• THM files in Windows file explorer

    From david@21:1/5 to All on Fri Nov 24 11:01:56 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

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  • From Big Al@21:1/5 to this is what knuttle on Fri Nov 24 14:34:13 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/24/23 02:28 PM, this is what knuttle wrote:
    On 11/24/2023 1:01 PM, david wrote:
    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?
    https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg
    Doing a search returns that a THM file is similar to a image thumbnail, except it is for a video.

    https://filmlifestyle.com/what-is-thm-file/
    Rename them to .jpg and you're fine.

    --
    Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon
    Al

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  • From knuttle@21:1/5 to david on Fri Nov 24 14:28:17 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/24/2023 1:01 PM, david wrote:
    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg
    Doing a search returns that a THM file is similar to a image thumbnail,
    except it is for a video.

    https://filmlifestyle.com/what-is-thm-file/

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to david on Fri Nov 24 15:24:15 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/24/2023 1:01 PM, david wrote:
    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Open with Irfanview, Irfanview will see the JPG extension, and if the
    file really isn't JPG, it will ask you whether it can fix the extension
    by using another extension type.

    *******

    You can open the file with a hex editor, examine, and see if there
    is a "JFIF" near the top. That might indicate the basic encoding method
    is JPG or not.

    https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/

    The Linux "file" command is available in W10/W11 via bash and
    WSL/WSLg software. But you have to be a Level 39 Wizard to get
    that running. Installing Ubuntu 20.04 from the Microsoft Store,
    is only part of the adventure, and there is more fiddling to
    do, all so you can have a "file" command. (I was hoping the
    automation of this would be better by now, but the last time
    I set it up, it was still a lame ass adventure.)

    file some.thm

    Since I don't have any samples of .THM files here, I am
    out of luck with regard to any demonstrations of capability.

    It's probably just a JPG, and changing the extension of the file
    should get you in business. Then you can set up a binding so
    Irfanview will open it. Even if Irfanview whines a bit while
    doing so.

    Paul

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  • From david@21:1/5 to Paul on Fri Nov 24 15:27:14 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?
    https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same name as
    the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess.

    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows
    file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails).

    Open with Irfanview, Irfanview will see the JPG extension, and if the
    file really isn't JPG, it will ask you whether it can fix the extension
    by using another extension type.

    Yes. That's what Irfanview just now did. It renamed it to JPG.
    But there are already a million JPG files and these are supposed to be thumbnail files. Not images. But thumbnails. Of what's in the AVI.

    Can't Windows be made to treat thumbnail files as thumbnail files?

    It's probably just a JPG, and changing the extension of the file
    should get you in business. Then you can set up a binding so
    Irfanview will open it. Even if Irfanview whines a bit while
    doing so.

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that, since AVI theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be more
    fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Big Al@21:1/5 to this is what david on Fri Nov 24 17:58:10 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/24/23 05:27 PM, this is what david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?
    https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same name as the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess.

    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows
    file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails).

    Open with Irfanview, Irfanview will see the JPG extension, and if the
    file really isn't JPG, it will ask you whether it can fix the extension
    by using another extension type.

    Yes. That's what Irfanview just now did. It renamed it to JPG. But there are already a million JPG files and these are
    supposed to be
    thumbnail files. Not images. But thumbnails. Of what's in the AVI.

    Can't Windows be made to treat thumbnail files as thumbnail files?

    It's probably just a JPG, and changing the extension of the file
    should get you in business. Then you can set up a binding so
    Irfanview will open it. Even if Irfanview whines a bit while
    doing so.

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that, since AVI theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be more
    fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files.
    Look but a bulk rename utility. https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Download.php
    I use this one.
    You could do all that at once, you just have to plan your attack.
    --
    Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon
    Al

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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to david on Sat Nov 25 00:15:18 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-24 23:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?
    https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same name as the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess.

    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows
    file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails).

    Open a bug with Microsoft :-D

    ...

    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to david on Fri Nov 24 18:48:04 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-24 17:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?
    https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same name as the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess.

    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows
    file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails).

    Open with Irfanview, Irfanview will see the JPG extension, and if the
    file really isn't JPG, it will ask you whether it can fix the extension
    by using another extension type.

