Vista - Windows Media Player 11 automatic folder.jpg download issue

Windows Media Player 11 by default will try and retrieve album art
(folder.jpg) from the internet. If it finds it, it will overwrite any
pre-existing folder.jpg (even if the pre-existing one is a larger file) as
well as create an AlbumArtSmall.jpg file.

Having this as a default option is foolish, as the program began to
overwrite my scanned-in high-resolution images with crappy low-resolution
ones. Realising this, I searched the options for a remedy to this.

The tools/options/library tab enables the user to switch off various
"Automatic media information updates for files". Great, I thought. However,
despite this option being switched off, Media Player continues to carry out
this assault of my file organisation rather sporadically.

Any ideas?

This has been the topic of many heated threads in the WMP newsgroups -
mostly led by me.

The bottom line is that even though the whole Folder.jpg behavior is a
Windows Explorer feature, the Windows Media Player product team has co-opted
that feature in your media library and feel it is their right to replace
your Folder.jpg with their own at will.

Additionally, they limit your album art size to a maximum of 200x200 pixels
for the stated reason of providing compatibility with some unnamed portable
device that may or may not have even have ever been built and that you most
likely do not own. Then, when larger album art is needed, such as in the
album art view of MCE, the 200x200 pixel art is stretched to something
around 380x380 pixels completely distorting the image.

Should you ever run across the unnamed device that limits all users of WMP
on all other devices including huge computer monitors to 200x200 pixels, you
can about be certain that it won't work with WMP 11 (not even my real
AXIM-30 purchased in August 2004 works with WMP 11) but you can be
absolutely sure that it won't be the size of the album art that stops it
from working.

To replace your own private property with their own and without giving the
user any warning or notification that it was going to do so, and no way to
opt out, and not even create a backup first is, in my opinion, illegal and
is definitely a malware type of behavior. You could have spent many hours
creating your own original artwork to put in a folder as Folder.jpg
intending to use the long-documented Windows Explorer feature. There is no
way that Windows Media Player can make any association between existing
Folder.jpg and "album art". Your picture may have been anything you chose
for it to be. For Windows Media Player to just wipe that work out is
terrible!

A couple weeks ago, a poster in the WMP newsgroups asked for advice using
his own scanned images as album art in WMP. With good intent, someone
suggested the OP copy his scanned images to his album folders and rename
them Folder.jpg. My warning to the OP to backup first came just too late.
By the time he saw my warning, he had destroyed many, but luckily not all,
of his scanned images by simply naming them Folder.jpg and putting them in
the album folders where WMP could destroy them. So, the first lesson for
future readers of this, if it is not too late, is to backup your artwork
first!!!

Personally, I believe that the whole thing is nothing more than DRM. They
appear to be assuming that any images you use are stolen - probably from
some Internet site or other - and they are going to force what the record
labels agree that you can use for album art. What a huge waste of computer
technology - even on my 1280x1024 screen, a 200x200 pixel album art leaves
97% of my screen wasted in the Windows Media Player album art visualization.

"Extracampine" <lostfrogg@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:%23dYiScFTHHA.1200@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Windows Media Player 11 by default will try and retrieve album art
> (folder.jpg) from the internet. If it finds it, it will overwrite any
> pre-existing folder.jpg (even if the pre-existing one is a larger file) as
> well as create an AlbumArtSmall.jpg file.
>
> Having this as a default option is foolish, as the program began to
> overwrite my scanned-in high-resolution images with crappy low-resolution
> ones. Realising this, I searched the options for a remedy to this.
>
> The tools/options/library tab enables the user to switch off various
> "Automatic media information updates for files". Great, I thought.
> However, despite this option being switched off, Media Player continues to
> carry out this assault of my file organisation rather sporadically.
>
> Any ideas?

Thanks Dale for your excellent response. It is a very poor feature, and
Microsoft should pay for damages for loss of user's files.

I have circumvented the problem by not allowing WMP to access the internet,
by blocking the program in my firewall. This way it cannot replace files.




