DaremoS

Some users have claimed that it's difficult to deal with Cover Art in Meizu players. This is wrong, actually Meizu player have 3 working methods... not just one.
I talk of Meizu players as this apply to M6 x2.004.4 and M3 T2.004.3

Examples:
AAAAAA (A uppercase) = Artist = The Beatles
aaaaaa (a lowercase) = Album = Abbey Road

Method 1. Most simple method.

Cover Art in \ALBUMS folder in format aaaaaa.jpg, then Abbey Road.jpg
Folders structure is

\ALBUMS
Abbey Road.jpg

Cover Art in this \ALBUMS folder apply to all matching files located anywhere in the player, in other words: it doesn't matter what folders structure are followed.

This method can be confusing when album name is too common, ie: ”Greatest Hits” then must be used Method 2 or 3.

Method 2. Most known method.

Cover Art in \ALBUMS folder in format aaaaaaAAAAAAA.jpg, then Abbey RoadThe Beatles.jpg
This is automatically generated by WMP10 and above with USB MTP mode of Meizu players.
Folders structure is

\ALBUMS
Abbey RoadThe Beatles.jpg

\MUSIC
_____\The Beatles
__________\Abbey Road
_____________ track 1
_____________ ...

Method 3. Most sophisticated method
This is used by some media managers like J. River Media Center.

Cover Art in albums folder with format aaaaaa.jpg
Important: aaaaaa.jpg has to be different than the name of the folder.

For instance, as a personal rule I put year of release before the name of the Album. Then folder "1969 Abbey Road",
Folders structure is

\MUSIC
_____\The Beatles
__________\1969 Abbey Road
_____________ track 1
_____________ ...
_____________ Abbey Road.jpg. <--- cover art

Name of the folders is free in this method.

Generalities

a. AFAIK Cover Art can be any size. I suppose it follows sizes of photos in menu function PICTURES.

c. The names must fit exactly ID3 tag fields "artist" and "album".
Folder, when mentioned, must fit exactly names in ID3
Then this won't work
AAAAAA = "The beatles" "the Beatles" "the beatles"
aaaaaa = "Abbey road" "abbey Road" "abbey road"

Hope it helps

__________________

BobbyQ

double post ?

DaremoS

Nope... there is a non explained method (method 1) which is more simple... and I've simplified all for all people to use any method they want.
As all of this have been properly tested and working, it would be nice to stick it. But that is up to the moderators.

__________________

BobbyQ

this forum has an edit feature, you don't need to create new threads to make additions to your prior posts.

DaremoS

I know... using edit feature I've clean the other post and linked it this one, which is more clear and simplified. Anyway one way or another I hope this help lots of people.

boost

Does anyone know why I can only get the second method to work? I tried to add the .jpgs through Winamp which appears to follow the method 3 and they appear in the proper directory but the meizu isnt showing the cover art when playing a song. I thought I may need to change the name of the jpg so it doesnt conflict with the album name such as in this example:
\MUSIC
_____\The Beatles
__________\Abbey Road
_____________ track 1
_____________ ...
_____________ Abbey Roadpic.jpg. <--- cover art

Still no luck.

I also copied the jpg from the artist\album\ directory into the \ALBUMS directory and still no luck when the jpg is named the same as the album such as in Method 1.

Any ideas?

As a side note, I'm also getting a .alb file from winamp. Showing up as a PhotoRecordAlbum, not sure if this is causing problems.

DaremoS

use this option and it will work

\MUSIC
_____\The Beatles
__________\Abbey Road Folder
_____________ track 1
_____________ ...
_____________ Abbey Road.jpg. <--- cover art


I've added the word folder... but can be any word you want... I suggest you to add year after or before album name.
Abbey Road.jpg <--- this must fit exactly what is recorded in album field of tag. Always cover art must fit what is in ID3 tag.

File .alb is generated from the program of the PC and processed by function "Update Music Library" of Meizu player to generate .jpg file in USB=MTP mode.

