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Topic: Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing) (Read 7441 times) previous topic - next topic
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Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Question:  Is there a tool to retouch the existing image data placed for Artwork and re-sample it to ensure it appears?

Or, that failing:
Do you know of any tool that can give me a report of the artwork format/dimensions of a directory of MP3's?
Is there any good way to manually extract the artwork to resize in Photoshop or something after it's been embedded?

This isn't the normal question. Background:

I lovingly revisited my entire library and placed artwork into each of on my favorite 1200 singles.  I was careful to target 600x600 JPG's.

However,  I fear that I occasionally  placed a PNG,  a nonstandard size  (say 700x700), or a 600x600 that was over 300kb.

In windows, everything looks beautiful on PC.  On some players  (Some Android, Pioneer 8100-NEX car, and a few portables) the players are not able to decode the artwork. 

Now that all the art is embedded, it's hard to predict which artwork won't appear on those devices without going through to make a list. 

Is there any Utility to sweep my files to re-sample the existing embedded artwork (regardless down to a standard 500x500 JPG - Med Quality) to bring the art to standard?

I know this is a lame problem.  The 1200 files are mostly singles, so I had to create some of the artwork myself.    The project of filling in the missing artwork was an evening weekend project for a few weeks as I picked all of my favorites and replaced them with 320kps versions (sometimes re-sampled from FLAC).  I feel like an idiot for occasionally using the 700x700 or 900x900 variant, or not optimizing every JPG to be around 150kb or less.  I think I caught most of the PNG's and replaced them with JPG's early into the process.

Thanks!
Andrew

Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Reply #1 –
Hi,

with Mp3tag you can sort your files for the Cover mime type with %_cover_mimetype%. So atleast you can find fast which files are PNG.
If i find some other usefull Tags i will let you know.

By the way you can use JPEGmini or Google Photos to reduce the filesize of your JPGs. The bigger the file, the better it works.
JPEGmini vs Google Photos

Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Reply #2 –
Thanks!  That's a start.

I think the next most valuable "data element" would be the file size (in kb) of the Image attachment.    It stands to reason that I should focus on items over a threshold of about 150-175kb.

I also wonder if I can turn on a "window preview" and expand the window to 1000x1000.  If I scroll through the files, the preview might show actual 1:1 size ratio.  Not "high tech" but it could reveal which ones are large. 

I could probably take screenshots and resize those to reduce the quality.  Adding album art seems like a "one-way" trip.  (Goes into the MP3, but no way to extract the image data short of a screen shot -- which should be sufficient at 1:1 ratio).

I was at a loss.  I'm usually good with finding info by searching Google, but this problem uses too many common keywords.

Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Reply #3 –
For size you can use %_cover_size%. Shows you in Bytes.


This is how it looks. Strange. Can't remember how you can Upload pictures here.

By the way. Mp3Tag has a filter system. So if you type "%_cover_mimetype% IS image/png" in the little text field in the bottom ("Filter:"). It should only show you the PNG files. Now you can sort them for size.
Use the filter without the " ".

I don't know about the preview. Will look into it. Maybe you can change the GUI of Mp3Tag to your needs. And you can extract the Images. So you don't need to make screenshots really.
Extract image from MP3 files with PNG. Change those with another program and maybe use JPEGmini. Now just delete the Original (and too big) Cover with Mp3Tag, which is easy with that program and replace it with the new JPG.
Atleast if i understood you. ^^ Maybe you meant something different with the screenshot.

Greetings
Mr. Gelpke

Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Reply #4 –
Sweet! 

I'm gong to assume: 200805 is bytes
So roughly equates to 200kb.

I've had to make some educated guesses about why the various players  (Car, Portable, Android) can't render the album art.  I've had to examine the attributes of the files that display correctly and draw some conclusions.  My assumptions are:
1)  Must under 175kb (some players might have Limited memory to decode)
2)  Must be a 1:1 ratio  (So not 600x500 or 600x599)
3)  Must be a standard size  (Thinking 600x600 --- though 500x500 might be safer)
4)  Must be JPG format  (Non-progressive, regular JPG no fancy options)

I really should have investigated the Album Art Standards before I started. 

I'm meticulous about cleaning out all unused tags, setting the standard tags, purging DRM info, setting BPM, renaming, and running MP3 Gain.  Prior to this, I'd purged all the artwork, and this was to be my final "artistic" touch. 

Oh well.  Live and learn.

Thanks for your ongoing help!
-Andrew

Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Reply #5 –
No problem. And yes. Often you realize things when it's a little bit late. But it will be helpfull for your future library.

I found a solution to find the Cover size dimension.
Cover Dimension

Seems like Mp3Tag has no implemintation for it so you will have to build it yourself like in that thread.
That was the first one i found, so there are probably others.

Little more work, but it would be helpfull to find those not 1:1 ratio images.

Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Reply #6 –
Hi again.

Tag&Rename

Quote
  • added bit depth, cover art size, cover art dimensions, cover art format and tag version files list columns
  • added "Tags cover art resizing" options to program options -> Tags


I guess this program is better for you, since you can see the ratio and possibly even modify the cover directly.

Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Reply #7 –
If you install dBpoweramp it can do what you want, create a backup, install the utility codec 'ID Tag Update' and use Batch Converter to select your files and convert to this virtual codec, on the options you can specify a maximum pixel size, or image KB size. Click convert and it handles it all for you...

Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Reply #8 –
Quote from: spoon on
If you install dBpoweramp it can do what you want, create a backup, install the utility codec 'ID Tag Update' and use Batch Converter to select your files and convert to this virtual codec, on the options you can specify a maximum pixel size, or image KB size. Click convert and it handles it all for you...


Really?  I own DBPowerAmp Reference, and have it installed.

I used "Edit ID Tag" feature from DBPowerAmp to purge most of my MP3's of extraneous tags.  (Deleted in bulk all except those that I wanted to keep).

I use that and the old SourceForge  MP3BookHelper program for tag cleanup.  Though it was originally designed for a different purpose  (large volumes of AudoBooks), the regular expressions, naming features, and tag options are invaluable.  I knew the author on a closed forum back in the "Napster Days".

Don't let the name throw you.  Maintaining a "Music Library' is a whole lot like organizing dozens of audiobooks:
http://mp3bookhelper.sourceforge.net/

I'll try this first, and work my way backwards.  If it works, I'll let you know.

Thanks for all the help!
Kindest Regards,
Andrew



Optimizing existing custom album art (Not Adding or replacing)

Reply #9 –
Wow.  Thank you.

DBPowerAmp fixed all the artwork for my files in about 4 minutes.

It automatically converted all PNG to JPG,  Downsampled to 500x500, and set all art to under 250kb.

I didn't know that DBPowerAmp had utility codecs.  I bought a "lifetime version" over 8 years ago, and haven't checked to see how it's evolved.

I was also happy to find the MP3Gain utility for DBPowerAmp.  I've been using the old (original) version that will only run on an XP machine in the corner. 

Thanks to everyone for your answers.  I expected something that would take hours.  You guys rock!

Kindest Regards
-Andrew