"Dale" <nospam@nospam.ever> wrote in message
news:%23UyK09FTHHA.488@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> This has been the topic of many heated threads in the WMP newsgroups -
> mostly led by me.
>
> The bottom line is that even though the whole Folder.jpg behavior is a
> Windows Explorer feature, the Windows Media Player product team has
> co-opted that feature in your media library and feel it is their right to
> replace your Folder.jpg with their own at will.
>
> Additionally, they limit your album art size to a maximum of 200x200
> pixels for the stated reason of providing compatibility with some unnamed
> portable device that may or may not have even have ever been built and
> that you most likely do not own. Then, when larger album art is needed,
> such as in the album art view of MCE, the 200x200 pixel art is stretched
> to something around 380x380 pixels completely distorting the image.
>
> Should you ever run across the unnamed device that limits all users of WMP
> on all other devices including huge computer monitors to 200x200 pixels,
> you can about be certain that it won't work with WMP 11 (not even my real
> AXIM-30 purchased in August 2004 works with WMP 11) but you can be
> absolutely sure that it won't be the size of the album art that stops it
> from working.
>
> To replace your own private property with their own and without giving the
> user any warning or notification that it was going to do so, and no way to
> opt out, and not even create a backup first is, in my opinion, illegal and
> is definitely a malware type of behavior. You could have spent many hours
> creating your own original artwork to put in a folder as Folder.jpg
> intending to use the long-documented Windows Explorer feature. There is
> no way that Windows Media Player can make any association between existing
> Folder.jpg and "album art". Your picture may have been anything you chose
> for it to be. For Windows Media Player to just wipe that work out is
> terrible!
>
> A couple weeks ago, a poster in the WMP newsgroups asked for advice using
> his own scanned images as album art in WMP. With good intent, someone
> suggested the OP copy his scanned images to his album folders and rename
> them Folder.jpg. My warning to the OP to backup first came just too late.
> By the time he saw my warning, he had destroyed many, but luckily not all,
> of his scanned images by simply naming them Folder.jpg and putting them in
> the album folders where WMP could destroy them. So, the first lesson for
> future readers of this, if it is not too late, is to backup your artwork
> first!!!
>
> Personally, I believe that the whole thing is nothing more than DRM. They
> appear to be assuming that any images you use are stolen - probably from
> some Internet site or other - and they are going to force what the record
> labels agree that you can use for album art. What a huge waste of
> computer technology - even on my 1280x1024 screen, a 200x200 pixel album
> art leaves 97% of my screen wasted in the Windows Media Player album art
> visualization.
>
> "Extracampine" <lostfrogg@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:%23dYiScFTHHA.1200@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Windows Media Player 11 by default will try and retrieve album art
>> (folder.jpg) from the internet. If it finds it, it will overwrite any
>> pre-existing folder.jpg (even if the pre-existing one is a larger file)
>> as well as create an AlbumArtSmall.jpg file.
>>
>> Having this as a default option is foolish, as the program began to
>> overwrite my scanned-in high-resolution images with crappy low-resolution
>> ones. Realising this, I searched the options for a remedy to this.
>>
>> The tools/options/library tab enables the user to switch off various
>> "Automatic media information updates for files". Great, I thought.
>> However, despite this option being switched off, Media Player continues
>> to carry out this assault of my file organisation rather sporadically.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>

I'm sure there's a bug in Vista Media Center, it's not a just a DRM issue.

I've disabled all downloading of media information in WMP, deleted all the
hidden Album Art jpegs manually from my music folders and started afresh,
putting a single 500x500 folder.jpg image in each album. After I refreshed
the Media Player library, it saw this new high-res art with no problems.
Under the Now Playing tab in WMP, I have a 500x500 image displaying for every
single track.

However, if I run Media Center, it initially showed the placeholder
'musical-note' image for each album until I reached the Play Album / Play
Song page. Then my 500x500 image appears. If I play Track 1, the Now
Playing page enlarges the art, and it looks great. Then I exit back to the
album menus or 'Wall of Album Art' and the placeholder musical note is
replaced by a low-res version of my 500x500 image. This is also looks fine
on the wall. But if I go back into the Now Playing page and try Track 2,
sometimes the 500x500 image displays, but for most albums the horrible
low-res image appears again, enlarged and ugly. And worse still, some of the
tracks don't even show the low res image - they show the enlarged placeholder
musical note!

