[Joe Bloggs]

Dear X3 and X5 users,
 
Thank you for purchasing our high-res digital audio players.
 
Since the latest firmware (3.0 and 2.0 respectively as of June 2014) for the X3 and X5 were released there have often been questions on how to get it to show artwork, lyrics etc.  I'm happy to release this updated reference table corresponding to the latest firmwares:
 

Full list of album art, lyrics and tag info supported by the X3
Current firmware X3：FW3.0	Embedded art	External art*	ID3 tag info	External lyrics (LRC)+
Recommended pixel resolution: below 1024*1024 （jpg、bmp、png）	Album	Artist	Title	Genre
MP3	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
OGG	×	√	√	√	√	√	√
WAV	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
WMA	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
APE	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
FLAC	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
AIFF	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
AAC(M4A)	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
DSD	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
*External art should be in the form of a jpg, bmp or png of the same filename as the music file. +Supported character encodings for LRC files: ANSI, UTF-8 with BOM.  External LRC file should have the same filename as the music file.

 
As you can see, support is uniform across all formats, except for ogg vorbis, where embedded album art is not supported.  Please also note the file naming and format requirements for external art and external lyrics.  Embedded lyrics are currently not supported.
 

Full list of album art, lyrics and tag info supported by the X5
Current firmware X5：FW2.20	Embedded art	External art*	Folder art**	ID3 tag info	External lyrics (LRC)+
Recommended pixel resolution: below 1024*1024 (up to 8192*8192 supported for jpg) （jpg、bmp、png）	Album	Artist	Title	Genre
MP3	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
OGG	×	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
WAV	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
WMA	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
APE	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
FLAC	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
AIFF	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
AAC(M4A)	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
DSD (.dff, .dsf)	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
*External art should be in the form of a jpg, bmp or png of the same filename as the music file.  Takes precedence over folder art. **Folder art may be a jpg, bmp or png in the same folder as the music files, named “front”, “cover”, “folder”, in order of precedence.  If none of these names are found the first image file in the folder in alphabetical order is treated as folder art. +Supported character encodings for LRC files: ANSI, Unicode, UTF-8 with or without BOM.  External LRC file should have the same filename as the music file.

 
The X5 with the latest firmware has some wider support over the X3, mostly in terms of supporting folder art (cover art for a whole folder of songs) and support of more Unicode formats for LRC lyrics files.  I'm hopeful the X3 will catch up soon
Hope this guide will help you make the most out of your X3/X5!

 
Best regards,
FiiO

 

[shakur1996]

Joe, what about track and disc numbers?

Moreover, what does this sentence mean: "External art should be in the form of a jpg, bmp or png of the same filename as the music file"? For example if I have album covering 12 songs I should mutiply cover art file and each file should be named exactly as the 12 songs files?

 

[uzi2]

  Dear X5 users,
 
Thank you for purchasing the X5.
 
Since the X5 was released there have been often been questions on how to get it to show artwork, lyrics etc.  I'm happy to release this updated reference table corresponding to the latest firmware 2.0:
 

Full list of album art, lyrics and tag info supported by the X5
Current firmware X5：FW2.0	Embedded art	External art*	ID3 tag info	External lyrics (LRC)+
Recommended pixel resolution: below 1024*1024 （jpg、bmp、png）	Album	Artist	Title	Genre
MP3	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
OGG	×	√	√	√	√	√	√
WAV	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
WMA	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
APE	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
FLAC	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
AIFF	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
AAC(M4A)	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
DSD	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
*External art should be in the form of a jpg, bmp or png of the same filename as the music file. +Supported character encodings for LRC files: ANSI, UTF-8 with BOM.  External LRC file should have the same filename as the music file.

 
As you can see, support is uniform across all formats, except for ogg vorbis, where embedded album art is not supported.  Please also note the file naming and format requirements for external art and external lyrics.  Embedded lyrics are currently not supported.
 
Hope this guide will help you make the most out of your X5!

 
Best regards,
FiiO

 
 
Embedded art is not working for me in .mp3 or .dsf and as far as I know it is not possible with .wav or .dff and neither will any tag as they do not have the meta data.
It does work well in .flac

 

[AlexBurkin]

What about external album artwork for all songs like "cover.jpg"?

 

[rfox]

  Dear X5 users,
 
Thank you for purchasing the X5.
 
