INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Deivit on January 05, 2006, 12:37:41 pm

Title: Do your thumbnails look blurred?
Post by: Deivit on January 05, 2006, 12:37:41 pm

Since upgrading to 11.1 I've seen that my thumbnails look somehow blurred, comparing them with the actual image displayed in the Action Window -> File Properties -> Image. The same applies to the image displayed in PlayingNow plug-in (which is even worse for the same size). I think this is new with 11.1 and didn't happen with 11.0.

Are you experiencing teh same? Could it be the new "Much faster handling of thumbnail images (requires one-time rebuild of thumbnails)" feature or is that only me?

(http://www.deivit.net/mediacenter/thumbnail 1.jpg)

Click here for a bigger image ---> http://www.deivit.net/mediacenter/thumbnail.jpg

Thank you.

Title: Re: Do your thumbnails look blurred?
Post by: Matt on January 05, 2006, 12:57:33 pm

300x300 is asking a lot from a thumbnail.  They may be a little soft at large sizes like that.

Title: Re: Do your thumbnails look blurred?
Post by: RhinoBanga on January 05, 2006, 01:06:26 pm

Here are the thumbnail types (default size) and the MC type asked for:

1 (64x64) - IMAGEFILE_THUMBNAIL_SMALL
2 (128x128) - IMAGEFILE_THUMBNAIL_MEDIUM
3 (256x256) - IMAGEFILE_THUMBNAIL_LARGE
4 (16x16 ... a resized 64x64) - IMAGEFILE_THUMBNAIL_SMALL
 

PN takes the image supplied by MC and scales it into the field you specified.   If you have given the image the right amount of space then no scaling is done.

Title: Re: Do your thumbnails look blurred?
Post by: Alex B on January 05, 2006, 01:15:04 pm

MC11.0 used 250x250 (the separate thumbnail files could be opened in an image editor). I guess the internal size is the same after the latest change. In my opinion MC 11.1 is faster and that is a bit more important. However it would be nice if MC could use the same thumbnail for all file/album/artist instances that use the same original image. Currently it seems to make a new thumbnail for each file. Though, I guess speed has something to do with this too. Has it?

Title: Re: Do your thumbnails look blurred?
Post by: Matt on January 05, 2006, 01:20:57 pm

MC 11.1 uses slightly smaller but sharper internal thumbnails than 11.0, but this is only part of the speed increases.  A big portion of the speed changes were due to a change in the storage system.

Thumbnails are a trade-off between quality, speed, and memory.  It's a second-order thing (width * height) so the speed changes a lot as the images MC is juggling get larger.

Title: Re: Do your thumbnails look blurred?
Post by: Deivit on January 05, 2006, 02:22:07 pm

Thanks for the info, guys.

One thing is clear, the speed has increased dramatically after rebuilding the thumbnails. I'm gonna play with different sizes (300x300 is probably too much for a thumbnail, as Matt said) in order to find a fair balance between quality and speed.

Title: Re: Do your thumbnails look blurred?
Post by: Robert Taylor on January 05, 2006, 09:44:01 pm

My thumbnails have always looked blurred in every version of MC, however, I'm sure it's directly proportional to the amount of bourbon which has been consumed.

ie. less bourbon = more clarity

Title: Re: Do your thumbnails look blurred?
Post by: Uwe on January 06, 2006, 03:12:38 am

Quote from: LunchmeatVoom on January 05, 2006, 09:44:01 pm

My thumbnails have always looked blurred in every version of MC, however, I'm sure it's directly proportional to the amount of bourbon which has been consumed.

ie. less bourbon = more clarity

>The man--stout, balding, eyes blurred from too many bourbon and sodas--winked at her and sloppily divided the deck in half<
Chapter one from Odds Against,  Written by Shirley Tallman under the name Erin Ross

Title: Re: Do your thumbnails look blurred?
Post by: marko on January 06, 2006, 04:41:12 am

i-spy the 'purple panel' :)