Traps

Thank you for this great tutorial DaremoS!

I'm having trouble with album names containing special characters that cannot be used in file names, like ":" or "/".

For example, the album "12:5" (from the Swedish band "Pain Of Salvation"). Is there any way to add cover art in this case, without changing the album name in the Id3 tags?

EDIT: I did use the search, but although I found several references to this problem I was unable to find a solution or a clear statement that "there is no solution".

DaremoS

If you have the proper media manager it will generate "12_5" for the album of the excellent Swedish gruop Pain of Salvation (give my regards to Daniel Gildenlöw) then you must call your cover art so "12_5.jpg" but some media manager will change ":" by blanks then it should be "12 5.jpg".

All depends on your media manager... sincerely it's easier to avoid characters nor allowed by DOS (or Windows, if your wish)

Traps

Hi! Thanks for the quick reply!

Well, I guess it will work if I avoid those characters, but that will make the album name be displayed wrong.. an especially in this case, I would like my M6 to display the original "12:5" album name.

So, it's not possible without changing the problem characters then?

PS: glad to know there are more fans of "Pain of Salvation" out here.. they have become one of my favourite bands over the past years!

DaremoS

The problem is how (Windows/DOS) records the name of the cover art as name of file, as the operating system doesn't allow ":" as a valid name character for a file, then such character have to be changed by a valid one. In my PC library, cover art is stored as "Pain of Salvation - 12_5.jpg".

In Meizu players albumname.jpg must fit exactly the name stored in ID3 tag. In my case ID3 tag is "12:5" and cover art is "12_5.jpg" then it will never be shown. Only solution is to put "12_5" in ID3 tag album field...

BTW.: I have the entire collection of Pain of Salvation albums including some DVD with Gildenlöw supporting Transatlantic as multi-instruments player. In fact I have in my collection all the music of Swedish progressive musicians, more than that, IMHO all the progressive music that comes from Scandinavian countries deserve to be listen.

Traps

That's what I feared... ok, I will give up on trying to have album art while keeping the original album name in the Id3 tag. But in this case, I think I prefer to have the correct name :P
I hope Meizu some day address this problem in a firmware update.

That's really cool! I'm still in the process of replacing all my downloads with original albums (currently missing "Entropia" and "One Hour by the Concrete Lake"), and I'm considering ordering the "BE" live DVD.
And yes, I agree about progressive music from Scandinavian countries. More generally, most of my favorite bands (usually progressive rock/metal) are from Northern Europe.

But I think we're getting off-topic. Maybe we should continue this conversation here?

pkt2007

i find that method 2 is the best..using usb: mtp and wmp11....it automatically creates album art..after sync, i just disconnect the player, it updates its library and when i play the songs, the album art will appear...

pkt2007

i find that method 2 is the best..using the usb: MTP with WMP11, i sync the songs into the player, and when i disconnect the player, it updates its library. after that, i just play any songs that has album art in WMP11 and the album art will appears...it's so convenient

entropy

Are these really the only ways?

It seems rather silly to me. Why won't it display folder.jpg, or cover.jpg, or allow you to choose a priority ranking? Ie, "First look for folder.jpg, then cover.jpg, then album.jpg" etc. I love my Meizu a whole helluva lot, but the idiotic cover art really irritates me.

Also, an album had cover art displaying, then when I resynced it (usb/drag&drop mode), it doesn't work anymore. I didn't change the files in question, either. What could've happened?

Edit: My main gripe is that with thousands of art-less albums, my best bet is to use a program (iArt) to work with it. It embeds the cover art in the mp3s, but also creates a folder.jpg. I'm perplexed as to why they're unable to implement the simple folder.jpg method, and even more disappointed why embedded album art doesn't work. Is it a technical problem?

ineedhlp

just use superman its super easy

DaremoS

Superman?... isn't the guy affected by kryptonite?