NOOB Question

[urbecrisch]

Hello.  I'm new to Freebox and the one question I have so far is how I can get the album art to show in the jukebox.  I have read and searched the forum but I cannot seem to find a simple answer.  I'm using v3.0.12.  I have an album that was ripped via Media Player in my C: folder.  It shows the artwork in my C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Music\Red Hot Chili Peppers folder but when I start Freebox the artwork does not show in the jukebox but the songs and the album title do.  Any help would be appreciated.  Looks like a great program.  Will definitely donate if all works out well.  Cheers!

[squirrellydw]

make sure your album art is not in the tag.  It needs to be in the folder with the album and be saved as a jpg

there are plenty of programs out there that will extract it for you.  I will see if I can find one.

edit....here is a link http://www.freeboxjukebox.com/Forums/index.php?topic=68.0

[urbecrisch]

OK... still a little unclear but I will try to find a program to use.  I read the forum but the only link is to a Mac.  What program do you use and is it freeware?  Where is a good place (website) to find these programs?  If I do a Google search, what would I type in for the type of program I'm looking for?  Thanks.

[squirrellydw]

search the web for tag and rename, there is also a link to mediamonkey in that post.  You can also try to just put a picture in the folder and see if that works. And make sure you select in the config to use first image found.  The album art should be sized about 300x300 for best performance.



MediaMonkey along with two additional scripts found here called Batch Art Finder and Album Art Tagger also work as a great album art solution for freebox

1. Use MediaMonkey to organize and properly tag your library and imbed album art from Amazon.

2. use the Batch Art Finder to get any further missing art.

3. use Album Art Tagger to extract all the art to .jpg files in each album folder automatically. You can chose any file name mask you wish. "<path>\cover" will create a cover.jpg in each album folder.

This worked great for me. I got my library of 4,000 songs all setup and working in freebox with art for every song/album.

[draginit]

when my collection was smaller(less the 20gigs), this is how i did it:   went thru every album and removed all embedded or tagged artwork. then googled searched each album by name, saved as a jpeg and resized in photoshop. then put it in its respective folder.

now i cant live without tag and rename. i strongly recommend it. it has checkblock for putting the image in the folder as a jpeg automatically when tagging your music. as far as extracting a jpeg from a large collection already tagged, squirrell summed it up, ive never had to do that fortunatly.   i just rip all my music now without any artwork and run it thru tag and rename.

[urbecrisch]

when my collection was smaller(less the 20gigs), this is how i did it:   went thru every album and removed all embedded or tagged artwork. then googled searched each album by name, saved as a jpeg and resized in photoshop. then put it in its respective folder.

I will give Tag & Rename a try, but in the meantime, how do I remove the embedded artwork?  It's a part of the folder which was created by Media Player.  Am I still able to remove the image?  If so, how?

[urbecrisch]

Well I got my album cover to show up.  I found a JPEG photo online and saved it to my music folder where I resized using MS Office Picture Manager.  I'll give Tag & Rename a try when I DL it.  Is there any specific size that should be used for the JPEG art?  Thanks again.

[squirrellydw]

size should be about 300x300 or 320x320.  anything larger will start to slow to slow it down.

[draginit]

i would definitly try one of the programs mentioned,  but if you want to remove all unwanted artfiles manually(which i dont recomend unless you have a small collection cuz it can be tedious)  i just went into folder options, checked the box show hidden files and found that 2 to 3 images would show up per album with a crazy file name. just select and delete. this leaves only your jpeg and audio.
keep in mind T&R will put a jpeg in the folder but its size can be anywhere from 200x200 to 500x500 which isnt recomended.  do a search on this forum i remember someone talking about a batch program to change all image sizes at once after you already have them. or it can be done manually too.

[squirrellydw]

here is the batch program



http://www.rw-designer.com/picture-resize

All you have to do is rename the executable to whatever size and swiches you want. I just used it and these were my settings [PhotoResize350RIS.exe] so this resizes the images to 350x350 (or if they aren't exactly 350 it will resize accordingly), it will go into subdirectories, and the S means that if it finds a file smaller than 350 it will skip it. The trick is just put the .exe in the same directory as your root Music folder (My Music) then drag the whole folder containing all of your albums on top of the exe, hit run and off you go. Worked for me fine. If you check out their website, there are many other switches to use, but I just needed the basic ones. Thanks

[Barcrest]

If you want album covers just go to amazon and download them off there.

[urbecrisch]

Thanks for all the help/suggestions.  Luckily, I don't have to manually delete any album cover art cause I only have 1 album on my hard drive:) I just got an ELO touchscreen for my jukebox project and also got for dirt cheap 2 Dell Optiplex CPU'S (700mh, 256mb, pIII, 10g hd w/xp pro).  Everything runs smoothly and I fugured I don't need a super fast processor to just run a jukebox. I installed a PCI wireless card so I can get info online when needed and I'll soon add another 256mb to max out the PC at 512mb. 

I'm also going to mount the monitor using a LCD wall arm mount.  I'm planning on making a metal/steel bezel to match the mount and then use a tube to hide the wiring.  I've planned it all out so it should work out great.  I'll send some pics when I'm done.  If your wondering where the PC will be, I am hiding it on the other side of the basement wall where the touchscreen will be mounted.  Should look good when it's all complete. 

I'm planning on adding another hard drive but not sure if I should get an external or internal drive.  Will an external slow down the CPU?   What do you guys recommend?