And yet, with some albums (that I've set up exactly the same - a single
500x500 folder.jpg in the album folder, nothing else) Media Center manages to
display the high-res image on every single track, as it should. Why is it so
inconsistent?

The only way I can get all the tracks in Media Center to display album art
is to paste a jpeg directly into Media Player but then, as we know, it
resizes everything to 200x200. Which is just horrible on the enlarged Now
Playing page. Strangley enough, after Media Player resized some of my
images, Media Center still displays the lovely high-res image on the first
few tracks of some albums.

It's so weird - I can't work it out!

"Dale" wrote:

> This has been the topic of many heated threads in the WMP newsgroups -
> mostly led by me.
>
> The bottom line is that even though the whole Folder.jpg behavior is a
> Windows Explorer feature, the Windows Media Player product team has co-opted
> that feature in your media library and feel it is their right to replace
> your Folder.jpg with their own at will.
>
> Additionally, they limit your album art size to a maximum of 200x200 pixels
> for the stated reason of providing compatibility with some unnamed portable
> device that may or may not have even have ever been built and that you most
> likely do not own. Then, when larger album art is needed, such as in the
> album art view of MCE, the 200x200 pixel art is stretched to something
> around 380x380 pixels completely distorting the image.
>
> Should you ever run across the unnamed device that limits all users of WMP
> on all other devices including huge computer monitors to 200x200 pixels, you
> can about be certain that it won't work with WMP 11 (not even my real
> AXIM-30 purchased in August 2004 works with WMP 11) but you can be
> absolutely sure that it won't be the size of the album art that stops it
> from working.
>
> To replace your own private property with their own and without giving the
> user any warning or notification that it was going to do so, and no way to
> opt out, and not even create a backup first is, in my opinion, illegal and
> is definitely a malware type of behavior. You could have spent many hours
> creating your own original artwork to put in a folder as Folder.jpg
> intending to use the long-documented Windows Explorer feature. There is no
> way that Windows Media Player can make any association between existing
> Folder.jpg and "album art". Your picture may have been anything you chose
> for it to be. For Windows Media Player to just wipe that work out is
> terrible!
>
> A couple weeks ago, a poster in the WMP newsgroups asked for advice using
> his own scanned images as album art in WMP. With good intent, someone
> suggested the OP copy his scanned images to his album folders and rename
> them Folder.jpg. My warning to the OP to backup first came just too late.
> By the time he saw my warning, he had destroyed many, but luckily not all,
> of his scanned images by simply naming them Folder.jpg and putting them in
> the album folders where WMP could destroy them. So, the first lesson for
> future readers of this, if it is not too late, is to backup your artwork
> first!!!
>
> Personally, I believe that the whole thing is nothing more than DRM. They
> appear to be assuming that any images you use are stolen - probably from
> some Internet site or other - and they are going to force what the record
> labels agree that you can use for album art. What a huge waste of computer
> technology - even on my 1280x1024 screen, a 200x200 pixel album art leaves
> 97% of my screen wasted in the Windows Media Player album art visualization.
>
> "Extracampine" <lostfrogg@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:%23dYiScFTHHA.1200@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> > Windows Media Player 11 by default will try and retrieve album art
> > (folder.jpg) from the internet. If it finds it, it will overwrite any
> > pre-existing folder.jpg (even if the pre-existing one is a larger file) as
> > well as create an AlbumArtSmall.jpg file.
> >
> > Having this as a default option is foolish, as the program began to
> > overwrite my scanned-in high-resolution images with crappy low-resolution
> > ones. Realising this, I searched the options for a remedy to this.
> >
> > The tools/options/library tab enables the user to switch off various
> > "Automatic media information updates for files". Great, I thought.
> > However, despite this option being switched off, Media Player continues to
> > carry out this assault of my file organisation rather sporadically.
> >
> > Any ideas?
>
>

PapaLazarou, I haven't had exactly the same problem, but something similar
happened.

In WMP, with all internet updating features disabled, WMP just reads the
folder.jpg in the album folder and does not seem to resize it. However, if
it is a 2-cd set, and the folder art is in the root directory, then WMP will
make a resized copy of the existing folder.jpg and put it (hidden) in the
subfolders. Thus when viewing now playing in this instance, it displays a
smaller version of the image.





