Database Users

AARRGHH! 1.5 HOURS to finally get all of my Album Art on the Xperia??*RANT*

No matter if I used media sync with Windows media, or my iTunes interface program....I would only get about a 1/4 of the album art to load and show up.
Even using mp3 tag the Xperia wouldn't see but maybe 1/2 the albums.
So I had to sit there and "update album info" over and over on the PC's windows media player. Each time it may or may not grab album art, or it may only grab a little bit of info, or it may or may not create the folder.jpg file.
So I ended up having to open both sets of folder and transfer the folder.jpg for every album one by 'effing one.
I am just complaining so sorry for the b*tch fest. I know others here feel my pain so it is good to complain to people who can sympathize.
BUT GOOD LAWD can't Microsoft improve such a simple, stupid function?

Pants isn't it...
At least it's the windows side rather than the mobile side that's at fault for a change.
I tend to find the album art on amazon, (the mp3 off the USA site has decent cover art) and drag it to the cover in WMP. Is a bit quicker.
FWIW there's a PPC prog to do this automatically, it's not perfect and can get a bit confused.
adn on the pc this post might help..
http://lifehacker.com/software/albu...ary-into-shape-part-ii-+-album-art-231476.php

i didnt find it too hard, i just use itune to grab the album art, and copy the entire itune folder over to the storage card, all album arts showed up fine

I have tried different apps (Windows Media Player, iTunes, Tag & Rename, Winamp and so on) and I have found one app with perfect handling of album art: Easy CD-DA Extractor. It adds album art perfectly within the ID-tag and the file. No problems with "folder.jpg" and such things.
It works perfect on my Xperia X1 with Pocket Player and OggVorbis. And I have tried MP3 and AAC with it without any problems. Even album art and eAAC+ works perfect both on X1 with Pocket Player and my Nokia E90 (who has strict requirements regarding album art, other apps can´t add them correctly but Easy CD-DA Extractor can).
Try that app and be happy.

I tagged mine in the latest version of mp3 tag. It embeds them and they worked fine, for some reason media monkey and the previous version of mp3 tag couldn't do it so they would appear in the media panel (or my ps3)...
Shame about media monkey, its a really nice media management software...

WMP, Mortplayer and S2p all fine,but media panel(orig or pubba prog) only see similar to urs...1/4.
My music is on SD and synced directly from MP11..
Any solutions?

NZtechfreak said:
I tagged mine in the latest version of mp3 tag. It embeds them and they worked fine, for some reason media monkey and the previous version of mp3 tag couldn't do it so they would appear in the media panel (or my ps3)...
Shame about media monkey, its a really nice media management software...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
??? I can't comment on the phone, but I use Media Monkey to tag my MP3 with text info and album art, and it shows up on the PS3 fine... Maybe it's a setting somewhere? I just use the defaults for adding album art in MM.
I only use MP3Tag to label the filenames; I find MM allows me to tag more info to an MP3 than MP3Tag does.

media monkey works for me too - I can see album art in wmp, core player, tf3d and media panel.
I guess it is all depend on how the images are stored and referenced on your PC? some players just read folder.jpg, others look at the id3 tags instead, if you make sure you have all bases covered, ie tags point to folder.jpg it should work

Your problem is not with the Xperia then, your subject title is misleading. Use tagscanner to apply the album art, works on every file.

mp3tag
Same, I use mp3 tag, because I have 4 monitors I just sit there with amazon on one, mp3 tag on another, xperia on another and my music folder on another. Drag the art from amazon to mp3 tag, use the music folder to drag the stuff i want to change to mp3 tag, then when done drag it all to xperia.
I gave up trying to get automatic album art a long time ago, I do it all myself for old music, anything I download normally has the art embedded and when I'm ripping CDs i never seem to have a problem with art.
But I guess not everyone is legit

How to sync the Hero with WMP?

I always used to synchronize my music with WMP and now that I've got a Hero (my previous one was HTC S730), it doesn't work anymore. WMP Says:
Your device requires that this file be converted in order to play on the device. However, the device either does not support playing audio, or Windows Media Player cannot convert the file to an audio format that is supported by the device.
Any thoughts?
My entire music collection has two things which don't work on the hero:
1. Album art is WMP format (separate .jpg files for each album)
2. Artist: Artist/Featured artist/Featured artist 2 Album Artist: Artist
Every artist/featured artist combination is handled as a separate artist, while WMP mobile did a good job!

