Album Art

[Hi-Fi Cast Help Forum]

Hi-Fi Cast will display artwork when you are browsing your media server and on the the 'Playing Now' screen (if your media server makes this available).

Some servers (eg some Synology models) have a setting that allows you to enable/disable artwork, so please check this if you are not seeing album artwork.

[ric...@neale.com.au]

Hi there. I am playing from Win10 Pro UPnP to Chromecast Audio. Running app on Galaxy Tab S2. Your app seems to be close to what i'm looking for.

However, I am only seeing artwork when I navigate down to a particular album - nothing showing when browsing albums or albums within an artist. Should the app be accessing artwork when browsing?

Thanks.

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

Hi,

The app displays artwork when browsing if the UPnP server sends the UPnP control point (eg Hi-Fi Cast) sufficient information to be able to display the album art. Unfortunately the Windows UPnP server does not provide this information. And I just checked with a few other UPnP client apps as well (BubbleUPnP, LocalCast and AllCast) and none displayed album art when connected to the Windows UPnP Server.

Regards.

[ric...@neale.com.au]

Thanks. I'm only interested in serving music. Is there a good/simple server app for Win10 that handles song/album art more effectively?

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

I recommend either Minimserver or Asset UPnP.

Some other servers that work on windows:
Foobar2000 (with the foo_upnp plugin)
Logitech Media Server
Plex

[mumbl...@gmail.com]

Any recommendations for a Linux DLNA server? I'm using rygel, and HiFi Cast does fine playing music from it, but it can't find the album art for most albums. It does find it for a few.

BTW, the art from the last album for which art was found remains displayed for subsequent songs from other albums. That seems like a bug.

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

MinimServer would be my first choice (it's free and awesome). Or you could try Twonky (not free).

[efri...@gmail.com]

I've nice to have to option to get artwork automatically from external services like the Open Source App M.A.L.P. (an MPD player).

• Artwork support with MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Fanart.tv as artwork provider (Album, artist images and fullscreen fanart)

https://github.com/gateship-one/malp

[robh...@gmail.com]

Hi, I am using a WD My Book Live as a Media Server. Hifi Cast recognizes the Media Server and shows the Albums on the drive. However, some albums show album art, while others don't. What are the specifics here? I have used mp3tag to validate and change mp3 tags, like cover art, but this seems to make no difference to presenting some of the art work in Hifi Cast. So, my drive seems to support the provisioning of art work files (some albums show the artwork in HifiCast), but some albums, which have artwork included in the folder on the drive als well as within the individual mp3 files, are reluctant to show up, even after a rescan or a complete rebuild of the media database on the WD My Book Live.

Please advise, as I am pulling my hairs out...

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

Hi, I am using a WD My Book Live as a Media Server. Hifi Cast recognizes the Media Server and shows the Albums on the drive. However, some albums show album art, while others don't. What are the specifics here?

When Hi-Fi Cast queries the media server on your WD MyBook, the server should return a URL for the album art. Presumably it is not doing this for the albums that don't show the art. Does the album art appear in other UPnP/DLNA apps? eg BubbleUPnP?

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

In addition to that, I would report this -maybe not Hifi Cast related- bug. Despite the resolution of the art work pict (even at 1400x1400 pix.) I can only get a rather pixelated and quite "low res" image at mobile screen. It happens the same with other app's, hence probably not a Hifi Cast problem.

I think that's a configuration issue with the Media Server (Twonky) on your NAS.

Below are some instructions another Hi-Fi Cast user send me which fixed the issue for him (I haven't tried this so use at your own risk!):

---------------------------------------

After several hours reading and fiddling I have a repeatable solution. Twonky is not that well integrated with the WD MyCloud software, the two fight each other but that's a different story. Here is a breakdown of what I did to get it to work...

Executed by root via SSH...

Copy Twonky ini file from NAS to public share (for backup only):
cp /CacheVolume/twonkymedia/

twonkyserver.ini /shares/Public/twonkyserver.ini

Navigate to Twonky profile location:
cd /usr/local/twonkymedia-7/resources/devicedb/

List folder contents:
ls -l

Copy profile from NAS to public space:
cp /usr/local/twonkymedia-7/resources/devicedb/Generic_Media_Receiver.xml /shares/Public/Generic_Media_Receiver.xml

Edited the profile to read the following then saved it (italics are the new lines):
<Client>
    <DeviceId>
        <DisplayName>Generic Media Receiver</DisplayName>
        <HttpRecognition>
            <HttpText>DLNADOC/1.50</HttpText>
        </HttpRecognition>
        <MappingUpdatePolicy>AUTO</MappingUpdatePolicy>
    </DeviceId>
    <Adaptations>
        <DLNA>
            <Version>DLNA15</Version>
        </DLNA>
    </Adaptations>
    <Capabilities>
      <Scaling>
         <Target>JPEGORG</Target>
      </Scaling>
                <SupportedMediaProfiles>
                        <Profile>AASCALE#JPEGORG</Profile>
                </SupportedMediaProfiles>
   </Capabilities>
</Client>

Copy profile from public space back to original location:
cp /shares/Public/Generic_Media_Receiver.xml /usr/local/twonkymedia-7/resources/devicedb/Generic_Media_Receiver.xml

Exit terminal and restart Twonky, clear cache and rescan content folders.

