Where is "get album art" option?

[jvidal]

Hi everyone, I don't now if I have gone crazy or what, but I just can't find the option to download album covers any more. In previous version, when you right-clicked over the album art, you could select "get album art/cover" and you were presented with a list of covers downloaded from the net and you could select one. Now, when you right-click, You only see two options: "refresh album cover" and "open folder". Where the hell did the "get album cover" option go???
Help, please.

bye!

[DrO]

it was removed due to the end of a license agreement to use the service which provided it so rather than have the menu option there and it do nothing, it was disabled until if/when a replacement comes about.

-daz

[Auxteur]

I am wondering if there are plans to aquire a new contract for Album Art inclusion during CD ripping. This was my main intent for purchasing Winamp Pro.

How would customers be notified if the Album Art option has been restored to the Winamp software? Or, at least, if a projected time is anticipated for Album Art to be included in CD ripping.

[jvidal]

Thanks for the answer. BTW, when was it removed, in which version? didn't notice until recently.
Is there a (updated!) plugin that enables this functionality?

There was no mention of this in the change logs...

bye!

[DrO]

it was disabled in 5.63 and there's no plug-in (with nothing stopping someone making a plug-in to access other services and then try and hook that back into the UI) or workaround with the official code to add anything back since the webservice it relied on is gone.

not everything gets noted in the changelog, or it's covered by the 'Misc' line near the bottom.

based on other people's complaints over the last few years, the feature didn't seem to work too well anyway (generally giving them no results) so in that respect it's working the same. hopefully a replacement setup will be added in which does work but i don't know about such things.

-daz

[Batter Pudding]

The "Paste Artwork" button is easy to use with a handy web browser. Use Amazon, Wikipedia or Google Image Search to locate album art. Right click on the image as you see it in your web browser, and copy. Then use the "Paste Artwork" button in the Winamp Artwork dialog.

This way allows you to pick up higher quality artwork. Also lets you find rarer albums that were not picked up by the old method.

Don't put in art that is too big though as you may end up causing yourself different problems.

[Aminifu]

Hi Batter Pudding,

Does that part still work? Only asking because I embed my artwork.

If so, that will place a copy of what is in the scratch pad in the file's folder. Does it also rename the artwork to something WA recognizes or does the user need to do that when they make the copy with the browser?

[Batter Pudding]

I just happen to be ripping albums now... so test on 5.63

"Copy Image" from your browser does put it into the Clipboard.
"Paste Artwork" then places a single, loose image into the folder. It is named as %AlbumName%.jpg

Quick and simple and no need to save any intermediate file. I have always done it this way to allow a wider choice of artwork. Usually Wiki and Amazon have all I need. (Amazon does have an annoying border to its art, but I tend to just use it as is)


It never was an embedded option even with the old "Get Album Art" button.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by Batter Pudding

It never was an embedded option even with the old "Get Album Art" button.

Yes, I knew that. That's why I never bothered to figured out how that part of WA worked. Thanx for the info. And, yes the proper name for what I called the scratch pad is Clipboard.

[jvidal]

What I do is I get the image from the net, rename it accordingly and place it in the folder where the MP3 file is. The built-in feature worked pretty well for me, that's why I miss it so much...

bye!

[lostinsound]

FYI I really like this site for high quality album art:

http://www.albumartexchange.com/covers.php

[Batter Pudding]

Originally Posted by jvidal

What I do is I get the image from the net, rename it accordingly and place it in the folder where the MP3 file is. The built-in feature worked pretty well for me, that's why I miss it so much...

bye!

This is what the <Paste Art> button does for you. It saves you having to open the Explorer window to save anything or rename it. That all happens in the same step.

And thanks for the linky to the arty site. Always handy.

[ryerman]

Originally Posted by Batter Pudding

..."Copy Image" from your browser does put it into the Clipboard.
"Paste Artwork" then places a single, loose image into the folder. It is named as %AlbumName%.jpg...

Just in case it matters: "Paste Artwork" overwrites, without warning, any existing file with that name.