Since the X5 was released there have been often been questions on how to get it to show artwork, lyrics etc.  I'm happy to release this updated reference table corresponding to the latest firmware 2.0:
 

Full list of album art, lyrics and tag info supported by the X5
Current firmware X5：FW2.0	Embedded art	External art*	ID3 tag info	External lyrics (LRC)+
Recommended pixel resolution: below 1024*1024 （jpg、bmp、png）	Album	Artist	Title	Genre
MP3	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
OGG	×	√	√	√	√	√	√
WAV	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
WMA	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
APE	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
FLAC	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
AIFF	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
AAC(M4A)	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
DSD	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
*External art should be in the form of a jpg, bmp or png of the same filename as the music file. +Supported character encodings for LRC files: ANSI, UTF-8 with BOM.  External LRC file should have the same filename as the music file.

 
As you can see, support is uniform across all formats, except for ogg vorbis, where embedded album art is not supported.  Please also note the file naming and format requirements for external art and external lyrics.  Embedded lyrics are currently not supported.
 
Hope this guide will help you make the most out of your X5!

 
Best regards,
FiiO

 
 
Bummer - half of my collection is OGG files with embedded artwork!!  My Cowon S9 supports it, but my shiny new X5 doesn't.
Here's hoping for a future firmware update which addresses this shortcoming!
 
Cheers,
R.Fox

 

[Flomet]

I have just ripped some music to flac, then put the album art with the same name as the folder into the ripped folder. I then update my X5 library and the art does not show.

Looks like I am doing something wrong as it works ok with embedded art but not with external art.

Please can someone explain a step by step way to use external art.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[uzi2]

I have just ripped some music to flac, then put the album art with the same name as the folder into the ripped folder. I then update my X5 library and the art does not show.

Looks like I am doing something wrong as it works ok with embedded art but not with external art.

Please can someone explain a step by step way to use external art.

Many thanks in advance.

At the moment external album art is not supported (cover.jpg folder.jpg) - requested from very early days of X3
Only external file art is supported ( the .jpg has the same name as the file)
 
This method makes no sense for albums, so embedded is the only option. Whilst this works fine for FLAC, I cannot get embedded art to be shown with MP3 or DSD

 

[Flomet]

At the moment external album art is not supported (cover.jpg folder.jpg) - requested from very early days of X3
Only external file art is supported ( the .jpg has the same name as the file)

This method makes no sense for albums, so embedded is the only option. Whilst this works fine for FLAC, I cannot get embedded art to be shown with MP3 or DSD

Thanks for the reply, can you explain what external file art is?

If I name the jpg to the same flac folder name as what holds the music files, then put it in the same folder as the flac files the art does not show.

 

[thomas707]

I have just ripped some music to flac, then put the album art with the same name as the folder into the ripped folder. I then update my X5 library and the art does not show.

Looks like I am doing something wrong as it works ok with embedded art but not with external art.

Please can someone explain a step by step way to use external art.

Many thanks in advance.

I have the similar problem too. It does not display the full album art but half of the it. Hopefully someone can guide us.

 

[uzi2]

Thanks for the reply, can you explain what external file art is?

If I name the jpg to the same flac folder name as what holds the music files, then put it in the same folder as the flac files the art does not show.

You need to name the jpg to the same as the file name not the folder name.

 

[AlexBurkin]

I have the similar problem too. It does not display the full album art but half of the it. Hopefully someone can guide us.

It's a known bug with "bad" bottom screen transparency.

 

[shakur1996]

You need to name the jpg to the same as the file name not the folder name.

So if I have 12 songs in one album I would like to add the cover art to all songs in this album I should have 12 cover art files each of them named as the name of the song files?

 

[Flomet]

You need to name the jpg to the same as the file name not the folder name.

So if I have 5 tracks then I have to have 5 jpg's with each one having the individual track names.

If that is the case, its makes a lot of work and sounds a weird way of doing it.

Looks like Im better off sticking to include art when ripping.

Thanks for you help my friend.

 

[AlexBurkin]

So if I have 12 songs in one album I would like to add the cover art to all songs in this album I should have 12 cover art files each of them named as the name of the song files?

Yes, it's a terrible >_< External single album artwork file is not supported...

 

[uzi2]

So if I have 12 songs in one album I would like to add the cover art to all songs in this album I should have 12 cover art files each of them named as the name of the song files?

Yes - stupid isn't it? That's why I said that external album art is not supported in FW2.0. The most common formats for external album art are folder.jpg and cover.jpg included in the same folder as the music files.
Neither X3 or X5 currently support this, although it has been on the to do list for some while now.