CD and DVD cover art thumbnails

[jasmithvr6]

Has anyone else had problems getting CD and DVD cover art to appear in 2.1?

First, the CD art problem. Most of my CD's already have the cover art pulled in, but some are missing. I downloaded the art in .jpg format and saved it to the album folder (included with all the tracks) as 'folder'. Nothing shows up (of course it does appear in the Picture Library, which I know how to fix). I even changed the file name to 'folder.jpg'. Still nothing. Refreshed the media library several times, closed out of Sage completely, shut down the HTPC and rebooted, but still no cover art. What am I missing here?

Ok and second is the DVD art. I have most of my DVD's on my hard drive, but none of them show any cover art. I went ahead and downloaded the art from Blockbuster's website and followed the instructions in the SageTV manual. Got nothing.

What size should these jpeg's be for CD's and DVD's, respectively. Right now I have the CD art sized at 300x300 and DVD's at 130x186.

Any suggestions on how to get cover art into Sage?

[Opus4]

For the music: you may have already seen the correction I posted for the manual:

Originally Posted by Opus4

The manual states that the music library will load thumbnails only from an image embedded in the mp3 file, as was the case with previous versions of SageTV. However, just like the video library, albums can use external images for their thumbnails. You can use: folder.jpg OR <music filename>.jpg (and other image types listed on p82 of the v2.1 manual) stored in the same directory as the music files.

If you use <music filename>.jpg, it will use the thumbnail for the first song it finds on the album (sorted by track number), as it is a Album thumbnail, not a song thumbnail.

For the DVD: you have the thumbnail in the VIDEO_TS dir?

I'm guessing that you've already tried "Refresh Media Library" and/or restarting SageTV. What STV are you using?

Another thing to try is the latest beta (v2.2.2) to see if they load there. I think there were a few issues with thumbnails in v2.1. (If you try the beta, I would suggest making a complete backup copy of your Frey directory in case you want to return to that version. Then, install the beta directly over the top of the current installation.)

- Andy

[jasmithvr6]

Opus4:

I previously read your correction to the v2.1 manual and tried using 'music filename.jpg' as well. I'm assuming for example that means the name of the jpeg would be 'music californication' or whatever a song title is for that album? Anyway, I've tried that and no dice. I'm just wondering why most of the CD's have the album art automatically loaded while others do not. This is very puzzling to me.

On the topic of the DVD art, I'm wondering if the v2.2 beta would do the trick (and maybe fix the CD art issue as well). I'm not a big fan of beta experimentation, so I may hold off until it's a final release. And to get back to you on your questions...yes I the jpeg's are in the Video_TS directory and I have tried both refreshing the media library and rebooting, but to no avail. I'm using SageTV v2.1.

I've come to the realization that I probably just have to accept things the way they are. Nothing is perfect and I should be happy that at least my machine is pretty stable (sometimes ). Thanks for the help!

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by jasmithvr6

I previously read your correction to the v2.1 manual and tried using 'music filename.jpg' as well. I'm assuming for example that means the name of the jpeg would be 'music californication' or whatever a song title is for that album? Anyway, I've tried that and no dice.

How did you actually name the image file? If "californication.mp3" is the music file name, then "californication.jpg" would be the image filename. (It looks like you might have been trying to ad "music" in front of the filename.

As far as I can tell, I am getting all my thumbnails to load in 2.2.2... so I don't know what else to suggest for v2.1.

- Andy

[stanger89]

Before I threadjack

One thing you might want to try is removing and re-adding the directory, Sage only seems to catch the coverart if it's there when it imports it.

On to the threadjacking...

How fast does your coverart load? (I'm talking imported videos section here). Also how large are your images (kb and pixels).

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by stanger89

How fast does your coverart load? (I'm talking imported videos section here). Also how large are your images (kb and pixels).

I hope that question was for jasmithvr6... except that he says his dvd cover art isn't loading yet.

If it was for me: my video thumbnails load pretty fast, but I've really only got a few test videos/thumbnails to check things out for the manual details. I've got a couple hundred CDs w/art, but those are are around 10KB each & the jukebox still displays pretty quickly.

- Andy

[stanger89]

Actually it was for everybody. The reason I ask is because I'm building my DVD server, kick @$$ coverart and all and they take about 15s to load. They're ~200-250k each, and about 1000x1400, but 15s still seems excessive.

[brc1248]

I had the same problems with 2.1. It seemed that no matter what I did Sage would not see the DVD cover art. And then,

1. I loaded up 2.2.2 and had the same problem.

2. Deleted the Library Import Directories.

3. Ensured the cover art was in the correct place. (ie. \movie name\VIDEO_TS\folder) <-- folder being the actual name of the jpeg file.

4. Added back the Library Import Directories.

Bingo!! Now my one and only gripe with Sage has been fixed.

note: I could only use folder as the jpeg name and not the actual movie name.

