Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Album art not showing up correctly (embedded to flac files) (Read 10589 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Album art not showing up correctly (embedded to flac files)

Hi guys!
Maybe a bit off topic but I spent hours using my google-fu and I still don't have any solution. So as I was doing before, I've downloaded a (flac) album and fixed all the iD3 tags, including the album art. But when I open the corrected files in any music player this happens:
http://imgur.com/dl4EB9z
So I have the Front.jpg which I used as my album art in mp3tag for the flac files, but somehow (and obviously I've tried changing and then reloading it) the album art doesn't seem to show up correctly and I only see a half gey-half image thing.

Please help me, how could I fix this?
Maybe the problem is with mp3tag? Or just Groove Music sucks? Also, it doesn't show up in Android even tough I've changed Front.jpg to folder.jpg...
Thanks, Mili

Re: Album art not showing up correctly (embedded to flac files)

Reply #1
Judging by the partially rendered images, those JPEG's are probably flagged "Progressive". This is the feature that lets your web browser begin rendering an image and the rest of the page before the entire image is downloaded, but it's irrelevant for album art stored on a device and some players have problems with it. My iPod Touch, for example, just doesn't render a Progressive JPEG at all (though my iPod Classic has no problem).

The Progressive flag doesn't have anything to do with the actual image data - it's just a flag in the file header. So you should be able to open your JPEG in GIMP, Photoshop, etc. and resave the image. There should be a tickbox somewhere where you can set/unset the Progressive flag. I only know GIMP - you'll find it there in the Export Image dialog after clicking Advanced Options.

Re: Album art not showing up correctly (embedded to flac files)

Reply #2


Quote
There should be a tickbox somewhere where you can set/unset the Progressive flag. I only know GIMP - you'll find it there in the Export Image dialog after clicking Advanced Options.
okay, so I did as you recommended, but man there's some real creepiness going on
first I've got this:
http://imgur.com/12YJbKB
and then this:
http://imgur.com/pTdog65
Any idea? Maybe the problem is with the flac files?

thanks, Mili

Re: Album art not showing up correctly (embedded to flac files)

Reply #3
Were the problem JPEG's in fact flagged Progressive as I suspected? It sure looks like that's the problem to me.

If that is indeed where the problem lies, my only other thought is that perhaps the embedded FLAC art didn't update as you expected when you removed the Progressive flag, or that your player isn't updating art info in its database. Once you've got your non-Progressive JPEG ready to go, try completely removing the album art from the FLAC's using whatever tagger/player you use, saving the files, and exiting the program. Then open them back up and apply the new, non-Progressive JPEG. It could be that your tagger/player isn't actually updating the art when you tell it to since the JPEG file sizes are identical. You might even try completely removing the files from your library and then adding them back in.

I had a problem like this with my Media Monkey and iPod touch setup - I had to completely remove the files from the iPod, remove the old art from the files in MM, apply the new art, then resync the iPod. Something along the line was keeping stale information in a database or cache somewhere, but I never figured out where exactly.

edit: And just to clarify... you have album art working correctly on other FLAC's, right? This is just an isolated case?

Re: Album art not showing up correctly (embedded to flac files)

Reply #4
of course, I have album art working correctly on other FLACs :))
So basically I've tried everything: deleting and then reinserting the files, removing completely the album art and then repasting the corrected jpeg file (I've tried a version which was modified by Photoshop and another from Gimp) but nothing has worked... So I figured that maybe I should try it out with other pics. And after experimentalizing with multiple subjects here's what I've got:
this and this
Strange, right?
But seriously, I'm not some kid who doesn't understand how things work but this one got me. And I'm pretty sure I've done everything correctly. So, by now I have no doubt the problem isn't with the images. The album which I have doesn't have any flaws as well.
So what could it be??

Thanks really, Mili :)

Re: Album art not showing up correctly (embedded to flac files)

Reply #5
Can ffmpeg make it?
On the picture itself first: try
ffmpeg -i picturefile.jpg -codec copy picurefile.jpgnew.jpg

 

Re: Album art not showing up correctly (embedded to flac files)

Reply #6
Does recreating the FLAC from the original source help at all? (Alternatively, convert the FLAC's to WAV's and then back to FLAC's.)

Have you tried using a different image with the problem FLAC's?

Re: Album art not showing up correctly (embedded to flac files)

Reply #7
First of all sorry for the long bye, but had a lot of work and stuff so that's why I kinda disappeared :(

BUT

Finally, after a few days of exhausting and terrifying search around the internet, I'VE SOLVED THIS THING!

To begin with, the whole bug started with that Cuetools didn't really want to split my album into separated tracks, since it wasn't "RED book PCM" standard type, so I figured:
- "Maybe I should use a different program to do so."
So, I used a trashy converter/splitter called 'Total Audio converter' which, indeed, separated the files but somehow they became allergic to show the album art. (see in the previous post) So, I switched to Winamp as a well-known second option to convert the file to Red Book PCM standard, but then I got tons of error messages, including the "encoder can't be found" and other bullshit so I realised that I wouldn't torture myself with it. Lastly, I tried to accomplish the conversion in foobar2000 but the result also didn't appear to be the accepted type for cuetools. Tried also the suggestion with ffmpeg but still, nothing to mention.

At this point, I was badly cursing cuetools.

I know. I could have used something else instead of it. But the challenge started. And I never give up.
And the answer was right in front of me this whole time.
Oh, God.

Basically, all I did is dropped the file into Audacity, set the Project Rate to 44100 Hz (small button at the bottom), hit 'Export Audio' (at File tab) and then save it as "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM". After the conversion, I put the file+the cue sheet into cuetools, and who would've guessed, it split like a charm. Then I used mp3tag to set the album art and unbelievably but it worked!!

fun fact: I have figured this bloody thing out by mistakenly visiting a VoIP phone system site :DD here

So, that's it I guess. Just wanted to share this with the world and save horrorshow hours of searching for all the newbies. Follow these steps, be patient, and Bob's your uncle.

Thanks for all the responses by the way! :)