    Yes. That's what Irfanview just now did. It renamed it to JPG. But there
    are already a million JPG files and these are supposed to be
    thumbnail files. Not images. But thumbnails. Of what's in the AVI.

    Can't Windows be made to treat thumbnail files as thumbnail files?

    If a thumbnail is at base a jpg (or other image format/container), then
    so what?

    It's probably just a JPG, and changing the extension of the file
    should get you in business. Then you can set up a binding so
    Irfanview will open it. Even if Irfanview whines a bit while
    doing so.

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that, since AVI theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be more
    fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files.

    Jumping in w/o reading much of the thread ...

    Can't you simply tell Windows to open .thm with a photoviewer of choice?

    (That's what I would do with a Mac).

    Another way would be to rename xyz.thm to xyz.thm.jpg

    --
    “Markets can remain irrational longer than your can remain solvent.”
    - John Maynard Keynes.

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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Nov 25 00:52:34 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 00:48, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 17:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?

    ...

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that, since AVI
    theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be more
    fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files.

    Jumping in w/o reading much of the thread ...

    Can't you simply tell Windows to open .thm with a photoviewer of choice?

    Sure, but he wants the filemanager to show the previews.

    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Carlos E. R. on Fri Nov 24 18:53:12 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-24 18:15, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 23:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>> https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also
    suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same
    name as
    the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess.

    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows
    file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails).

    Open a bug with Microsoft :-D

    Is it a bug?

    IAC, kudos to Microsoft. A support text chat with them today resolved
    an Office license transfer issue of Office 2019 from an older iMac (x86)
    to an M3 iMac. (Issue was a bit bizarre relating to the updated version
    on the M3 iMac being "too new" for license transfers. Anyway resolved).

    --
    “Markets can remain irrational longer than your can remain solvent.”
    - John Maynard Keynes.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Carlos E. R. on Fri Nov 24 18:59:46 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-24 18:52, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:48, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 17:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?

    ...

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that, since AVI >>> theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be more
    fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files.

    Jumping in w/o reading much of the thread ...

    Can't you simply tell Windows to open .thm with a photoviewer of choice?

    Sure, but he wants the filemanager to show the previews.

    Even in Windows a normal sized JPGs will be automatically shown as
    thumbnails in the folder viewer (whatever MS calls that this week).

    Apps that manage photos (or vids) should do pretty much the same w/o
    needing a "sidecar" photo (although such "cached" as a hidden file is
    not too obnoxious in order to speed things up).

    Sorry I jumped in - I should have known better. I'll run along now.

    --
    “Markets can remain irrational longer than your can remain solvent.”
    - John Maynard Keynes.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to david on Sat Nov 25 01:44:38 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-24 23:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?
    https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same name as the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess.

    You could delete, or move to a subdir, the previews. The windows
    filemanager will probably create previews of its own instead.

    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Nov 25 01:38:50 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 00:53, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 18:15, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 23:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>>> https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of >>>> .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also
    suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same
    name as
    the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess. >>>
    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name
    also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows >>> file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails).

    Open a bug with Microsoft :-D

    Is it a bug?

    Well, that's the procedure in Linux. The same thing happens in Linux, I
    declare a bug, and possibly the feature is added in a week.

    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From RabidPedagog@21:1/5 to Carlos E. R. on Fri Nov 24 20:32:45 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-24 7:38 p.m., Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:53, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 18:15, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 23:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file
    explorer?
    https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of >>>>> .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also
    suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same
    name as
    the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file) >>>> and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a
    mess.

    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name
    also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the
    Windows
    file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails). >>>
    Open a bug with Microsoft :-D

    Is it a bug?

    Well, that's the procedure in Linux. The same thing happens in Linux, I declare a bug, and possibly the feature is added in a week.

    They'll add that one feature and break thirty others.

    --
    RabidPedagog
    TG: @RabidPedagog
    Friends don't let friends run Linux

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  • From Char Jackson@21:1/5 to david on Fri Nov 24 20:08:28 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On Fri, 24 Nov 2023 15:27:14 -0700, david <this@is.invalid> wrote:

    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?
    https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same name as >the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess. <snip>

    AVI? In 2023? That's disappointing. I thought we had left that dinosaur behind 20+ years ago.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Carlos E. R. on Fri Nov 24 21:00:01 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/24/2023 7:38 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:53, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 18:15, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 23:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>>>> https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of >>>>> .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also suggested. >>>>
    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same name as >>>> the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file) >>>> and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess. >>>>
    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name also. >>>> But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows >>>> file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails). >>>
    Open a bug with Microsoft :-D

    Is it a bug?

