Picture in MP3 !?

[jbrondum]

Hey all,

Not sure if this is old news, but it's sure the first time that I have seen it. Not long ago I downloaded this MP3 file ( Max Mix 8 ) and when by pure accident viewing it with ACDSee; it includes a picture of the Album Cover, which ACDSee then displays nicely. I have about 1500 other MP3s that I then of course decided to check, but none others are having a picture included. So my questions here is, how do is that done ?!?


Regards,
John Brondum

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jbrondum on 2001-11-28 01:14:53 ]</font>

[holistic]

Hmmmmmmmmm i would invest in a good anti virus program about now .

[jbrondum]

holistic,

nahhh that can't be it, everything is already being scanned by NAV2001 and there has been nothing. Virus in an MP3 file, how would that get executed - thru WinAmp ?!?
The picture shown is also the correct album cover, file is over 10MB and playing fine like any other MP3.
Tomorrow (PST), I'll provide an URL and people with more knowledge about this than me can take a look for themselves.


Regards,
John Brondum

[SupaCoopa]

John, there is nothing weird with this Mp3. ID3v1 tag can store a small picture besides the usual Title, Artist, Album etc info. There are quite a few programs/Winamp plug-ins that can do that. If you have the piccies and the patience you could include the cover or band photo or whatever in every Mp3 you already have and this doesn't include re-encoding as you just modify the tag.

BUT (and this is a big but) including a picture in the ID3v1 tag results in most sound editors (Cool Edit and the like) not being able to open the Mp3 file properly as they can't find the correct file header. If you don't care about that and your Mp3 player is happy with these files (Winamp for one plays them OK) there is nothing wrong with them. And this is certainly not a virus!!! There is no known virus for Mp3 files.

Have a look at http://www.winamp.com for plug-ins that allow you to include a picture in Mp3 file tag and also for ones that display the picture as you play the file in Winamp.

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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SupaCoopa on 2001-11-28 01:53:53 ]</font>

[jbrondum]

SupaCoopa,

Thanx bro', that gives me a place to start looking.
...but one thing I'm curious about, you say a small picture can be included in the tag. The picture in this MP3 is shown as 961x961x24b, that is no small picture in my mind.


Regards,
John Brondum

[SupaCoopa]

Well, John, that sure ain't a small one! I have only seen piccies about 150x150 pixels in Mp3 files, but I guess if there is a way of including a small one, you could also put a huge one in there too if you like.

Two plug-ins to search for: ShowCover and CoverTag.

Cheers

[holistic]

Am aware .mp3 cannot be a viral carrier - YET

Was thinking along these lines..... song.mp3.exe
It seems John knows his stuff and am sure he wouldn't let something like this slip by.

[jbrondum]

OK, problem solved
...found the correct plugin at Winamp.com and looks like it will take just about any size of picture in .jpg or .bmp
Here is the URL for others who might have interest in this:
http://www.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jhtml?componentId=37798
...and thanx all for your help.


Regards,
John Brondum

[Chaz]

Pretty cool, to include when distributing to friends/family, other than that, I probably woudnt use the plugin