[euros...@googlemail.com]

Never had a problem displaying artwork, but...

I have several different images in my music folders. Which one does Hi-Fi cast choose to display, i.e. what name is it looking for?

Thanks

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

I have several different images in my music folders. Which one does Hi-Fi cast choose to display, i.e. what name is it looking for?

Hi,

I assume your music is on your phone (ie. not on a NAS or other media server). If so, the Hi-Fi Cast app is accessing the album art via the media database created by the Android media scanner on your device. And I believe the Android media scanner only looks at album art that is embedded in the tracks themselves and ignores image files in folders.

[euros...@googlemail.com]

Hi,

No, it's on an internal hard drive in my desktop PC, though I suspect that the answer may be the same, but just extends the question, i.e. each track has a number of images embedded, so which one does it use?

Thanks

[tero.m...@gmail.com]

First of all: thanks for great app. Using Hi-Fi Cast with JRiver MC. Works great. Purchased Premium.

Would it be possible to maintain album art aspect ratio in music library views? Some art f. ex. Blu-ray albums look pretty "wonky" now.

Now Playing view maintains aspect ratio just fine.

[hott...@gmail.com]

Hi to all and merry Christmas 🌲🌲

Another question concerning album art:
In "Playing now" window it is possible to click on the picture to get a full view without player and background image.
Once magnified the picture is not updated when a new song/album art follows. Especially when playing Singles this would be great...
Best wishes
Jürgen

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

In "Playing now" window it is possible to click on the picture to get a full view without player and background image.

Once magnified the picture is not updated when a new song/album art follows. Especially when playing Singles this would be great...

Great suggestion. I'll add that to the to-do list :)

[jshinwi...@gmail.com]

3 or 4 years ago  Bubble UPNP was the dog's danglies.  Then every individual decided o ask for his or her pet want, and the app became more and more bloated and full of bugs.  That deterioration was why some of us came to Hifi Cast

Don't make the same mistake.  

Consider all these requests for particular wants very carefully indeed.  If people can't get exactly everything they want, too bad.  Don't become bloated for all of us, just to satisfy the whims of a few

[hott...@gmail.com]

I agree, but this small issue is more or less an error than a new feature...
We should differ between optimizing features and implementing new features.
Jürgen

[tero.m...@gmail.com]

Ditto. Not maintaining album art aspect ratio is a bug not a new feature. Nothing major but IMO worth at least a consideration to be fixed to polish the user experience. There are so many apps out there so little things like this can make some to switch over to something else.

Error free operation and basic functionality is the most important thing we all probably agree with that of course.

BR

[kelvin...@gmail.com]

I got artwork on bubbleupnp but not HFC.  Wonder why?

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

I got artwork on bubbleupnp but not HFC.  Wonder why?

I'm not sure. What media server are you using (or is your music on your phone)?

[Igor Nikolic]

Hi, I am new to the forum. Great app, thanks for working on it. 

I am having trouble with Artwork from my own personal MP3 collection using TVersity Media Server. I resized artwork for all 10000+ songs I have into 300x300 pixel jpeg and android and ipod show them but when playing over DLNA I only get generic art logo (speaker) from the media server in Hi-Fi Cast (premium). Does anyone have any idea where to start troubleshooting? 

Thanks

Igor

[Igor Nikolic]

Looking further when I display song details, the jpg is linked to the DLNA server. My art is embeded into the file itself so my question I guess is would Hi-Fi cast be able to extract it from the MP3 file metadata itself?

[jib...@gmail.com]

Several flac embedded covers not showing up

[jib...@gmail.com]

i've reloaded  my sd card, now all flac album arts are gone

[Hi-Fi Cast Developer]

i've reloaded  my sd card, now all flac album arts are gone

There are some troubleshooting tips here:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/hi-cast-help-forum/NZOY1chpvs4

Deleting the media storage data might fix it.

[jib...@gmail.com]

Two days later they are back???
Alright android...
Thx

[willezu...@gmail.com]

Hi, I need some help with the cover art. I added cover art to flac files using music tag programmes, choosing good quality image (example 1200x1200, 4000x4000), but when i play them on the app the art is displayed in low res, with the info track by hi fi cast saying that the image is 200×200 or 400×400.