Missing album covers on new Sony A15 Walkman

[seranil]

I am using a mac so can't use MediaGo. Any ideas for a easy solution to this problem. Thanks

[chbundh]

The album covers must be in JPEG (or JPG—exactly the same) format. 
The chances are, your missing pictures are something else, such as PNG. If so, replace them with JPEG versions from the internet, or perhaps in the odd case, from a scanner. 

I'm not sure if there is a size restriction, but up to 600x600 px seems to be sensible for covers anyway: any more would just take up extra space. 

Once you correct that, you should find that the album covers transfer flawlessly. 

I'm also using a Mac, and my preferred software is JRiver Media Center 20: requires purchase, although you can take a free trial. It's very powerful and customizable, and works really nicely with my A15. I still find the Sony Content Transfer program useful for file management, quick deletes etc. 

I hope that helps!

[racingjunior]

The Sony Walkman products cannot display progressive JPEG files, just baseline JPEG. This is a short and informative article about the differences: http://adavu.com/what-is-baseline-jpeg-and-progressive-jpeg/.

Default cover art from music shops like 7digital and eMusic is progressive JPEG. You can convert from progressive to baseline JPEG using software like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP.

[MK_Slinky]

If I might just add I often find the best place for cover art is from Amazon, just look up your album title. Failing that a Google image search is often very good.

Windows paint can also save files to JPG format as do many other freebie paint programs.

P.S. If anyone wants any custom images made I'm a freelance graphic artist, I don't mind doing the odd freebie. Send me a PM if you do.

[-erdie-]

I don't know why Sony can't have an update to enable the A15 to display more cover art. I briefly had a Fiio X1 which cost less than £90, and it displayed all of my cover art without a problem.

[chbundh]

That's a fair point: one would think that most of the common image formats would be manageable. Nevertheless, it doesn't bother me to have all my cover art in JPG. I very often have to replace the images supplied through Gracenote anyway, if they don't match my source CDs.
There are a few other aspects of the menus / user interface that I'd ideally like adjusted: I emailed Sony months ago asking for a contact with whom I might discuss my suggestions... no response whatsoever.

[jumpsuit]

@chbundh  Did you try telephoning Head Office in the UK at Weybridge and asking for a name / department?

Unfortunately most large electronics companies (not just Sony) pay alot of people alot of money to come up with ideas / technology so I don't know how far you'd get but its always worth a go. Maybe you could share your thoughts with the members here?

[-erdie-]

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   chbundh wrote:

That's a fair point: one would think that most of the common image formats would be manageable. Nevertheless, it doesn't bother me to have all my cover art in JPG. I very often have to replace the images supplied through Gracenote anyway, if they don't match my source CDs.
There are a few other aspects of the menus / user interface that I'd ideally like adjusted: I emailed Sony months ago asking for a contact with whom I might discuss my suggestions... no response whatsoever.

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I don't mind what format my cover art is in. But I have a large music collection and it is unfeasible to replace the cover art to an acceptable format.

I would be interested in knowing what UI changes you had suggested to Sony.

[sven_md]

My problem is that the player does not show cover art of AAC (iTunes Plus without DRM) and ALAC Files. FLAC do work. All of my album covers are embedded correctly and MediaGo does show the covers as well.

[chbundh]

That's surprising; I didn't think there was any difference in album display for compatible audio formats.

Your album art is definitely baseline (not progressive) JPEG?

If it comes to it, you could always convert all files to FLAC. It might also be worth trying JRiver Media Center: with that, one can set it to always put things in a particular format (such as FLAC) on the Walkman, without changing the original files on the computer/storage device).