Thread: Question for iTunes gurus...

Hi everyone, let me preface the question with my computer info: PC w/ Windows XP Service Pack 3, ripping with dbPoweramp to the iTunes music folder then adding the album folder to the iTunes library and listening with Foobar2000 w/asio4all.

I had initially ripped my entire library (approx 700GB) with iTunes to wav files and after some deliberation I decided to buy dbPoweramp and rerip the entire library to aiff files for better meta data.

When I originally ripped with iTunes to Wav I used the "get album info" to get the album artwork into iTunes. It picked up about 75% of the artwork and they now reside in the iTunes folder under "album Artwork" as itc2 files.

My question is: do the itc2 files contain anything more than the album artwork and will erasing the folder from iTunes folder adversely affect my library ripped with dbPoweramp? and is there a way to turn off the feature of iTunes getting the album artwork from gracenotes?

Another question I have: I see the artwork in the album folder, but is the rest of the data contained in the song folder?

I know these are probably dumb questions but I didn't know where else to ask.

Thanking you in advance, Bill.

Is the above a dumb question or doesn't anyone know?

Thanks Dan, yes I was referring to the AIFF files, so I guess there is no way to turn off the feature of iTunes creating the ITC2 files?

Your help is appreciated, Bill.

If you rip with iTunes, the artwork is not embedded into the file. Should you switch players or need to re-build your iTunes library from scratch, your art will not be retained. If you want to embed the artwork into the files, there are scripts available to automate that work.

If you rip with dbPoweramp the artwork is embedded in to the file and can be read by any playback software. iTunes is unique in that if you import songs ripped with dbPoweramp, it will still cache the artwork into it's own files. I don't believe there is any way to turn that off.

Originally Posted by harrypt

[…] if you import songs ripped with dbPoweramp, it will still cache the artwork into it's own files. I don't believe there is any way to turn that off.

The artwork cache is there for good reason. iTunes uses it to instantly display the album covers while you rapidly browse the library. Its absence would be especially noticeable in cover flow mode.

Thanks harrypt and goldsdad for your info it was very helpful.

Bill.