Members Jimbroni Posted October 18, 2008 Members Share Posted October 18, 2008 I done a lot searches regarding the subject, but can't seem to find the answer. I prefer to load my albums in under WAV format, except those I purchase online which are MP3's. About 75% of the albums I've loaded using WAV format I can get the album artwork. However, there are many and its only WAV files, that simply will not get artwork. It says, Artwork Unmodifiable. The weird thing is that a majority of the albums in WAV, do not have this issue. So its not a strict format issue. The other thing I found that is strange is that if I convert them to Aiff, I can now put artwork on them. Except, there is a little sound quality loss when doing so. I haven't tried just reloading the CD's that have this issue in AIFF, but I really don't want to reload a bunch CD's again if I can avoid it. I did find some people who said, try to remove the folder read only settings, but I can't do it in XP. It just goes right back to read only. I tried the dialog box, and the attrib cmd. Neither did anything. Any ideas? Why do only certain WAV files have this issue? and Does anybody know how or if I should turn off the read only attribute on the Itunes folder to add artwork? Or Is there another way to accomplish this task, without degrading audio quality? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jimbroni Posted October 18, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 18, 2008 It appears, there were a number of lurkers. So I'm thinking I'm not alone on this. I'm hoping somebody has figured this one out or that Apple knows about it and is fixing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bp Posted October 18, 2008 Members Share Posted October 18, 2008 Right click on the album's tunes and hit "get info". You can then drag album art into the info file. Amazon is a good place to grab cover art if you don't have it or you can scan a CD cover and use that file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jimbroni Posted October 19, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 Right click on the album's tunes and hit "get info". You can then drag album art into the info file. Amazon is a good place to grab cover art if you don't have it or you can scan a CD cover and use that file. Yeah, I started doing this. And it worked for alot of em, not all though. Some of em for whatever, reason when you do this it shows the cover art, but it disappears after hitting ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members deanmass Posted October 20, 2008 Members Share Posted October 20, 2008 There are a number of site that offer a 'tool' for this... I have used others, but this one looks pretty good as well. http://www.art4itunes.com/ I generally copy them in from Amazon as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yermej Posted October 20, 2008 Members Share Posted October 20, 2008 Yeah, I started doing this. And it worked for alot of em, not all though. Some of em for whatever, reason when you do this it shows the cover art, but it disappears after hitting ok. I only have mp3s loaded in iTunes since it doesn't handle FLAC, but I've been having this same problem. The best are the ones where the cover looks fine in iTunes and then doesn't show up once the tracks are on my phone. I'm thinking it might be related to image or file size, but I haven't looked into it very much. I'll post back here if I figure it out though 'cause it's annoying. Hopefully somebody else will have more useful info about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jimbroni Posted October 21, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 21, 2008 I only have mp3s loaded in iTunes since it doesn't handle FLAC, but I've been having this same problem. The best are the ones where the cover looks fine in iTunes and then doesn't show up once the tracks are on my phone.I'm thinking it might be related to image or file size, but I haven't looked into it very much. I'll post back here if I figure it out though 'cause it's annoying. Hopefully somebody else will have more useful info about it. I don't know about the iphone thing. But I did figure out that you can change your import option, and then convert files to a new format like AAC or higher mp3 encoding or aiff or wav. Once you do this the ability to add artwork opens back up. I have CD quality wavs and when I convert to aiff it allows artwork, but there is sonic degradation. Since you're in Mp3 going to AAC may not give you that degradation. I dunno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scud133 Posted October 21, 2008 Members Share Posted October 21, 2008 i've always had problems with tags and artwork in .wavs in itunes. If you want to keep lossless, convert to Apple Lossless, then they play nice with all of iTunes features and you can convert back to wav down the road if you need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jimbroni Posted October 23, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 23, 2008 i've always had problems with tags and artwork in .wavs in itunes. If you want to keep lossless, convert to Apple