I have just switched from an XP 32-bit system to a 7 64-bit one, and transferred my license to a new 64-bit version of DOpus. Everything seemed ok until I started to work with my photos; on XP I could view thumbnails of all of them, now, a significant number of files do not show as thumbnails in the lister. I have installed the latest version of the Sony raw viewer for Vista and 7, and that worked fine with Opus in XP (and with Explorer for that matter) but not in 7. Can anyone help me overcome this as it is extremely annoying.
It's possible that the Sony raw viewer provides its thumbnails via a different API when on Windows 7, and which Opus 10 understands but Opus 9 didn't. (I may be wrong, though.)
However, you shouldn't need the Sony raw viewer at all for Opus to show thumbnails of Sony raw images, since Opus has a built-in raw viewer/thumbnailer. Have you disabled the Raw Digital Camera plugin in Opus? (The plugin had a major update for Opus 10 as well, so it's possible Opus 9's version didn't support your camera but Opus 10's version does. Not guaranteed without knowing what the camera is, of course, but it might be worth a try to install a trial version of Opus 10 and see if that solves things one way or another.)
I do not understand what you said about a 'different API when on Windows 7' in the context of Opus 9 and 10. Basically, you appear to be saying that Opus 9 is not fully supported on Win 7; is that true? I would just like Opus 9 to work as well as Explorer does with photo and music files, as I am now back to using Explorer as the default file manager and I think I will have to get rid of Opus. I should add that money is very, very tight now and I slightly resent being told that I need to upgrade to Opus 10 when I went to 9 not long ago, and researched whether it was supported on Win 7 64-bit; it was, so I went ahead with the migration. To me, and I fully accept that many people will disagree, Opus is not cheap and the upgrade discounts are far from generous.
I should add here that I have tried running with the image file and audio file plug-ins enabled and disabled, and in neither case are the results satisfactory. I really do want the pop-up information for audio files (e.g. M4A and FLAC) and Raw image files (in my case .arw for my Sony A700) that I currently enjoy via Explorer's accommodation of other software, and I particularly want thumbnails of all Sony raw image formats. I do not use the Opus image viewer, and never have done nor wanted to; I rely on Fastone's Image Viewer, which is set as the Windows default file 'opener' for image files on my system, and I am a long-term user of dBpoweramp, and therefore want access to its Explorer integration.
As far as the plug-ins are concerned, they are quite inadequate, and in the case of the Sony raw formats (.arw) they are hugely out-of-date - they appear to be at least 2 years old which means that not only are all of the new cameras (A580, A55/65/77 and Nex 3/5/7) not supported, but also the formats generated by the newer versions of Sony raw converter program. My guess is that the viewer plug-in supports Sony Raw V2.0, but not V2.1.
Have you any idea why GP Software has moved to the plug-ins , as they will have great trouble in keeping up to date with audio file changes, and will have no chance at all at keeping up with image file format changes, it is a poor piece of business judgement to me. As an example, the universally used tool for handling metadata on image files, ExifTool, is updated as often as 15 to 20 times a year! Is GP Software really going to try and do that?
In summary: while Directory Opus works fine under Win 7 (or so I think so far) I miss the full pop-up data from dBpoweramp for audio files, the slightly greater pop-up data for raw image files and thumbnail images for recent Sony raw image types. The simple answer to this problem is for me, and I am surprised that there not others with similar concerns, to be able to use, once again, the standard Windows Explorer thumbnail viewers and pop-ups. Please tell me I can - somehow.
That's not what I'm saying. Opus 9 is/was fully supported on Windows 7, but there are some Windows 7-related features that Opus 10 handles better. (Just as there are some Windows XP and Windows Vista features that Opus 10 handles better.)
When Opus 9 came out, virtually nothing was using the newer thumbnail API, so there was no reason for us to spend time adding support for it.
By the time Opus 10 came out, a few important things had started using the API, so it was one of the things we took the time to add support for in the newer version, along with an overhaul of the way icons and thumbnails are handled in general. Retrofitting support to Opus 9 would not have made sense in terms of time & effort, and in terms of how soon to Opus 10's release the usefulness of the new API became apparent.
Note that I don't know that the newer thumbnail API is actually anything to do with what you are seeing. It's just a guess, and I might be wrong.
That should be handled by the Raw plugin in Opus 10, and I happen to have a test image from that camera (assuming DSLR-A700 is the right one, and there isn't more than one Sony A700 model) which displays correctly:
M4A and FLAC tags/metadata are both understood by Opus 10.
(Opus 9 had an old FLAC plugin which was 32-bit only.)
I use dBpoweramp's shell integration as well, without any problems in Opus (at least once the 64-bit version of dBpa's shell extensions are installed, but you'd need them to work with Windows Explorer on a 64-bit machine as well).
