embed different art in different tracks from same album

MP3 players Sansa Fuze
1

Like many people I seem to have issues with album art however I can’t find a solution for my problem.

I want to use embeded art for each track not just a cover for all tracks in an album.

I download a magazine podcast.  The whole magazine downloads in one folder, one album name (each month’s edition) with between 9 and 16 tracks (one for each article).  Each folder also includes a folder.jpg which is just the cover.  

When I am viewing the folder in windows explorer and click on each individual tag I see a little thumbnail with on the bottom with individual art for most articles.  If it’s a science article I might see a picture of an animal or space, if it’s an archeology article I might see a map or artifact, etc.  

When I play each track in Windows Media Player, Media Monkey or WinAmp the album art that shows up is the individual track one.  I have tried using Mp3Tag and it also shows these individual tracks.  The only file that uses the same art as the folder.jpg cover is the first article which is the table of contents.  

Since each Mp3 seems to have it’s own picture, not a separate file I believe these picture are embeded into each track.  Just to be sure I go to Mp3Tag and save the files again with this art.  

Here is the problem:  

When I sync these files to the Fuze all track have the album cover (if they have art at all, but they always do when using Windows Media Player which is what I usually use).  

Here is where it gets wierd:

I was able to get one magazine to work the way I want it which each track having it’s own picture but staying on the same album.  I haven’t been able to reproduce this and I have no idea how it happened this one time.  

Notes:

-My sister has an iPod nano.  She downloads the same magazines in AAC (instead of my Mp3).  In her iPod each article always has it’s own picture.  I thought this just wasn’t possible on my Fuze and was happy enough just listening with my album cover.  But since one actually worked I know the others should too.  I just dont’ know how.  I’ve spent a lot of time and two sleeples nights trying to figure this out.  

-I called sansa customer support this morning and they told me they’d call me back but I haven’t heard from them.  

Stuff I’ve already tried:

-Syncing using Windows Media Player, Drag and Drop, Mass Storage Device usb mode, WinAmp, Jett, and Media Monkey.  

-Selecting Sync all album art to track folders in Device Options in Media Monkey.  I have tried with folder.jpg, and custom 1 filling in <album art>.jpg and <albumart>.jpg.  folder.jpg will only give me the cover and the others won’t sync any artwork at all.

-Downloading the podcast as a subscription from itunes.  Since they go to a file that WMP monitors they get added automatically as a podcast in the WMP library.  

-Downloading as a zip file directly from the website.  I then extract the files.  I have tried putting the extracted folders in Downloads, Documents and Music.  

-Syncing leaving the folder.jpg file in the album folder and syncing after having deleted it.  

-Selecting Don’t use first image in file directory as cover art and unselecting it too in Mp3Tag.

-Checking and unchecking Apply to all tracks on album in Media Monkey under Prefrences-Album Art.

-I have not deleted the only magazine if worked for because I’m terrified of losing it forever.  

If you would like to recreate my mess and try to help me (thanks by the way!) here are the specifics:

-Website I’m downloading from- jw.org

-Only Magazine that did work for- Awake March 09 Spanish Edition (Despertad marzo 2009).  I tried downloading the English version of March but i still only get the cover.  Same problem with february. 

Thanks in advanced for your attention and suggetions!

2

My understanding is that the Fuze will use folder.jpg for the album art and the embedded image if folder.jpg does not exist.

Check the folder that does work. Does it have a folder.jpg in it? Check the folders that don’t work, do they have a folder.jpg file? What happens if you delete the folder.jpg?

Message Edited by hazza on 01-20-2009 08:38 AM

3

I think, as hazza does, that you’re probably confusing your Fuze by embedding art into each of the tracks and then having an additional ‘folder.jpg’ in the folder alongside of the track files. If the folder.jpg file exists, the Fuze will by dafault display that image for each of the files located with that folder, thinking the folder is the Album and all the files in that folder are the tracks of the Album.

Try deleting the folder.jpg image file and see if the embedded art in each displays properly. You’ll probably also want to turn off the ‘Display Art in Lists’ feature.

4

Thanks Hazza and Tapeworm for your suggestions. 

-I checked the computer folder for the magazine that had worked originally to check if it had a folders file.  It did not.  There was a file with a .alb extension but it had no name and 0 bytes.  I have no idea where it came from.

-I downloaded another magazine and deleted the folder.jpg file as you both suggested.  Changed the genre from unkown to podcast on WMP and synched.  It still only showed the cover on every track.

-Went to Mp3Tag.  Changed each track picture from “unspecified” to “cover”.  Synched using WMP, it still only showed the first file ( front cover) for each picture.  

-Went to Media Monkey.  I changed most tags exept the table on contents which I left as the cover since it’s picture IS the cover.  I made the last article “back cover” and the rest either “illustration” or “leaflet page”.  When I synched things did change a bit:

       -tracks 1, 4, 8, 9and nine had the right picture!  Yay! hope!  (although as I said, track 1 IS the cover)

       -tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 showed a smaller version of the cover wtih a black frame around it

-I went back to MediaMokey to check what specific label I had given each track picture but when I went back they were all back to front cover.  Huh?  What’s that all about?  I know I had made 1 front cover, 4 illustration, and 9 back cover but I’m not sure about 8.  I do know I marked others as illustration (track 7 for sure) and leaflet page (track 2) but they got the cover with black frame around it.  Anyway, I retagged everything but the first (front cover) and last (back cover) track as either illustration, leaflet page and one as during performance.  I resynched but the files looked exactly the same as the previous time. 

-I went to the magazine that originally had worked to check what each picture had been tagged as but when I was checking I acccidentaly hit the touch pad and the little square that says “Apply to all tracks in this album” got checked.  It imediately changed all the pictures to the front cover!  The only one I was able to check before that just said “unspecified” file.