1. it always keeps the aspect ratio - are you looking to stretch it to a square?
I was trying to map Album Art to a scaling autohide panel and have the albumcover stay centered in that panel. Just like you can with the Gallery element
<autoHide name="#CoverPanel" xAnchor="HL2.Left" x="1" y="15" widthDock="X:Panel.Right" width="-5" heightDock="Panel" height="-20" bg="0,0,0,0" allowPinning="false" resizePictures="false" >
<element type="AlbumCover" xAnchor="#CoverPanel.Left" x="20" y="17" widthDock="X:#CoverPanel.Right" width="-10" heightDock="Y:#CoverPanel.Bottom" height="0" min="200" max="400" fillColor="0,0,0,0" brightness="1.0" ></element>
</autoHide>