Hi,

I've started to rip all my CDs to WMA losless using Windows Media Player 10. Works without any problems so far, BUT:

The Windows Media Player get's the covers from the internet and their resolution is realy low and therefore it looks bad on the Beosound 5 screen.

I'm scanning my CD covers to high resolution 500x500 pixel. I've just pust some of them in the corresponding folders on the Beosound 5 but it only displays the low resolution cover that was embedded by Windows Media Player into the musicfile :-(

How can I change the cover? Do I have to use the Windows Media Player to do it? Please give me any tips to get rid of the ugly
low resolution covers :-) 

I used a combination of PowerAmp CD Ripper (PC) and CoverScout (Mac) to rip the CD and search for deent artwork. It is a bit tedious but I have managed to get fairly decent cover artwork. I do use a Mac with Windows emulation which made the whole process of using these two bits of software very easy. Most of the time CD Ripper came up with a good cover. Do a google search to get this program.

I normally used to use the beoplayer software.

Just drag a picture on the albumcover and it will be replaced with the new one.

As above,  you can utilize the Media Centre / Media Player album cover search, or drag the associated album cover photo onto the album.

PC: Another option is to find a JPEG Image you like from any Image search engine, and save it into any file in My Pictures ( or My Photos ).  This can be a good copy of the actual album cover, or perhaps another picture or art  image you associate with the artist or music.  It's up to you as it is your Beosound 5 system,  so feel free to personalize it.

You can then open Media Center / Player, go back into My Pictures, click " copy " on the selected picture file, and then select the " paste album art " option onto the Media Center / Player album.

For years I've tried scanning pictures, and then downsizing to 500 x 500 : Mon Dieu !     A lot of extra work today, when it is usually available on the NET somewhere.

I have done as SWISS_2 sugests, drop the scanned image on the image that Windows Media Player found.

/MikaelB

Thank you very much, I'm gonna check the Windows Media Player option and will look on the web for scans >500x500 Pixel parallel to my own scans.

Many selected music images can be shadow bordered, grossly too large, dull colour, or not quite square ( odd shapped rectangles  ).  If selected and imported,  your music system player then replicates these flaws, and may even attempt to adjust the size.  Lady Tron becomes Wagner's Brunhilde, so to speak.

Looking now at our Album playlist, more than 31% of the music images required a bit of cropping, colour balance and enhancement, and size scaling to 500 x 500.  Another 11%  are actually (my term)  " Associated Art, "  and not the original album cover.

Another suggested technique is to first save the image you like in My Photos, or My Pictures, adjust them accordingly using either Hypersnap, or some other Photo Editor program, then save the corrected image back into a " Beoplayer " file in My Photos, delete the original (too much HD clutter), and then copy/paste the enhanced image into Media Player or Media Center.  Your desired and enhanced image is then picked up into the B&O music system accordingly, and automatically.

I hope this is also helpful.

Hi,

your tips are helpful. Now I found out that only Windows Media Player 11 is able to manage "paste album art...". I didn't find that option inside Windows media Playe 10.

BUT I still have a problem with the album art: I used my own, scanned, high res album art pictures, scaled them down to 500x500 pixel, sharpened them etc. They are all saved on an external HDD in my folder "album_art_500x500". I marked a picture, copied it and then pasted it via Windows Media Player 11.
Then I transfered the WMA losless music file to the Beosound 5. On the Beosound 5 the album cover looks awful and it is NOT the 500x500 pixel image. Windows Media Player seems to size it down :-(

I tested it with an MP3-File and pasted the same high resolution 500x500 pixel cover to it; transfered it to the Beosound 5... eh voila: It looks perfect! Absolutely NO comparision to the awful look of the WMA losless album art.
But I don't use a 5000 Euro Soundsystem to play MP3s!

So, how can I get the Beosound 5 to display the highresolution 500x500 pixel cover??? :-(

I think you should try to install the Beoplayer software.

At the end of installing it will ask you if you own a Beomedia or Beosound. You'll have to enter the password.

I have a Beomedia which probably works almost the same way.

After starting the  beoplayer, you will see on the left side your collection of albums (without actually having it on your computer).

Then you are also able to pick and drag a cover to the album and see if that works. Mayby this way it will maintain your original resolution.

Ok, here’s the method I use:-

·         I use Beoplayer, WMP10 and a photo-editing program (Photoshop or similar).

·         Rip the CD to lossless on WMP10

·         Edit the tags as you see fit (in WMP10). I have a method which works very well with the BS5 indexing which usually requires some work. Each to their own.

·         I prepare all my album covers with a photo-editor package. I manipulate the covers to the best dresses condition and a minimum of 500 x 500 and store in an Album Cover file.

·         I find that “blurring” the image very slightly removes some of the “interference” rastering you have on high-res net uploads when people scan the covers with the clear disc case still attached (why do they do this?).

