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Author Topic: How to turn off that MC automatically builds thumbnails for video files?  (Read 7321 times)

audunth

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Hi!

When I import video files MC13 becomes unresponsive for several minutes (or even hours if I add enough files at the same time) while it creates thumbnails. The other day, I imported 24 episodes of a tv series for which I had a cover art file ready, but I had to wait a long time for MC to create 24 thumbnails just to replace all the newly created thumbnails with my own image.

How do I turn this super-annoying thing off? I never want to use the first frame of a video file as a thumbnail, I'd rather keep the little film roll image until I add the cover art myself. And even if I wanted MC to create thumbnails, it shouldn't become inresponsive in any way while doing so, that's a bug that needs to be fixed.
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Cheers,
Audun

My system:
ASUS  P8Z68 V-PRO/GEN3, 8GB RAM, Core i5-2500K
EVGA Nvidia GTX 970 SSC, 4GB RAM
Antec P180 case w/Seasonic X460 fanless PSU, water cooled by Zalman Reserator 1+ w/extra DDC pump
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Sony VPL-HW30ES 3D projector
Yamaha RX-V3900 receiver and custom built 2Ch power amp for front/stereo speakers
Klipsch Reference/SVS 7.1 speaker system
Always running the latest available version of MC

Matt

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If a list shows a thumbnail, and the thumbnail isn't built, it will get automatically built.  This happens in a background thread, and in the case of a video, in a different process so bad filters can't cause problems.  It shouldn't make the program unresponsive.  It's possible you have a misbehaved decoding filter.

If you made a view that didn't show a thumbnail or image column, it wouldn't thumbnail.  If you used a standard cover art naming ([Name of Video].jpg or Folder.jpg) for the cover art, the program should automatically find that art instead of building a thumbnail from the video.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

)p(

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+1 for an option to turn this off.

When we go watch stuff on the projector on the htpc in the theater room the thumbnails for files that were added to the server pc since the last time the htpc get build in the background. This makes the interface a bit sluggish while they are build. Not a big deal but I certainly would appreciate an option to turn it off.

peter
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audunth

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I tried to make a view without showing thumbnails, and it didn't help. It doesn't render the program totally inresponsive. I can't rightclick any file, the menus don't work (they disappear after a split second) and I can't enter anything into the tag editor, but I can switch to a different list of files (for example leave the recently imported playlist and browse other media), but to add thumbnails to the files I would have to go back to whatever list that contain the files.

It should really be an option to turn the thumbnail building off alltogether!!
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Cheers,
Audun

My system:
ASUS  P8Z68 V-PRO/GEN3, 8GB RAM, Core i5-2500K
EVGA Nvidia GTX 970 SSC, 4GB RAM
Antec P180 case w/Seasonic X460 fanless PSU, water cooled by Zalman Reserator 1+ w/extra DDC pump
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Sony VPL-HW30ES 3D projector
Yamaha RX-V3900 receiver and custom built 2Ch power amp for front/stereo speakers
Klipsch Reference/SVS 7.1 speaker system
Always running the latest available version of MC

Matt

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I tried to make a view without showing thumbnails, and it didn't help. It doesn't render the program totally inresponsive. I can't rightclick any file, the menus don't work (they disappear after a split second) and I can't enter anything into the tag editor, but I can switch to a different list of files (for example leave the recently imported playlist and browse other media), but to add thumbnails to the files I would have to go back to whatever list that contain the files.

It should really be an option to turn the thumbnail building off alltogether!!

You're using a rude decoder filter that makes tray icons and steals the focus.  Try disabling the tray icons of the decoder in its configuration.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

JimH

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Haali and FFDshow can both steal the focus.  They both have settings for the taskbar that should be turned off.
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bil1010105

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I wish this was more controllable too.

I can stop thumbnail generation, by switching the file type to 'External program (default)', which is what I use to watch videos anyway.

To generate the thumbnails, I switch the file type back to JRiver Media Engine (or whatever it's called). But it's a pain to keep switching.
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MarkCoutinho

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Ditto here: please make an option to switch on/off the thumbnails.
My MC freezes also when switching to the videos. And I do guess it's probably a bad behaving decoder, but nonetheless MC shouldn't freeze in this case. Well, actually it doesn't freeze, but I can't do anything with it anymore, because the menu-bar just kind of flashes when I hit a menu-item. I can't select a submenu-item. I have to quit MC then (Alt-F4) and restart it.
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Mark Coutinho
Dutch Top 40 collector of lyrics, sleeves and bios

JimH

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Ditto here: please make an option to switch on/off the thumbnails.
My MC freezes also when switching to the videos. And I do guess it's probably a bad behaving decoder, but nonetheless MC shouldn't freeze in this case. Well, actually it doesn't freeze, but I can't do anything with it anymore, because the menu-bar just kind of flashes when I hit a menu-item. I can't select a submenu-item. I have to quit MC then (Alt-F4) and restart it.

