame?

Thanks again, mville,
unfortunately batch ripper is PC only. I guess I'm spoiled by iTunes which ripped most of my CDs so far without problems (though I can't know for sure that the rips are 100%).

Regarding the artwork, it looks life is too short for this in my setup: I've now copied a few jpeg and png artwork files into the album folders (via an apple script as you mentioned), but my naim app still doesn't show any artwork - perhaps they need to be embedded in the music files for Asset/Mac?

My conclusion: no artwork at all is better than patchy artwork. Thus, clean text is shall be. Still appalling, really: With good old Playback most artwork showed up in the naim app and I never needed to think about this (Playback must have been reading iTunes Artwork files).
Cheers,
Stefan

[vogtlancs]

Re: no artwork in naim nstream - is iTunes to blame?

Never say never: Warm thanks to Mr Spoon for showing me the ropes: I just learned that the artwork file needs to be called 'folder.jpg', and then both Asset and I are happy bunnies!
Cheers, Stefan

[mville]

Re: no artwork in naim nstream - is iTunes to blame?

I just learned that the artwork file needs to be called 'folder.jpg', and then both Asset and I are happy bunnies!

Yes, Asset is happy with folder.jpg and cover.jpg.