You might need to add {infotip} in the Opus filetype editor, to the infotips for the music files you want dBpoweramp's info to appear on, however. For filetypes that Opus can handle itself, the shell infotip is usually not displayed (otherwise you'd get the same information twice), but you have the option of removing Opus's into and showing the shell infotip instead. (Or showing both, if you want.)
(I assume we're not talking about the plugin that allows Opus to talk to dBpa directly, which is a bit different, and not really needed anymore except for very esoteric formats. Opus 10 handles all the main audio formats itself.)
High-end DSLR cameras aren't cheap either. You get what you pay for, and we only charge for huge updates every four years or so, and give away hundreds of new features for free within that time.
By the look of it, some of the things we worked on during the four years between Opus 9 and Opus 10 are things that you now want. Should we give away that work for free even though we had to spend considerable time writing it? (If someone wants to give me a free house + food + vet bills etc. I'll happily write as much code as anyone wants for free. )
What difference does it make whether or not the code is in a plugin or in the main program?
Depends why ExifTool is being updated that often. If a problem is reported in the Exif handling of Opus, it gets fixed and Opus gets updated. What more can you ask for?
Please can we keep the thread on the subject of Raw thumbnails, and if you still have any other questions please start a separate thread for them, otherwise it will be difficult for people looking for answers to find anything useful, when the thread jumps between raw thumbnails, audio infotips, dBpoweramp, ExifTool, pricing, Windows 7, etc...
Hello again Leo,
The question over the audio file tag pop-ups has resolved itself, and I am mystified by it. I knew that the dBpoweramp pop-ups worked fine in Explorer, and I had just realised that I should be able to right click on the folder name above the lister and click on 'Explore' to browse the folder in Explorer, so I did it and was pleased to be able to easily check the tags in recently created and transformed files. I went back into the DOpus lister and suddenly the pop-ups were working there too! I cannot think of any really convincing explanation, I had disabled the plug-in earlier and not immediately previously, so I just accept that it works; or it has done for 2 days now...
As for the question of the Raw Image support, that is still very annoying, but I can still browse the folder in Explorer as I described above. The problem is, once again, somewhat odd. Explorer shows thumbnails for all of the raw images in a folder, and pop-up information is displayed for all of them (filesize, date/time modified, date/time taken, dimensions), in addition the file 'properties/details' shows much Exif data, including some maker-notes, and some IPTC information. Under DOpus with the Raw Viewer plug-in disabled, many, usually most, of the raw images do not have thumbnails, but the pop-up information is the same as with Explorer for some but not for others in a seemingly random fashion (the file 'properties/details' appears to be ok in all circumstances). Enabling the Raw Viewer plug-in makes most of the thumbnails for the raw images appear, but then the pop-up info reduces to the dimensions and a description of 'Sony A700 DSLR Raw Image', as in the 'random' cases mentioned before but now for all images. Once again the file 'properties/details' information is as under Explorer. So neither enabling nor disabling the Raw Viewer gives satisfactory results.
As to some of your comments, I think we may disagree quite fundamentally on what is meant by 'fully supported', so I suggest that we put that to one side for now, but on the subject of costs you are making some large assumptions: just because I could afford an expensive camera several years ago does not mean that I could now, an observation you could perhaps remember about others you may talk to in this current economic climate. Indeed, you do not know whether I bought it or it was a present. In fact I do not like the idea of free software and always pay a donation for any software that I use even fairly often, and, strange though it may seem, I prefer to pay for tools that I use; that attitude may stem from working for 40 years in IT, much of it freelance, and realising that people need money to live. However, Directory Opus, whilst an excellent piece of software, being both robust and well featured, is a utility. People will pay for cameras and image editing software because they need those things in order to do something of great interest to them; no-one is likely to feel the same way about utility software, however good it may be and no matter the large development and testing costs. Of course, Microsoft keep making Opus more and more attractive with their 'enhancements' to Explorer. You misunderstand my point about introducing the plug-ins, as I was actually thinking that allowing the use of the thumbnails and pop-ups that Explorer uses would remove a lot of work; of course, that may now be impossible in Windows 7 64-bit, I would not know. You also misunderstand my point about ExifTool: it is updated that often not because it is unstable, it is one of the most solid pieces of software around although it is Command Line only and needs a front-end called ExifTool GUI which is also good. It is updated frequently to keep up with the constant changes in Exif data. Raw handlers also need updating frequently, and especially if they provide access to Exif Maker-Notes for many different cameras. That is why I would have avoided using the plug-ins, and even DCRaw, unless absolutely necessary.
I am not happy with the way Opus 9 is working on Windows 7 64-bit, and I cannot justify another £35-40 pounds for another upgrade just now. However, I may download a 60-day trial (which is generous) and see how it goes - your screen shots did seem to make it attractive, but then again, I can carry on as I am and rely on FastStone etc.