The 192 RNS-E supports basic albumart which requires albumart.bmp files to be added to the SD Card or CD media. Meanwhile our custom firmware for the 193 PU RNS-E is capable of reading albumart from either the MP3 ID3 tags, or albumart.jpg files.
Optimal Albumart Format
192 units support albumart from albumart.bmp files only. Unfortunately, because the 192 stock firmware supports neither ID3V2 tags nor JPEG decoding, our custom firmware is unable to add support for these formats. Optimal image format for the 192 RNS-E is 128x128 pixels with 15 bit RGB555 colour bitmap format.
193 units support albumart from either albumart.jpg files or read directly from the MP3 file ID3V2 tags. Optimal image format for the 193 PU RNS-E is 256x256 pixels jpeg format.
Albumart Utility
We provide a complimentary Windows Utility for automatically creating optimal RNS-E albumart files.
For the tool to work correctly your mp3 should contain ID3 albumart images of type "front cover", be in jpg format, and be arranged in a "logical" folder structure. Apple are notoriously bad at following industry standards on albumart and often do not embed ID3 images in their mp3. We recommend using a third party tool such as MP3TAG or MediaMonkey to manage your mp3 collections and albumart.
A "logical" folder structure for your mp3 might look like Artist Name\Album Name\Track Name.mp3. You will not get good results with the albumart tool, or with the RNSE, if you use random names and do not systematically organise your mp3. For example throwing all your mp3 in a single folder and then expecting everything to "just work" is a recipe for disaster!
Preparing RGB555 Bitmaps Using GIMP
If you want to create your own albumart.bmp images compatible with the 192 units, you can use GIMP. To save an image as RGB555...
- File > Export As...
- Select File Type > Windows BMP Image
- Export
- Advanced Options > 16 bits > X1 R5 G5 B5
Additionally, for best results, you should first dither your artwork to ARGB1555. Here is a tutorial and a GIMP plugin to achieve that.
Latest News
March 2024
Our Guelder-Rose firmware makes it out of beta and becomes a stable release, plus we add radio logo packs for selection of European countries.
July 2023
Our NavPOInt software receives an update to allow English voice guidance phrases to be replaced with s selection of additional languages.
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