[HOW TO] Album Art Made Easy

[pmmagic]

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Where can the latest FAQ for Album Art be found as this one is out of date?
AlbumArt < Main < TWiki

Is there a more uptodate guide than this one?
Yes:[HOW TO] Updated Guide to Album Art

Which version of Rockbox supports Album art
with a cover or song title?
Currently Rockbox H300 Optimized ver 62

Which player will this currently work on?
Currently this is for the Iriver H320 and H340

What if I dont have this version of Rockbox?
You need to download and install this

Where can I find the Rockbox H300 Optimized ver 62
Click on the following link

Where can I find instructions about
installing Rockbox H300 Optimized ver 62?
Common [HOW TO] Guides

What file type is currently supported?
BMP is currently the only file type support.

Why only bmp files?
Currently Rockbox's internals support is for bmp at present, and this is not a devs priority.

What is the maximim size of album art on the Rockbox H300 Optimized at the moment?
Currently the maximum is 100 by 100 pixels?

Why is this size limited?
This is limited due to the buffer size.

What sizes for the art are people using as a standard?
Currently the 2 standard sizes being used on the Rockbox WPS's are 75 by 75 and also 100 by 100.

Which is the most popular size?
75 by 75 pixes is the most popular.

What happends if I use a different size from 75 by 75 or 100 by 100?
The current patch used in Rockbox Optimized ver 62 has a centering function so that if for example you are using a 50 by 50 image in a WPS designed for 75 by 75 image the picture will be centered

What if the size of the image is larger then 100 by 100?
The image will not be displayed.

What file name formats are supported?
Either the songs name or cover
EG Spitting the dummy.bmp if the song is named Spitting the dummy.mp3
EG cover.bmp
(If it cant find the songs name
then it looks for the cover)

Where does it look for the file?
In the folder where the song is currently playing from.

How do find/rename and download the Album Art?
Use the [HOW TO] Convert/Rename Album Art files.

What do I do once I have downloaded
and renamed the Album Art files.
You need to download and install a WPS(While Playing Screen) that support Album Art.

Where can I find WPS's that support Album Art?
All 24bit WPS's are located in this thread.

Can I download these WPS screens in bulk?
Yes, click on the following link for details.

What do I do after I have installed
the WPS supporting cover Art?
At the moment they need to be edited to work with the latest Rockbox Optimized build 62.

Why is that?
Because the format has been changed for the Album art files.
This allows not only cover files but also files that have the songs name.

What do I have to do to get the WPS file to work properly?
Follow the example below with the WPS that you downloaded and installed.

Below is the updated Hipod.WPS

I modified the line from %C|nocover.bmp|loading cover.bmp|10|52|
and removed the extra leaving just %C|10|52|

After I had edited this I then reloaded the WPS file
General Settings>Display>Bro wse WPS files
then selected Hipod.WPS

All my album art in the format of cover.bmp is showing.

%X|bground.bmp|
%P|pbar.bmp|
%C|10|52|
%xl|A|batt1.bmp|190| 5|
%xl|B|batt2.bmp|190| 5|
%xl|C|batt3.bmp|190| 5|
%xl|D|batt4.bmp|190| 5|
%xl|E|battc.bmp|190| 5|
%xl|F|battp.bmp|190| 5|
%xl|G|hold.bmp|21|3|
%xl|H|nohold.bmp|21| 3|
%xl|I|rep.bmp|174|26 |
%xl|i|norep.bmp|176| 26|
%xl|J|shuff.bmp|196| 26|
%xl|K|ffcon.bmp|4|4|
%xl|L|rwcon.bmp|4|4|
%xl|M|plcon.bmp|4|4|
%xl|N|pscon.bmp|4|4|
%xl|O|playing.bmp|0| 0|
%xl|P|paused.bmp|0|0 |
%wd

%m%al%t10 %pp of %pe;%al%t10 %pvdB

%s%m|93|210|%t10%al% ?it<%it|%fn>;%s%m|93 |210|%t10% alNext:
%s%m|93|210|%t10%al% ?ia<%ia|%d2>;%s%m|93 |210|%t10% al%It
%s%m|93|210|%t10%al% ?id<%id|%d1>;%s%m|93 |210|%t10% al%Ia

%pb|10|9|211|
%m%al %pc%ar-%pr
%?bc<%xdE>
%?bp<%xdF>
%?bl<%xdA|%xdB|%xdC| %xdD|%xdE|%xdF|%xdG| %xdH|%xdI>
%?mp<%xdP%xdN|%xdO%x dM|%xdP%xdN|%xdO%xdK |%xdO%xdL>
%?mh<%xdG|%xdH>
%?mm<%xdi|%xdI|%xdI| %xdI|%xdI>
%?ps<%xdJ>

What if I dont want to edit this file?
You wait for the WPS's to be updated to include this.

Who made this patch for Rockbox?
Hitboy

What advice does the creater of this patch give?

