How do you get CDs onto a Nexus 4 with artwork etc ??

[Oldboy]

Hello all,

I've got my Nexus 4 up and running finally but I'm having real problems getting my music onto it the way I like it so any help would be really appreciated.

First of all I've been using iTunes for my music and know you can just drag and drop from the actual iTunes files stored on your computer (not in iTunes itself) onto the Nexus 4 but when I do this and go to play my music on the Nexus 4 I get no album artwork or correct file info, the tracks are named correctly but it doesn't recognise the artist just the album when viewed on Play Music on my Nexus.

If I use EAC or Windows Media Player to then rip a CD again from scratch I still get the same issue so is there any way around this ?

Perhaps I've just been spoiled with iTunes but it seems ridiculous that Google haven't thought of this, if you use Google Play Music Manager it won't even recognise and sync WAV files which all my music is stored as so there seems to be no way of just copying music from CD so that it's easily recognised by the Nexus and displays the correct artwork and file names....is there an iTunes like solution ?

I don't really want to rip my CDs again but if it meant getting artwork and files correctly I would do it, any help would be much appreciated thank you.

 

[The_Lhc]

The issue is simple, WAV doesn't support artwork or tagging, iTunes gets round it by storing that info within iTunes itself not within the files but, as you've discovered, nothing outside of iTunes can see that info.

You need to convert to a format that supports tagging and artwork, which one is up to you really.

And before you whinge about Google not supporting this and that, Google have implemented the correct standards, Apple haven't. Sure it's helpful how they get around the WAV tagging issue but nobody else can use it.

It's also partly your fault for using such an ancient format such as WAV but you probably weren't to know the issues as iTunes would have hidden them.

 

[Oldboy]

The issue is simple, WAV doesn't support artwork or tagging, iTunes gets round it by storing that info within iTunes itself not within the files but, as you've discovered, nothing outside of iTunes can see that info. You need to convert to a format that supports tagging and artwork, which one is up to you really. And before you whinge about Google not supporting this and that, Google have implemented the correct standards, Apple haven't. Sure it's helpful how they get around the WAV tagging issue but nobody else can use it. It's also partly your fault for using such an ancient format such as WAV but you probably weren't to know the issues as iTunes would have hidden them.

Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware that's how Apple got around the artwork with WAV issue.

I'm not whinging about Google atall it's just that I found music copied from CD sounded far better when converted to WAV than it did as an Aplle lossless file when using my iPod, I would have even more problems if I had Apple lossless files now anyway.

As for converting my WAV files, I would only want to do that if it was a lossless format...I want the best quality sound for my music and therefore MP3 is a no go for me so if you have any suggestions I would appreciate it...is FLAC an option ??

It might well be my fault for using WAV (I wasn't aware it was ancient though) but iTunes gives you very little choice for lossless files and using Apple Lossless would have made using the files elsewhere impossible on anything other than an Apple device.

As I stated earlier I have no problem in ripping my CDs again into a lossless format that is more suitable to my Nexus 4 but I can't find any info on how best to go about this which is why I'm asking for help here, any suggestions are very welcome. Many thanks for the info again and for taking the time to reply.

 

[The_Lhc]

FLAC is probably an option, I don't know if the Nexus supports it natively, I've got an older android phone which doesn't but the player I use on there does so it's not an issue, the OS on the Nexus 4 may do it natively though.

You could convert directly from WAV to FLAC but you'd still have to go back and add all the tags and artwork afterwards I think. Perhaps if you used iTunes to convert to AIFF or ALAC it might copy the tags into the files and perhaps you could then convert to FLAC using something else but I really don't know (I don't use iTunes). It might be quicker just to re-rip from scratch again... I use dbPoweramp to rip.

 

[Oldboy]

It doesn't look like the Nexus 4 supports FLAC natively, from what I can gather it supports MP3, WAV, eAAC+, AC3c straight out of the box and I'm only familiar with MP3 and WAV.

I think you are right and that it will be quicker to rip from scratch again but as to what to use to rip my CDs and what format to rip then too is my next question ? I don't mind using another app from the play store to play my music but I would prefer to keep it lossless than go back to MP3, I'm sure MP3 would give me what I want but the loss in audio quality is what concerns me as I've been spoilt by lovely crisp high quality music on my iPod until now.

Thanks for your help, very much appreciated as I'm just finding all the different codecs and how they work confusing after the simple iTunes experience

 

[The_Lhc]

I use dbPowerAmp to rip and Poweramp (no relation) to play FLAC on my Android, should work for you.

 

[daveh75]

I just use Play Music to manage music on my Nexus' now. As it's the most convenient/easiest way to do it.

And given the N4s small amount of storage, the sensible way to do it, since you can pick and choose what's stored locally and what's streamed at the click of a button

If you re-rip to FLAC, PM will automatically transcode to 320k mp3 on upload to its servers (for any music it can't match) and any music matched or bought from play will also be mp3 @ 320k.

There's no difference in SQ (that i can hear) between FLACs played with poweramp and mp3s with PM on my N4 through my HP100s, so I see no point wasting valuable space on FLAC.....

 

[Anonymous]

There is no difference between 320 Kbps and FLAC, unless you're a bat! In my opinion.

 

[Xanderzdad]

Hi Oldboy

Glad you're enjoying your Nexus 4. I had a similar issue (all my files were Apple Lossless - which won't play on the Nexus).

I've used iTunes to convert all the files to MP3 (AFTER changing the destination folder within iTunes! Very important that you keep the MP3 files completely seperate from your lossless ones. Please do this before you convert.) :read:

I now have 2 sets of music files - lossless for my PC and streaming at home and 320 MP3 for the Nexus. As was suggested by the previous poster I then use Google Play Music to send all the MP3's to the cloud and can access all 12,000 from my phone.

Admitedly it took a few days to convert them all (and even longer for Google to send them all to the cloud), but it gives me the best of both worlds.

Now the only faff is remembering to rip each new CD in lossless and then convert it to MP3.

If you want more specific guidance on what to change within iTunes then please ask.

 

[Oldboy]

Xanderzdad,

Yeah I thought I would have to either stick with WAV or convert to MP3. Do you get album artwork and correct file listings when you convert to MP3 ??

Some more info about how you went about converting your iTunes libary would be most welcome, a step by step guide would be great as this is all new to me. As i've said previously my experience with music goes as far as ripping my CDs to MP3 or WAV and using iTunes and using EAC for accurate WAV copies, beyond that i've got very little knowledge so treat me as a noob lol.

I will try a few 320 MP3 cd rips and compare sound quality, hopefully I will be happy as the extra storage would be nice but even on my 4th gen iPod touch I noticed the increase in sound quality between an MP3 and a WAV file.