As many of you know the Pioneer players show music artwork on the screen but there is no specs for it, some JPEG works and many do not. I live in Brazil, I've contacted Pioneer Japan but they can't give me support so they redirected me to Pioneer US, they also can't give me support and then redirected me to Pioneer Latin America that redirected me to Pioneer Brazil that tell me that "it's normal".

This is a permanent fix for this issue, tested with AVH-X7880TV, AVH-X7700BT and AVH-X7800BT.

Problem: There is no specification for file artwork and artwork do not work in general.

Solution: There is some rules to make this work:

1. Download and install mp3tag and gimp, all free tools.

2. Backup your files.

3. Load your songs with mp3tag, select all files, right click at the cover image, select REMOVE COVER and save it. If you don't do this you'll have more than one cover at the same file.

4. Load your image with GIMP, resize your image to 300x300 or 400x400, please note that a 400x400 do not make it look any better on the screen, also, it take more time to load. You can resize your image to 300 or you can create a new 300x300 image, paste your big image and resize it to fit, hold CTRL while resizing to keep the aspect ratio. I've tested this with sizes up to 400x400, you can have different sizes like 300x298 or any other like it, if the size is too off, you'll see a black or white line at your artwork. Export this image (CTRL+SHIFT+E) to any name with a .png extension.

5. Add this new cover image to your file using mp3tag, make sure it say "front cover" and save.

6. Done, as for X77/X78 models, this only works on USB mode.

How the fix was discovered?

If you load an X78/X77 firmware in to a hex editor and look for any JPEG identifier (4A 46 49 46), you see very few. My intention was to extract the image and load it to JPEGSnoop to see what settings might be compatible with this device. Along this firmware you can find a lot of PNG identifiers (89 50 4E 47), some are icons and others part of the interface. It's was a no-brainer that the device works with PNG's, all I had to do was to create different size artworks, over 400x400 the interface lags a bit.

For those in need for album artwork/covers I suggest the link bellow:

https://bendodson.com/projects/itunes-artwork-finder/

Thank you.

This is a permanent fix for this issue, tested with AVH-X7880TV, AVH-X7700BT and AVH-X7800BT.

I have been experiencing a similar problem with images on the iPhone connected to the either the AVIC-X850BT or the AVIC-Z150BH and will post back if reducing the images from 1500 x 1500 to a smaller size will solve my problem.  Anyway, thanks for sharing.

@polanca

For your information, I am able to see the iPhone graphics on the AVIC-Z150BH when they are at least at 1080 X 1080 in iTunes.  So this specific limitation doesn't seem to apply to the iPhone/iPod graphics and the AVIC-Z150BH.  

By the way, base on the images you have posted, was this only an issue with MixTrax?  MixTrax on the AVIC-Z150BH is in the AppRadio app (on an iPhone or Android) and I've not known there to be any image issues there.

Sorry @bitmap, I don't use Apple products, so I can't test them.

This fix is exclusive for X models like X67's, X77's, X78's and "maybe" others, if I remember right AVIC's are more user friendly and accept almost anything you use at them.