Album artwork display with USB drives

[aussiem3]

I know with the Y cable and the ipod you can display the album artwork on our BMWs. I have done this and so have a lot of members on thus forum. I was going through BMW Australia site and looking at USB connectivity, and the following got my attention.

It says artwork can be displayed from USBs as well. Anyone know how if you have managed to make this feature work please?

[JAdamz]

You need to embed the album art directly into the MP3 file itself. I don't know how song downloads from iTunes works (they may embed the album art into the MP3, or perhaps store it as a separate file altogether on the iPod), but if you download your music piecemeal, you'll probably find that some songs come with the art embedded but most don't.

I just went through this process myself as I strictly put my music on a 32GB USB flash drive. I used a tool called MP3Tag to go through my song collection and embed the album art into the MP3. I'd download the art from Google Image search using square images that were around 500px to 600px.

Depending on how much music you have it can be a bit of a process but if you're meticulous like me you'll suck it up and get it done

[aussiem3]

Thank you very much.

[cipher5]

Don't you need the combox too?

[Technic]

Originally Posted by aussiem3

I know with the Y cable and the ipod you can display the album artwork on our BMWs. I have done this and so have a lot of members on thus forum. I was going through BMW Australia site and looking at USB connectivity, and the following got my attention.

It says artwork can be displayed from USBs as well. Anyone know how if you have managed to make this feature work please?

Let's clarify your statement a bit before any confusion settles in: your Y OEM iPod cable does not have anything to do with Album Art display. The only reason that Album Art is displayed is because there is a Combox installed in your car.

And that's the only reason it should work with USB sticks as well.

[aussiem3]

Thankyou Technic.

[boi222]

is possible to display artwork with the harddrive? with music that is copied to the car?

[Technic]

Originally Posted by boi222

is possible to display artwork with the harddrive? with music that is copied to the car?

No.

[aussiem3]

If I doownload an artwork online (i.e. Amazon.com) through Mp3Tag it works fine on the car. But if I scan an album cover and try to use it, it doesn't display on the car. Any idea why this is, anyone?

[robackja]

Originally Posted by aussiem3

If I doownload an artwork online (i.e. Amazon.com) through Mp3Tag it works fine on the car. But if I scan an album cover and try to use it, it doesn't display on the car. Any idea why this is, anyone?

Most likely your image format is not ok for the car to display. Really high-res images won't display. I don't know if the max image quality is documented or not, but even embedding JPG > 1000px x 1000px don't seem to display.

I usually do JPG, 600x600, quality = 75. That always works, and 600x600 is plenty larger than the iDrive screen's resolution and iPhone/iPad is still good quality.