Emby server still not importing cover art properly

[wordlover]

Please see attached images. Emby scanned this new album, and as you can see the cover art is embedded in every one of the mp3 tracks. Nevertheless, because (I think) there isn't a separate 'cover.jpg' or 'folder.jpg' file, Emby is overriding this and instead retrieving a smaller, undesired image from MusicBrainz. I can manually override this, but it shouldn't be how the server behaves when importing new music. Am I missing something, or can you fix this?

 

[Happy2Play]

What are your library options set to?

 

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by Happy2Play

[wordlover]

Ah, yes, these are all checked. This isn't a clear or intuitive interface: there is no indication that these external sources would override what's embedded in the file. Despite all its many flaws, on this Plex is clearer and gives users the ability to select preferences and then sort among the full list of image sources, like: 

• || Embedded (by user)
• || MusicBrainz  
• || Discogs

Back to Emby: what's going on here? If I uncheck these, what happens with music files & albums that do NOT have embedded images? And I am mystified because Emby hasn't overriden 20,000 earlier tracks.

[Happy2Play]

11 minutes ago, wordlover said:

If I uncheck these, what happens with music files & albums that do NOT have embedded images?

You would not have an image as providers are disabled.

Personally, I ensure when I tag my music it places image in folder also.  But I ensure to find a image if tracks don't have a image also.

[Happy2Play]

@LukeShouldn't Song/Track (embedded) image be higher priority than providers?

[wordlover]

Hmmm, that's asking users to potentially have to manually generate many additional jpgs that aren't necessary. So I will make this a fervent suggestion for future server update soon:

- default to using embedded cover image if it is tagged in the music files

- add "User provided/embedded" as one of the potential sources users can select and sort to their preference in Library settings

Edited December 13, 2021 by wordlover

[Happy2Play]

7 minutes ago, wordlover said:

Hmmm, that's asking users to potentially have to manually generate many additional jpgs that aren't necessary

The image has to be extracted anyways to be used.  But yes user should not have to do anything.  But as a user I don't do anything I let my tagging program do it for me as the majority of users do not have tagged music that plays well in Emby.

[Luke]

44 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

@LukeShouldn't Song/Track (embedded) image be higher priority than providers?

They're at different levels. There are no internet metadata providers at the song level.

[Happy2Play]

3 minutes ago, Luke said:

They're at different levels. There are no internet metadata providers at the song level.

Right but should Embedded images have a higher priority than provider as technically you already have/could have one?

Edited December 14, 2021 by Happy2Play

[Luke]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

Right but should Embedded images have a higher priority than provider as technically you already have one?

Probably, yes.

[wordlover]

Yes, Emby discarded and overwrote the cover image that was identically embedded in each of those music files. I don't think that's the best way Emby can handle situations like this.

[Happy2Play]

At the same time what do you do if your tracks have different embedded images.  This is why folder-based images will always take priority.

[wordlover]

I would propose this order for the server to use in loading an album's cover art:

1. "cover".jpg/.png

2. "folder".jpg/.png

3. a .jpg/.png with same name as folder/album

4. the cover art embedded in first media file in that directory

5. external providers, in order set for the library by user

Does this seem right? Feasible?

[Happy2Play]

Current order of precedence

1. Images with media folder

Image Type	Supported file names
Primary	folder.ext
	poster.ext
	cover.ext
	default.ext

 

2. External Provider

3. extract from track

But yes to me it would be more appropriate to switch 2 and 3.

[wordlover]

And it'll be great to add Discogs as an external provider - much more complete cover art than MusicBrainz.

[Luke]

HI, I think all of these options work just fine. The issue is that in Emby Server, tracks and albums have their own images, and changing one will not always flow through to the other. I think that's the part that we need to look at making a little easier and more obvious.