"PapaLazarou" <PapaLazarou@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F6E2D310-FE77-4B66-8AF0-2E85522A1C6B@microsoft.com...
> I'm sure there's a bug in Vista Media Center, it's not a just a DRM issue.
>
> I've disabled all downloading of media information in WMP, deleted all the
> hidden Album Art jpegs manually from my music folders and started afresh,
> putting a single 500x500 folder.jpg image in each album. After I
> refreshed
> the Media Player library, it saw this new high-res art with no problems.
> Under the Now Playing tab in WMP, I have a 500x500 image displaying for
> every
> single track.
>
> However, if I run Media Center, it initially showed the placeholder
> 'musical-note' image for each album until I reached the Play Album / Play
> Song page. Then my 500x500 image appears. If I play Track 1, the Now
> Playing page enlarges the art, and it looks great. Then I exit back to
> the
> album menus or 'Wall of Album Art' and the placeholder musical note is
> replaced by a low-res version of my 500x500 image. This is also looks
> fine
> on the wall. But if I go back into the Now Playing page and try Track 2,
> sometimes the 500x500 image displays, but for most albums the horrible
> low-res image appears again, enlarged and ugly. And worse still, some of
> the
> tracks don't even show the low res image - they show the enlarged
> placeholder
> musical note!
>
> And yet, with some albums (that I've set up exactly the same - a single
> 500x500 folder.jpg in the album folder, nothing else) Media Center manages
> to
> display the high-res image on every single track, as it should. Why is it
> so
> inconsistent?
>
> The only way I can get all the tracks in Media Center to display album art
> is to paste a jpeg directly into Media Player but then, as we know, it
> resizes everything to 200x200. Which is just horrible on the enlarged Now
> Playing page. Strangley enough, after Media Player resized some of my
> images, Media Center still displays the lovely high-res image on the first
> few tracks of some albums.
>
> It's so weird - I can't work it out!
>
> "Dale" wrote:
>
>> This has been the topic of many heated threads in the WMP newsgroups -
>> mostly led by me.
>>
>> The bottom line is that even though the whole Folder.jpg behavior is a
>> Windows Explorer feature, the Windows Media Player product team has
>> co-opted
>> that feature in your media library and feel it is their right to replace
>> your Folder.jpg with their own at will.
>>
>> Additionally, they limit your album art size to a maximum of 200x200
>> pixels
>> for the stated reason of providing compatibility with some unnamed
>> portable
>> device that may or may not have even have ever been built and that you
>> most
>> likely do not own. Then, when larger album art is needed, such as in
>> the
>> album art view of MCE, the 200x200 pixel art is stretched to something
>> around 380x380 pixels completely distorting the image.
>>
>> Should you ever run across the unnamed device that limits all users of
>> WMP
>> on all other devices including huge computer monitors to 200x200 pixels,
>> you
>> can about be certain that it won't work with WMP 11 (not even my real
>> AXIM-30 purchased in August 2004 works with WMP 11) but you can be
>> absolutely sure that it won't be the size of the album art that stops it
>> from working.
>>
>> To replace your own private property with their own and without giving
>> the
>> user any warning or notification that it was going to do so, and no way
>> to
>> opt out, and not even create a backup first is, in my opinion, illegal
>> and
>> is definitely a malware type of behavior. You could have spent many
>> hours
>> creating your own original artwork to put in a folder as Folder.jpg
>> intending to use the long-documented Windows Explorer feature. There is
>> no
>> way that Windows Media Player can make any association between existing
>> Folder.jpg and "album art". Your picture may have been anything you
>> chose
>> for it to be. For Windows Media Player to just wipe that work out is
>> terrible!
>>
>> A couple weeks ago, a poster in the WMP newsgroups asked for advice using
>> his own scanned images as album art in WMP. With good intent, someone
>> suggested the OP copy his scanned images to his album folders and rename
>> them Folder.jpg. My warning to the OP to backup first came just too
>> late.
>> By the time he saw my warning, he had destroyed many, but luckily not
>> all,
>> of his scanned images by simply naming them Folder.jpg and putting them
>> in
>> the album folders where WMP could destroy them. So, the first lesson for
>> future readers of this, if it is not too late, is to backup your artwork
>> first!!!
>>
>> Personally, I believe that the whole thing is nothing more than DRM.
>> They
>> appear to be assuming that any images you use are stolen - probably from
>> some Internet site or other - and they are going to force what the record
>> labels agree that you can use for album art. What a huge waste of
>> computer
>> technology - even on my 1280x1024 screen, a 200x200 pixel album art
>> leaves
>> 97% of my screen wasted in the Windows Media Player album art
>> visualization.
>>
>> "Extracampine" <lostfrogg@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
>> news:%23dYiScFTHHA.1200@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> > Windows Media Player 11 by default will try and retrieve album art
>> > (folder.jpg) from the internet. If it finds it, it will overwrite any
>> > pre-existing folder.jpg (even if the pre-existing one is a larger file)
>> > as
>> > well as create an AlbumArtSmall.jpg file.
>> >
>> > Having this as a default option is foolish, as the program began to
>> > overwrite my scanned-in high-resolution images with crappy
>> > low-resolution
>> > ones. Realising this, I searched the options for a remedy to this.
>> >
>> > The tools/options/library tab enables the user to switch off various
>> > "Automatic media information updates for files". Great, I thought.
>> > However, despite this option being switched off, Media Player continues
>> > to
>> > carry out this assault of my file organisation rather sporadically.
>> >
>> > Any ideas?
>>
>>

