Album Art in WMP 10

[deadcerealkiller]

I know that this has been mentioned several times before. But i could not find a solution. So far everything about G-Force Gold has been awesome. The biggest problem is that when a new song starts I get the album info but no art. Is there a solution? Or will next next update solve the problem?

Thanks,
Aaron

[keycompton]

I know that this has been mentioned several times before. But i could not find a solution. So far everything about G-Force Gold has been awesome. The biggest problem is that when a new song starts I get the album info but no art. Is there a solution? Or will next next update solve the problem?

Hi Aaron:

Are you using G-Force Gold 2.7.3 ? We made a number of tweaks to version 2.7.3 that help it to better render album art. However, we have found that there are some graphics that simply don't show and we suspect that this has to do with limitations with the Windows Media Player API (application programming interface).

In general, to make your album art accessible in Windows Media Player, you need to use the advanced tag editor (via right click on a track) and add your picture there.

If you continue to receive errors, it would be great if you could send us some samples of the album art graphics that are not displaying properly. You can direct tech support question to "support[at]soundspectrum.com".

Regards,
Key

[deadcerealkiller]

That fixed it. Thanks Alot!

[encj]

For me, if I add art the way you say, it does work. However, using WMP 10, most of us usually use the "find media info" feature and let the album info update that way, but that's when the art doesn't show up. WMP adds the art to the features in the player itself, but isn't there a way to use that art in the visualization as well?

[markofkane]

I am glad there is a way to do that(put album art in G-Force Gold), but I have thousands of songs!!!

Windows "Energy Bliss" will automatically show the album.

That is the reason I bought the "Gold" version, was because of the ability to show album art.

The album cover also shows in the right pane of WMP10, but not in G-force, unless I manually add a pic.

I tried "searching for media files", but no luck.

[RiderFan]

I am very disapointed to find out that if I want my album art to show up, I have a few hours of work ahead of me.

I wish I would have known this before I purchased, but it still is cool though.

[markofkane]

Tip, in case you do not know it:

If there are a list of songs that have the same album art, select all, then browse for the cover, then apply that cover to all.

But you are probably like me, having 1000's of songs, and hundreds of album covers.

Some album art cannot be found by Microsoft, so you can use album art from Amazon.com, save the large pic, and resize it.

I have a CD, that no-one has a album cover for (that I could find)

That's where a scanner comes in handy, of you have the CD cover.

[andy55]

For me, if I add art the way you say, it does work. However, using WMP 10, most of us usually use the "find media info" feature and let the album info update that way, but that's when the art doesn't show up. WMP adds the art to the features in the player itself, but isn't there a way to use that art in the visualization as well?

Sadly, the problem there is that MS doesn't share that album info. As far as I know, all the album stuff that they dig up is kept private (and is only available to MS and the campany they privately contracted for energy bliss). I would love to be able to get access to that image data.


andy

[markofkane]

You can find an album cover while the song is playing(or not, just selected). and it is from Windows Media Service.

1. The song has to be in an WMP playlist, or in the "All Music" section.

(If you did not add the song to the library yet, find album info will be greyed out)

2. You have to allow WMP to access the internet.

3. You have to have Internet options--Security-- set on "default" in the internet zone.

OK, here is what works for me:

In the right pane, right-click on the song that is playing, and choose "Find Album Info". It should take you to a page, within WMP, and it will search.

It may show you a list of Album covers. Click on the one you want.

(You can change info so it can search better)

Give it time, and it should install the album cover. Now remember, the Album Covers downloaded are hidden files, so you have to go to

(In windows explorer) tools--folder options--view. In the list, choose "Show hidden files and folders" OK.

To locate the album art after it is downloaded (It will show in the right pane in WMP) , right click the song, choose "open containing folder".

This will tell you where the song and album cover is. Notice a list of "Hidden" Files with a bunch of numbers and letters in the title.

In order to see the album art, you'll have to click on thumbnail view.

Next, right click the song in WMP (Right pane) and choose "Advanced Tag Editor"


Click on the "Pictures" Tab. Click "ADD"

Browse to the location of the picture you want to use, Click on the picture, click "open". Then click OK.

Now, the picture won't show up in G-Force until you play another song, and then switch back to the song you just modified. G-Force also has to be running (Not on the credits screen)


But in cases WMP media does not have the album art you want, you can find it on AMAZON by searching, and right-clicking, and saving the ALBUM art.

If that fails, look on ebay, or just scan the album art on a scanner, if you have one, and if you have the CD-album cover.

Good luck!!!

[andy55]

Markofkane, thanks for all that good info about album cover art with WMP--I'm sure readers here will definitely benefit from that info. I thought I'd add that I'm contacting a guy I know on the WMP team and asking if there's any undocumented methods that G-Force can use to get at that cached album cover art so that each cover doesn't have to be manually entered.

thanks,
andy

[RiderFan]

Well, I have 2777 MP3's and I have started the task of embedding the album art into each MP3 file so that I can use it with G-force.

For a few days, I have been searching for a program to do this automatically. I have had limited success. I was hoping to get a program, where I could show it my music directory and have it add the album art in one pass. I couldn't find one and I tried many. The best one was Cover Art Downloader, but it would only do 1 album at a time and couldn't find a lot of my albums.

So, I am biting the bullet and using advanced tag editor in WMP10. I am doing 1 alphabet a day and I just finished my B's...LOL. It takes about 1 hour per day.

[andy55]

Markofkane, thanks for all that good info about album cover art with WMP--I'm sure readers here will definitely benefit from that info. I thought I'd add that I'm contacting a guy I know on the WMP team and asking if there's any undocumented methods that G-Force can use to get at that cached album cover art so that each cover doesn't have to be manually entered.

thanks,
andy

I heard back from my Microsoft contact. When I asked why WMP's plugin SDK doesn't have access to the cover art that WMP fetches automatically, he responded:

I believe we don't expose this programmatically because of our deal with the metadata provider. If we gave out all of their data programmatically, then someone could just steal everything in their database by writing a little app, and they would cancel their arrangement with us, and the player would have no metadata and album art in it.

Oh well.

Andy

[markofkane]

It was worth a shot. Maybe someone could write a program into G-forrce that would automatically search for the hidden album art. Then if there was any mistakes, you can correct it.

Or, a program that would automatically put the album art into "advanced tag editor" Pictures.

Say, it looks for the same file as WMP displays.

I don't see why it cannot be done, but I am not a programmer. Far from it. I cannot even understand javascript.

Maybe you can try licensing from CDDB? You could pass the cost on to us, as long as it didn't exceed $5.00 more.

Just some ideas, but don't know if they'd work.

[Eddy]

Being a developer, a GForce fan and a WMP user I decided to write a small command line tool that takes any image file and injects it into a WMA file. I am not in a position to give any support on it, but I can share my experience on how I developed it:
It is based on the Windows Media Format 9.5 SDK samples of Microsoft.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/defau ... nmedia.asp.
The "Metadata Edit" sample needs to be changed. The 'set' command needs to load the image file and prepare a binary attribute called "WM/Picture". This type of attribute has a struct as defined in: http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/library/d ... icture.asp.

This tool now does exactly the same as the "advanced tag editor (add front cover image)" in WMP does. The solution works for WMP9 and WMP10: GForce shows the cover art at song start. It can be scripted to do bulk updates for 1000's of songs.

[markofkane]

How can I get the tool, and how do I use it?