Lossless, then they play nice with all of iTunes features and you can convert back to wav down the road if you need to. Well I don't know if I buy that. I'm sure it will work, but I don't believe I can convert from wav to aac without sonic degradation. Even converting from wav to aiff, I get degradation. Which theoretically, shouldn't because its still 16bit 44K, but it does. Must be something in the conversion process. At this point, I'm planning on importing all new CD's in aiff, because that doesn't seem to have the artwork problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scud133 Posted October 23, 2008 Members Share Posted October 23, 2008 Well I don't know if I buy that. I'm sure it will work, but I don't believe I can convert from wav to aac without sonic degradation. Even converting from wav to aiff, I get degradation. Which theoretically, shouldn't because its still 16bit 44K, but it does. Must be something in the conversion process. At this point, I'm planning on importing all new CD's in aiff, because that doesn't seem to have the artwork problem. read my post again. Wav to apple lossless. notice "lossless". it's another choice in the encoding options besides AAC. it's apple's own version of something like FLAC. you can encode a bajillion times between WAV, FLAC, and Apple Lossless without any problems. google it if you don't believe me. or maybe Craig or someone will come in here and lend some credence to this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jimbroni Posted October 24, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 24, 2008 Sorry I'm not up on all this too too much. I didn't realize apple had a lossless codec, I thought you were talking about AAC. Either way, I tried a test run. First I converted firehose Mr Machinery Operator from wav to ALAC and didn't hear any sonic degradation. It did allow me to add artwork after so Yay! Thanks. However, I then tried UFO TOFU by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. That did suffer losses. It was mostly in the space, the sound seemed less dynamic and 3D. So I reimported that one under Aiff, then compared it. That didn't sound any different than the original WAV, and allowed me to add artwork. This scenario is really weird. Converting from wav 16 bit 44K to aiff 16bit 44K doesn't sound good at all.Converting from Wav to ALAC sounds really good, but not perfect. I suspect it may depend on the dynamics and the fidelity of the mix.Importing WAV and importing Aiff sound indentical. I guess I should try importing in ALAC and see how that does? And strangely the solution to unlocking Album Artwork is converting to a new format (I don't it matters which one), and/or reimporting. I'm starting to theorize that it may have something to do with the automatic artwork finder in iTunes. I'm thinking that thing maybe locking up certain albums from being modified, except by itunes and if it doesn't find the artwork you're stuck. Just a theory, but does anybody know how to turn off the automatic artwork retrieval option? So I can test it. Seems like I remember there use to be a check box for this, but I can't find it in version 8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yermej Posted October 24, 2008 Members Share Posted October 24, 2008 Just a theory, but does anybody know how to turn off the automatic artwork retrieval option? So I can test it. Seems like I remember there use to be a check box for this, but I can't find it in version 8. I don't know why, but it's under the "Store" tab in the preferences. I'm using version 8.0.1.11 on Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scud133 Posted October 24, 2008 Members Share Posted October 24, 2008 you shouldn't hear any change with apple lossless so i'm guessing it's placebo effect. or perhaps you were endowed with golden ears that put us all to shame? but in all seriousness, if you have the storage space to keep everything in a format like wav or aiff then go for it. i had to find an alternate solution b/c my ipod is only 20gb, and i've been perfectly happy with high bitrate vbr AAC files. Just go with what works for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jimbroni Posted October 25, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 25, 2008 Well placebo or not, I hear it so. I sincerely don't think it is though, Converting from wav to alac is better than converting from wav to aiff. That simply doesn't make any sense to me, so its not a preconceived notion. The aiff conversion seem to affect tones of instruments, the alac codec seemed to only affect the air space of certain tunes (it made certain mixes sound stuffy). And secondly not all songs suffer the loss when going from wav to alac. Or atleast not a loss detectable to my ears. No I don't think I have golden ears, I just pay attention to subtleties in mixes. The tone of the high pitched crack of slaps and pops on a bass, the air around the cymbals, fuzz tones, the 3d space of the mix, when you pay attention to these things the difference is pretty apparent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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