    Well, that's the procedure in Linux. The same thing happens in Linux, I declare a bug, and possibly the feature is added in a week.


    Then you would use Feedback Hub, would you not ???

    It's too bad it doesn't really work.

    If you raise an issue, you need a bunch of "Me too" promotions
    of your posting, to get the issue raised so someone even reads it!

    They don't even read all the Feedback Hub postings. They read
    the "important ones". You'll need a Bot Army to raise your flag for you.

    This is not a bug. It's not even a feature request. Microsoft
    does not bend over and kiss the ground, when some twit invents
    a new file extension. I for example, could invent a file extension
    my own self, right this very minute. Why should Microsoft care about
    my new .wally extension and that it's a thumbnail ???

    What's important, is if Apple makes an .heic or something, uses a
    patented technology, and a Windows user has to pay $1.50 or so
    at the Microsoft Store, so they can view the image. That's how Microsoft
    rolls (flowthru license payment, we don't even know if it's necessary
    or not).

    *******

    I would say, if you want a thumbnail, the question you should be asking
    is, "is there a Thumbnail Provider for AVI movies???". That is the
    correct question to raise. Not "Can you support this vanity file .ext
    for me please???". That's not going to fly. There will be snickering
    in the Feedback Hub Cave if you do that :-)

    See for example, this DIY solution for people with this need...
    Somebody made a Provider, that uses ffmpeg. The same kind of
    ffmpeg that yt-dlp uses to mux and demux movies it assembles.
    You may be able to use Gyan to get an FFMPEG.exe of your very own.
    If the developer of this program does not tell you where to place
    the ffmpeg.exe , try placing it next to the icaros.exe or whatever.
    That's what I would try as a first attempt. Otherwise, you'll
    need to edit %path% to make it easy to find ffmpeg.exe . Or, some
    program developers ask you via dialog, to identify where the
    ffmpeg.exe is that you want to use.

    https://www.videohelp.com/software/Icaros # A Thumbnail Provider for movie formats
    # More files will have icons now...

    # If the FFMPEG isn't inside the previous item, as a mini-version,
    # you can get a full one. These are static compiles with no pile of
    # DLL files to lug around.

    https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/

    latest release version: 6.1 2023-11-11

    ffmpeg-release-full.7z

    previous release version: 6.0 (complete archive @ mirror)

    ffmpeg-6.0-full_build.7z

    (A year ago, this is what I got. SHA256: 037BDB2183189DC0EFA642B1FDE7D6B33C6114036FA06FAF35F777E8DF07D863 , 47,431,656 bytes )
    (It's no longer on the gyan server, but the archive.org copy should be OK.)

    https://web.archive.org/web/20230111100754/https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/packages/ffmpeg-5.1.2-full_build.7z

    When the version of FFMPEG changes, the command syntax can change slightly, which adds to the "fun" sometimes, of getting stuff to work. That icaros program likely does not need much in the way of fancy commands to
    do a conversion to a raster file. I'm really surprised FFMPEG has
    enough still image formats, to make using it as a converter a
    worthwhile endeavor. One advantage of the developer doing it this
    way, is the developer harnesses the bug busting skills of the
    ffmpeg folks, to keep the exploit bugs out of the converter :-)

    For every file type you want to see a Thumbnail representation,
    you use a Thumbnail Provider to do that. Adobe Acrobat Reader,
    is an example of a Thumbnail Provider for PDF files (64-bit version).

    Paul

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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Big Al on Fri Nov 24 21:09:49 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/24/2023 2:34 PM, Big Al wrote:
    On 11/24/23 02:28 PM, this is what knuttle wrote:
    On 11/24/2023 1:01 PM, david wrote:
    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?
    https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg
    Doing a search returns that a THM file is similar to a image thumbnail, except it is for a video.

    https://filmlifestyle.com/what-is-thm-file/
    Rename them to .jpg and you're fine.


    I made my own, and at 160x120 the .thm was awful.