I'll have to bump..
I forgot to mention that it handles genres wrong way too. Some songs have a few genres assigned to them, example:
Pop; Pop Rock
WMP assigns that song to both genres, "Pop" and "Pop Eock", while Android player just makes a genre called "Pop; Rock".
Maybe there are some good 3rd party players on the Market (so far I couldn't find one).

Okay, I have got a solution y'all!
You don't have to ruine your library just to make it compatible with Android..
Search for a program called "MediaMonkey". Free edition DOES NOT do the job, but you can easily find a free-ed version (it's called "Gold"). I'm using version 3.1.1 Gold, which at the moment latest.
I still prefer using WMP for listening to music and I only use MediaMonkey for all the dirty job!
Just take a peek at this screenshot! It cures bad Android player, though you loose some of the data on the device - additional genres and featured artists.
http://www.failai.in/P/1256077992_Capture.JPG

Can someone please help me before I have a stroke please? lol

I'm still having issues with the music player. I am trying to persevere with the HTC music as I like the interface, and not found another music player yet that I do like the interface on.
Over the past couple of days I've been having issues as it's not been transfering my artwork across, and also tracks appear in random orders in many albums (but not all) on the phone. I have solved the cover art problem by adding the music files using the phone as a hard drive rather than through active sync, but the tracks still appear in a random order.
I have tried using monkey media, and media jukebox to arrange my files and add artwork. The tracks appear in the right order in every music program I use, whether it be monkey media, windows media, or simply opening them up from my music on my laptop. Also, if I open up the files on the phone from my laptop the tracks are in the correct order. Can anyone solve this issue for me please? It's been causing me a headache for the past 48 hours now and I think a blood vessel is about to burst Oh, I've tried adding files from my itnes folder as well, but I get the same problem. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the order of the tracks differs each time I try adding them to the phone
Someone told me to change the tags using mp3tag, but when I run this program it won't let me change the tags, and besides I wouldn't know what to change them to. In the column that says tags, they all just say WMA anyway.
Cheers

snerkler said:
I'm still having issues with the music player. I am trying to persevere with the HTC music as I like the interface, and not found another music player yet that I do like the interface on.
Over the past couple of days I've been having issues as it's not been transfering my artwork across, and also tracks appear in random orders in many albums (but not all) on the phone. I have solved the cover art problem by adding the music files using the phone as a hard drive rather than through active sync, but the tracks still appear in a random order.
I have tried using monkey media, and media jukebox to arrange my files and add artwork. The tracks appear in the right order in every music program I use, whether it be monkey media, windows media, or simply opening them up from my music on my laptop. Also, if I open up the files on the phone from my laptop the tracks are in the correct order. Can anyone solve this issue for me please? It's been causing me a headache for the past 48 hours now and I think a blood vessel is about to burst Oh, I've tried adding files from my itnes folder as well, but I get the same problem. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the order of the tracks differs each time I try adding them to the phone
Someone told me to change the tags using mp3tag, but when I run this program it won't let me change the tags, and besides I wouldn't know what to change them to. In the column that says tags, they all just say WMA anyway.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I saw this yesterday after I reinstalled everything following the new ROM upgrade, it was annoying me but this is what I done...
Slide to the music panel/tab and wait patiently while the screen in black and appear frozen for a while. I think it is actually 'loading' the list of all of the music tracks as 'now playing'.
If, when this has loaded, you tap the library button, then randomly slide to the artist tab to select a track, and play it, it clears the 'now playing' queue to the track you have just selected. You can then go back in and create play lists etc. as you would want to usually.

