Cover Art
Media Center can automatically download your album cover art, and display it while listening to your music.
Automatically Get Cover Art after Ripping
To set automatic downloading of cover art after ripping a CD, go to Tools > Options > CD and select "Get cover art from internet after ripping".
Set the Cover Art Path
To modify where your cover art is saved, go to Tools > Options > File Location.
To Save Cover Art in the file (when possible)
You can save Cover Art in the file itself as a tag. Note, however, that not all file formats will allow this, and for those that do, the file size will increase.
Go to Tools > Options > General and check "Save cover art inside tags when possible".
If your file format is mp3, you must set the modify the mp3 settings to include id3 tags. Go to Tools > Plug-in Manager > Input > MPE Plug-in and select Configure. For details about these options, see Save File Properties (id3 tags) in Disk Files.
The FLAC format does not allow embedded cover art with the current FLAC plug-in. Your only option is external cover art.
Saving Cover Art Next to Files
Thanks to Alex B for this information.
MC has two options for storing the cover art in the file folders (Tools > Options > File Location > Track Images Location):
Next to file ([Artist] - [Album].jpg) and Next to file (Folder.jpg)
I prefer the "Artist - Album" naming system because I don't like the idea of having thousands of identically named files on my HDs.
Both systems work fine. If you change the option MC will place new cover art files accordingly.
MC cannot automatically move the old cover art files all at once, but there is workaround.
If you have the music files in the Artist\Album folder structure and have used the old MJ/MC standard (Artist - Album.jpg) for naming the cover art files you can move most of your cover art files by taking the following steps. (You may need to manually move a few files afterwards.)
- 1. Make a new empty library with the Library manager
- 2. Import the cover art files from the current cover art folder into this new library.
- 3. Use the Fill Properties From Filename tool with this rule in the filename dialog: [Artist] - [Album]. Uncheck the Directories check box.
- 4. Use the Rename files From Properties tool for moving the cover art files.
- Directories - Base Path: The base path of your music files
- Directories - Rule: [Artist]\[Album]
- If you use a different rule for your music files you may be able to edit this. Be aware of multiple disc and multiple artists albums or other special cases.
- You can also use [Album Artist] instead of [Artist] in steps 3 and 4.
- Filename Rule:
- Uncheck the check box (this keeps the old filenames and can be the safest option)
- or
- Folder.jpg (write the exact filename in the dialog box. This renames all cover art files as "Folder.jpg".
- 5. After moving the files check the "Filename (path)" field for any errors and move manually the files that need special treatment.
- 6. At this stage you can change back to your regular library and do the following steps:
- Select all audio files (or the files you like to include)
- Right-click > Image > Remove Cover Art (don't let MC delete the disk files)
- Right-click > Image > Quick Find In File / Cover Art Directory.
Remember to back up your MC library and the cover art folder before starting the process.
Which files are missing cover art?
Media Center comes with pre-made smartlists, one of which is to display all files that are missing covert.
- In the tree, select Playlists, then Smartlists
- If Smartlists does not exist, right-click on Playlists and select Create Stock Smartlists
- Select the Missing Covert Art Smartlist.
Get Cover Art for Selected Files.
- Right click on file(s) in the content pane.
- Select Image and choose from the available options on the menu.
| Play/Show (first file) | This plays the image in full screen mode. It will play the image for just the first file if more than one track is selected. |
| Add From File | Browse to the file on your hard drive. Use this if the image isn't stored in your Cover Art directory. |
| Quick Find in File/Cover Art Directory | Automatically looks through your default Cover Art directory for the image, and links it to your file. |
| Get from Internet. | * Download (if missing). Use this for files that have no Cover Art. It's a good option for when multiple files are selected, because it will not overwrite any files that already have Cover Art.
Use already downloaded cover art. Select a Tolerance level. |
| Get from Scanner. | Automatically get an image from your scanner. You may have to first select your scanner. |
| Select Scanner. | Select your default scanner. |
| Paste from Clipboard(image or URL) | See "Copy to Clipboard". |
| Copy to Clipboard(first file) | Copy an image to the clipboard, and quickly paste it as another file's Cover Art. |
| Remove Cover Art | Removes links to Cover Art, as well as Cover Art stored in the file's tags. You can also permanently remove the image from your hard drive by clicking 'Yes' in the dialogue box that appears when you select this option. |
You can also quickly view which files have cover art by adding the "Image File" header to the columns in the content pane list. Just right-click on any header in the list, go to "Columns to Show" and select "image file".
High Resolution Cover Art
Thanks to Alex B for this information.
I suppose something like 800x800 would be enough for high resolution cover art if there is no intention to enlarge the displayed images (this is possible in a slideshow). The scanner software used must have a descreen option when printed images are scanned in a high resolution. The printed screen pattern produces usually a nasty moiré effect without descreening.
MC has native support for single image file, which is linked to a music file or placed inside the file's tag area. Actually that is not an album image but a track image. MC can find it automatically if certain conditions exist. Instead you can manually link one image file to a single track or to several tracks (e.g. to all tracks in one album).
MC has also native support for importing image files to the media library, e.g. your digital camera images. You can tag them as you like. With MC you can show image files in slideshows when playing music files. I use that capacity for playing and showing my albums.
I want to have my albums complete in MC, including music, cover art, and printed information. Usually I scan several images: front, back, booklet, inlay, CD 1, CD 2, etc. I make them at least 800 pixels wide. If there is small printed text I make them bigger. So all text can be read if/when enlarged (you can pause the slideshow and enlarge an image). I also make a smaller version of the front cover, which is used as a usual track image. I store all images in the album folder.
I import those image files to MC and tag them. Because they have the same album tag as the music files the images become part of the album in the MC library. I can see them together in the All Media view. I can search for the album name and I get a list of the music files and the image files. If I send them all to Playing Now, MC displays a slide show during the album playback. I can also make playlists of them (incl. music & images).
I have not found tagging them too awkward. Importing and tagging the image files takes only some seconds. For example, you could do that just before listening to each album. Listening to an album takes usually at least 40 minutes.
when I play the whole album with images I don't usually include the small image in the playlist because the cover is included in the "Booklet 1" image. In this case the booklet spreads are 1600 pixels wide.
View Cover Art while listening to Music
Play files and then go to Playing Now. Make sure the Display Pane is visible (if not, double-click the horizontal splitter bar in Standard Mode). If the display plug-in is set to "none", your cover art will display by default. You can double-click on the image to quickly toggle between full screen and windowed modes. See Display Plug-ins for details.