    Paul

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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Fri Nov 24 21:08:45 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/24/2023 6:59 PM, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 18:52, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:48, Alan Browne wrote:

    Can't you simply tell Windows to open .thm with a photoviewer of choice?

    What you want, is to install a Thumbnail Provider, for the
    desired foreign file formats.

    You don't, in fact, want anything to do with the .thm file at all!

    Instead, the "key" file is the AVI. Copy the AVI ? And the job is done for you.

    1) Copy AVI to a Windows folder, let's say.

    2) When Windows sees the .avi file, it asks the question
    "Do I have a Thumbnail Provider for this format?".
    The answer would appear to be No.

    3) Install a Thumbnail Provider. Videohelp says there is one.

    4) Now, go back and open the folder. What happens ?
    The .avi file now has its own thumbnail, instead of
    the "blank sheet of paper" icon it might normally use.

    Windows has minimal support for thumbnails. It might have
    JPG, GIF, TIF perhaps. It doesn't have PDF, but if you
    install Adobe Acrobat Reader (x64), then suddenly the
    PDF files acquire thumbnails. I do not know whether
    there is a "master" list of what gets a thumbnail.

    Videohelp says this program may be a solution, so the AVI
    file itself is all you need, and those blasted .thm files
    can stay on the other device. The .thm files are low res (160x120).
    The thumbnailer Windows has, supports multiple resolutions
    and you can make some pretty big thumbnails.

    https://www.videohelp.com/software/Icaros

    I would scan the program on Virustotal, or at least
    make sure that Windows Defender has scanned it.

    Paul

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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to Paul on Sat Nov 25 03:45:25 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 03:00, Paul wrote:
    On 11/24/2023 7:38 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:53, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 18:15, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 23:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>>>>> https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of >>>>>> .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same name as
    the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file) >>>>> and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess. >>>>>
    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name also. >>>>> But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows >>>>> file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails). >>>>
    Open a bug with Microsoft :-D

    Is it a bug?

    Well, that's the procedure in Linux. The same thing happens in Linux, I declare a bug, and possibly the feature is added in a week.


    Then you would use Feedback Hub, would you not ???

    No, bugzilla, with the distro I use. Works many times, with many
    variances :-)

    In this case, if you can prove that there is a new industry standard to
    create those files, you can get traction ;-)

    On the other hand, there may be an easy way to implement a preview with
    some plugin mechanism, so you only have to develop the plugin and add it.

    ...


    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to Paul on Sat Nov 25 03:47:39 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 03:09, Paul wrote:
    On 11/24/2023 2:34 PM, Big Al wrote:
    On 11/24/23 02:28 PM, this is what knuttle wrote:
    On 11/24/2023 1:01 PM, david wrote:
    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>> https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg
    Doing a search returns that a THM file is similar to a image thumbnail, except it is for a video.

    https://filmlifestyle.com/what-is-thm-file/
    Rename them to .jpg and you're fine.


    I made my own, and at 160x120 the .thm was awful.

    Probably they are designed to be viewed on the camera.

    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

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  • From Joel@21:1/5 to Paul on Fri Nov 24 22:54:45 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
    On 11/24/2023 9:08 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

    AVI? In 2023? That's disappointing. I thought we had left that dinosaur behind
    20+ years ago.

    The format is a function of the hardware support.

    AVI is what you might do, if all you've got is a CPU core
    to work with. A movie compressor logic block, would make it
    possible to make other (more efficient) outputs.

    https://cloudinary.com/guides/video-formats/avi-format-should-you-still-use-avi

    "Some popular codecs used with AVI files include DivX, XviD, and MJPEG."


    Interesting point - obsolete codecs still have use on "obsolete"
    hardware, or for archived files. I've tended to refresh my approaches
    to accessing media, save for my music collection, but the support of
    legacy gear and media can be something to judge a modern system by.

    --
    Joel W. Crump

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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Char Jackson on Fri Nov 24 22:45:10 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/24/2023 9:08 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
    On Fri, 24 Nov 2023 15:27:14 -0700, david <this@is.invalid> wrote:

    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>> https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also suggested. >>
    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same name as >> the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess.
    <snip>

    AVI? In 2023? That's disappointing. I thought we had left that dinosaur behind
    20+ years ago.


    The format is a function of the hardware support.

