ID3 Artwork

[XnTriq]

Normally when I right click a mp3-file, I can see in the pop menu the included cd-cover from this file with the XnView Shell extension.
But this work not on all mp-3 files. I use media monkey to add the cover to the id3-tags in the mp3-files.
When I check the included cover with other programs they seems all tagged the same way and okay.

I tend to forget that I'm not using the latest version of XnView's shell extension (I'm stuck with v2.3, because my file manager is not compatible with newer releases), but maybe I can help improve the extension by sharing some of my observations of how XnView's internal preview handles MP3s with embedded images (ie. cover art).

As far as I can tell, there are basically three “scenarios”:

1. Browser: File-type icon
   Preview: Player controls
   Viewer: Player controls
2. Browser: Artwork
   Preview: Artwork
   Viewer: Artwork
3. Browser: Artwork
   Preview: Player controls
   Viewer: Player controls

The first step of my method for “batch testing” XnView's success rate in detecting embedded images is to create a (play)list of MP3 files that are not “thumbnailed” by XnView's browser, either because there simply is no image or because it is overlooked* by XnView.

1. Scan (Tools » Search...) the drive or directory where you keep your audio files.
2. Browse the search results for *.mp3 and select all those files which are represented by a generic file-type icon instead of a thumbnail.
3. Right-click the selected MP3s while holding down the Ctrl key to gain access to the context menu of Windows Explorer.
   1. If shell extensions like Ninotech Path Copy or FilerFrog are installed on your system, you can copy the pathnames to the clipboard, paste them into NotePad and save the list as a text file with a .m3u filename extension.
   2. If you have Mp3ListShellEx or the Create Playlist script for AutoHotkey, you won't need a text editor for compiling your playlist.
4. Clear Internet Explorer's cache (%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files) before opening playlist.m3u with Windows Media Player.
5. Skip through the tracks until every file's ID3 metadata has been read by WMP.
6. Once you're done playing each track for a short moment, go to the Temporary Internet Files folder to see if Media Player has dumped any artwork into the subdirectories. (We are looking for files with names like WMP????????-????-????-????-????????????[n]..jpg)

* In the tests that I've done so far, there have never been any misses.

• Related: SE: Support for mp3 files