Album art trouble with the Samsung YP-Z5AS
November 1st, 2006 by 
emile
We’re becoming experts in troubleshooting MP3 album art problems with various MP3 players. This time, a listener of one of our podcasts informed us some of our shows were causing his Samsung YP-Z5AS MP3 player to lock up when it tried to play some of our MP3 files. We got the exact model number from the listener, and purchased an identical one online. It came via Fed Ex today, and we got down to business.
What we discovered was that it was the album art image we were using that was causing the problem. By removing the album art, the YP-Z5 played the file just fine. In a code editor, we opened the JPG file we were using as album art, and discovered something interesting:
What we’re seeing there is metadata embedded by Photoshop in the JPG file itself. Using Photoshop’s “Save for web” functionality, we produced a JPG file with no metadata in it. Using this “saved for web” file as album art in the MP3 file caused the YP-Z5 to work properly. The wildest thing is that we had been using the JPG with metadata as album art for a long time, and a lot of other MP3s with that JPG played just fine on the YP-Z5. There must be some combination of JPG file and other data in the MP3 that sets the YP-Z5 off.
The takeaway from this: always use the “Save for web” functionality in Photoshop if you are saving a JPG for use as album art in an MP3 file. Using the “Save as” functionality in Photoshop, then saving as a JPG embeds metadata in the JPG file, which can cause MP3 players to choke.
| 2.5 |
Posted in Technology | 
January 19th, 2007 at 9:34 am
had my YP-Z5 a week when it dropped evey function except “browse files” and play from that point. Cant see artists, albums, genres, composers, play lists, shuffle or anything else … but yet it does still just play. Worse however is that the USB connection wont register into any computer so it cant be uploaded / downloaded …is it even charging? samsung help line seems to be a struggle !
February 11th, 2007 at 2:06 am
I have the same Problem with my YP-Z5 its the 4GB version… i used it to go to the gym one day put it down and didn’t use it till the following day.. when i did use it all my tunes had gone!! it won’t connect to my laptop anymore, i’ve tried the samsung helpline but get nothing… have i just wasted £100 or can anybody help me ???
March 18th, 2007 at 7:32 am
Had exactly the same problem with samsung yp-z5 … can’t see songs anywhere but ‘browse files’ and it wont connect to the computer.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:20 am
I have a YP-T9J and I don’t understand why only two of the songs out of 200 show album art even though the album has other songs on it.
May 21st, 2007 at 8:10 am
Me too ( can’t see songs anywhere but ‘browse files’ and it wont connect to the computer). Sent it to the Samsung Repair Centre. They kept it for 2 weeks & returned it with exactly the same fault - no improvement at all. Samsung now tell me to send it for repair again. Very unhappy!!!
July 21st, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Got a YP-Z5 AB/XAC.Piece of junk!!! wasted my money.
The problem with these units is in my opinion the touch pads.
Mine worked fine for a while,then scroll up and down positions seemed to move.scroll up was in the center of the touch pad.
scroll down was right down at the very bottom of the center pad.then,one day two weeks ago scroll down vanished.
contacted Samsung.Total waste of time,they really made you feel like they could’nt give a rat’s bottom.
July 25th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
same here got the 4gb version from play.com for christmas, it wont connect to my pc, my girlfriends works perfectly on my pc. Again cant browse through tracks or artist only on browse files, surely this is a major problem as its happening to a lot of people, there should be a recall on this product, thought at first it was great, reccomended it to everyone, now its a £100 pile of useluss crap. We should all write to samsung and get this sorted.
August 19th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
mine wont connect to the computer so i cant add or delete songs. i guess nobody knows the solution to this?
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:19 am
Ive had my Samsung YP-Z5 for about 10 months now. First all i could see was the browsing menu etc. Now the touchpad doesnt work at all! I cant scroll down to select songs or even get onto the list of songs. The samsung helpline have been useless, and wont repair unless i have proof of purchase. But surely if it’s got their company label on it then they should fix it regardless??
December 20th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I too can confirm my YP-Z5 (AS) also has the VERY COMMON fault where all functionality goes except ‘browse files’ I also noted that since this happened my Album art will only display in the scrolling view (when hovering/selecting albums) and not while playing (the main view where you can select between 3 zooms by pressing the centre pad). So there is just the placeholder grey artwork now regardless of me having the correct files uploaded (3 jpgs). Did anyone else who has the ‘browse files only’ fault also not see album art IN THE SONG PLAYING SCREEN (remember, I can see it when moving through albums and going into them just not on the 3 size selection playing screen).
Also, For those that can’t connect now, Turn off your player, Reconnect to computer while holding down the back/arrow button (the top bendy arrow under the samsung logo) this will force it to connect in USB mode which should let you work around the MTP connection fault (which is linked to the browse files error I believe). In USB mode forget about using mediaplayer and syncing if you like and just drag and drop files to album folder names within the ‘music’ folder, at least you can USE it then.
Also if you manage to force the connection, after you’ve finished, right click on the ‘removable disc’ icon in your mycomputer display (showing all the drives) and ‘eject’ (do this everytime to disconnect the player). This will leave the player now functional. Go into system settings and change UMS ONLY to ON.. this will let you connect in UMS mode each time without having to hold down the arrow key.. will prevent future lockouts.
SO my player works, and I can browse all files which isn’t so bad but I can’t do anything with advanced filters/functions thanks to the loss of it nor do I see the album art in a song play screen, if those 2 worked i’d be more than happy with the player, as it is I can’t reccomend it to anyone.
Also note you can upgrade the firmware easily (search for it there are some forums for the z5) i’m on the latest atm (2.51) which lets you use TEXT files (you can read text books on your player at last!), and has all the older upgrades like custom EQ, gapless playback etc - worth doing if you are running on very old firmware from 2006.
December 31st, 2007 at 3:37 am
My 2g Samsung YP-Z5 10 mths old just lost everything apart from browse files, which works, and wont connect to my PC anymore and the battery wont charge. Sounds like its pointless contacting Samsung can some one recommend an alternative make?
June 7th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I’ve had my player since it first came out, but Ive only just started using, cause my iPod’s gone down.
Anywho, I can’t find the Firmware ANYWHERE and the player, as it is, is a piece of JUNK.
Could anyone who has the firmware please mail it to me?
antcaparica AT gmail DOT com
August 27th, 2008 at 12:36 am
i have had my samsung yP-Z5 1gb for about 10 mounths now.
it works fine it can connect to the computer no problems at all.
all I want to no is why some songs have the album art and others dont if any one could help that would be great thanx