    AVI is what you might do, if all you've got is a CPU core
    to work with. A movie compressor logic block, would make it
    possible to make other (more efficient) outputs.

    https://cloudinary.com/guides/video-formats/avi-format-should-you-still-use-avi

    "Some popular codecs used with AVI files include DivX, XviD, and MJPEG."

    I think when I made an AVI a long time ago, I used HUFFUV which is a
    lossless compressor, and it cuts the file size down to about 70% of a completely uncompressed movie. That's not very good compression, but
    it is lossless so it is archival quality.

    If you use

    ffprobe some.avi # Or use MediaInfo

    it might give some idea what method was used. One of the reasons MJPEG
    is popular, is you can use a bunch of CPU cores in parallel, each
    one compressing a frame in MJPEG format. It has nice scaling properties
    (if you can use the word "nice" and "avi" in the same sentence).

    Paul

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  • From geoff@21:1/5 to Carlos E. R. on Sat Nov 25 20:06:17 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 25/11/2023 12:15 pm, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 23:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>> https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also
    suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same
    name as
    the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess.

    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows
    file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails).

    Open a bug with Microsoft :-D

    ...


    Nothing to do with Microsoft.

    Simply associate .THM files with an application that can display them.

    Start/Settings/Apps/Default Apps/ "Set a default for the file type of
    link type."

    ACDSee (for one) views THM file natively.

    geoff

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  • From geoff@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Nov 25 20:07:03 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 25/11/2023 12:48 pm, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 17:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>> https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of
    .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also
    suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same
    name as
    the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess.

    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows
    file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails).

    Open with Irfanview, Irfanview will see the JPG extension, and if the
    file really isn't JPG, it will ask you whether it can fix the extension
    by using another extension type.

    Yes. That's what Irfanview just now did. It renamed it to JPG. But
    there are already a million JPG files and these are supposed to be
    thumbnail files. Not images. But thumbnails. Of what's in the AVI.

    Can't Windows be made to treat thumbnail files as thumbnail files?

    If a thumbnail is at base a jpg (or other image format/container), then
    so what?

    It's probably just a JPG, and changing the extension of the file
    should get you in business. Then you can set up a binding so
    Irfanview will open it. Even if Irfanview whines a bit while
    doing so.

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that, since AVI
    theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be more
    fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files.

    Jumping in w/o reading much of the thread ...

    Can't you simply tell Windows to open .thm with a photoviewer of choice?

    Yes.

    geoff

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  • From geoff@21:1/5 to Carlos E. R. on Sat Nov 25 20:10:48 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 25/11/2023 12:52 pm, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:48, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 17:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer?

    ...

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that, since AVI >>> theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be more
    fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files.

    Jumping in w/o reading much of the thread ...

    Can't you simply tell Windows to open .thm with a photoviewer of choice?

    Sure, but he wants the filemanager to show the previews.


    So why not view then in something more appropriate for the purpose than
    File Explorer ?

    Several viewing(+) apps I know of not only do this but generate a
    database of images in the desire folders.

    geoff

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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to Joel on Sat Nov 25 10:58:02 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 04:54, Joel wrote:
    Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
    On 11/24/2023 9:08 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

    AVI? In 2023? That's disappointing. I thought we had left that dinosaur behind
    20+ years ago.

    The format is a function of the hardware support.

    AVI is what you might do, if all you've got is a CPU core
    to work with. A movie compressor logic block, would make it
    possible to make other (more efficient) outputs.

    https://cloudinary.com/guides/video-formats/avi-format-should-you-still-use-avi

    "Some popular codecs used with AVI files include DivX, XviD, and MJPEG."


    Interesting point - obsolete codecs still have use on "obsolete"
    hardware, or for archived files. I've tended to refresh my approaches
    to accessing media, save for my music collection, but the support of
    legacy gear and media can be something to judge a modern system by.

    And something that must not be done, is convert the old avi files to
    something modern, because any conversion loses some quality. Unless what
    is done is replace the container, and leave the data streams intact, but
    to what purpose?

    So yes, we need to keep supporting avi and more importantly, the codecs
    used with it.

    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to geoff on Sat Nov 25 10:45:52 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 08:06, geoff wrote:
    On 25/11/2023 12:15 pm, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 23:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>>> https://i.postimg.cc/wxCWFdQf/Clipboard01.jpg

    Copy the file to your PC, then change the extension to .jpg instead of >>>> .thm thumbnail.

