Hi
I had a few problems with the album info in Media Player (some tracks werent assigned to the correct album - some albums appeared twice with some tracks in one instance and the rest in another). I have resolved this but I now get different album info in Media Center (some are still split, some album art isnt showing even though it appears correctly in Media Player). Does anyone have any ideas how the info is different (I thought Media Centre read the Media Player Library) and how to fix it?
Thanks
Roger
General technique:
1) Edit the tags in Windows
2) Drag the album to WMP11 to check
3) Fix the tag info in Windows where needed
4) Redrag to WMP11 and check again
5) Repeat 3 and 4 as necessary
6) Open VMC and pray!
Problem 1: Inconsistent/duplicate albums
You didn't mention the file types, but I'll assume they're MP3s. In this case the problems is likely in the tags. Try this procedure:
1) Select all of the tracks of the album inside of Windows
2) Right click and select "Properties", then "Details" to bring up the Tag editor
3) Rename the Album Artist to something different like "a" and hit OK
4) Do this again but this time rename the Album Artist back to the correct name and hit OK
This will clear any inconsistencies in the Album Artist which seem to happen when tags are downloaded from the internet. Remember that tag info is a community thing, their is no quality control.
If the problem remains, try the same process for the Album name.
Problem 2: Album artwork in VMC
This can be really tricky, I have one album that I cannot fix this problem! But try this:
1) Inside of WMP11, right click the first track and select Advanced Tag Editor, then Pictures. Make sure that the picture is correct.
2) If it is not, delete it and Add the correct picture (Amazon.com/music has great album art).
3) If the art is missing on on the tracks, then you should be able to drag the JPG art over the album icon in WMP and it will add it to every track.
4) Try deleting all of the non-music files in the album's folder in Windows. These are hidden so you will need to go into "Folder and Search Options", then "View" and select "Show hidden files and folders" and deselect "Hide protected operating system files".
5) Also, try deleting the Windows Media Center Art Cache while you have hiddne files and folders viewable. They are in one or both of these locations:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\ehome\Art Cache
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player\Art Cache\LocalMLS
Overall, getting your Music library to catalog and display properly is really hard work, but eventually it will work.