Channels & viewing

[fuji88]

Hi there,

I'm trying to use Roku Media Player (Ver. 5.4 build 4) to play some mp3 files from a network media server. The music sound is OK, but there is no cover art shown on the screen. I'm sure all the mp3 files have cover arts as their meta data and I can see them when I play them on my PC with both Windows Media Player and VLC Media Player.

Is there something I have to set up for the Roku Media Player to get those cover arts on the screen? Or just the Roku Player does not support cover art?

Thank you in advance.

[atc98092]

RMP does support cover art. I find with MP3 files that there has to be a JPG file with the cover image. With M4A files with embedded art, those display without a problem. 

[fuji88]

Thank you for your information.

I just tried to put a jpg file using the same file name with the mp3 file in the same folder, but there still no cover art on the RMP screen.

I copied the same mp3 files into an USB memory drive and connected it to my Roku TV USB port. The RMP on Roku TV can play all mp3 files from the USB drive with cover arts (no jpg files in the folders) without any problem.

Next I'm going to try using Plex network media server.

[atc98092]

I use Serviio as my DLNA server, so can't say what Plex might do with them. While I do have Plex installed I don't have my few music clips installed. 

[fuji88]

I just tried to use RMP to play mp3 files from my Plex Media Server, and there is no problem to show the cover arts (there is no jpg files in the folder in the Plex server).

I think it may be a problem from my first network media server. It was TP-Share, a TP-Link router function, connecting an USB drive to the router's USB port to share files.

May be the answer for this problem is that the RMP does not support cover art when playing mp3 files from TP-Share media server.

Thank you.

[atc98092]

Yeah, some of those router-based DLNA servers aren't that great. And none of them have enough power for transcoding video if necessary. 

[MojoMan]

It depends how you attach the cover art. RMP does display the cover art if you add it as a tag within the MP3 file. I did that to all of mine, and the cover art shows up fine on RMP. It is a bit of a project, but it is a lot better having the cover art displayed on the television while the music plays. 

The software that I used to append the cover art is called MP3tag. It is free. Google it any you will find the software and many reviews on the software easily.

This will work regardless of whether you are using a USB stick in the Roku as storage for the music, or with a DLNA server such as the one included with Windows, or Media Monkey.