nniicckkss said:
I think I saw this yesterday after I reinstalled everything following the new ROM upgrade, it was annoying me but this is what I done...
Slide to the music panel/tab and wait patiently while the screen in black and appear frozen for a while. I think it is actually 'loading' the list of all of the music tracks as 'now playing'.
If, when this has loaded, you tap the library button, then randomly slide to the artist tab to select a track, and play it, it clears the 'now playing' queue to the track you have just selected. You can then go back in and create play lists etc. as you would want to usually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Thanks for your reply, but I'm not sure you fully understood what I meant?
If I wait for the media to load and tap the library button it doesn't matter if I go to artist>album or directly to album, the tracks displayed for the album or in the wrong order, and play in the wrong order eg on my Dido album "Here with me" is listed as the 11th track, when actually it should be the 1st. I don't want to, and shouldn't have to create a playlist for each album just so that the tracks play in the right order. Is there a way to get the HTC music player to organise the tracks so they are listed and play in the right order, ie track 1 first, track 2 second etc? It's so frustrating

Oh, sorry. I thought you were describing the thing I had...
Sorry, I don't know how to help you, hopefully someone else will be able to assist you.

Are you sure you don't have Shuffle switched on as that will randomise your songs. It's the icon with two arrows crossing one another to the right of the word Music on the Music tab in Sense.

2 things...
First, what format are your songs ripped in?
Second, you're probably better off letting the music player get the album art for you. Just click the CD icon in the top left of the screen and it will automatically do that for you. It's obviously better to let it handle as much as it can natively.

have you tried looking at the advanced tag editor in windows media player to see what order your tracks are actually in?.as for the album art,I use mp3 tag,its an easy program to use and works everytime. I know how feel as iv come across this myself and it did my head in lol. keep us informed.....

johncmolyneux said:
2 things...
First, what format are your songs ripped in?
Second, you're probably better off letting the music player get the album art for you. Just click the CD icon in the top left of the screen and it will automatically do that for you. It's obviously better to let it handle as much as it can natively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My songs are in WMA format, but I've also tried M4a (ie itunes)
The trouble with letting the program find the artwork is that it can't find a lot of them

donwhann said:
have you tried looking at the advanced tag editor in windows media player to see what order your tracks are actually in?.as for the album art,I use mp3 tag,its an easy program to use and works everytime. I know how feel as iv come across this myself and it did my head in lol. keep us informed.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure where the advanced tag editor is in windows medaia player?
If I open windows media on my laptop and change the list options to details, across the top of the window I have the following columns:-
#, Title, Length, Rating, Cont. Artist, Album, Genre, release Year, Composer, Size, Parental Rating, and if I right click on the columns I can add the column "Tag". However there is nothing in the tag column for any of the tracks???

jakem said:
Are you sure you don't have Shuffle switched on as that will randomise your songs. It's the icon with two arrows crossing one another to the right of the word Music on the Music tab in Sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I'm sure. Plus it's not jsut that the tracks are playing in a random order, they're listed in a random order when you go into the album.

snerkler said:
Yep, I'm sure. Plus it's not jsut that the tracks are playing in a random order, they're listed in a random order when you go into the album.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is definitely the ID3 tags.
I can't help you any further than that I'm afraid, as I've been using MP3 format for years now, and every piece of music that I possess is in that format. It's still the most universal format, and therefore works flawlessly on most devices.
I do know that m4a stores the tag values differently to ID3, so they may not be read succesfully. I don't know how wma stores the values, if at all!
I'd recommend getting a piece of software like Sony Sound Forge so you can do a batch conversion and make everything MP3. After that, use something like WinAmp to automatically populate the ID3 tags for you. Once you've done that, the previous suggestion I made about album art will definitely work, so just don't bother doing anything manually for that.
That's all I can suggest. It's a lengthy process, but done right it will definitely solve your current problem.

snerkler said:
I'm not sure where the advanced tag editor is in windows medaia player?
If I open windows media on my laptop and change the list options to details, across the top of the window I have the following columns:-
#, Title, Length, Rating, Cont. Artist, Album, Genre, release Year, Composer, Size, Parental Rating, and if I right click on the columns I can add the column "Tag". However there is nothing in the tag column for any of the tracks???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right click on the track in wmp and you will see an option for advanced tag editor. click that and see if the track number is the same as it shows in the actual track listing of the album. if i were you mate id convert everything to mp3 format, i just find that things like album art and track listings seem to work better, but thats just me.....

