How to use your embedded album art from iTunes (the easy way)

[DeanMurray]

This is an amarok script that might work for you.  I haven't tried it.

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/amaroK-Scripts/Rockbox-Cover-Generator-11517.shtml#

[ryran]

Ahh great for if you use itunes exactly...i dont.. im a Linux user.. sorry i know.. i meant purely extract the information from the ipod thumbnail database.. i use amarok so twould be great but.....

If understand you, you're asking about querying Apple for covers without using iTunes.
For a while, there were third party tools that were capable of this, but as of ~ October 2006 (if I remember correctly), this is no longer possible--due of course to Apple using a form of encryption in concert with iTunes 7 that has yet to be .. well, cracked. As far as I know, there hasn't been a new tool released to deal with this yet and the only way to get at Apple's high quality covers is to download them from iTunes 7.

There are other options besides Apple's database however.
I successfully use http://sourceforge.net/projects/album-art to query multiple album art websites and AlbumArtDownloader XUI (a mod of the previous project) looks promising.

[mattandme]

why dont you want to use itunes 7? thats what i did, and it works fine...

[ryran]

Since he said he's a linux user, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're asking me that for some reason. So why not... here's my answer.
As an all-in-one solution for music management, I respect the awesome accomplishment that is iTunes 7. I absolutely love the way album art is dealt with in iTunes. Not being an apple firmware user however means that isn't really of much use to me. And there's no way in heck you could force me to use iTunes for transferring music to my iPod what with it's utterly retarded filetree obfuscation-crap.

[blueskip]

So what is the proper method to tell someone their wikki is incorrect?  You cannot always put the bitmaps in the base folder.   It doesn't work.  I have some that I have manually gone through and added and they work just fine but the album art does not work with the Rockflow theme if the song is two subfolders down from the art.  

I just found that the hard way.  I extracted, converted and loaded 3500 bitmaps into that directory only to find it doesn't work.  I've tried every automated method I can come up with to extract album art into the specific folder including BUYING "xport".  I'm to the point of giving up if I have to load ~1500 images by hand into each folder.  

Folder structer:

Music>>artist>>album>>mp3

Any clues how to make this work from anyone?  

ALL of my album art was/is emedded.  You guys don't realize how bad some people need embedded support.   I don't have itunes file structure anymore so I can't go back to that without even more hassle.  I spent the better part of a month of free time EMBEDDING the files so I would always have the album art with me.  I didn't use Rockbox at that time.  

[soap]

Folder structure:

Music>>artist>>album>>mp3

Why not Music>>artist>>album>>mp3s+cover.bmp?

This is what I have and it works a dandy.

[crzyboyster]

I have always used this method for my album art and it works wonderfully! Here's a quick tip that I don't know whether or not has been mentioned before:

Instead of putting "D:\art\!album!" for example, put in "D:\art\!album!.100x100" for 100x100 album art. (Replace ! with <)

In this way, you can generate out different sizes of album art with ease!

[blueskip]

Why not Music>>artist>>album>>mp3s+cover.bmp?

This is what I have and it works a dandy.

OK so tell me how to batch rename every bmp in the music directory to cover.bmp.  Because I've already crossed that bridge.  That's how I got the few I mentioned to work.  (by manually changing the names of the extracted files from "xport".  It exports the image fine but doesn't name them the way I need them to be.


SOOO....I already know that works like a dandy.  

So I have the file structure and I have the .bmps in the file but they aren't recognised by the name the extraction program gave them.

To clarify I have:

Music>>artist>>album>>mp3+(wrong name).bmp  

x 1500 files

The name isn't really wrong, but it has too much information in it and it isn't recognised.

[soap]

Are the files consistently named - or are they (pseudo)randomly named?

EDIT:
Ok, I'm off to bed.
The reason I ask is because I believe you can use the "find" command from a "DOS" prompt in Windows to find all files named xport.bmp and rename them to cover.bmp
The exact details of how to use the find command should be available on google.

[blueskip]

They are named by xport as:

artist-album.mp3

[GodEater]

I'm not certain the DOS (or XP Command Prompt's) "find" command is up to this without a bit of extra help.

The equivalent from a linux bash prompt though would work :

Code: [Select]

find /Music -name "*.bmp" -execdir mv \{\} cover.bmp \;

That would do the whole lot.

