OS X R1.1 Album Art Settings

[HRockefeller]

Hi, after doing a forum and internet search and not being able to hammer down the answer, I'm hoping people might be able to shed some light on album art settings. I'm in the process of re-ripping a 3-500 CD collection to both ALAC and FLAC using the multi-encoder on the new OS X R1.1 DBPA.

My questions are:
1. What are the recommended album art settings? Before I start ripping, I have things set to the maximum: 1400x1400, 2000KB in order to keep things future proof and high-quality (and storage cheap). Are there any downsides to this (e.g. some players not being able to read larger album art files, adding 2MB to each file if embedded)?

2. Is album art embedded in files? When I rip CD's, I do see the folder.jpg album art cover in each of my music folders, however I also see the image representing each song when viewing the folder in "finder". Therefore does DBPA embed the album art in each file, list it separately as a folder.jpg, or both? I don't see any option to turn off writing the cover as folder.jpg. If embedded, I wonder why it's necessary to have a separate image file.

3. Does it matter what I call the album art picture? I am tempted to name it "Album Cover" if needs to be present in folder, or even go with the suggested "cover.jpg", but don't know if "folder.jpg" is something that some programs specifically look for in order to find the album art.

Any help in advance appreciated! Happy Easter!

HR

[dbfan]

Re: OS X R1.1 Album Art Settings

1. Certain players such as sonus cannot read the art if too large.
2. Both
3. It should be called folder.jog if you want programs to read it.

[HRockefeller]

Re: OS X R1.1 Album Art Settings

Thanks Spoon!

A question for yourself or any others: Is anyone having trouble obtaining embedded album art when they rip to FLAC? My primary format is AIFF, but try to rip to FLAC (lossless uncompressed) for a backup (ripping separately due to issues with multi-encoder). I use all of the same settings otherwise. I have tried ripping with either big or small artwork, but album art never embeds in the FLAC file. I have also ripped 6 albums to AIFF, then used the batch converter: the new files still lack album art. Is this just me or has anyone had similar difficulties? Maybe it's because I'm using FLAC lossless uncompressed?

[dbfan]

Re: OS X R1.1 Album Art Settings

How do you check that art is not embedding?

[HRockefeller]

Re: OS X R1.1 Album Art Settings

How do you check that art is not embedding?

When viewing files in OS X the album art forms the icons in finder, or when playing in VLC or other programs the album art is visible from AIFF files but not FLAC.

[Spoon]

Re: OS X R1.1 Album Art Settings

These programs cannot display embedded art from FLAC, any flac file.

[HRockefeller]

Re: OS X R1.1 Album Art Settings

Sorry didn't know that! Transferred a FLAC rip to my NAS and using a network player can see it. My mistake!

[Beekeeper]

Re: OS X R1.1 Album Art Settings

Sorry didn't know that! Transferred a FLAC rip to my NAS and using a network player can see it. My mistake!

Can you please explain what this means, I rip my cd's and the album art is not appearing on my hard drive, I am using a twonky media server, how can i get the art to embed - please make it simple for a complete novice.

[HRockefeller]

Re: OS X R1.1 Album Art Settings

Sorry - I am a total novice myself. I have a QNAP NAS hard drive as part of my home network. QNAP has a bunch of programs that let you play the media on your NAS over the internet (e.g. QMusic). Although the album art of FLAC files doesn't appear as an icon in OS X, or show up when I play the files through VLC, it does when I play the individual files using this app. As I opened the individual file vs. a folder of tracks with the separate album art *.jpg, I am assuming the album art is embedded.

HR