[BodiesOfLight]

How do you get the album cover to show? Do you have to use iTunes? If so, that suck, I don't like iTunes and I refuse to use it, and never have.

 

[onelasttime9]

Yes. You have to upload an image to iTunes.

 

[akerman]

is this true? isn't it enough that the image is just in the album folder? god what a TON of extra work that would be, if true.

iTunes ... ... . .

 

[lal316l]

Yes the only way to get album art into your Ipod is through iTunes. The program isn't all too bad, I don't see why people have a big problem with it, it's very easy to use. The way album art works is that iTunes embeds the image into the music file itself almost making it as if it was a sort of Id3 tag that only Ipod photos can recognize. After the photo is embedded (you'll know by seeing the album cover while the file is playing), you can upload that file using any program that works with photo supported Ipod's and the album art will show up I believe.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akerman is this true? isn't it enough that the image is just in the album folder? god what a TON of extra work that would be, if true. iTunes ... ... . .

Why is tagging files "extra work" over dumping a image in the folder? There's several advantages to doing it this way (reorganizing your library and images traveling, compilations organization, multiple images per chapter, etc.) Not sure if iTunes is required to tag files with images, but I'd take tagging over file proximity any day. Course I'm a tag/DB guy, not a file tree/folder one.

You can see some third party assistant apps in this thread.

And BodiesOfLight, if you've 'never used' iTunes, why don't you give it a shot before hating it?

 

[muckshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx And BodiesOfLight, if you've 'never used' iTunes, why don't you give it a shot before hating it?

I'm a Windoze user with a 5th gen, I tried Itunes for a while and didn't like it at all. I've been using Ephpod for a lack of anything better - it's not bad, it does the trick for straight up music transfers and I'm happy to have it - but I'd like to display album art and transfer photos to/from the Ipod, though I couldn't care less about videos. Anyone know of any free windows apps that will do the trick? I refuse to install Itunes again (installed it 3 separate times and got fed up and uninstalled each time, haha), and I'm not going to pay 30$ for album art/photo transfers alone. Thanks

 

[Behemot]

I wonder why so few players out there support album art. Is that a legal issue with copyrights or royalties that have to be paid to an art designer..? Does anybody know?

 

[bangraman]

I never bothered much with album art, but I must admit it is a nice feature. However, trying to use it without iTunes is like trying to use a bicycle without a handlebar.


Where it's very cool on the iPod is in podcasts, Alternative Hip-Hop Lounge is a good example, where the podcast is divided into chapters and the album art changes in each chapter.


If you get hold of j.River Media Center, you can set it up to hunt for album art online, then embed those images into the tags automatically. Then you can re-import the library into iTunes and your album art will be present. Unfortuantely you won't be able to use j.River to load the iPod with album covers as it's not supported at the moment.

 

[shooter124]

Tag and Rename is a great program to tag your files as well as find album art and embed them into the files. Then you can transfer to your ipod with any program you desire.

 

[muckshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shooter124 Tag and Rename is a great program to tag your files as well as find album art and embed them into the files. Then you can transfer to your ipod with any program you desire.

Hey, right on! Thanks. Got some work to do...

 

[muckshot]

Ok, I used Tag&Rename to embed the art into a few albums, seems to have worked - unfortunately they are not showing up on the Ipod. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but I tested a few different albums and none carried over art to the Ipod. I also tried to import a brand new set of Mp3s that have never been on the Ipod and no go. Any ideas?

 

[shepard]

I use Winamp and the ml_iPod plugin. Really like the combo. Not sure about album art with this. I just listen to the music.

 

[zumaro]

Muckshot did you enable photo use on the iPod? Have to do it through iTunes, after you have right clicked on the iPod icon and chosen iPod options. Don't know if any of the other programs used to access the ipod let you access the setup - how do users of winamp, ephpod etc access this. or are you finally forced to install and use iTunes?

 

[akerman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx Why is tagging files "extra work" over dumping a image in the folder?

Because all images relating to an album are already in the album folder, where else would they be, it's just the logical choice.

1) ipod just displays whatever images are in the folder, like windows = no work
2) you have to manually add an image for each album on your ipod, and of course iTunes doesn't automatically start looking in the album folder, no you have to browse to the album each and every time = extra work

I don't understand why Apple are so adamant about EVERYONE having to use iTunes - it's a free program, they don't make money on it... just make the ipod a regular dragndrop player, that would make everyone happy

 

[BodiesOfLight]

Why I don't use iTuns and I use Xplay...

1. You can't drag and drop
2. It uses WAY too much system resources for my liking
3. I just don't like it...

So no album art, I think I'll live.