I've just checked on Google, and a version of the GNU version of find (which is what linux uses) is available for windows from here : http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/ (Downloads are here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=9328&package_id=9393&release_id=490307)

You could then use the above command like this (slightly modified to use a Windows path, and the Windows 'move' rather than linux 'mv'). Replace the I:\Music with wherever your Music directory actually is on your computer :

Code: [Select]

find I:\Music -name "*.bmp" -execdir move \{\} cover.bmp \;


[soap]

So what is the proper method to tell someone their wikki is incorrect?  You cannot always put the bitmaps in the base folder.   It doesn't work.  

Where is the wiki incorrect?
For:

They are named by xport as:

artist-album.mp3

(I'll assume you mean artist-album.bmp) (Bitmap, not jpeg - but that is another conversation)
Artist-Album.bmp is not one of the supported naming formats as described in the wiki.



Edit #1:
I understand you've spent a lot of time on this.
I understand you're frustrated.
But now, after three posts, it appears clear the problem is very different than what you originally described.
Please, take the time to clearly and completely state your problem, post with as clean of grammar as possible - and proof-read your posts for spelling and other mistakes.



Edit #2:

but the album art does not work with the Rockflow theme if the song is two subfolders down from the art.  

The wiki only claims that album art works in the ./ (current) and ../ (parent) directory.
Example if you are playing:
D:/Music/The Beatles/Abbey Road/03 - Maxwell's Silver Hammer.mp3
Album art belongs in ./Abbey Road
or ../The Beatles

[Multiplex]

@blueskip

if you are looking for the DOS command you want to get a DOS/command box and navigate to your X:\music directory/folder then type

Code: [Select]

for /R %a in (*.bmp) do ren "%a" cover.bmp
Or if you are of a nervous disposition (or just naturally cautions about taking advice from strangers on forums) copy all the BMP files to a temporary directory (create c:\temp\music, change to it, XCOPY /S X:\music\*.bmp, then do the above)

All this is from memory but I've done something similar and it worked.

[blueskip]

(I'll assume you mean artist-album.bmp) (Bitmap, not jpeg - but that is another conversation)
Artist-Album.bmp is not one of the supported naming formats as described in the wiki.

You are incorrect.  It exports them as jpeg that I have to further batch convert.  I had GREAT difficulty finding a batch conversion that would not make the files in sequential order with the same name.  IE. cover(1).bmp, cover(2).bmp, cover(3).bmp and so on.

So I had to settle for a method that didn't change the original names of the files.  

I found a program to FURTHER batch convert them after my last post to cover.bmp for each folder.  

Thank you Multiplex but I've managed to accomplish this with another program.

I still have some repair to do because I would guess 20% of the files didn't export using "xport".  I'm positive they have artwork in the file though.  The reason I know the artwork is in the file is I batch DELETED all of this artwork I'm putting back now for Rockbox months and months ago.  HENCE my dislike for the lack of embedded album art support.  

Where is the wiki incorrect?

You quoted the problem.  ??  You CAN'T always put .bmps into the BASE folder.  THE BASE folder...BASE.  Not the folder the .mp3 resides in.

For example If you have:

Music>>Artist>>Album>>name.mp3

You cannot put a bitmap with the artist, album, or mp3 name in the MUSIC folder and it actually work.  It won't.  Been there and done that.  Doesn't work, at all, ever.  Not in any way.  

MUSIC is the BASE folder.  

NOW if you ammend the wikki to say the ITUNES formatted music BASE folder, it may work....I don't know, as I converted my music FROM itunes to use it in rockbox for drag'n'drop from any computer.  This way I can actually read the file names.

Still annoyed that I have to go through and manually find as many as 200-500 songs with no method of knowing which has artwork and which don't without looking in the folder.  BECAUSE when I view them in every program I know of EXCEPT rockbox the embedded artwork shows up.  SO now I have to hunt for a program that will not view embedded album art but WILL tag them to cut down on time.  

Does any such animal exist?

[MarcGuay]

You quoted the problem.  ??  You CAN'T always put .bmps into the BASE folder.  THE BASE folder...BASE.  Not the folder the .mp3 resides in.

From the AlbumArt wiki:

"The pictures can be stored in the same directory (.) as the track or in the parent directory (..)."

Base folder?

In your situation this means the .bmp has to be either in the Album folder or the Artist folder.