[Aminifu]

"Paste Artwork" will rename the art file from the Clipboard to "cover.jpg" if the track's %AlbumName% tag is empty. Also silently overwriting any existing file with that name.

[lostinsound]

Originally Posted by Batter Pudding

This is what the <Paste Art> button does for you. It saves you having to open the Explorer window to save anything or rename it. That all happens in the same step.

And thanks for the linky to the arty site. Always handy.

Actually I think it should be noted that when you use 'Paste Artwork' or 'Load Artwork' it's not exactly the same as just putting the image into the folder manually, because Winamp doesn't just copy the image as-is. I'm not sure exactly what it does, but while it doesn't change the size of the image it does seem to compress it in some way.

For example, for a test I just did, I took an image that was 323kB and used 'Load Artwork', and the image it put in the folder was only 62kB. I switched to adding the artwork manually to the album folder for this reason because I noticed for some images the decrease in quality was very noticeable. For most of the images it looked ok, but I'm kind of picky about these things.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by lostinsound

For example, for a test I just did, I took an image that was 323kB and used 'Load Artwork', and the image it put in the folder was only 62kB. I switched to adding the artwork manually to the album folder for this reason because I noticed for some images the decrease in quality was very noticeable. For most of the images it looked ok, but I'm kind of picky about these things.

Very interesting. Thanx for the heads up.

[Batter Pudding]

If you check the image properties, you should be able to see the dpi being used. Or it may just have saved the JPEG with a higher Compression setting. Compression does not sound surprising as when that feature was developed everything was about saving space.

Overwriting makes sense as you can already see what images are in use in that dialog. Though a "are you sure" would have been nice.

It certainly does the job good enough for me. I am listening to the music, not looking at the pictures.

[Third03Eye]

My apologies if this has been posted/asked before...my searches for it didn't turn anything up.

I just installed WinAmp 5.6 onto a new machine, and it seems the "Download Artwork" button is missing from the File Info -> Artwork Tab.

Did this get moved somewhere, or am I missing a plugin/preference for this to appear?

Thanks in advance for any and all info.

[DrO]

merged thread into the existing one, see previous posts for the reason why.

-daz

[evanexempt]

Originally Posted by Auxteur

I am wondering if there are plans to aquire a new contract for Album Art inclusion during CD ripping. This was my main intent for purchasing Winamp Pro.

Ditto. That sucks. Now have to open all my media with Windows Media Player to fetch the album art? Nice. Was it disabled due to catching heat from the copyright police?

[Batter Pudding]

See above. Just use the PASTE ARTWORK button instead. Nick your art from wider online sources like Amazon, Google, Wikipedia, etc. Find an image online, right click it and Copy Image, then swap to Winamp and PASTE ARTWORK

This gives you better control over the quality of artwork. (And personally I have been doing it this way for years)

Using Windows Media Player is not going to help you as that hides all its artwork in system hidden files.

[DrO]

Originally Posted by evanexempt

Was it disabled due to catching heat from the copyright police?

the reason is stated in the first reply of this thread...

-daz

[evanexempt]

Reading through now. Sorry to be lazy. Thanks

[Batter Pudding]

Originally Posted by evanexempt

Reading through now. Sorry to be lazy. Thanks

Normally we take the lazy noobs round the back for a slap. In your case we will let you off as you apologised.

The lack of "Get Artwork" button is not a massive loss as that artwork looked lousy on a big modern day screen anyway... and we all have access to nice fat internet pipes now unlike when that button first appeared decades ago when all internet communication was due using Pigeons http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html

[MrSinatra]

note that winamp reduces the quality of the image if using winamp to paste art.

EAC grabs art when i rip, but if i need art from the web, i just literally drag and drop the image from the browser into the album folder.

[karmakoma]

I cannot find the paste art work options in my WinAmp Pro 5.621.

Could someone please show me? Screenshot would be great!

Thanks!

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by karmakoma

I cannot find the paste art work options in my WinAmp Pro 5.621.

Look on the 'Artwork' tab of the Winamp File Info Tag editor. Use the hot-key "Alt+3" when Winamp is the active app to open this dialog.