Apparently the tag format for album art isn't obvious for everyone, so i'll explain :
Currently, the format is %C|x|y|[maxwidth|maxheight|]
That means the maxwidth|maxheight| part is optional.
You have to strictly follow this syntax, otherwise it most probaly won't work (as for all other WPS tags).

Setting max values allows WPS creators to limit the size of the cover art if they want to, so that their WPS won't be messed up by too big images. Also when the images found are smaller than the max size, they will be centered.

Not setting max values, ie using only %C|x|y| will result in the cover art size being limited to the screen's size and being shown at the (x,y) coordinates, whatever its size. This is more flexible for size, but less pretty.

Currently, there is a hard-limit at 100x100 pixels for album art. This is because of the size of the buffer i use to store the bitmap. Setting it to that value was arbitrary and can change. The next version will probably have a bigger one, but i have to discuss it's size with the devs.

One last thing : don't forget this patch is still work in progress. I can't promise the tag format won't change again in the future

Pmmagic

[pmmagic]

Any feed back or suggestions on the above guide would be welcome.

Pmmagic

[C340PO]

/sticky
/push

[fuddson]

How do you edit the syntax of the wps?

[Myth`n`Legend]

open the .wps file with notepad.

[Kezza]

OK for people who have no idea here is how i did it.

1.
plug in your H300 using USB cord

2.
navigate to your rockbox directory using windows explore

3.
open wps directory and click to open the wps file you want to edit eg: Hipod.WPS

4.
if it asks use notepad to open this file

5.
as pmmagic has stated above you then need to find the line
%C|nocover.bmp|loadi ngcover.bmp|10|52|
this line may have different numbers at the end (depending which WPS it is from), but will always start with %C|

6.
edit line to remove all but the two numbers and this ---->| on the outside of them
eg: |10|52| and %c| at the start so it should look like this
%C|10|52|

7.
save

8.
remove USB cord

9.
start rockbox

10.
pick the theme you edited

11.
the end

[ahtrininok]

How do you adjust the ontime screen using rockbox
Running h320.

[ahtrininok]

Is there a simple guide showing how to switch from rockbox to thr iriver firmware? I have done it a couple of times by accident.

[fuddson]

I am clearly doing something wrong. Even before the 3.3 patch, album art wouldnt show. Now, I've changed the syntax, renamed my files to cover.bmp and made them 75 by 75, and I still can't get it to work. HELP!!!

[anzo]

i wonder if it's possible to load album art that is embedded inside a mp3 file.....

[Hitboy]

Originally Posted by fuddson

I am clearly doing something wrong. Even before the 3.3 patch, album art wouldnt show. Now, I've changed the syntax, renamed my files to cover.bmp and made them 75 by 75, and I still can't get it to work. HELP!!!

Maybe you should make sure your bitmaps are 24-bit and not 32.

Originally Posted by anzo

i wonder if it's possible to load album art that is embedded inside a mp3 file.....

No. However the way they are loaded currently is made to be compatible ID3 album art pictures, so it may be done in the future if someone is interested in it.

[fuddson]

Nope, that's not it. Does the dpi or file size have to do with it.

[csh0021]

@ ahtrininok - offtopic, but yes: if you hold the REC button while booting...Rockbox will load the iRiver original FW

and: go to general settings > display > LCD settings > screen on :and change the time allowed to stay on

[fuddson]

interesting, but that doesn't help...

[pmmagic]

Originally Posted by fuddson

I am clearly doing something wrong. Even before the 3.3 patch, album art wouldnt show. Now, I've changed the syntax, renamed my files to cover.bmp and made them 75 by 75, and I still can't get it to work. HELP!!!

There are a range of things that can bugger up your settings.

a. These can range from Rockbox H300 optimized ver 62 not installed properly.
A clean install of Optimized H300 ver 62
will eliminate the possibility of the previous install mucking something up.
(please note I am NOT talking about reformating your player )

b. A small syntax error and the edited WPS file will stop it from working.
Downloading and installing one of the WPS that you know that others are currently using sucessfully with album art.

c. If one of the bmp files is created wrongly by the converting program will also cause it not to be displayed.
Converting a file to bmp using a program that has been sucessfully used by others to make bmp files for album art.

Good luck.

Pmmagic

[fuddson]

Thank you pm. Using the HOW TO conversion steps, it worked!

[possumking]

What if the art is embedded in the mp3?

[fuddson]

Rockbox doesn't support that yet.

[Cynical Jawa]

I have folder called "Misc" which holds a bunch of random songs not related to albums. How should I set art for them?

[DD]

You could choose a cool picture which just looks cool and applies to the whole folder, or you can have art for each song by doing "--songname--.bmp".

[Cynical Jawa]

Cheers - I'm too lazy to do each individual song (at least for now), so I'll go with the single cool pic. Hello-o-o Google

[pmmagic]

bump, bump, bump