B2 Album art displayed by Web UI

[JFBUK]

Hi,

it seems the B2 displays the album art it finds on MusicBrainz rather that what I have uploaded and stored on the B2 with the album. In most cases the artwork is the same or very similar but the attached screenshot demonstrates at least one occasion when it differs. Is this a feature or a bug ? I have tried all variants of the UI and and different devices and its consistent in its choice .

Thanks

Software Version B2B Mar 22 2021 09:07:23

[Daniel Taylor]

There has been only a little discussion about this situation.  But I don't think we've yet learned exactly how to deal with it.  For instance, does the B2 read the embedded artwork in a track file?  And how do you remove embedded artwork from the file?

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Hi JFBUK and Daniel. You can embed and remove embedded artwork using Mp3tag, which is a free Metadata editor. 

Having stumbled across different embedded artwork in individual tracks in an album downloaded from Bandcamp I was curious. Played around a bit tonight and using NAS and Mp3tag I was able to add and remove artwork from tracks. Another curious thing was I was able to get an album's artwork using Musicbrainz via Mp3tag where the B2's Musicbrainz couldn't retrieve it.

Embedded artwork seems to have priority in the top right "now playing" window over the artwork in the "album" bottom left window (Screenshot 5). I used mp3tag to embed artwork to album tracks in the NAS B2 drive, and also removed the coverart.jpg from the album folder. Ran scan disk. Now the artwork showed in the "now playing" window with nothing showing in the "album" window. So the embedded artwork was been read ok

I think I read somewhere that dbPowerAmp can also embed artwork.

[Daniel Taylor]

Does Mp3tag work on FLAC files?

It seems that there is some inconsistency in the software.  Where the software will use embedded art for one panel, it won't find any at all for the other panel.  It's no wonder this is confusing.

Now, apparently it's not sufficient for me to put the coverart.jpg file I want in the album folder, I also have to make sure the art embedded in the tracks is the same, or at least correct, or else remove it.  As far as I know, this recent reading of embedded artwork is an undocumented, and to me at least, unwelcome feature.  Can't we please Keep It Simple Somehow?

[PMB]

Hi All,

I think you'll find, when viewed using NAS mode, that there are two album artworks included with the tracks. Not sure how the B2 handles these files (which one it picks first).

Paul

Brennan Support.

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Commerical audio CDs do not have album artwork embedded in them. Album artwork is maintained in several online databases. Computer media players such as WinAmp or Windows Media Player reads an identifier file from the CD then accesses one of the online databases to obtain the CD artwork, track list or both. 

Some CD rippers must add the embedded artwork via metadata tagging. They may be able to be adjusted to embed or not within their settings. 

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Yes, Daniel mp3tag does seem to work with FLAC

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

John Baxter sent this query to my personal Gmail.

Hello,

I'm new to this forum. I've been converting my cds to flac using Dbpoweramp readiness for when I purchase a B2.

I have noticed that Dbpoweramp creates a "folder" for cover art. The said folder is named folder. 

I've seen somewhere on the forum that the B2 uses a folder called coverart.  Can I leave my folders as named by Dbpoweramp or do I have to rename to coverart? 

I hope this makes sense. Thanks in anticipation. 

Regards,     John 

Hi John, you've replied to my personal email. It's best that you put your question to the forum as then there are more people who may be able to help and also benefit from any solutions to your query. I'll put your question and reply on the forum site.

In answer to your query, I haven't used dbPowerAmp, but other members do. The B2 doesn't use metadata tags. If they are there, I think it ignores them (except embedded artwork in tracks it seems). It uses an Artist, Album and Track folder system. Album artwork is supplied by a coverart.jpeg placed in the Tracks folder. 

Not sure what your "Folder" for cover art contains? Is it a "file" or a "folder"? See screenshot of Tracks folder with artwork Folder.jpeg included (sometimes called front.jpeg, cover.jpeg etc. It has to be a jpeg). This is what generally supplies the B2 it's Album cover image in the B2's Web UI.

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Oops, forgot screenshot.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

While it may be called "folder" the "jpeg" extension actually means it is a FILE not a folder (A folder should contain files and folders) - thus it would appear that the cover art in this instance is called "folder".

