New Year, start with something easy, ALBUM ART

Hello my fellow mobile users. I hope you all enjoyed a great New Year celebration (if you follow the Gregorian calendar) or a good summer break ( for those of you in the south hemisphere) .

For me I've been enjoying the snow. Lot's of snow.

So, new year, new challenges, new horizons. To kick off I'll start the year explaining a question that is very common and has caused a lot of issues for many Nokia users. I'm talking about How to display Album Art in the Music Player.

As I've explained on several occasions there's more than 1 way to do this (isn't this the case with many things in Nokia devices?).

I'll start with the simplest one then move on to other options.
LINK THE ALBUM ART IN THE PHONE
1) Find the Album cover pictures and save in the phone (you can use Search and Images to find them on the internet or Google Image).
2) In the Music Player navigate to the ALBUM view and select the ALBUM whose picture you downloaded.
3) Select OPTIONS -> ALBUM ART.
4) Then OPTIONS -> CHANGE
5) Now locate the picture you want shown.
6) You are now done!

There are some drawbacks to this. For one, if you move the file or delete it then the album art doesn't follow. The Album art pictures stay in the phone and show in the Photos or Gallery.

ADD ALBUM ART TO METADATA
Another option would be to add the picture to the Metadata before transferring the files to the phone.
There are many ways to do this, there are Metadata editors like Tag&Rename, but also WinAmp and Windows Media Player allow you to edit the metatada in an easy way.

Some things to keep in mind:
1) Use JPEG or PNG files (BMP and GIF sometimes are not displayed)
2) Keep the filesize to less than 200 KB. Although larger pictures may work, there's no point in having large files as the thumbnail displayed is rather small. A 300x300 or 600x600 rez picture is more than enough.
3) Make sure that the picture is tagged as Album Cover Front not as User Defined or other tag. This is important as only the Cover Front is displayed by the Music Player.
4) Don't add more than 1 picture to the file. For some reason if there are more pictures then none are displayed.
5) Don't use MTP sync to transfer files (PC SUITE mode or MEDIA/MUSIC mode) as this may cause the Album art to dissapear.

Once the files have the album art attached then use mass storage to load them to the phone.

TIP: If you already had the song in the Phone. FIRST delete it, REFRESH the library, then re-load it. This will cause the Music Player to find the METADATA again and then find the album art. If you just replace the song with the one with album art the Music Player may not refresh the Album art!

How to best benefit from this blog?

If you've found this blog it probably means that you are looking for some information on how to encode or convert videos to play on Nokia phones.

So what are the basic posts you should check out?, where to start?, here are some tips.

If you want information on what settings to use for N96 then go HERE

If you want to know how to use SUPER check this post

If you want to find out the detailed information of your video clip either for your records or to ask for my help check this post. Make sure you also check the other POST

If what you want is to know what are the basic video capabilities of Nseries products check HERE

And if you want an in-depth description of how to change a widescreen to full screen then READ THIS.

TIP: You can also check all the posts by either subscribing to the RSS feed.

TIP: You can check out the Blog Archive in the right-hand side below the YouTube logo.

Enjoy!

Music player Database problems

UPDATE 3/29/2010:

Some people may be using the Ovi Player. Ovi Player seems to do some additional changes to how music is index in the device, as some people are having problems following this method when they use OVI player. So if you use OVI player this MAY not work for you.

Keep this in mind before trying this method.

I've not used OVI player to find out how to fix the similar issue when this software is used.

Some tips and other info for N96

I also got a link to a good first hands-on review here from user grschinon from the NSD.

I don't really plan to do an review or first hands since there are already quite many out there. Plus, I don't think I can add anything really to warrant yet another review.

But I do have something to share...

Here are some tips for N96 if you are getting one or just got one.

NEW (Oct 17, 08):
Music scanning Forever:
- Don't change the default date separator from "/" to ":".
- If you change the default date separator then you get the Music scanning and never ending.

First Boot:
- Enter the correct date and time. This is important as some copy protected items such as game installations may fail if you enter a wrong date (future or past)
- After the Idle Screen (“Active Idle”) is displayed, some software is still being loaded and some first-time initialization is still proceeding. It is best to leave the phone by itself for about 1 minute. If you start fiddling with it right away, you may experience the device to slow down severely or even hang; it is best to let it finish the first-time software processes.
- The end of bootup seems to be when the battery and signal is visible.

N-gage first-time use:
- N-gage games that come with the device are just pre-loaded but still have to install themselves. The installations takes a few minutes, so the first time you open N-gage application you will need to wait for all installations to finish.

Blinking Envelope (Message): This means you have unread or old Messages stored in the SIM card. Open the Messaging application, Open SIM Messages -> Delete Old messages.

Naviwheel: There’s no Naviwheel functionality in N96.

Keep your original Battery Cover: The original battery cover contains antennae for WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth and DVB-H. If you purchase unauthorized third-party battery covers, you might find that they will not work as they are missing these antenna components!. Or the performance may be greatly reduced.

Scanning for new content (slowness in UI)
- This is somewhat improved in 11.018 but still:
- If you've loaded many Pictures, Videos or Music, you may see the device appear to slow down or even become unresponsive. After new content has been added, it is being scanned by the device and being added to the media applications. Until that happens, the new content may not be visible in these applications (e.g. Photos and Video Center application) right away. The phone will need to find the files and create the thumbnails and other details. This information creation takes time and the processing may slow down the device. Your best option is to open Video Center and Photos and leave open in the background then check after a few minutes if the videos and pictures you loaded are already there before using your device.
The same applies if you insert a memory card with lots of content on it.
- Do Not leave the Photos or video center in background during this time.

Remember to Safely remove the MEMORY CARD:
- You risk corrupting your memory card and losing files if you do not remove the memory card properly. Never just take it out from the card slot. The right steps are: 1) press the power key for a short moment until the power key menu appears. Scroll to the item “Remove Memory Card”. Select this menu item. A dialog appears: “Remove memory card and press OK”. Remove the memory card from the card slot, then press the softkey for OK. There may be a dialog that indicates that some applications have to be stopped, if there were applications currently accessing the memory card.

Power Saving tips: Again...
Here are some tips that may help you save battery power. In general, you should turn off functions when you do not need them.
- Turn Bluetooth off when not in use
- Turn off WLAN scanning (from Standby Screen)
- Reduce the brightness of the screen (Settings -> Personalization -> Display
- Turn off Navi "Breathing" for the light ring on the scroll key
- If your network operator does not offer 3G, turn off 3G usage
- Close down unused applications that run in the background, like Music, Browser, Maps, Fring, etc.
- Avoid using carry cases with magnets as this may cause the device to wake up
- If you are fairly low in battery level and want to extend the usage time with the remaining battery power, use the power savings mode (Power key--> Single press --> Power savings mode). It will reduce display brightness to the minimum level, and change the backlight time out to 5 seconds.
- Ensure that Maps application the Camera application (if location tagging is on) are not active when not needed
- Do not leave the USB cable connected as this causes power to be consumed even if no data is being transferred. Use the CA-126 USB cable for USB connections (it charges at the same time)
- DO NOT set Bluetooth visibility to "Define Period" this seems to drain the battery faster
- For GPS Navigation, set the backlight setting to "Optimized" rather than "Always on". Go to Maps-> Options -> Tools -> Settings -> Navigation -> Backlight set to "Optimized".
- Use "Headphones" rather than "Lineout" when playing music

Good document with details about video for Nokia devices

HERE you find it.

It's a PDF file from Forum Nokia with more details about how to create video content for Nokia devices.

ENJOY!