    Thanks everyone for renaming advice which I saw others had also
    suggested.

    It's messy because the crittercam creates an AVI of the exact same
    name as
    the thumbnail of the AVI (which is the THM file - which is a JPEG file)
    and also JPG files (of different names) so it would make it into a mess. >>>
    But of course, for thousands of files, I could rename the file name
    also.
    But there must be a better way.
    move name.THM name_thumbnail.jpg

    But I was hoping for a graceful solution that showed them in the Windows >>> file explorer as they were intended to be shown as (as AVI thumbnails).

    Open a bug with Microsoft :-D

    ...


    Nothing to do with Microsoft.

    Simply associate .THM files with an application that can display them.

    You haven't read the thread, have you? :-DD


    Start/Settings/Apps/Default Apps/ "Set a default for the file type of
    link type."

    ACDSee (for one) views THM file natively.

    geoff

    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Nov 25 14:11:56 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 00:59, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 18:52, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:48, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 17:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file
    explorer?

    ...

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that, since
    AVI
    theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be more >>>> fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files.

    Jumping in w/o reading much of the thread ...

    Can't you simply tell Windows to open .thm with a photoviewer of choice?

    Sure, but he wants the filemanager to show the previews.

    Even in Windows a normal sized JPGs will be automatically shown as
    thumbnails in the folder viewer (whatever MS calls that this week).

    Sure, but not .thm files, that's the issue.


    Apps that manage photos (or vids) should do pretty much the same w/o
    needing a "sidecar" photo (although such "cached" as a hidden file is
    not too obnoxious in order to speed things up).

    Creating a preview of a video takes time, likely a few seconds per file.
    The camera tries to help by saving the previews alongside the videos.


    Sorry I jumped in - I should have known better.  I'll run along now.


    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

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  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Carlos E. R. on Sat Nov 25 09:31:44 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 08:11, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:59, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 18:52, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:48, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 17:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file
    explorer?

    ...

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that,
    since AVI
    theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be
    more
    fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files. >>>>
    Jumping in w/o reading much of the thread ...

    Can't you simply tell Windows to open .thm with a photoviewer of
    choice?

    Sure, but he wants the filemanager to show the previews.

    Even in Windows a normal sized JPGs will be automatically shown as
    thumbnails in the folder viewer (whatever MS calls that this week).

    Sure, but not .thm files, that's the issue.


    Apps that manage photos (or vids) should do pretty much the same w/o
    needing a "sidecar" photo (although such "cached" as a hidden file is
    not too obnoxious in order to speed things up).

    Creating a preview of a video takes time, likely a few seconds per file.
    The camera tries to help by saving the previews alongside the videos.

    On this computer video previews (a frame) go at about 100 per second
    judging by how fast the list fills out on screen. And that's reading
    from an external, encrypted disk.


    --
    “Markets can remain irrational longer than your can remain solvent.”
    - John Maynard Keynes.

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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Carlos E. R. on Sat Nov 25 12:09:20 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/25/2023 4:58 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 04:54, Joel wrote:
    Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
    On 11/24/2023 9:08 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

    AVI? In 2023? That's disappointing. I thought we had left that dinosaur behind
    20+ years ago.

    The format is a function of the hardware support.

    AVI is what you might do, if all you've got is a CPU core
    to work with. A movie compressor logic block, would make it
    possible to make other (more efficient) outputs.

    https://cloudinary.com/guides/video-formats/avi-format-should-you-still-use-avi

       "Some popular codecs used with AVI files include DivX, XviD, and MJPEG."


    Interesting point - obsolete codecs still have use on "obsolete"
    hardware, or for archived files.  I've tended to refresh my approaches
    to accessing media, save for my music collection, but the support of
    legacy gear and media can be something to judge a modern system by.

    And something that must not be done, is convert the old avi files to something modern, because any conversion loses some quality. Unless what is done is replace the container, and leave the data streams intact, but to what purpose?

    So yes, we need to keep supporting avi and more importantly, the codecs used with it.


    All you need, is a lossless conversion.

    And as the person doing this, you have to do the research,
    to see that this is true. For example, if your source material
    is 4:4:4 and a "lossless" container happens to be 4:2:0,
    then you need to understand whether that is "really lossless"
    or not.