Hello,

I think this might help you with your problems. It is called the album art
fixer. It can be used to update the album art but it can also set media
player to think it has "found" the correct album art and not update it. This
feature is only a part of the software so I am not 100% sure it will keep the
album art "found" indefinately, but it has worked for me so far.

Here is what the feature will do:

Added RequestState (Media Info) tag; setting this tag will indicate to WMP
that it has already found media information for that tag and prevents WMP
from looking it up.

You would still have to go through (with this program) all your albums and
check this setting though. Anyway heres the link
http://www.avsoft.nl/artfixer/




"Extracampine" wrote:

> PapaLazarou, I haven't had exactly the same problem, but something similar
> happened.
>
> In WMP, with all internet updating features disabled, WMP just reads the
> folder.jpg in the album folder and does not seem to resize it. However, if
> it is a 2-cd set, and the folder art is in the root directory, then WMP will
> make a resized copy of the existing folder.jpg and put it (hidden) in the
> subfolders. Thus when viewing now playing in this instance, it displays a
> smaller version of the image.
>
>
>
>
>
> "PapaLazarou" <PapaLazarou@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:F6E2D310-FE77-4B66-8AF0-2E85522A1C6B@microsoft.com...
> > I'm sure there's a bug in Vista Media Center, it's not a just a DRM issue.
> >
> > I've disabled all downloading of media information in WMP, deleted all the
> > hidden Album Art jpegs manually from my music folders and started afresh,
> > putting a single 500x500 folder.jpg image in each album. After I
> > refreshed
> > the Media Player library, it saw this new high-res art with no problems.
> > Under the Now Playing tab in WMP, I have a 500x500 image displaying for
> > every
> > single track.
> >
> > However, if I run Media Center, it initially showed the placeholder
> > 'musical-note' image for each album until I reached the Play Album / Play
> > Song page. Then my 500x500 image appears. If I play Track 1, the Now
> > Playing page enlarges the art, and it looks great. Then I exit back to
> > the
> > album menus or 'Wall of Album Art' and the placeholder musical note is
> > replaced by a low-res version of my 500x500 image. This is also looks
> > fine
> > on the wall. But if I go back into the Now Playing page and try Track 2,
> > sometimes the 500x500 image displays, but for most albums the horrible
> > low-res image appears again, enlarged and ugly. And worse still, some of
> > the
> > tracks don't even show the low res image - they show the enlarged
> > placeholder
> > musical note!
> >
> > And yet, with some albums (that I've set up exactly the same - a single
> > 500x500 folder.jpg in the album folder, nothing else) Media Center manages
> > to
> > display the high-res image on every single track, as it should. Why is it
> > so
> > inconsistent?
> >
> > The only way I can get all the tracks in Media Center to display album art
> > is to paste a jpeg directly into Media Player but then, as we know, it
> > resizes everything to 200x200. Which is just horrible on the enlarged Now
> > Playing page. Strangley enough, after Media Player resized some of my
> > images, Media Center still displays the lovely high-res image on the first
> > few tracks of some albums.
> >
> > It's so weird - I can't work it out!
> >
> > "Dale" wrote:
> >
> >> This has been the topic of many heated threads in the WMP newsgroups -
> >> mostly led by me.
> >>
> >> The bottom line is that even though the whole Folder.jpg behavior is a
> >> Windows Explorer feature, the Windows Media Player product team has
> >> co-opted
> >> that feature in your media library and feel it is their right to replace
> >> your Folder.jpg with their own at will.