johncmolyneux said:
The problem is definitely the ID3 tags.
I can't help you any further than that I'm afraid, as I've been using MP3 format for years now, and every piece of music that I possess is in that format. It's still the most universal format, and therefore works flawlessly on most devices.
I do know that m4a stores the tag values differently to ID3, so they may not be read succesfully. I don't know how wma stores the values, if at all!
I'd recommend getting a piece of software like Sony Sound Forge so you can do a batch conversion and make everything MP3. After that, use something like WinAmp to automatically populate the ID3 tags for you. Once you've done that, the previous suggestion I made about album art will definitely work, so just don't bother doing anything manually for that.
That's all I can suggest. It's a lengthy process, but done right it will definitely solve your current problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
totally agree bud. when i got into the digital music scene what seems like years ago now, all my collection was wma and i had nothing but hassle when transfering to other devices, the same as the op is having regarding mixed up tracks and missing art. after a lenghty process of converting everything to mp3 everything worked fine. i suggest its what the op does to solve the problem........if i were the op id convert the album thats giving him issues into mp3 format and transfer it onto his phone to see if it solves it. let us know op how you get on............

You may have already tried this.
But here goes if you go to your album on the pc then right click properties then goto details on each song that will tell you what number the track is & album artist etc that is the way the hd2 lists them from the properties not just the name of the song.
This is probably the first thing you tried but thought i would tell you anyway.

johncmolyneux said:
The problem is definitely the ID3 tags.
I can't help you any further than that I'm afraid, as I've been using MP3 format for years now, and every piece of music that I possess is in that format. It's still the most universal format, and therefore works flawlessly on most devices.
I do know that m4a stores the tag values differently to ID3, so they may not be read succesfully. I don't know how wma stores the values, if at all!
I'd recommend getting a piece of software like Sony Sound Forge so you can do a batch conversion and make everything MP3. After that, use something like WinAmp to automatically populate the ID3 tags for you. Once you've done that, the previous suggestion I made about album art will definitely work, so just don't bother doing anything manually for that.
That's all I can suggest. It's a lengthy process, but done right it will definitely solve your current problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll convert everything to MP3. I did start re-ripping my CD's as MP3's at top quality (I only ripped my wma at 128kbs), but I can't for the life of me find them I'm hoping they're on my other laptop when I get home, otherwise I'll have to do it all again I'll post on here when I done this and tried it and let you know the outcome.

NEDSTER1972 said:
You may have already tried this.
But here goes if you go to your album on the pc then right click properties then goto details on each song that will tell you what number the track is & album artist etc that is the way the hd2 lists them from the properties not just the name of the song.
This is probably the first thing you tried but thought i would tell you anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've tried this and they are listed in the right way. There are no tags though so hoping this may be the issue as already mentioned.
Thanks though

snerkler said:
I'll convert everything to MP3. I did start re-ripping my CD's as MP3's at top quality (I only ripped my wma at 128kbs), but I can't for the life of me find them I'm hoping they're on my other laptop when I get home, otherwise I'll have to do it all again I'll post on here when I done this and tried it and let you know the outcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck mate. It may take a while, but it's well worth doing.
Incidentally, don't forget the good advice from donwhann - try 1 album first and make sure you're happy with the results before converting everything. If it turns out to be something else then you'd be mighty angry lol

donwhann said:
right click on the track in wmp and you will see an option for advanced tag editor. .....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get an option for advanced tag editor if I right click in wmp, or my library. Even if I go into properties that option isn't there?
I'm running the latest version of wmp.

snerkler said:
I don't get an option for advanced tag editor if I right click in wmp, or my library. Even if I go into properties that option isn't there?
I'm running the latest version of wmp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
strange.......iv just tried it myself now and its there. are you right clicking on an individual track listed in an album?, stick at it mate, if your like me its a must have to have your music all sorted and looking good lol. keep us informed......

Funny I have always had this same problem. I didn't find the tag editor either BUT I just put the TAG column in my list and if I click by the song IN THAT COLUMN it opens up a text window for adding a tag. Nothing to say that the option is there just opened the text window. Might try that.