Check the settings for Haali and for FFDShow.  Turn off the taskbar option in both.  This is not an MC problem.
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Neville

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Thumbnails for videos are working great if vids are on hard drive, but every time I insert a DVD with several episodes (10-12) of some series, it takes lots of time to create thumbnails and very often MC freezes in the process. This usually happens while in Theater View.
It would be great if we can turn off automatic thumbnail generation for DVD's and CD's.

Also in Theater View if I select DVD it starts playing automatically the first file, I have to press Stop and then select episode to watch. If there are several videos on DVD, MC should show the contents of DVD, instead of auto playing the first file, like in MC12. Please.
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audunth

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I turned off the tray icons for both Haali and FFDShow, but still the same. The menus just flicker while it's creating the thumbnails I don't want. Is it a big problem to add the option to not create any thumbnails automatically?
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Cheers,
Audun

My system:
ASUS  P8Z68 V-PRO/GEN3, 8GB RAM, Core i5-2500K
EVGA Nvidia GTX 970 SSC, 4GB RAM
Antec P180 case w/Seasonic X460 fanless PSU, water cooled by Zalman Reserator 1+ w/extra DDC pump
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Sony VPL-HW30ES 3D projector
Yamaha RX-V3900 receiver and custom built 2Ch power amp for front/stereo speakers
Klipsch Reference/SVS 7.1 speaker system
Always running the latest available version of MC

MarkCoutinho

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After I uninstalled FfdShow MC worked okay for what the browsing is concerned. However: my codecs aren't up to date anymore.
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Mark Coutinho
Dutch Top 40 collector of lyrics, sleeves and bios

audunth

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I don't have the latest FFDShow either. Or maybe there's another setting in FFDShow that will help?

But I still haven't heard an explanation of why this thumbnail creation can't be disabled. Can't understand why that just wouldn't be the simplest thing in the world, but then again, I'm not a developer. So you guys from the JR team, how about it?
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Cheers,
Audun

My system:
ASUS  P8Z68 V-PRO/GEN3, 8GB RAM, Core i5-2500K
EVGA Nvidia GTX 970 SSC, 4GB RAM
Antec P180 case w/Seasonic X460 fanless PSU, water cooled by Zalman Reserator 1+ w/extra DDC pump
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Sony VPL-HW30ES 3D projector
Yamaha RX-V3900 receiver and custom built 2Ch power amp for front/stereo speakers
Klipsch Reference/SVS 7.1 speaker system
Always running the latest available version of MC

park

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I would appreciate it if this could be changed to a manual action too (per media type). I dont use thumbnails for videos any more. I download the movie posters. The thumbnailing can interfere with playback (flashes of different videos come up on screen), puts extra load on the cpu, and leaves a trail of 10's of ffdshow icons in the taskbar.
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Matt

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In Media Center 14.0.24 and later (available on the v14 board in about a week):
NEW: Added new option: Options > Tree & View > Thumbnails > Create thumbnails for videos.

If you disable this, you will need to reenable it to manually build thumbnails.  For example, you could reenable it and click the "Build missing thumbnails..." command right next to it.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

Neville

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In Media Center 14.0.24 and later (available on the v14 board in about a week):
NEW: Added new option: Options > Tree & View > Thumbnails > Create thumbnails for videos.

If you disable this, you will need to reenable it to manually build thumbnails.  For example, you could reenable it and click the "Build missing thumbnails..." command right next to it.

Amazing, this only could convince me to buy MC14 upgrade..

What about this?
Quote
If there are several videos on DVD, MC should show the contents of DVD, instead of auto playing the first file.
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audunth

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Thanks, great service!! Will get 14.0.24 as soon as it's available!
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Cheers,
Audun

My system:
ASUS  P8Z68 V-PRO/GEN3, 8GB RAM, Core i5-2500K
EVGA Nvidia GTX 970 SSC, 4GB RAM
Antec P180 case w/Seasonic X460 fanless PSU, water cooled by Zalman Reserator 1+ w/extra DDC pump
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Sony VPL-HW30ES 3D projector
Yamaha RX-V3900 receiver and custom built 2Ch power amp for front/stereo speakers
Klipsch Reference/SVS 7.1 speaker system
Always running the latest available version of MC

audunth

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Just installed version 14.0.36 (been on vacation) and I just wanna say thanks again. Now I can add as many large video files as I want and add my own thumbnails right away without having to wait for the time-consuming thumbnail building process :)

Great work guys!!
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Cheers,
Audun

My system:
ASUS  P8Z68 V-PRO/GEN3, 8GB RAM, Core i5-2500K
EVGA Nvidia GTX 970 SSC, 4GB RAM
Antec P180 case w/Seasonic X460 fanless PSU, water cooled by Zalman Reserator 1+ w/extra DDC pump
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Sony VPL-HW30ES 3D projector
Yamaha RX-V3900 receiver and custom built 2Ch power amp for front/stereo speakers
Klipsch Reference/SVS 7.1 speaker system
Always running the latest available version of MC
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