[karmakoma]

Ahhh... thanks so much!

[vicntc]

I am using Winamp 5.63 and syncing a playlist via USB.

When I look at the files in Winamp on my Android, none of the album covers appear.
When I look at the playlist in the native Android media player, about half of the album covers appear.
When I use the "View File Info" option in Winamp 5.63 (on Win7x64), it shows all the album covers for all the songs.

How do I get Winamp to display all the album covers on my Android device just like it does in Windows?

[Batter Pudding]

Originally Posted by vicntc

How do I get Winamp to display all the album covers on my Android device just like it does in Windows?

A bit of a guess...

Some of your music has embedded artwork, other music is relying on the JPG image in the album folder. When I transfer music to my Blackberry phone I have to rename any artwork in folders to "folder.jpg" instead of "band name-album.jpg" as Winamp names it.

When I do the rename I make use of Win7's quick search box and just look for *.jpg in my Blackberry Music folder and rename each one I find. Changing the name to folder.jpg. This then lets my phone pickup all the art.

[vicntc]

I've been through each mp3 using the "View File Info" option in Winamp. Each one properly displays the Album Art. Some get transferred okay, others don't but I can't see any rhyme or reason to it at the moment.

[Aminifu]

Hi vicntc,

The current beta version (link below) shows where the art being displayed on that tab is coming from (embedded or folder) and it's file format. That may help you determine a rhyme or reason.

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=356750

[vicntc]

No luck so far... each one says "origin: album name match, type: jpeg", "origin: cover.* match, type: jpeg" or "origin: embedded, type: jpeg" (only 1).

Doesn't seem to make a difference

[Batter Pudding]

If the art is called "cover.jpg" try renaming it to "folder.jpg". (Ah - maybe that should be "albumart.jpg" for droids... am checking details and will re-edit this post shortly. Looks like there is a confused standard out there)

If you have Windows 7 \ Vista \Win8 make use of the folder search.

* Attach the Android Phone to the PC.
* Use Windows Explorer to open the Android device and locate the Music folder.
* Open the music folder so you can see all the artist folders.
* Now use the Windows Search box at the top right of the Window to search for *.jpg to locate all of the artwork in the music folders.
* Rename every JPG to folder.jpg

This is the trick I do on my Blackberry to get the artwork visible. My Music library on the PC has such a wide selection of ways the artwork is stored. I always find it quickest to just to the quick rename this way after copying new albums in.

(I also have to do the same with playlists as my Blackberry doesn't not recognise a *.m3u8 and needs then to be called *.m3u. The Windows Search is very useful for this.)


=-=-=-=

Ah... interesting... this may be a known Droid issue. I just spotted this thread via a search. Notice this is someone with an HTC who is spotting that their artwork is random as to whether it appears or not. But the moment he renames the folder with the MP3s and artwork in it then the artwork springs to live. The read goes on to theorise that there is a database that needs updating.

http://community.htc.com/na/htc-foru...91/t/2207.aspx

There is probably a more "correct" way to force the library to refresh, but this does sound like an interesting lead. And a very easy one to test by just renaming a folder.

=-=-=-=

Okay... the more I search the more confused this gets. Seems the Android can be a little mad over the art. When the music is not moved in via Android own sync it seems to get fussy and confused. Logically it is that database that doesn't get updated.

Some people blame the MP3 ID3v2 tags. In those cases they have totally deleted the ID3v2 tag, saved the file, then restored that identical tag.

Some specifically blamed the comments in their ID3v2 tags and found they needed to be removed.

I would not be surprised if the messing with the tags was enough to force the Android to refresh that database of artwork.

=-=-=-=-=

Yet another solution pointed at the "albumthumbs" folder on the Droid. For one guy this was holding "bad" art and over-riding his newly selected artwork. He went into this folder and deleted the art for the "bad" albums and restarted the phone.

(This question really should be in a nice new thread as I think it is getting less about Winamp's cover art feature and more about the Droid... and no doubt other people have had similar issues. Have you tried searching through the Android section of this forum?)