Video preview thumbnail and video length duplicate

[Jerry2024]

"Find Length Duplicates" funtion is quite powerful and helps me find a lot duplicate video files, but when I use "View-Large thumbnails" to compare videos mannually ( some videos have the same lengths but actually not same file), I find a lot of videos' preview thumbnail are creator introduction or advertisement, not the first frame.

So I have to open the videos check the video content one by one, and it's quite complicated:
1) I have to compare videos back-and-forth between Everything / Video player;
2) After opening the Video Player, I have to jump several seconds in player mannually;
3) Opening video player costs time, or if I do not close it, it will cost a lot of cpu / memory resources;

Is there any solution for this, or any plan to enhance video preview function?

Thanks a lot.

[therube]

Thumbs (with video).
I'll have to have a look at that.

In the past, I threw about the idea of generating thumbnails (moviethumbnailmaker or similar) & then comparing those, but that didn't seem to work out. (Some duplicate file finders do something like that, creating thumbs, then comparing the thumbs to find "dups".)

I've kind of gotten into the habit of opening (pairs, mainly) of clips, simultaneously, then arranging those windows either side by side, or fullscreen, & alt-Tab between the two.


I gave GridPlayer a look, though it didn't do much for me.
(And with the more recent releases, I'm not sure I trust the program? [Not looking too closely, but something didn't seem kosher.])


As far as video player resources, for me, it's close to none (though if you're doing 4K videos or similar, it could be).
(I typically use mplayer with MPUI-hcb (GUI part only) as a GUI front-end, which opens very quickly.)

[Jerry2024]

Thumbs (with video).

In the past, I threw about the idea of generating thumbnails (moviethumbnailmaker or similar) & then comparing those, but that didn't seem to work out. (Some duplicate file finders do something like that, creating thumbs, then comparing the thumbs to find "dups".)

Thanks for your recommendation of mplayer, but even open speed is fast, it's still not effective enough.

I also considered "creating new thumbnail" to replace the old one, but it seems there is no 1-key easy way (like set x second of video as its thumbnail), instead, I have to use special software to generate video again, and it's a huge job if video amount is big.

The best way, I guess, is that Everything allow users to set the preview thumbnail (input x second of video -> preview -> save the picture in database), and when listed is result next time, show the new thumbnail instead of original one.

[Jerry2024]

Thumbs (with video).
I'll have to have a look at that.

In the past, I threw about the idea of generating thumbnails (moviethumbnailmaker or similar) & then comparing those, but that didn't seem to work out. (Some duplicate file finders do something like that, creating thumbs, then comparing the thumbs to find "dups".)

Regarding video thumbnal, I've tried several tools these days, and I find two useful softwares:
1) ThumbnailCity (version 1.3.9)
It helps to set preview thumbnal to selected frame (for one video).

2)"Icaros" (version 3.3.2)
It could help adjust preview thumbnal to x second later or x% of the video (for all videos).

Maybe you can also try them if you are interested. You may download them from:
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-E ... City.shtml
https://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE- ... able.shtml

[therube]

(One of the biggest limitations of many programs is that they deal with directories.
Everything is one program that can deal with, well, everything.)


I used IrfanView to generate thumbs on a series of 368 (movie) clips
(most) all of the clips had the same opening sequence (which is of no value)
& a good number (100) of the generated thumbs had that opening sequence.
the rest had wanted thumbs. some, that were named alike, so sequentially near
to one another, & may have had different thumbs generated - enough that you could
see some commonality, but still you'd have to open both to know for sure...

& with that, i picked up a handful of clips that i'd missed, but overall i'm
thinking i'm not going to find to much value here?

well, maybe some. used in conjunction with other tools, of course.


I've only had a quick look, so far, Diffractor is designed to help you get organized with Photos and Videos on your PC. It can handle millions of media items and is fast and lightweight. It can understand most file formats and compliments other media applications. Diffractor is a metadata editor for video (mp4, mkv, avi) and photos (xmp, iptc, exif). It also allows searching on metadata and viewin/playing results.

https://www.diffractor.com/
(It appears that the current version, 126.0, does not support Win 7. Prior version does.) [FIXED. 126.0.1173 now works on Win7.]


Also note that many tools are only front-ends to what is available in the OS itself, so if the OS does not support something, natively, say .flv on my end, in Win7, then neither Windows nor IrfanView will generate a thumbnail for any .flv files. Likewise, AV1, a newer codec in the video arena.

[therube]

From what I can make of it, seems that Icaros will provide me with thumb support for otherwise unsupported "codecs" on my end; like flv & AV1 - in Windows Explorer (& seems by extension to that, in Everything, IrfanView & Diffractor [though not AV1 in Diffractor 125]) [& that's without messing with "codec packs"].

(In my case, in Icaros, I enabled Thumbnailing only for 'flv; mp4'.
flv, because I've never had that on my end. mp4 only because of AV1 [& if not for AV1, then I wouldn't have enabled mp4].)


(Oh, also on my end, I could care less about Windows Explorer itself.)


