ogg dev - Apr 2007 - embedded pictures in vorbis comments?

Hello,

I'd like to ask about the possibility of embedding pictures like an album
cover artwork into a vorbis comment header. Since the data in a comment string
after the separating "=" has a defined length, this could
theoretically also be binary picture data. For example

"PICTURE=[...any binary data...]"

It only would be a problem for existing software which isn't aware of this
and which would try to display the binary data as text...


Mathias


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Hello,

You are in the wrong list.  This should have been posted into vorbis-dev.

Regardless, I feel that this request is unwise.  You yourself even
provided the reason:
> It only would be a problem for existing software which isn't aware of
this and which would try to display the binary data as text...
We take backwards-compatibility pretty seriously at Xiph.  If we
didn't, we would have even less success with our formats.

You should be looking into XSPF, though.  It's another project of
Xiph, and it can do what you are looking for, albeit not in the way
you were expecting.

-Ivo

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=48386

On 4/27/07, Ivo Emanuel Gon?alves <justivo@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> You are in the wrong list.  This should have been posted into vorbis-dev.
>
> Regardless, I feel that this request is unwise.  You yourself even
> provided the reason:
>
> > It only would be a problem for existing software which isn't aware
of this and which would try to display the binary data as text...
>
> We take backwards-compatibility pretty seriously at Xiph.  If we
> didn't, we would have even less success with our formats.
>
> You should be looking into XSPF, though.  It's another project of
> Xiph, and it can do what you are looking for, albeit not in the way
> you were expecting.
>
> -Ivo
> _______________________________________________
> ogg-dev mailing list
> ogg-dev@xiph.org
> http://lists.xiph.org/mailman/listinfo/ogg-dev
>

On 4/22/07, Mathias Kunter <mathiaskunter@yahoo.de>
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'd like to ask about the possibility of embedding pictures like an
album cover artwork into a vorbis comment header. Since the data in a comment
string after the separating "=" has a defined length, this could
theoretically also be binary picture data. For example
>
> "PICTURE=[...any binary data...]"
>
> It only would be a problem for existing software which isn't aware of
this and which would try to display the binary data as text...
The vorbis spec mandates that the contents of a comment are UTF8
encoded text.   Thus comments may be text only.

Monty

Hi Mathias,

The solution you are suggesting won't work because it will not only
"not work" in existing players, but probably break them completely,
such that the audio file that you are trying to improve will not play.
It is better that files which add functionality to an existing format
will continue to be played by players which only understand the old
format.

There are some existing, conformant ways of associating image data
with Ogg files. You could enter a URL into the vorbiscomment header to
get a link to album art. Or use XSPF playlists for this. Or use
Annodex and CMML with images on chapters. All of which only deal with
links to external pictures.

But I've read the thread on the album art, and people would like to
see the pictures embedded in the stream, so let's address this.

Currently, I believe, there is no fully functioning implementation for
this at Xiph, however Ogg MNG would be the way to do this using PNG
and MNG images. Or Ogg Spots for all non-animated image types. There
is an existing implementation of Ogg MNG.

If you are really keen, why don't you start programming on Ogg MNG and
integration with Ogg Vorbis? It would be most welcomed here!

Cheers,
Silvia.


On 4/23/07, Mathias Kunter <mathiaskunter@yahoo.de>
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'd like to ask about the possibility of embedding pictures like an
album cover artwork into a vorbis comment header. Since the data in a comment
string after the separating "=" has a defined length, this could
theoretically also be binary picture data. For example
>
> "PICTURE=[...any binary data...]"
>
> It only would be a problem for existing software which isn't aware of
this and which would try to display the binary data as text...
>
>
> Mathias
>
>
>       __________________________________  Yahoo! Clever: Sie haben Fragen?
Yahoo! Nutzer antworten Ihnen. www.yahoo.de/clever
>
> _______________________________________________
> ogg-dev mailing list
> ogg-dev@xiph.org
> http://lists.xiph.org/mailman/listinfo/ogg-dev
>