Problems with the included HTC Music Player

The included HTC Music Player (latest stock TMOUSA ROM) seems to have serious problems with its database.
Of course there are other options--such as the included Windows Media Player, and freeware solutions as TCPMP, commercial music players, etc.
But I like the HTC Music Player, how it plays from your home screen.
I like what happens when one turns the phone landscape, and sees a shuffle of album covers. Is that a gimmick? Yes, but I like it. Kind of fun to choose an album that way, like shuffling through CDs at home, rather than from a list like in WMP.
Yet, the app seems to have serious problems with its database. Although I have tons of music on it (more than 10 GB, all on the storage card), sometimes it cannot see any music at all.
Sometimes it shows no cover art (which is especially crucial for that album shuffle view), although the cover art is embedded in each song, and if one looks at the .vin file that HTCMP put in the folder, the cover art is there too, put there by the app. But somehow, it often doesn't read it. I do the "download cover art" thing, it shows a connection to Gracenote, but some albums never display their cover art, although it is already right there embedded in each song on the album.
What is going on with this app and its database?
Ia there any fix for it?
Is HTC aware of the problem, and working on a fix?
------------------------
While discussing the HTC Music Player, one other thing I am curious about. The phone also includes an HTC Video Player, in the windows folder, but with no link in the start menu to it, so most people will never discover it. (They do call that video player, though, to play the included "Transformers" movies, rather than WMP.) Why did they include their own video player, yet not even have a start menu item for it? Does it have any advantage over WMP for playing video?

me said:
The included HTC Music Player (latest stock TMOUSA ROM) seems to have serious problems with its database.
Of course there are other options--such as the included Windows Media Player, and freeware solutions as TCPMP, commercial music players, etc.
But I like the HTC Music Player, how it plays from your home screen.
I like what happens when one turns the phone landscape, and sees a shuffle of album covers. Is that a gimmick? Yes, but I like it. Kind of fun to choose an album that way, like shuffling through CDs at home, rather than from a list like in WMP.
Yet, the app seems to have serious problems with its database. Although I have tons of music on it (more than 10 GB, all on the storage card), sometimes it cannot see any music at all.
Sometimes it shows no cover art (which is especially crucial for that album shuffle view), although the cover art is embedded in each song, and if one looks at the .vin file that HTCMP put in the folder, the cover art is there too, put there by the app. But somehow, it often doesn't read it. I do the "download cover art" thing, it shows a connection to Gracenote, but some albums never display their cover art, although it is already right there embedded in each song on the album.
What is going on with this app and its database?
Ia there any fix for it?
Is HTC aware of the problem, and working on a fix?
------------------------
While discussing the HTC Music Player, one other thing I am curious about. The phone also includes an HTC Video Player, in the windows folder, but with no link in the start menu to it, so most people will never discover it. (They do call that video player, though, to play the included "Transformers" movies, rather than WMP.) Why did they include their own video player, yet not even have a start menu item for it? Does it have any advantage over WMP for playing video?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as the data base goes it has a problem reading large amounts of music. Still on the stock SD card? Is HTC aware of this.....Most likely as it has been a prob from the start, is there a fix....not that I have found. The video player works from the albums tab as it pics up the movies and displays them in that tab.

zelendel said:
As far as the data base goes it has a problem reading large amounts of music. Still on the stock SD card? Is HTC aware of this.....Most likely as it has been a prob from the start, is there a fix....not that I have found. The video player works from the albums tab as it pics up the movies and displays them in that tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I use the stock 16GB SD card. Why? Is there a problem with that?
It is unfortunate, since that album art landscape thing is so cool, yet the HTC Music Player does not see the cover art of many albums, although it itself has created the .vin file in each folder, which is a renamed .jpg of the correct art.
And sometimes it cannot find any music!
I sure wish there would be a fix.
No registry fix or anything, that will help it?