IcarosHelp.TXT:

Code: Select all

https://github.com/Xanashi/Icaros/


https://github.com/Xanashi/Icaros/issues/41

> Where in the registry can I find the settings from ACTIVATED / DEACTIVATED from "PROPERTIES" and "THUMBNAILING

https://github.com/Xanashi/Icaros/issues/75

> propertyhandler dll stays in use by explorer.exe until reboot/logoff

To unlock it with IcarosConfig itself, you can run the following command:
> IcarosConfig.exe -deactivate -unlock
This will also just restart explorer if the propertyhandler is in use, but no reboot/logoff is required.

https://github.com/Xanashi/Icaros/issues/85

The easiest way to transfer these settings to a new system would be with the following IcarosConfig commands (CLI):

Save settings

    IcarosConfig -deactivate
    IcarosConfig -settings=exp -path="C:\Some\Path\Name"

Load settings

    IcarosConfig -settings=imp -path="C:\Some\Path\Name\IcarosSettings.icss"
    IcarosConfig -activate

And that should basically setup Icaros exactly the same on both machines (or on a reinstalled system)

https://github.com/Xanashi/Icaros/issues/94

Does Icaros need to be running in order to...

No. It does not need to run in the background.
It is a "plugin" for Explorer and gets used by Explorer only when needed.

Another great thing about (most) shell extensions is that, once they've completed their task, they are unloaded/freed automatically afterwards by File Explorer.


-------


Icaros Shell Extensions v. Unknown
Created by Xanashi

The following commands can be used to silently access some of IcarosConfig's fea
tures, without opening the GUI.

Each command should be prefixed with either a '/' or '-'
(e.g. '-help' or '/help').

 -help/-?       : Shows this info/dialog.
                (Invalid commands will show this info/dialog as well)

 -activate      : Activates Icaros.

 -deactivate    : Dectivates Icaros.

                NOTE:
                -activate and -deactivate can be followed by either
                'thumbnails' or 'properties' to only target one of the
                two shell extensions (e.g. -activate=thumbnails to
                activate thumbnailing only).
                Without the '=mode' both extensions will be targeted.


 -exprefresh    : Refreshes Windows Explorer.

 -exprestart    : Restarts Windows Explorer.

 -clearwincache : Clears the Windows thumbnail cache.

 -wincachesize  : Shows the current size of the Windows thumbnail cache.

 -clearicscache : Clears the Icaros internal cache.

 -icscacheinfo  : Shows the current info of the Icaros internal cache.

 -unlock        : Checks if any of the Icaros Extensions are currently locked
                by Explorer. In case one or more is locked, a prompt will be
                shown, allowing the user to restart Explorer, and thereby
                unlocking all extensions.

 -dialog        : Show dialogs for successful and failed commands

 -settings      : Use this command to Export/Import/Reset/Delete Icaros settings

                To select the specific mode follow -settings with an
                equals and the mode:

                Export: -settings=exp or -settings=export
                Import: -settings=imp or -settings=import
                Reset:  -settings=rst or -settings=reset
                Delete: -settings=del or -settings=delete

 -path          : Use to Export or Import the Icaros settings to/from a specific
                location, e.g:

                Export: -path="C:\Some\Path\Name" or
                Import: -path="C:\Some\Path\Name\IcarosSettings.icss"

[win32]

Ok, I just crossed by this topic by a related bug. This is not related to everything at all, yet it has a simple solution:

• Icaros shell has a settings gui named IcarosConfig.exe, (you may use Everything to find it)
• Open it as admin, go in thumbnailing tab, threre you will find the options you want about which video frame to use

Also video previewing works inside Everything if you have the appropriate Ifilter, at the very least you should be able to preview mp4 files, but again this is not related to Everything.

[horst.epp]

Also video previewing works inside Everything if you have the appropriate Ifilter, at the very least you should be able to preview mp4 files, but again this is not related to Everything.

iFilter has nothing to-do with previewing files.
iFilter's are used to search for contents inside their supported file types.

[harryray2]

@therube,

You mentioned gridplayer...I have a vague recollection of thinking the same thing, but I can't remember why.
What were your thoughts on it?

Do you know of a good alternative (that runs on Win 7)?

Thanks.

[therube]

I've only ever dabbled with GridPlayer, running it in a sandbox at that (& with the portable version).

At one point in time, a build or two smelled of "adware", or a "miner", & since then, if I download, I just add that note to the ZIP to remind me. (Particular computer doesn't have Internet in any case, plus running sandboxed, so not particularly concerned.)

Not particularly aware of anything similar.


Of late, when I come across a set of what might be similar videos, or where one might be truncated, I'll use Everything to sort the vids by Length, starting at the video in question, then select files from there, up to what I might expect the missing portions of time to take, selecting all those files, generating thumbnails of the vids - using IrfanView.

Doing that, being able to match the "source" file thumb against a number of potential target files, I've been able to find the matches a number of times now.


Even with Everything alone, say I have a file & I don't know the title or what it's related to, simply by sorting by Length, "close by", it might have a related or dup'd version. So with a quick click, the file opens in my media player, & then another click, & the file "above" or "below" opens, & I can see if they're related.

(Suppose I could turn on Thumbs or enable Preview in Everything to do similar, but eh, clicking suffices for me.)

And often, I'll select multiple files in Everything & open them simultaneous in separate external players.
(Allowing me to both check for duplicates, & then if they are dups, compare "quality" or whatnot of the actual clips.)