Signalyst HQ Player missing album (cover) art

[musicbuff]

Just bought the T+A DAC 8 DSD and coupled with the HQ Player I find even the 256DSD wonderful (computer isn't powerful enough to play 512DSD). I'm in a trial version of ROON and not particularly liking it (considering its price tag).  But it does allow editing and addition of ALL my cover art (which is a huge reason why I'll probably always use a computer for my music storage and playback).  But HQ player doesn't always show cover art. Sometimes there's just that greyed out square staring back at you and sometimes there's absolutely nothing.  Anyone have a fail-safe step by step way to attach cover art to every album file? Is it because some files are WAV? Should they all be changed to FLAC? I'm asking because I want to use HQ Player alone right now. Thanks for any input.

[jcn3]

so what were you using previously to manage your library?  how and where your album art is stored is key.

 

your answer is most likely in this thread -- it's about all things hqplayer: 

 

[wwaldmanfan]

2 hours ago, musicbuff said:

Just bought the T+A DAC 8 DSD and coupled with the HQ Player I find even the 256DSD wonderful (computer isn't powerful enough to play 512DSD). I'm in a trial version of ROON and not particularly liking it (considering its price tag).  But it does allow editing and addition of ALL my cover art (which is a huge reason why I'll probably always use a computer for my music storage and playback).  But HQ player doesn't always show cover art. Sometimes there's just that greyed out square staring back at you and sometimes there's absolutely nothing.  Anyone have a fail-safe step by step way to attach cover art to every album file? Is it because some files are WAV? Should they all be changed to FLAC? I'm asking because I want to use HQ Player alone right now. Thanks for any input.

 

HQP provides limited metadata editing of imported folder and file names, but AFAIK, you cannot modify cover art. If the art is not imbedded in the original file, it won't display.

You need to organize and manage your library with another ripping/metadata editing program, and should make it a practice to embed the cover art into each song file.

I rip/transcode with XLD, but still use iTunes for metadata editing and library management. Manipulating cover art is very simple with iTunes.

[musicbuff]

I use JRiver Media Center 22 to rip CD's to FLAC files and each song always has the cover art showing in the "Just Ripped" section before adding it to the Library. Files are stored in a file titled "My Music" on C:drive. Cover art shows in the JRiver library as each song plays and I really like JRiver's "Theater View" option. But sometimes lesser known artists don't have much if any accurate photos to view. And depending on the group or person's name, pictures that have nothing to do with the artist who's playing are shown. For example there's a 70's Girl Group named "The Emotions." There are a few pictures of them but a lot of pictures of strange people with emotional expressions on their faces. I love JRiver. It's easy to use and there are so many options on play back. Only thing is trying to program it to play DSD is very hard. So back to my original question (without having to look through thousands of posts) how do I embed cover art in files so it shows in HQ Player? Thanks.

[wwaldmanfan]

9 hours ago, musicbuff said:

So back to my original question (without having to look through thousands of posts) how do I embed cover art in files so it shows in HQ Player? Thanks.

 

I'm not familiar with JRIver. Does it have the ability to add and/or replace cover art manually? The way you describe it, it is just grabbing random pics off the internet. You need a reliable source for cover art. I use: http://albumartexchange.com

If they don't have a particular album, I search for what I am looking for with Google Image. Then I always imbed image tags manually.

If JRiver has the ability to edit your cover art manually, do so. Otherwise, switch to different music tagging software.

[jcn3]

JRiver allows you to either pull/select album art from the internet or tag with your own files. Also provides choice of embedding within the file (for flac or others that support that) or put it in a folder.

[musicbuff]

I have a folder on my computer for nothing but cover art for every album (music file) I own. I got this art from either Amazon, Google Image or some other site and saved it to the cover art folder in either jpeg or jpg. In JRiver I select Audio, Panes, List Style, Thumbnails then every file shows up with (or without) cover art. If it's missing, I choose Cover Art, Add from File (which takes me to my cover art folder) and I add the matching album art. It shows fine in JRiver, but there are still some gray squares in HQPlayer. I don't know what else to do. Any other suggestions?

[tedwoods]

If I'm not mistaken this phenomenon occurs because HQPlayer displays the atrwork that's already embedded in the files. I had a similar problem: in HQPlayer with some missing album covers and cover displays changing according to what was embedded in the file, especially when in full screen mode, despite having already gone through the same  procedure you've described above in JRiver. By embedding the artwork in the file within JRiver, prior to introducing the file to the HQPlayer library, problem was solved.

[jcn3]

On 7/23/2017 at 11:30 PM, musicbuff said:

I have a folder on my computer for nothing but cover art for every album (music file) I own. I got this art from either Amazon, Google Image or some other site and saved it to the cover art folder in either jpeg or jpg. In JRiver I select Audio, Panes, List Style, Thumbnails then every file shows up with (or without) cover art. If it's missing, I choose Cover Art, Add from File (which takes me to my cover art folder) and I add the matching album art. It shows fine in JRiver, but there are still some gray squares in HQPlayer. I don't know what else to do. Any other suggestions?

 

In JRiver, you go Tools > Options > File Location.  There's a check box for "Also store image in the file's tag" -- make sure it's checked.  I think that'll do it.

 

Edit:  You may need to have Auto-Import running (not sure).  Go Tools > Options > Library & Folders > "Run auto-import in background".  Just do the step above and see what happens first.

[musicbuff]

Thanks jcn3, but I already had those those 2 steps going.  I even reripped an album in JRiver 22 and ExactAudioCopy just to see if album art would show in HQP.  No luck.

[Miska]

In fullscreen/touch mode GUI, the cover flow and playlsit editor views require detached album art, as a separate file. That file must have either "cover" or "folder" as part of it's filename and be either png or jpg. This art is also shown if you play music in album transport mode instead of playlist transport mode.

 

When playing, the current track's album art is always shown, also in playlist transport mode, as long as it is embedded into the file as a metadata tag as long as it is either png or jpg.

 

For editing metadata, MP3Tag is pretty good:

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

 

[musicbuff]

Thanks everyone. I finally have every album's artwork in HQP. Still working on getting all downloaded (bought files from Amazon, etc.) files tagged with cover art but I now know exactly what to do. In each album's folder there has to be an album cover picture titled (renamed) "folder" or with "folder" or "cover" as part of its filename just like Miska said. It was a bit of work but very much worth it to get the appropriate cover art for each album or song.