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Topic: why embed album art in files (Read 8153 times) previous topic - next topic
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why embed album art in files

I'm about to go through my flac collection and add album art. Each of my albums has it's own folder, with a .flac file for each song.

I understand that I can include a "cover.jpg" file in each folder, or embed the album art in each song's file.

What is the benefit of embedding the album art in each file? Doesn't that take up a lot more space?

I mainly use fb2k to listen to music.

Thanks for your help!

why embed album art in files

Reply #1 –
For the moment there aren't any benefits at all, at least in FLAC's case. But that might change in the future, I'm pretty sure certain FLAC-supporting hardware devices will be able to display album art stored in the files someday. Of course, for software players embedding the art doesn't make any sense, since these typically rely on the mentioned cover.jpg or folder.jpg solutions. I use the folder.jpg system myself for Winamp's "Album List" plugin to be able to display the cover art.

About file sizes: Including cover art makes serious differences on small, lossily encoded files, but losslessly compressed material is large enough for the embedded art not to become too noticeable. For instance, Aerosmith's "Shut Up and Dance" (Hard Rock, 4:55 minutes) eats 36,81 MB of disk space using FLAC 1.1.4 at -6, while the embedded 500x500 cover art's portion is just a mere 60 KB one. Hence I keep including the .jpg stuff into the FLACs at the moment, though I don't have any use of it yet.

why embed album art in files

Reply #2 –
I can think of an excellent reason to embed album art: if you're allowing your directory structure to be dictated programmatically by a metadata-based format.  I do that with FB2K and have gone through two major metadata/folder name changes since I last manually managed my folder structure.  When you have files other than music files in your music directories, orphaned files/directories become a problem in that circumstance.

why embed album art in files

Reply #3 –
Quote from: aharden on
When you have files other than music files in your music directories, orphaned files/directories become a problem in that circumstance.

not necessary, f2k has the option to move al the files in a folder (music files or not), when moving/renaming.

why embed album art in files

Reply #4 –
I embed album art in my MP3's because to me it seems to be the easiest way to get it to show up on an iPod.

Before I got the iPod I just put the album art in the albums' folders and that was it.

why embed album art in files

Reply #5 –
Quote from: moivre on
Quote from: aharden on

When you have files other than music files in your music directories, orphaned files/directories become a problem in that circumstance.

not necessary, f2k has the option to move al the files in a folder (music files or not), when moving/renaming.

Thanks.  I'll have to check that out.

why embed album art in files

Reply #6 –
I've been thinking about the intended use of embedded pictures too. I always keep full artwork scans in a ./Artwork directory, and these files are quite big (300dpi). The average size of each album artwork is about 7Mb, but there are some with 40mb+...

I'm more concerned on how hardware players deal with these images. There is the type 1 for icons that seems good enough, but I wonder what happens if a portable player tries to show a 2800x1400, 2Mb jpg...

Josh: have you set any guidelines to hardware vendors who want to implement pictures? or maybe some guidelines for us, users

Thanks

*edit*
obviously, I'm expecting that hardware players that play flac will include pictures support in the (near) future...

why embed album art in files

Reply #7 –
Quote from: boombass on
What is the benefit of embedding the album art in each file? Doesn't that take up a lot more space?


Relative to the FLAC files themselves, not really. As for whether to embed or just leave the art in the same folder, the best approach is to do both as different devices/software look for album art in different locations...
EAC>1)fb2k>LAME3.99 -V 0 --vbr-new>WMP12 2)MAC-Extra High

why embed album art in files

Reply #8 –
Thanks all, your answers have helped me make up my mind. For my flac collection, I will include one artwork file per folder (that is, per album).

I think I'll try embedding the artwork in my mp3 files for my iPod, as NeoRenegade mentioned. I've been having a hell of a time getting artwork to show up on my iPod Video. I suspect it's iTunes' fault - maybe I'll try Anapod.

Thanks for your help!

why embed album art in files

Reply #9 –
Everything takes time.  Hardware won't be that far along.  I use MediaMonkey & the new version (MM3) supports adding artwork to the FLAC tags.  I envision my phone/portable media player being able to wirelessly send the artwork pic to my car info display (hopefully within the next 2 years) at which point I'd rather NOT have to spend all week trying to embed the artwork into my FLAC files.  So, I'll do it now.   

Besides, why would I want to have to worry about orphaned files/folders if I could just combine them?

why embed album art in files

Reply #10 –
I discovered that embedding 2 MB pictures will cause problems.  So, I have to reduce size to 5-10 Kb.  And, I have to image process to enhance contrast and saturation.  With all that palaver, it's only worthwhile for Madonna snd psychedelic era rock covers like Hendrix, Yes, and Big Bro + Joplin.
FWIW, the Canola player for Nokia N800 ( http://openbossa.indt.org/canola/ ) does a nice job with embedded art in MP3s.  But, I can't figure out what standard is right for Oggs, since MP3Tag and Softpointer Audioshell do it differently and neither reads the other's.

why embed album art in files

Reply #11 –
Quote from: DrGreen on
Josh: have you set any guidelines to hardware vendors who want to implement pictures? or maybe some guidelines for us, users

there are no guidelines as to the size.  all implementations that I know of will scale the picture to the needed size.  scaling a huge picture may not be practical in devices.  for that reason I made it possible to have multiple picture blocks.  usually the implementation should pick the largest size/depth it supports or scale down.  in practice the picture you embed should be as practical as possible for the hardware that is going to use it.

Josh

why embed album art in files

Reply #12 –
Thanks Josh. I managed to batch resize all my front pictures to an acceptable size, and will embed them as well.

why embed album art in files

Reply #13 –
I generally keep a copy of high quality album art (in a separate directory which is eventually burned to CD) and then I resize a copy (to 300x300) of the front cover image to place in the actual music directory (i.e. cover.jpg).