In the B2 system, along with the tracks comprising a CD, a file called "coverart.jpeg" can be included. This is used opened by the B2 and contains what the B2 assumes is the correct cover art for that CD.

I believe that the B2 software may also be "sensitive" to album cover art that is embedded (as tags) in the track files of the CD's music. There is discussion going on about this in the forum.

https://groups.google.com/g/brennanb2?label=Cover-Art

Fred

[JFBUK]

Thanks to all who have responded to my original query.

I had not seen the thread that Fred highlighted in the most recent post.

I have investigated further with the following results.

1. I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to rip CDs  to FLAC files and then use the Upload function to move them to my B2. 

What I hadn't realised is that EAC is tagging album art to my FLAC files and that on occasions the databases it uses are not necessarily 100% accurately using the album art relevant to the CD version being ripped.

2. When I have uploaded an album I add the album art using the B2 UI (pasting into the album title details bottom right). I still use the original Web UI .

The B2 creates a file COVERART.PNG in the tracks folder for the album on the B2 HDD and this is what it retrieves for that album when you view the track listing in the bottom right box.

3. When a track is played the B2 retrieves any tagged album art from the track's FLAC file  metadata if its there, if not it uses the COVERART.PNG file for the album. This is what is displayed in the track playing box top left.

4. I used MP3TAG to manually change the cover art tag on one track of an album and this confirmed the above as the art changed for that one track when played after another track from the same album.

I now understand better what the B2 is doing.

Thanks to all

[Rik]

Forgive me if this is not pertinent. I have mentioned it before but I ripped a CD (4-handed piano) on the B2. I later found the cover art via Musicbrainz on the WebUI.  It appears on the right hand side above the album track listing. But on the top left appears another album cover featuring one of the artists on my album playing on another Cd. I THINK it showed a couple of different covers before it settled on this one. 

Seen via NAS the folder contains  a JPG file of the correct cover art.

It bugs me quite a lot. The right artwork is excellent and the wrong one is not just wrong but poor. I think when I posted before no one knew quite how it had happened. Is there any way I can delete it?

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Hi Rik. You can use Mp3tag software to remove the offending cover art which I think is embedded in the tracks of the album. Mp3tag is a free download. As you have NAS setup you can use mp3tag to access the album in the B2 drive music folder and remove the wrong cover art embedded in the tracks. Then run scan disk to update the B2. The right artwork which is a jpeg in the tracks folder should then take priority as there is no longer any embedded artwork. It should now show the same in both windows. You can actually embed the right artwork into each track if you want to.

[Rik]

Thanks, Leslie. I’m not practised in this sort of thing but I’ll have a go. 

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

Rik, I copied an album on to my desktop and used mp3tag to play around with it so I wouldn't screw anything up on my B2, but I have several backups anyway in case of mishaps.

[Rik]

Good idea, thanks. I've three backups too.

[PMB]

Hi JFBUK,

Thank you for the explanation - useful info.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[John Baxter]

Many thanks for your replies. My question is answered. Upon opening the "folder" the full file name becomes visible (I had not noticed it before.) See the screenshot. A trivial question I know, but I believe that the only silly question is the one you don't ask. 

Regards,     John

On Thursday, 25 March 2021 at 15:10:27 UTC lesliebr...@gmail.com wrote:

[Keith]

I have created several albums either to batch together some singles or to gather pieces of music from disparate sources.  Using mp3tag I have loaded separate coverart for each individual track since they weren't originally on one album together.  The B2 shows the track coverart in Now Playing while the Album shows whatever I uploaded to the B2.

mp3tag has another useful option to resize uploaded coverart so it complies with the restrictions of the Sonos application. 

The only downside I have with mp3tag is its extreme slowness in reading the B2 NAS directory.  It only loads at 10,000 files an hour.  In contrast, MediaMonkey, which is another file editor, can list the NAS directory contents almost immediately.

regards

Keith

[lesliebr...@gmail.com]

More interesting info Keith. I also found the resize cover art image option. Handy.