me said:
Yes, I use the stock 16GB SD card. Why? Is there a problem with that?
It is unfortunate, since that album art landscape thing is so cool, yet the HTC Music Player does not see the cover art of many albums, although it itself has created the .vin file in each folder, which is a renamed .jpg of the correct art.
And sometimes it cannot find any music!
I sure wish there would be a fix.
No registry fix or anything, that will help it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No there really isnt a prob with the stock SD card except it is a class 2 card so it reads and writes slowly, alot of my issues were fixed when I got a 16gb class 6 off ebay. Make sure all your music is in this format, Artist\album. the album art is handled my the id3 tags so make sure those are all set right. there should be 5 .jpg files in each album folder. I have uploaded a folder with the album jpeg files for you to compare yours to so hope it helps

Thanks. I am downloading your 7z file, and will take a look at it. I have only seen one .jpg in each album folder, which the HTC audio database renames to .vin extension.
Most of the time, that ,jpg is the correct album art for that album. Funny thing is, even so, with many albums the cover art does not display.
I have found a solution (in another thread here) to the problem of when one opens the HTC Music Player, go landscape to see all the albums, and it says something like "no music found", then starts a long search for your music.
It seems like the app forgets its databse every time you reboot the phone. Then when you start the music app, and click anything needing access to the library, it then starts searching for your music to put in the db.
If you add a link to the audio manager file (something like audiomanager_en.exe (in the Windows folder) to your \Windows\Startup folder, that will make it recreate the database on startup, so it will be ready when you want to play some music.
Seems an unnecessary waste of memory and boot time though, to have to do that. You don't need to do that with WMP. It remembers its database, and is there and ready when you use it. If you have added music, you can click rebuild library, and it will then rebuild it. But it does not need to rebuild after every reboot.
Makes me think of stopping the use of the HTC music player altogether, and just use WMP or alternatives like TCPMP and Mort. (Although the latter two don't use library at all, don't know why, just files and play lists.)
But there are nice things about the HTC Music Player--its integration into Sense, and that cool landscape cover art thing. I just wish they would fix the bugs, and get it working properly! (Anyone know if HTC will issue an update for the music player?)

zelendel said:
No there really isnt a prob with the stock SD card except it is a class 2 card so it reads and writes slowly, alot of my issues were fixed when I got a 16gb class 6 off ebay. Make sure all your music is in this format, Artist\album. the album art is handled my the id3 tags so make sure those are all set right. there should be 5 .jpg files in each album folder. I have uploaded a folder with the album jpeg files for you to compare yours to so hope it helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just looked at your .7z file. As you say, there are five album art .jpgs inside that folder.
It makes me wonder--what phone are you using? I think your HTC Music Player is different than mine.
The Music Player on my phone only creates one .jpg cover art file inside each of all my music folders, including those that work in showing cover art, and those that don't. (I guess it looks at the art embedded in the music file tags, and extracts the cover art in a separate file. It is a .jpg file, but renamed with the extension .vin.
Five cover art files, as exists in your folder, is non-existent on the TMOUSA HD2.
Funny thing too---In albums that do not show the cover art in the music player app, the .vin file the app created inside the album's folder--is still usually the correct album cover art. So the app can read the cover art embedded in the music files, creates its one folder ,jpg renamed .vin for the art, but still does not display it in the app.
Hey HTC, fix this app!

I wonder if it might have something to do with the resolution of the cover art?
While it might be able to read all cover art, and make the corresponding .vin (.jpg) file of it in the folder, the app only displays cover art that is in a certain pixel resolution, or a certain range of resolutions?
Could that be why some cover art displays, and others do not?
Anyone know?

I was using the HD 2. I copied the folders from my music file on my pc to my phone. so that may be the reason for the extra image files. but as it always showed the album art I left them there

HTC audio manager shuffle problem
Hi Guys,
This old issue is still unsolved on the last update 3.14, and it is really driving me crazy.
Have you been able to solve it?
Have anyone tried the latest OBOE 1.18 files?
Brgds

FLAC files wont display in correct order in Stock music player!

Okay, I have quite a few albums in FLAC audio format. They are all correctly tagged using a freeware app called Mp3tag. Track Numbers have also been tagged. When I copy these albums to my SGS II, they all play fine and the quality is superb. The problem I am facing however is that when you click on albums in the music player and select an album, the ordering is wrong despite the track numbers being tagged in each individual track.
Any ideas?