[jasmithvr6]

Stanger89:

The cover art on my DVD's refuses to display in Sage, so I can't be much help on how fast they load. As for my CD's, they seem to load pretty quickly. As soon as I'm in Music Jukebox and pull up my list of CD's all the album art is there (except for the few that I can't get to load no matter what). Not sure the size on the CD album art, since the image must be embedded into the songs. So basically I am of no help on this topic. lol.

brc1248:

That's good news. I haven't tried deleting and readding the Import Library directory yet, so I'll give that a shot while I'm still running v2.1. Where do you get your DVD cover art from? I downloaded mine from Blockbuster, but not sure if they are too big, the right size, etc. How about CD's? Have you experienced any problems with CD art also? I have a few CD's with no cover art in Sage, but displays the cover art perfectly in WMP. Hmmmm...might be worth deleting and readding that directory too.

[mlbdude]

Cover art get added at the same time the media file is imported. If you add the cover art later you need to re-import that media file.

[jasmithvr6]

Ok, so here's the latest. I finally got DVD cover art to appear in v2.1. After dropping the art into the individual Video_TS directories, I deleted the Video Import directory and readded. Tada! Good thing I'm still building my library...that could definitely take some time if you have a few movies. Anyway, a big thanks to everyone for the help!

Now I'm still battling with CD cover art problem. I tried the same approach by deleting and readding the import directory, but that didn't help. I even went in and tagged the first song in one of the albums using MP3 Tag Tools. Still nothing. Why would the album art show up in WMP, but not Sage? The majority of my other CD's all have album art in Sage, so something seems a little goofy here. Any suggestions?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by jasmithvr6

I finally got DVD cover art to appear in v2.1. After dropping the art into the individual Video_TS directories, I deleted the Video Import directory and readded.

Interesting... I thought I had changed both my music & DVD art and got it to change/load after just doing a Refresh Media Library. Maybe my memory is faulty.

Now I'm still battling with CD cover art problem. I tried the same approach by deleting and readding the import directory, but that didn't help. I even went in and tagged the first song in one of the albums using MP3 Tag Tools. Still nothing. Why would the album art show up in WMP, but not Sage? The majority of my other CD's all have album art in Sage, so something seems a little goofy here. Any suggestions?

Let's start over on this one... pick an album w/o art showing up -- is the art embedded in any of the mp3 files? If not, what is the exact filename for the thumbnail? Do those albums have ID3 data tagged in the mp3 files? (You said you tagged the first song in one case, so I don't know how much you added for that.)

Also... what version of SageTV did you say you are you using? v2.2.2 fixed a couple things with the music lib thumbnails, I believe, but I don't remember the details nor do I have my notes anywhere near me.

- Andy

[jasmithvr6]

Opus4:

I'm still running v2.1 as I try to avoid being a guinnea pig for beta versions of software. But in the same breath, if upgrading to v2.2 will solve the problem, then it looks like I have a decision to make. Anyway, before I start jumping to conclusions let me answer your questions. I picked an album that has no cover art in Sage (lets use Phish as an example).

is the art embedded in any of the mp3 files?

When I play any song from the Phish album in WMP, the cover art is there (this isn't the case for all albums where Sage does not display the cover art). I'm assuming this means that the art is somehow already embedded into the songs/album, but I can't be certain. Is there a way to check?

If not, what is the exact filename for the thumbnail?

I first tried using the filename 'folder' (in jpeg format) as the image filename and dropped it into the album directory with the songs. That didn't work, so I then changed the image filename to the name of a music file in the album (for example 'Stash'). My music files are all numbered (assigned when I rip them in WMP), so the song 'Stash' is really '02 Stash'. Does this matter?

Do those albums have ID3 data tagged in the mp3 files? (You said you tagged the first song in one case, so I don't know how much you added for that.)

I'm not sure I know what you mean by ID3 data tags. I tried tagging the first song on the Phish album using MP3 Tag Tools v1.2.008, but still no cover art.

Any thoughts?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by jasmithvr6

is the art embedded in any of the mp3 files?

When I play any song from the Phish album in WMP, the cover art is there (this isn't the case for all albums where Sage does not display the cover art). I'm assuming this means that the art is somehow already embedded into the songs/album, but I can't be certain. Is there a way to check?

I don't know full details for WMP, but it doesn't need images to be embedded inside the file -- the CDs I ripped with WMP have several images in the same folder as the CD & I thought one was named 'folder.jpg'.

If not, what is the exact filename for the thumbnail?

I first tried using the filename 'folder' (in jpeg format) as the image filename and dropped it into the album directory with the songs. That didn't work, so I then changed the image filename to the name of a music file in the album (for example 'Stash'). My music files are all numbered (assigned when I rip them in WMP), so the song 'Stash' is really '02 Stash'. Does this matter?

When you say it is named 'folder', do you really mean it is named 'folder.jpg'? (It should be.) If you are going to name the image using the song's filename, then you have to use the entire filename.

Do those albums have ID3 data tagged in the mp3 files? (You said you tagged the first song in one case, so I don't know how much you added for that.)

I'm not sure I know what you mean by ID3 data tags. I tried tagging the first song on the Phish album using MP3 Tag Tools v1.2.008, but still no cover art.

You can embed an image in the mp3 using tag tools. Was there any ID3 info in the files at all? There are a couple ID3 version tabs near the bottom of the screen -- if there is no data listed there, I'm not sure what SageTV will do with the song. Do the songs even show up in SageTV listed in the proper albums?

- Andy