    It's not a trivial matter.

    That's why when I was converting 200GB source files into
    more economical containers, I had to be very careful about
    what I was doing. Sure, I can make a 7GB MP4 faster than
    you can snap your fingers, out of one of those, but
    technically the process is lossy, and you can't keep
    doing that from one generation to another, without
    some effect.

    My video card can convert such a video file (single pass), at 11x real time.
    A 60 minute video could be converted in 6 minutes. But the
    problem is, the Q factor is wrong on the defaults NVidia
    uses, and the actual output is not what it is supposed to be.
    You'd be surprised how many "traps for the unwary" there
    are, for this topic.

    Paul

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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Nov 25 12:46:54 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/25/2023 9:31 AM, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 08:11, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:59, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 18:52, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:48, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 17:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:

    How do you make Windows automatically view THM files in file explorer? >>>>
    ...

    Well, I could rename thousands of files but I was hoping that, since AVI >>>>>> theumbnail files are created by many crittercams, that it would be more >>>>>> fluid to just ask Windows to display AVI THM files as thumbnail files. >>>>>
    Jumping in w/o reading much of the thread ...

    Can't you simply tell Windows to open .thm with a photoviewer of choice? >>>>
    Sure, but he wants the filemanager to show the previews.

    Even in Windows a normal sized JPGs will be automatically shown as thumbnails in the folder viewer (whatever MS calls that this week).

    Sure, but not .thm files, that's the issue.


    Apps that manage photos (or vids) should do pretty much the same w/o needing a "sidecar" photo (although such "cached" as a hidden file is not too obnoxious in order to speed things up).

    Creating a preview of a video takes time, likely a few seconds per file. The camera tries to help by saving the previews alongside the videos.

    On this computer video previews (a frame) go at about 100 per second judging by how fast the list fills out on screen.  And that's reading from an external, encrypted disk.

    Windows keeps a thumbnail cache.

    "slow" formats benefit the most from this. PDF thumbnailing
    is painfully slow. Caching of PDF thumbnails then, actually makes sense.
    This is the use case, that justifies caching.

    For JPEG and GIF, Windows uses some "turbojpeg" or such,
    that it turns out, doing realtime conversion every time the
    folder opens, is actually FASTER than the cache path.
    Which I think is hilarious. You would think a cache path
    would always be faster, than doing the work over again,
    but someone tested, and it isn't.

    For the OPs AVI, it should be faster if the AVI preview comes
    from the system Thumbnail cache. When you thumbnail a video,
    you don't take the first frame, and there is some sampling
    heuristic to select an "interesting frame" for the purpose.
    That would be part of what makes it potentially slow.

    This is what I like about FFMPEG as an engine. If there's
    something you want to do, someone has already done it. It
    really is the Swiss Army Knife of video tools. That Videohelp
    addon, could be using a command like this for the purpose.

    https://superuser.com/questions/538112/meaningful-thumbnails-for-a-video-using-ffmpeg

    "The filter "thumbnail" tries to find the most representative frames in the video:

    ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "thumbnail,scale=640:360" -frames:v 1 thumb.png
    "

    Paul

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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to geoff on Sat Nov 25 13:21:21 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 11/25/2023 2:06 AM, geoff wrote:


    Nothing to do with Microsoft.

    Simply associate .THM files with an application that can display them.

    Start/Settings/Apps/Default Apps/ "Set a default for the file type of link type."

    ACDSee (for one) views THM file natively.

    geoff

    Nobody wants to see a 160:120 thumbnail stored in a 3KB or 5KB file.
    That would be awful. They want the system thumbnailer, to make
    a representation from the actual content. That would look nice,
    relatively speaking. Then, you don't even need to copy *any* .THM
    files to the system, since the system is going to "paint" the AVI
    file icon with an "actual thumbnail".

    In the following picture, shows a directory of identical JPEG files,
    with Extra-Large, Large, and Medium thumbnails. The thumbnails were
    made by File Explorer, using a built-in Thumbnail Provider. if you
    have a favorite file type, for which you want generated-on-the-spot
    thumbnails made, for easy selection, then you add a Thumbnail Provider
    to the Windows system.