> >>
> >> Additionally, they limit your album art size to a maximum of 200x200
> >> pixels
> >> for the stated reason of providing compatibility with some unnamed
> >> portable
> >> device that may or may not have even have ever been built and that you
> >> most
> >> likely do not own. Then, when larger album art is needed, such as in
> >> the
> >> album art view of MCE, the 200x200 pixel art is stretched to something
> >> around 380x380 pixels completely distorting the image.
> >>
> >> Should you ever run across the unnamed device that limits all users of
> >> WMP
> >> on all other devices including huge computer monitors to 200x200 pixels,
> >> you
> >> can about be certain that it won't work with WMP 11 (not even my real
> >> AXIM-30 purchased in August 2004 works with WMP 11) but you can be
> >> absolutely sure that it won't be the size of the album art that stops it
> >> from working.
> >>
> >> To replace your own private property with their own and without giving
> >> the
> >> user any warning or notification that it was going to do so, and no way
> >> to
> >> opt out, and not even create a backup first is, in my opinion, illegal
> >> and
> >> is definitely a malware type of behavior. You could have spent many
> >> hours
> >> creating your own original artwork to put in a folder as Folder.jpg
> >> intending to use the long-documented Windows Explorer feature. There is
> >> no
> >> way that Windows Media Player can make any association between existing
> >> Folder.jpg and "album art". Your picture may have been anything you
> >> chose
> >> for it to be. For Windows Media Player to just wipe that work out is
> >> terrible!
> >>
> >> A couple weeks ago, a poster in the WMP newsgroups asked for advice using
> >> his own scanned images as album art in WMP. With good intent, someone
> >> suggested the OP copy his scanned images to his album folders and rename
> >> them Folder.jpg. My warning to the OP to backup first came just too
> >> late.
> >> By the time he saw my warning, he had destroyed many, but luckily not
> >> all,
> >> of his scanned images by simply naming them Folder.jpg and putting them
> >> in
> >> the album folders where WMP could destroy them. So, the first lesson for
> >> future readers of this, if it is not too late, is to backup your artwork
> >> first!!!
> >>
> >> Personally, I believe that the whole thing is nothing more than DRM.
> >> They
> >> appear to be assuming that any images you use are stolen - probably from
> >> some Internet site or other - and they are going to force what the record
> >> labels agree that you can use for album art. What a huge waste of
> >> computer
> >> technology - even on my 1280x1024 screen, a 200x200 pixel album art
> >> leaves
> >> 97% of my screen wasted in the Windows Media Player album art
> >> visualization.
> >>
> >> "Extracampine" <lostfrogg@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> >> news:%23dYiScFTHHA.1200@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> >> > Windows Media Player 11 by default will try and retrieve album art
> >> > (folder.jpg) from the internet. If it finds it, it will overwrite any
> >> > pre-existing folder.jpg (even if the pre-existing one is a larger file)
> >> > as
> >> > well as create an AlbumArtSmall.jpg file.
> >> >
> >> > Having this as a default option is foolish, as the program began to
> >> > overwrite my scanned-in high-resolution images with crappy
> >> > low-resolution
> >> > ones. Realising this, I searched the options for a remedy to this.
> >> >
> >> > The tools/options/library tab enables the user to switch off various
> >> > "Automatic media information updates for files". Great, I thought.
> >> > However, despite this option being switched off, Media Player continues
> >> > to
> >> > carry out this assault of my file organisation rather sporadically.
> >> >
> >> > Any ideas?
> >>
> >>
>
>