·         Next, using Beoplayer, (I find this a very effective tool for removing the old low-res album art that with came with the IP tag data system), I do a full scan. Then using right-click, delete the album cover.

·         Next, I re-scan the WMP10 music directory.

·         Next I select the tracks I want the new album art on.

·         Right click “Advanced Tag Editor”

·         Select “Pictures”

·         Select “Add” then using the dialogue box, find you’re image,

·         Select OK and wait a minute for it to embed.

·         You should not have a fully embedded high-res image on those file.

·         Scan Beolpayer once more. If connected to the BeoSound 5, this should synchronise everything.

·         Enjoy you’re new Cover Art on the BS5!

There may be quicker ways to do this (I’ve never tried them), I just find that this works for me. Sorry if this is repetitive and out-of-date for all.

10%

I`m usin Beoplayer to copy lossless to BM5 and sometimes Google pictures to get better images - just drag and drop.

Works great on my macbook.

Stefan

I use CoverScout for Mac, This works very fast.

I share the music folder on the mac and let Coverscout do the work.
It reads all albums and then you can ask it to find covers on the net
I have 2500 full albums on the system and was able to find cover art for most of the albums. Most of them had already a cover, but is was not always the best resolution. I did an update for the whole library in less than a day
If you use beoplayer + drag and drop is very slow ... it would take days ...

I do not have a BS5, but it looks to me that MediaMonkey can be a perfect match with a BS5. MediaMonkey gets the covers from Amazon in a resolution of 500x500. 

I use MM to synchronize with my iPhone and my NAS. A BM5 is not that different. Works great if you have big collection.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/information/free/

The method Mr10percent is using... Ouch.

Thank you for your help. Now I've found out how it works:

The Beosound 5 does use a high resolution (500x500...) album art cover if the file is name "folder.jpg" in the folder of your ripped CD. This means the album cover is named "folder.jpg" in every single folder, no matter if you have a folder named "Forrest Gump Soundtrack" or "Run-DMC". The album cover has to be named "folder.jpg". Very easy.

BUT after Windows Media player corrupted many of the albums by adding its own low resolution cover to some files: How do I REMOVE the embedded covers so that I can only use the "folder.jpg" files?

thanks again :-) 

You can overwrite the low res pictures with your high resolution pictures with BeoPlayer.  Just drag the high res picture over the old picture...  actually, I couldn't get this to work...  so I used a freeware application "mp3tag" to delete the low-res pictures.

Stan

I have used iTunes to edit meta-data such as an individual tracks image, including deleting such images

How can you use iTunes for WMA losless? I think this is NOT possible!

Is "mp3tag" able to edit the WMA losless files??

TWG:

How can you use iTunes for WMA losless? I think this is NOT possible!

true, I was just saying that for me I was able to add, update and delete images in the tracks as well as having a folder level image

Stan:

You can overwrite the low res pictures with your high resolution pictures with BeoPlayer.  Just drag the high res picture over the old picture...  actually, I couldn't get this to work... 

Sometimes I have the same problem.

But then I look at the properties (right mouse click on the folder/track) of the folder/album where the music is stored in.

Mostly the folder/tracks are "Read Only". So if you uncheck the Read Only option you can try to (re)place the cover via Beoplayer.

This works for me.

Thanks for the tip.

Stan

Google, or Google Images is a good source for album cover art.

Seeing the new Beovision 10 framed in silver yesterday, and the thoughts of a larger screen size and placement for us in the future.  Imagine the idea of enjoying your screen images as art,  surrounded by other art works,  and not necessarily as a desktop or HTPC monitor.  I started thinking about the interface with Beosound 5, and my current list of music albums, photos, and possibly videos.

Where  250x250,  and  300x300  may have worked in the past,   I believe that 500 x 500 will now be the minimum resolution we would enjoy on a large screen.   I took a few digital HD photos I shot at  2000x2000, and scaled them down to 800x800.  They hold the detail resolution and colour very well,  despite the diminished size.

Bill Gates did something like this years ago in his home: Name your favourite artist ( to his guests ) and the art is displayed, possibly following you throughout the rooms in the home.  And now we add ongoing and related B&O quality sound to that concept.

http://www.blisshq.com 

I gave this program a chance after reading some great reviews. This program however does not rip your collection. But it runs in the background, and is great for downloading and replacing your coverart. I tested this program for half an hour or so, with 50 albums and find it extremely fast and easy to use.

You can specify the rules with minimum and maximum resolutions, and it finds the covers at several databases. You specify how your covers should be stored. Embedded or not. If not embedded, it renames the filename automatically, ie folder.jpg in your album.

The first 500 fixes are free, so give it a try. Next 1000 fixes is 10 pounds. Unlimited fixes is 30 pounds. Well worth it!

Thanks for the tip DoubleU

I've tried this and it works like a charm.

Almost everything is recognized. Only if you renamed an album yourself, it will not be recognized.

I've ripped a part of my collection last month, about 200 cd's, and most albums got a cover.