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/C1gV5J4w/Windows-File-Thumbnail-Sizes.gif

    The Small thumbnail representation, uses the bound application icon instead, which is boring (all the files look the same then, because the irfanview
    icon is used instead). If you have not configured this ("what opens a JPG"), there is a "danger" the Windows Photo.App could open :-) Once you see
    that scanning your system at high speed, you won't make the mistake of
    opening that a second time :-/

    Paul

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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to Paul on Sun Nov 26 00:27:14 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 18:46, Paul wrote:
    On 11/25/2023 9:31 AM, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 08:11, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:59, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 18:52, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 00:48, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-11-24 17:27, david wrote:
    Using <news:ujr0ph$2f35s$1@dont-email.me>, Paul wrote:



    Apps that manage photos (or vids) should do pretty much the same w/o needing a "sidecar" photo (although such "cached" as a hidden file is not too obnoxious in order to speed things up).

    Creating a preview of a video takes time, likely a few seconds per file. The camera tries to help by saving the previews alongside the videos.

    On this computer video previews (a frame) go at about 100 per second judging by how fast the list fills out on screen.  And that's reading from an external, encrypted disk.

    Windows keeps a thumbnail cache.

    "slow" formats benefit the most from this. PDF thumbnailing
    is painfully slow. Caching of PDF thumbnails then, actually makes sense.
    This is the use case, that justifies caching.

    For JPEG and GIF, Windows uses some "turbojpeg" or such,
    that it turns out, doing realtime conversion every time the
    folder opens, is actually FASTER than the cache path.
    Which I think is hilarious. You would think a cache path
    would always be faster, than doing the work over again,
    but someone tested, and it isn't.

    Often, photos contain a preview inside, so the browser only has to open
    the file, read the metadata, get the preview block, then display it. As compared to open both photo and cache files, maybe load the metadata on
    both, decide if the preview block in the cache pertains to the photo
    file, and display it.


    For the OPs AVI, it should be faster if the AVI preview comes
    from the system Thumbnail cache. When you thumbnail a video,
    you don't take the first frame, and there is some sampling
    heuristic to select an "interesting frame" for the purpose.
    That would be part of what makes it potentially slow.

    Absolutely.

    ...

    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

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  • From Carlos E. R.@21:1/5 to Paul on Sun Nov 26 00:31:01 2023
    XPost: rec.photo.digital, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-11-25 18:09, Paul wrote:
    On 11/25/2023 4:58 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
    On 2023-11-25 04:54, Joel wrote:
    Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
    On 11/24/2023 9:08 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

    AVI? In 2023? That's disappointing. I thought we had left that dinosaur behind
    20+ years ago.

    The format is a function of the hardware support.

    AVI is what you might do, if all you've got is a CPU core
    to work with. A movie compressor logic block, would make it
    possible to make other (more efficient) outputs.

    https://cloudinary.com/guides/video-formats/avi-format-should-you-still-use-avi

       "Some popular codecs used with AVI files include DivX, XviD, and MJPEG."


    Interesting point - obsolete codecs still have use on "obsolete"
    hardware, or for archived files.  I've tended to refresh my approaches
    to accessing media, save for my music collection, but the support of
    legacy gear and media can be something to judge a modern system by.

    And something that must not be done, is convert the old avi files to something modern, because any conversion loses some quality. Unless what is done is replace the container, and leave the data streams intact, but to what purpose?

    So yes, we need to keep supporting avi and more importantly, the codecs used with it.


    All you need, is a lossless conversion.

    And as the person doing this, you have to do the research,
    to see that this is true. For example, if your source material
    is 4:4:4 and a "lossless" container happens to be 4:2:0,
    then you need to understand whether that is "really lossless"
    or not.

    It's not a trivial matter.

    That's why when I was converting 200GB source files into
    more economical containers, I had to be very careful about
    what I was doing. Sure, I can make a 7GB MP4 faster than
    you can snap your fingers, out of one of those, but
    technically the process is lossy, and you can't keep
    doing that from one generation to another, without
    some effect.

    My video card can convert such a video file (single pass), at 11x real time. A 60 minute video could be converted in 6 minutes. But the
    problem is, the Q factor is wrong on the defaults NVidia
    uses, and the actual output is not what it is supposed to be.
    You'd be surprised how many "traps for the unwary" there
    are, for this topic.
    Thus, I prefer not to do it :-)



    --
    Cheers,
    Carlos E.R.

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