Album Art issues

[SgtPeppr]

I recently got my P3 and have decided to try adding some FLAC files to my collection, however using UMS and media monkey don't work. Using media monkey I can add MP3 files that do show album art but repeated attempts for FLAC just don't work. anyone have any ideas for this?

Edit: Tags for FLAC work just fine, just not album art.

[Olley]

I also don't get art. I don't get it on my S9 either.

[Dreamnine]

There is a thread about this if you search the P3 section. Album art is possible for FLAC but not Ogg.

[SgtPeppr]

Sorry about that didn't notice it at first through a quick glance. Are there any specific sure ways to get it to display on the P3?

[robjrock]

Album art has to be embedded in the FLAC tag. Mediamonkey, or the much smaller MP3Tag program can do this for you. Open up your FLACs in MP3Tag, then click on the little button that looks like a page with a pen (extended tags). On the right you'll see a box where the album art is - if its blank click the add album art button (top right), locate the JPEG (make sure its not PNG or GIF etc) and click ok. It will then be added to the flac tag.

Also make sure you are in UMS mode.

Album art can be a finicky process. I suggest doing a couple of test flacs til you get it right. Hope this helps.

[Blahaha]

I have a stupid question...is FLAC really any better than a higher bitrate (250ish+) MP3?

Is anyone really going to be able to hear a difference and is there any reason to not just convert everything to MP3?

[robjrock]

Originally Posted by Blahaha

I have a stupid question...is FLAC really any better than a higher bitrate (250ish+) MP3?

Is anyone really going to be able to hear a difference and is there any reason to not just convert everything to MP3?

Well, thats a whole different kettle of fish. Maybe check out some head-fi forums for a heated debate. But, in a nutshell... does it sound better? yes. but not by very much, and you need a seriously high end set-up to get anything out of it.

I use FLACs as a way of archiving my music on my computer, but use oggs and mp3s for my portable players. Some people may just like the assurance that they have the best possible audio source for their expensive gear, thus flacs. But theres no way I could fit all my flacs on a 16gb - 32gb player.

[Leroy Bad]

Originally Posted by Blahaha

I have a stupid question...is FLAC really any better than a higher bitrate (250ish+) MP3?

Is anyone really going to be able to hear a difference and is there any reason to not just convert everything to MP3?

Well MP3 encoding has come a long way since its earlier incarnations (Xing, Bladeenc, Tompeg etc). The latest Lame 3.98 brings the best level of transparecy today and apparently passes alot of those blind test. However its not a perfect technology. From my own experience there are still somethings out there that cannot be encoded %100 properly in MP3 ie. isn't totally transparent; (Time Out by The Dave Bruebeck Quartet or Mission to Mars Soundtrack as examples). But unless you have a really good sound system or are a analytical listener, or a picky person you may not notice the very tiny discrepancies that MP3 still has.

Also keeping into account that disk space these days is cheap. 320GB hard drives are pretty much the normal bundles with desktop computers these days, and external storage of about 500GB is becoming easier to find around $100 or less, That is more than enough storage to store a large collection of music in flac.